Michaeltheonion

I have seen duck contif thrown into a deep frier when it was needed... rather quickly. The result amazingly was a very crisp outer skin with the same fall off the bone inside.(I had to try it myself after to make sure that the integrity of the product hadnt been jeapordized.) Ive found that chicken when it is put to confit doesnt maintain its shape as well.. I cant shed any light on the science though... Hold on Ill consult Mcgee.

I have been putting things in jelly a lot lately, theres not much that don’t want to gelatanize. I have been experimenting with pectin, agar and gelatin. I recently put some very bitter butter scotch ( the way it should be) into gelatin and Agar. I noticed that after a tasting of both, they had been dulled. I don’t think that I used more than necessary to bring them to a proper consistency.Also when I heated the agar jelly up to it really lost most of its flavour. Can any one shed some light on why Gelatin affects taste? I hope theres not already a whole fourm devoted to this. Thanks. Michael.

Look into sustainability. And build your place from the ground up. Literally. there are many way sto actually construct a building using reclaimed materials (such as tires and straw) that are viable and can save you hundreds of thousands of Dollars. Look into alternative engery sourcs like solar pannel and recycling water. I have loads of online resources on these subjets if you want them. Im planning a model that I want to impliment in 7 years or so, that is based around these issues. Not having a lease or worrying about energy costs can weather you through a long dry spell.

We have something like this where I work. All the dishes are splt up inot 2-3 courses. One of the courses is "imprompuu." This is designed for people who can actually build their own dish. Or lets us exercise some creative freedom. the only stipulation is that its vegetarian. This cuts the cost down, so we dont do a foie, oyster, kobe plate. At first I wasnt happy with having to come up with 4 garnitures on the fly ( they can never be repeated as well) up to 10 times a night, but now I relish the task. Sometimes people will even say they want only mushrooms of broccoli. This makes it more interesting because we have to come up with four seperate representations of the same product.

I think concept is becomming a very important factor in restuarant ownership. I find that some of the mot successful places in town are the places that are doing what no one else is. If youf opening a steakhouse in a town that already has an established reputation than your going to have a very hard time sucuring their patrons. There is an old buddhist saying "everything that arrises also passes away so strive for that which has not yet arrisen." In my neighbourhood there is this places that changes concept every year. I think curently they are doing wraps, pizas and dips. When they opened they were trying ot be a nice community restaurant, now they are trying to cater to the box restaurant crowd in a upscale neighbourhood, Ive never seen them full. You need to nail down what your going to try and accompish and then exploit that market. Ive also foudn that it is important to "hit the pavement." Having the restaurant opne to the pblic is not enough. What if a movie opened without trailers or adds in the paper, no one would know about it. This can be applied on a smaller scale of course. I organize a not for profit kitchen on my campus. We serve vegan cusine, that is well prepared for free! This includes say some bread a stew, a vegetable side dish some spreads, a cake or pie and as many aples as you want to take. The food was free folks. At the beginning of the year we were serving 40 people. I found alot of people in the demographic that we were catering too and found they hadnt heard of the service, or if they had they didnt knwo where to find it or the hours of operation. We decided that we would take one person out of the kitchen and have them walikng around cmapus handing our fliers and bringing people in that way. We even went around handing out hot break with hummus one day. After a few weeks of this we were serving close to 200 people the only trouble we had ws keeping up with the demand. Putting a face on your business, showing that you actually care, and marketing are for me the most important things. Because its customers that drive the business.

I think that just treating something like a job can cause disillusionment. Its not just about getting food in the plate with remarkable precision. You have to nurture the products understand the fine lineage you are a part of, and the epic history that cooking encompasses. "When you cook something you can travel back in time." I think that this sort of sentinemtality is a requirement to be truely successful. Not only in a social and financial sense but on a personal level. This is true for any professional. So Mikeb19, good luck with universiy. Im at the end of a 4 year degree and I find my thoughts drifting to creme brule while im in the middle fo preparing presentatons on some mi*nute aspect of some work of literature.

"Escoff," What you do if someone calls your cusine Ka ka. Thicquid. Somewhere between solid and a liquid. Katsup is a Thicquid.

I think Eggplants are the inly vegetable I have trouble with. I find that it really needs the most manipulatin toi reach anything near delicious. Think about them raw. They have the texture of a sponge. There is virtually no flavour at this point, and the skin is rough. This follows when you rill them. The actual flesh sort of nelts away leaving you with not much and the skin becomes stringy. I find the only way I like them is roasted and then spreadified ( al la bobbaganoush.) Im curious about their seed disersal method. Are they actually eaten by animals in the wild to bring the seeds to as many locations as possible or do they just fll to the ground and grow where they fall. I tend not to eat vegetables that fall into the latter description.

