Edward J

Yup, agree with all of the above. Be nice about it, and you are going to gain some business. I think more people than not will buy something after using the bathroom. Ehhh... Not really. Several times in the past few years the Chief Medical Officer of the Vancouver Coastal Health Dept. has appealed to the public on various media and "educated" the public that restaurants are not indebted, coerced or otherwise made to have their washrooms available to the general public, but only to paying customers. About 50% of the time the following situation happens: Customer walks in and needs to use the washroom and says he will make a purchase. Afterwards they will hem and haw, ask about prices, quality, origin of ingredients, etc, and then walk out. Last week was pretty typical, gentlemen does the "thing," comments that my coffee is fair trade and organic, but not bird friendly, but by the time he started comparing my prices to Starbucks, I salvaged what was left of my patience, cooly looked him the eye and asked him to put some change in the tip jar and just leave. Didn't go over to well. Two days later, on Sat., he was back--well not exactly. He had parked his car directly in front of my entrance fastened balloons and a realator's "open house" sign on the roof of his car and walked away. My business is located in a small building with 8 commercial units on the street level and 50 condos above. Typical price for a 1 bdrm and den in our building is $280,000.00. The bathroom thingee was long forgotten, but parking in front of my place refreshed my memory. Perhaps it was the red ball,oons. Parking on our street is 1 hr, so I gave him that, and afterwards I called the city to have it ticketed. After another hour I called again to have it towed. As the tow truck driver had the car on his hoist, I called the realator's number that he had so handily proved on the "open house" sign on his car roof. He made it just in time to see his car being towed down the street. I'd much rather sell chocolates, which is the bread and butter of my business, in fact I'd much rather go wholesale. But I do have a business to run.

O.K., I'm a pastry chef, no background at all in law or journalism, so this is just a shot in the dark, but...... With all the other 'traditional" media, the content is edited. Compensation for the journalist may or may not be based on the editing, but the fact remains that someone other than the journalist has final say on what may be printed. Does the host website have control (editing powers) over the blogger?

Canadian law is just a wee bit different. In any case I can't operate with liability insurance, and I can't get that without grab-bars on the walls, non-slip floors, pneumatic door closers, bathroom fan, and adequate lighting. Oh, and t.p. ......

I have difficulty in comprehending the above rules and regulations. I do understand about shill-ing new places and understand that they are removed, but I don't understand why negative reviews can't be removed as in my case they were really personal attacks and had no information to back up vague claims of "rudeness". If I put arsenic in your coffee, fair enough, it is rude, but asking someone politely to wait until I fill out the first two guest's orders is not rude, but only professional and polite for all those involved. Who has their finger on the "delete" button, and is it in any way connected to advertising with the featured business?

Max H as an excellent post and touched on many nuances, but forgot item: Advertising. Websites are a business and need to earn some kind of money. Content is usually free, provided by posters and bloggers, but you have to hit someone up for money. Can you guess who? Now with one particular site--not naming any names here, but it sounds like something that comes out of a small dog's mouth---my personal experience (as a business owner)was less than stellar. When we first opened up we got rave reviews--4's and 5's. This earned us a personal e-mail from the site asking us to advertise with them. We declined, the offer was put up again, politely declined again, and then many of the positive reviews were deleted. I've had several customer complain to me that they put up a great review on our place and then a day later the whole thing was removed. Then the negative posts come in, some really personal attacks suggesting divorce and/or suicide, and yet the reason for this is never explained. I understand the same site in many other cities does not operate this way. I also make a very clear definition between a pro-blogger and a hobby blogger--I much prefer the hobby blogger. Why? They have a regular full time job, that's why. The pro blogger wants compensation for his/her work. Can you guess what that would be? Best way to deal with the pro-blogger's requests is to have a request of my own: A disclaimer on their blog saying that the blog was partially or fully "sponsored" by my business. Works like copper on snails....

(1) Foodcost: Well, no. 10% is a huge reduction. Bucket scraping and cheese paring can only reduce f.c by maybe 1-2%, anything higher than that, and the Chef wasn't doing his job well in the first place. Besides, cheese paring can only go so far before there is a loss in quality and/or quantity of the menu items, and when that happens, you loose business fast. The easiest way to immediately reduce f.c. by 10% would be to raise the menu prices accordingly. You can lower food costs by buying in larger quantities, as everything becomes cheaper if the volume is right, but this ties up the owner's money in perishable items with a finite shelf life. It is an option though. Some Chefs have a secret weapon to fight f.c. --the wholesale wing of thier bakery or garde manger depts. I've known a few hotels that make some very good money supplying cakes and pastries to other businesses--or salad dressings/condiments or other items. It's money coming in not dependent on a'la carte sales. Another area would be to lean on the catering sales dept. for more sales if the establishment has one. Catering -onsite or off-site--can bring in good money as well, and is much more cost effective than regular a'la carte dining. You can lower your some of food costs-- dairy especially, as well as some dry goods and specialty cheeses/meats-- buy buying at Costco. Worked at several hotels that did this. As much as 15% can be saved buying dairy at Costco as opposed to buying from the dairy itself or the big purveyors. This requires about 4 hours a week plus some kind of transportation. Still, it is a very viable option. A very dramatic option would be to cut out the a'la carte and only run table d'hote menus with only 3 choices of main, two each of app or dessert. Not great, but still an option if the owner is really breathing down your neck. At one place the bakery supplier played hardball with us and I was told to reduce the bakery invoices by as much as possible. This bakery supplied us with sandwich loaves and burger buns. I managed to get chop 3o% off, but I had to spend $2,000 to do it. What I bought was a used proofer, used pullman pans and a Taiwanese bread slicer. I dropped the production bakery completely and went to frozen proof and bake. Within a week I had trained the d/washer to pull, proof, bake, and slice the sandwich loaves, and within a month she was made lead sandwich girl. Downside to this was the added manpower, more energy to run the ovens, and more freezer space for the frozen dough--the savings offset this easily, plus we had bragging rights to " in-house fresh baked bread", as well as no minimum orders from the bakery. (2) Employee theft All depending on where you live, firing the dude's azz might be the right choice, or it might land you fines for wrongful termination from either the labour board or the Union rep. Here are some of the questions you might have to answer: Q: Mr. Chef, theft is a serious crime, do you have any other witnesses--other than yourself to lend credibility to your allegations against Mr. Smith? Q: Mr. Chef, do you have notices (in English, Spanish, an whatever else) posted at all exists of the workplace notifying employees that no goods may be taken past these points? No? Are you aware that the employee parking lot is still on the workplace premises, and since you allege that Mr. Smith did not actually enter his vehicle, how could theft possibly occur? As I said before, I don't know the local labour laws in your area. However, both the Labour Board and Unions represent the employee for free, so it never hurts or costs money to file such wrongful termination charges. Worst case scenerio is having Smith back at work looking for an opportunity to get even. D.A.M.H.I.K.T. (3) Refrigeration The walk-in is a safe, a Fort Knox, alot of money time, and product tied up in there. Correct, the first thing to look at is the fuse panel, if no breaker is tripped, then you examine the coil inside the walk-in. Very frequently during summer months or in steamy kitchens with the cooler door open for long periods of time, the warm moist air sticks to the coil and freezes on. The coil become plugged with ice and the whole system shuts down. It is an easy job to defrost this. If the first two scenerios are not the problem, then you must call the repair guy. Refrigeration guys charge--in my area--$75 an hour, plus an additional $35 truck fee, and of course extra for parts and taxes. These guys usually have a lot of stuff on their trucks, but not everything. If they don't have it on board, then they have to go back, and you get to pay all over again. Correct, you need to call in the make and model, but also a description of the problem (Compressor runs constantly but temp is +9 and rising, or a horrible squealing from the compressor, etc) If the unit is older than 5 years you need to know the type of refrigerant it uses. These gasses change all the time and the guys will only carry the most common ones from the past 3-4 years on their trucks. The above three scenerios are typical problems a Chef faces, but everyone handles them in different ways.