I dont know about local rivary, but we deffinatly do joke about these things in my kithen. There is this one cook, who has the golden touch in our town. He is very young and extrelemy taltnted. I think he had his first chef job (rightfully so ) at 23. I always bring in his new menus and we scrutanize the hell out of them. We also to imrov comedy in the kitchen where each of us takes on the persona of a famous local chef. There is the science guy, the local produce guy, the drunk who runs the local irish pub, the head in structer of LCB, and the glamerous hotel chef who runs a resort in tech valley. This usually ends up wit us all screaming at eachother increasingly stereotypical things. "That beef isnt from old jim greys farm! get that sysco thing out of here!" " Look im not saying that roux isnt useful im just saying that we should put some xanthangum in that espagnole, as well maybe instead of serving a roast pork we can just serve the smell, you know in a glass, and then juice the potatoes, reduce them and then add the potato starch back to them after they have been carmelized" "Look I dont care what you do, as long as you turn that carrot and cook it vicy style in mineral water for gods sake, and butter, it needs butter." I pay close attention to the menus in town, to see whose biting. A couple of guys I have seen using iron chef ideas loike a week after the show. As well there are a few guys who seem to borrow liberally form restaurants around town. I wonder if they realize that they are copying eachother?There is one guy who bites from other sources qite alot and I was think ing about maybe sending in a detailed prortfolia to the chefs hes ripped off, showing menus from the past year. Thus creatin a fued that could play out at the local chefs night. My Garde mangier and I are also planing a future fued between the two of us. The story goes, we both graduate from culinary school next year and open a string of moderatlely successful restaurants. then for no reason one day I quit and move to japan for 3 years. I come baclk wise and missing a finger and open a small bistro across the way from his wine bar. We then poach employees liberally from eachother and order very expenise produts to the other's kithen. "Yes thats right id like 400 pounds of white alba truffles, that right I need them tomorrow so I suppose put them on an express flight, spare no expense. and any othe rexpensive mushrooms you can think of.. yeah Ill take those as well."

I read a wonderful book awhile back by Charlie Trotter called ‘Lessons In Service.” Its very gimmicky and hyperbolic in the descriptions of what the serving staff wil do to provide the guest with an un paralleled dinging experience. It also detailed how Trotter was influenced by Author Anne Rand, the novel seems to have some very socialist leanings which have shaped the business practices of Trotters. In one of the chapters Trotter goes on to say how all the employees there are on salary. The salaries are all based on seniority/experience/ job description. This means that a chef at Trotters might be making more than a waiter there because 1) he is more valuable or 2) he deserves more because hehas put in more time. This is achieved through pooling of the tips. At the end of the shift the waiters hand over their floats and the tips are broken up in the aforementioned way. Trotter does this for a few reasons. First he believed that it was unfair that an untrained waiter could make more than a chef who has been through years of culinary school. Moreover this offers financial stability to the workers at the restaurant, something that is hard to achieve especially in front of the house. This way servers don’t have to worry about having a string of bad nights. It also allows them to know exactly how much money is coming in on pay day. Trotter goes on to say that if the pooled tips that month wont cover the fixed salaries than the restaurant will cover the cost. Another benefit of this is the reduction in jealousy between front and back of the house, everyone knows that they are being payed a wage that is based on an assessment of their skills and credentials. Trotter also believes in cross training. This gives chefs an appreciation for the nuances of serving and visa vie for the wait staff. I found this all to be quite wonderful and mesh well with my meshed belief in anarchy/capitalism/socialism. I have, since I began cooking, been aware of the wge disparity. I remember sitting around one night after the shift when I was 16 smoking with these old grizzled cooks. Across the way the waiters were smoking a joint of doing cocaine or something, and I remember the cooks bitching about how they made so much more money. The oldest and most despondent of the cooks pointed at a busboy my age and told me I should be in his shoes. Everywhere I have gone this fact has hung over my head. The thing that really irritates me the most I think is that the knowledge base (especially in ym city) of the wait staff is sub par. If you go to future shop and you ask about a TV, the salesperson will be able to go on at length detailing the wonderful specifications of this particular product. In my neck of the woods, if you as where the “Ce Bon,” goats cheese come from you’ll usually get a blank stare. During the Christmas season I took some assistant shifts (grandiose word for busboy) at my restaurant. The job was very straight forward, polish cutlery, open bottles of wine, pour bottles of wine, fill bread basket, carry food from kitchen to table, clear food. Once again the problem of knowledge came up. A couple of guests asked some of the servers what some of the food items were, these were not hard questions. Things like “What is gnocchi?” “Will this bottle of Valpollecha go with scallops and fennel? (NO!)” The support staff were happy to tell the customers that they I was actually a chef in disguise and that I could actually answer their questions. This gave me a shocking revelation into the ability of the servers. Two hours later I had donned my comfortable cooking jacket and apron, the floor manager came in and handed me a few bills and random change. I had made $30 in tips for almost three hours work. This was in addition to my assistant salary of $8 an hour. It worked out to slightly more than $18 an hour for filling breadbaskets. A few hours later I was preparing beurre monte and the insane amount of vegetable garnishes that were on the menu that night, and making slightly over $13 an hour. The worst part was the looks my fellow cooks gave me. That experience has gone a long way in my belief that possibly restaurants should do away with the whole concept of job descriptions. I also coordinate an anarchist kitchen where everyone is responsible for everything. One day you could be a delivery driver, the next day you could be learning how to fix a sink, the next day you could be helping to balance the books, or serving the food. The end result is a happier work experience and a more well rounded individual. But that’s just my opinion.