Yup. 1) The owner wants a 10% reduction on foodcost, pronto. Give me 3 suggestions on how to lower it quickly 2) You see one of your staff walking stiff-legged and quickly out the door to the parking lot to "check up on his car". What do you do immediatly? 3) You walk into the walk-in cooler and notice it is warm. What is the first thing you check? The second? If you need to call for repairs, what information do you give out? Oh,and by the way, what does a refrigeration guy cost per hour and are there any other costs or fees involved with the visit? Like I said, a Chef is judged by how well s/he manages the resources given to him. There are many resources, but the big 4 are: Money, time, labour, ingredients. Those who can't manage them get shown the door pretty darn fast. That's a Chef. A cook, cooks. Am I making any sense here??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I am really puzzled by this. To the best of my knowledge, Cordon Bleu was created to teach cooking to people who had no intention of working professionally. In France (and most of Europe) those who want to cook professionally enter into an apprenticeship. This is usually 3 years and the apprentice is typically 15 yrs of age when they start. The classroom education is provided by the ministry of education-as is for many other trades, as well as the testing and certification. After competing the apprenticeship, they receive the title of "Cook". I did so when I completed my apprenticeship in Switzerland in 1988, and to be sure there was no mistake, "Cook" was repeated in all 4 of Switzerland's national languages on the document.... As well, in France, (and again, for most of Europe) the "boss" is referred to as the "Chef". This could be the owner or supervisor of a store, an auto-body shop, a newspaper editor, or Chief of Police. While cooks will acknowledge their boss is a "Chef", it is (or was during the 80's and 90's) taken for granted to address the chef as "Mr. So-and-So" when speaking directly to him.

Recieved Pepin's "La technique" as a present for my 12th b'day. Scrawled in pencil on the recipie for basic genoise in my handwriting is: "whip he77 out of eggs".... I do now....

Others have said so above, there is no such thing as a "Chef" in N.America, and there is no nationally accepted certifications for a "Chef". There are ACF "Chef" certifications, many, many different ones, but these are private association certifications. There are culinary school diplomas, but this is to certify culinary school graduates. And there are many, many different culinary schools, some with 2 year courses, some with 3 mth courses, and even on-line courses. The general opinion seems to be a "Chef" is a manager, that is, a manager in charge of the kitchen. I tend to think of it as this way: A cook is judged by what they put on a plate A Chef is judged by how well they manage the resources they are given. There may be politicians you do not like or think are doing a terrible job, but as long as they hold office, they still have the title of "Mayor" or "Govenor" or what ever. Of course, if they do a terrible job, they get kicked out of office pretty darn quick. So it is with Chefs, even terrible ones are stilled called Chef, but they don't last long.........

Don't have much time now (I'm at work) but hav you thought of making a regular recipie, cutting it into squares and frezing it, then dropping the frozen cube into a shell, let it thaw out and cap it off?

I'm very reluctant to suggest including a "foolproof" sharpening system with the knife, because "they" will invent a better fool. However.... I have had some success in teaching complete newbies to get a half-decent edge on softer knives (Victorinox) with the cheap guided stone-on-a-rod system. One bonus of this system is that it is manual, and therefor much harder to remove serious amounts of steel quickly. Harder steels do keep their edge longer, no arguement there, but you also need "better" abrasives to get an edge when it is time to sharpen, and Newbie's knives get a lot of abuse.

Yup, it'll cost you 3 bucks. Go down to any home improvement store and buy 4 bricks. Keep them in your locker, and when you start your shift, shove one under each table leg. End of the shift, put em back in your locker. I've known several 2 m tall guys who did this. Almost as easy is "Adjustable table height". Don't adjust the table, adjust the floor. Again, I've know several "Vertically challenged" people who had a wood sub-floor/box type thingee made for them, about 18" wide and maybe 24-36" long. At the end of their shift, they just shoved the thing under the table. Same for dishpits.

If the knives are designed for people with no food preparation or prior knife experience, you will have several challenges to overcome. The below listed are based on my personal opinion: 1) When observing family members and employees, the natural inclination seems to be to use the smallest knife possible. I have witnessed--on more than one occasion--family members trying to halve a watermelon with a boning knife, as well as employees slicing tomatoes with boning knives or paring knives, cutting pullman hams in half with a paring knife, etc. In each instance, an ample supply of knives of various sizes was available. 2) Some people believe that dull knife is much safer than a sharp one, and are scared (deleted) of a sharp knife. They would rather mash and smoosh a tomato with a dull one than to have a sharp knife handy. 3) Many people believe that a knife edge is infinite, that it will last forever. And, of course there is a lot of hype from knife mnfctrs that feeds this belief. Many also believe that sharpening is something that is mystical, takes years to learn, and is done far away, or is/should be covered by warranty or something like that. I know better than to show up at a family member, relative, or friend's house for dinner without tossing a sharpening kit in the car. And though I try to explain the basics of sharpening--what is sharp, and what is dull, a glazed look forms over their eyes, and they panic and question me, "But you'll do my knives again for Easter brunch, right? So, if your knife is to be targeted for people with no knife experience, some thought to the above observations should be taken into consideration.