Days off for me are a blurry thing. See im a student, journalist, entremetier and a anarchist community kitchen chef. so for me a day off is when I have a block of 6 hours off. Or if I only work 7 hours in th emorning shift and get off at 3 then thats my day off. than I normally put on one of my other hats, But my favourite thing to do is play some chess with friends, have a dinner party with some good wine and watch a movie, in that order.

This topic may very well be dead or neglected. But Omar Im wondering what your stance is on not just engery consumption, something that I am only comming to understand when I fire on a range, or distribution, but production methods. How much of a role does sourcing sustainable ingredients play? Certinaly we need to find ways of getting food to people who dont have access to it, but what ends are we willing to achieve this? I have been sourcing sustainable produce for my restaurant, be it eggs, milk various cuts of meat and one of the problems I run across is quantity. Sometimes there just not enough soundly produced food stuff to compete with the demand. So following this train of thought if we are to feed the increasingly impossible number of people out there would it make sense to raise chickens twice as quick as we do now? Are we meant to unnatraly manipulate our natural environment with a moral blindfold? Is the end result here to sustain the planet or sustain the human race. I realize that this has completely gone off the tracks from an iron chef discussion, but its something that Ive been asking of alot of chefs in my region.

Im really against all forms of convenience products. If you cant diy dont do it at all. Once you begin using one short cut it becomes a habbit and your prone to do it again. I find it strange that keller would say that the quality of a mass produced product would be finer than what can be made with a persons hands. Isnt that where quality comes from?I wonder if the Keller who wrote the french laundry 8 years ago would have condoned this practice or if giving up his role as a full time cook and an eye oin the bottom line is influcneing this train of thought. Something to conisder. I thinik the most unsavoury practice Ive seen is trying to trick the customer. some menus might as well have footnotes and a bibliography. How many people off the street know what is a sabaon or tabac de cusine? Ive seen many cooks substitute something or leave something out telling me "The customer wont know." But how are they supposed to knwo what thing is if we dont give it to them? Thats the one thing that really grinds my gears, that and shortcuts...

However, if you try to pass that shit off as your own, reap what you sow. Sometimes the truth is the best option, I haven't heard a lot of grumbling about Keller using Sysco fries on his Steak Frites at the Bouchon locations. ←

IM glad people are highlighting the good and the bad here. Loads of cooks Ive encountered come out of school with no knowledge of how the business actually works. I think its the celebrity chef/ MTV factor. People wtch iron chef and see the glory involved in their intricitte presentations, or see Gina DeLaurentis( ?) Leisuraly cooking infront of a camera and think that this is the reality of their situation. The reality isnt harsh, its just different. People outline the bad in the industry all the time, Bourdain talked at length about it in Kitchen confidential Bad hours/pay/ environment. However theres plenty of careers like this right now. You could be an accountant and be financially secure and have all the free time you like but is this happiness. I think it comes down to being honest withyourself. If you have any pangs of doubt then this life isnt for you. All the successful chefs I know are the ones who are happy with their choices and the industry they reside in. They are the people who never complain about any of the previously mentioned drawbacks, for these individuals these elements exist along with the ones they love, that is the satisfaction of doing something that they know is for them. I think that it depends on how your going to define your success in the world. If loads of money, job security and yearly vacations are part of this then cooking isnt the career for you. On a personal note I find the stress and everything to be one of the things I love about my job. I like being on my toes and always anticipating some wrench being thrown in my otherwise controlled world. Oh yeah and I think the most important advice you can get is EAT! eat all you can everywhere you can. Eat at upscale joints or good honest street food. Eat whatever vegetable is in season or some meat from a local farm. Better yet visit some local farmers and see what goes inot the production of the food you are about to consume. This really attatches you to tradition and these memories will sustain you through even the worst nights in a kitchen.

It was a place "on the fringe of the byward market," in ottawa ontario.

I stagged at a place in the summer part time. I worked there every monday for 4 months. This was on top of a full time 6 day a week job. It was pretty laid back the Chef there had been on tv a few years back and had attracted me to cooking with a strange deep friend foie gras. For me it was really more about picking his brain about food, and talking about strange experiments I was conducting in my home kitchen. the nature of my stage was that I came in at 2, did some minimal prep work, each day was devoted to a new technique. Sometimes carmalization, sometime sous vide. he always took time to explain in depth to me a certian concept. And before this stage Id never had anyone give me a really good break down of how to sharpen a knife properly. After the shift was over I got to order something off the menu for free and have a nice glass of wine to go with it. All in all a fun experience.

I think sweetbreads are mainly a texture isse. I think its very important to braise them for a time in a resuced stock with way too make aromatics. My procedure for this is: 1) PLace the sweetbreads in a container and run a tap of cold water over them for 40 minutes. ( this is quicker than letting them soak in their own filth) 2) Blanch them in boliing water for 45 seconds or so. 3) Shock and press overnight. 4) Saute in a large pan about 4 onions rough chop. 2 carrots rough chop. 1 bunch leeks rough chop. Carmelize all the veggies until they are brown and very sweet. Remove the veggies. 5) Add the sweetbreads to the same pan with some more butter for lubrication. Crisp them for about 4 minutes on one side and then kiss them on the other side. remove the sweetbreads. 6) Deglaze with 4 tbs red wine vinegar. 7) Add the sweetbreads, veggies and about 1 cup of reduced (jello) veal stock. Add a head of garlic, and few stock for thyme and rosemary. Braise this for about 10 minutes in an oven at 350. 8) Remove and let them sit in the braising liquid overnight. 9) Cut the sweetbreads up into whatever portions you want. Roast them until theyr are crispy. Strain the stock and reduce. Mount with butter and eat them up. I find that this overload of aromatics really goes along way for the otherwise tasteless sweetbreads. But that just me.

A few years back before I really knew anything about cooking I got a job at an irish pub. At this point it was a summer job to pay for the comming school year. I had abit of experience on garde mangier at an italian place when I was in highschool. The chef at the pub was this short irish man who spoke this broken form of english. I only really understood that I had been hired because he led me to the change room and then to the kitchen. There he left me. A few minutes later these two really burnt out looking guys came in, one was balding and I suspect drunk, the other was this tall thin dude, I deduced that he was stoned. I didnt really know what to make of it, they didnt really talk to me so much as talk at me about drugs, money and juvie. Weird I thought. Soon the chit machine started comming in, the twop guys started looking at me and asking me where things were. It seems they were new as well and supposed that I was in charge. I asked a waitress where the chef was. She said she didnt know but was nice enugh to get me a menu so I could figure out what things were. This is when things got bad. An order for chicken would come up. I read that it was stuffed with brie and prosciutto. So I ran to the fridge and tried to find that stuff. Something would come up that came with a roasted pepper dip, soId have to make that. It went on like this for an hour or so, I was totally in the weeds, the two guys were freaking out, waitresses were yelling at me asking for wings, nachos, pizzas. Finally the chef came in not in hiw whites or anything but looking like he was ready to call it a day. He saw what was happening and started to freak out at me for not being able to handle the pace, not being able to coordinate the other guys. He begrdugingly came behind the line and started "cooking" with us. Mostly he would call out a chit that was already on the go and then demand it came faster, sometime calling out the same chit twice. At this point I know I wasnt going to show up the next day. And I didnt. Happily I got a nice job as an entremetier the next day. That pub is still open and still packed everynight. Strange.