Most electronic commercial scales are accurate to 1 gram, that is they measure in units of 1 gram. This is what mnfctrs state on their literature, and how Canada Measurement--the Fed. body that certifies scales for legal trade (meatcutters, bakers, produce scales etc. as well as gas pumps and truck scales) clasify scales. True, the $14.99 scales are only accurate within a 2-3 gram toleranace

Still not convinced, huh? Most scales are accurate to 1 gram and have a capacity of 5 kg, and are under 50 bucks. All's I'm saying is try it, who knows? Maybe a couple hundred thousand bakers around world are wrong....

Easy peasy. Say for example almond ess. that's going into a cookie dough. I scale out my sugar in the mixing bowl, tare off, add in my butter, tare off, add in my almond ess. and/or vanilla--usually 3-5 grams per kg of finished product.c

This is something I have great difficulty in understanding. Everything has weight, even aircraft measure their fuel not by volume but by weight. Production bakers scale out their water, they don't measure it A kilogram of water is exactly one liter, or a liter is exactly one kilo. Folks, it doesn't get much simpler than that. If your scale is accurate to 1 gram, then you'll be very accurate with measuring liquids on a scale. All my recipies list liquids by weight. Eggs, milk, water, oil, booze, all by weight. It's simpler, faster, easier to read, and no graduated beakers to wash or to fall over and break.

A-yup. I understand the "unwillingness" to buy dipping forks, Chef Rubber wanted $15 a piece for them , managed to wrangle 3 3-tine Matfer forks from D&R last year, $5 a pop, but the solder/weld on all three failed after a few days of using them. I can get 2-tine forks from a local bakery supplier for a buck a piece, and are well made, but very short. So, what do you use for the material? S/S strands from broken whisks? Once I figure out how to load up pics, I'll post on how I converted a really stupid mold ( a squirrel) from two- halves-in-a-frame to a decent, open bottom, clip together mold.

Absolutely! However, I am the only one who markets and distributes my products-- no one else is taking my stuff and adding on 355-50% before passing it on to the next distributer or retailer.

Ehhh....No. I 0/0 a small chocoalte store. If I try to sell my chocolates at a higher price than the drugstroe chocolates, I need a pretty good reason for doing so--like higher quality chocolate or higher quality ingredients. If I don't have a good reason for doing so, I'd be bankrupt.

For me, right now is Wabbit season, and I do the "make-up" in my molds not with brushes, but with paper cornets--heck-uva lot faster. I do use small brushes for coloured cocoa butter, an these re invariably the 12-for-a-buck kiddies "artist" brushes: Nylon bristles and nylon handles. If buying artist's brushes, satay away from painted or laqured handles, as the paint will invariably flake off if the brushes are washed. Stay away from "cooking/pastry brushes" as these are made with hog (pig) bristles and stink like wet pig when washed, they also shed hairs quickly. I've had good luck with silicone "BBQ" bruhes: big fat cloured silicone bristels that never shed, and I hardly ever wash them anyway, I just load them up with chocoalte, let it harden, and pull the brushg out.

I'll second the networking. You have to put yourself in the employer's position for a minute: Do you want to give an unknown person the control of your payroll, supplier's credit, and your reputation? Most employers like to promote within, having a good knowledge of the person they will entrust the above mentioned with.

Ever peel an orange, and end up smelling like an orange for the whole day?

Without lemon zest the sorbet is going to taste like watered down lemon juice. All the lemon flavour is in the zest. You can keep the zest in, or make the mix a day or two before and then strain it out. AND, if you really think about it, when you boil up the sugar/water syrup, that is the perfect opportunity to infuse a little flavour: Lemon grass,(bashed up) lime leaf, hint of lime, etc..