Ive never worked for any star chefs per sey. Ive worked for some very notable local chefs in the regions Ive lived in though. Ill say that I enjoy working a kitchen where the focus is complete. I dont think a chef should be an asshole, just uncompramising. This goes for anything though. I mean if something is worth doing its worth doing right. Ive also seen chefs who are too friendly and this often leads toa diminished quality of food because there is too much emphasis on having a good time and talking rather than putting up perfect plates.

1) I used to butter the reach in handles of the grillardian. 2) Put a hunk of gorgonzola cheese under the sole of the chefs work shoes. 3) Used Chilpote paste instead of red sauce on a pizza. I think the worst one was played on me when I was a dishwasher. My chef came up to me one day and brought me a nice pint of coke. He didnt really talk to me at that point because I was new and but a lowley pot scruber. He started asking me questions about school and what I liked to do. I was pretty flattered that he was taking an interest in me. The coke tasted sort of funny, but I didnt want to stop drinking it because I thought of it as sort of an offering to get to know eachother. Some cooks walked by slapped me on the back and laughed. Now I was feeling like one of the crew. In the final sip of the drink brought something sharp to my lip. I spit back and looked in the botton of my pint glass. There in all its carbonated glory was an ugly looking partially coke cured muscle.

I accepted the fact long ago thats its going to be awhile before I make any money in this lifestyle. But I mean how much money do you need? Ive been fortunate to work for chefs all my life who work long hours and dont get paid as much as other professionals. The thing is they have been some of the happiest people that I know. the issue of money to them is a non issue. The bottom line is we do this because we love it. Its not like cooks and chefs live on the poverty line, its just that they dont normally move to suburbia. I was at a party last night with a whole bunch of newly graduated university professionals. Most of them work in govrnment, in offices, at desks with steady hours. Most of them spent their time complaining that they were already bored of their job, and that they only had 40 more years to go. This isnt something that I usually hear from cooks. ON the other hand the money jobs are there if you want them. You can always work in a unionized hotel, or be a chef in a cafeteria or work in a resort. These are all higher salary jobs, but I've heard that they are more tedious and boring. Being a cook or a chef is a lifestyle choice, one that I cant say im sorry for.

I tend to make everything from scratch now. Partially because I use cooking and baking as a diversion from studying. This normally means that I have some weird stuff in my fridge that doesnt really go with anything in particular. For instance right now I have. 1) loads of sweet potato gnochi frozen 2) stocks . Duck/chicken/ veal/ beef. 3) An onion juice reduction ( that has kept for 3 months) 4) Short rib soup with lentils 5) Pickled oysters ( I have no idea why I did this, the urge just struck me one night.) 6) Roasted beets 7) Duck confit sitting in its fat in the bottom of the fridge One thing I will always buy though is nutella. You dont even need anything else to eat it with just a spoon, or actually just your fingers.

All the really bad ones I have are from my first sixmonths or so in a kitchen when I was 16. I remember my first chef one day came in with this very exotic looking fish. It was chilean sea Bass. very expensive he told me, very delicate. I watcheed him carefully taking out all the innards and bones. Trying to keep the two fillets attatched so he could stuff it with breadcrumbs, parsley and garlic. I remember him telling us about this fantastic dish of chilean sea bass he had had in turkey, and how fond he had been of it. I was making croutons, for the caesar salad. Normally I burned the first batch, but this time was special. I remembered them and immediatly put them on the cooling rack in the prep kitchen. They came out nice and golden brown. I began starting on the romaine, taking care to be as precise as I had been with the croutons, I was indeed on a role. It was at this point when I realized the look of dismay on the sauceirs face beside me. I felt these horrible eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. I tunred around and saw my chef looking furious behind me. He guided me to the prep area and pointed to the rack and roll. I had placed the smoking hot croutons just under the fish that was waiting to be stuffed and had cooked them half way through.l I was quiet the rest of the night. Now whenever i see Chilean sea bass ( apart from thinking how endangered it is) I always think back to that moment and feel that cold gaze.

Courtyard restaurant in Ottawa has a pretty cool Kobe dish. they get their Beef from snake river farms. The cut they choose was Flat Iron, which is very underutalized. It comes with grilled sweet peppers, cippolline onion poached in beure monte, and kimchee. They have a tasting menu format, the course proceeding it is a shrimp dish. tempure gulf shrimp, Shrimp mousseline, orange tatsoi salad, orange sauce, and copeux potatoes. Its quite good.