Edward J

As my Culinary teacher would say, (translated into englisch) "You can go and think in philosophy class. With me, you have to know" A bechemel thickened gratin works quite well. Try it. You'll also find that you will get get good colouring when gratinaing even without cheese, as opposed to greasy bubbles when using a reduced cream base.

All depends, I guess. For meat based sauces, not much, although I do enjoy roux based turkey gravies made with turkey fat, and still make chix pot pies for my shop using a rendered chix fat roux based suace. But for demi's? No, not really. That being said, it's hard to make a bechemel without a roux. If the Chef in the a'la carte kitchen is smart, he will have an insert of bechemel handy . It's perfect for a'la minute dishes like mushroom ragouts, or to thicken and quickly give body to some pan sauces. And, of course, it is ideal for gratins. Think about gratins for a minute. If you blanch pot. slices in flavoured milk, then thicken the milk with roux, and return the pot slices, you have a gratin that won't split, has a far lower calorific value than a reduced cream base, and doesn't give you the ol' "lead balloon" feeling in your stomach like a cream based gratin would. Roux also is a pretty good way to go for a lot of soups. But not much really for meat based sauces

A couple of thoughts... Refrigeration does not make things cold, it removes the heat. A houshold fridge is not designed to remove the heat from a 4 qt pot of soup--it is designed to keep the temperature at around 4-5 Celcius. Heat almnost always contains humidity, especially heat coming off of food. A refrigerator is an airtight box with a coil that gets cold, and a fan to blow this around. When you put hot items in a fridge, the heat and humidty rise up--to the coil, where the humidity sticks on the coil, causing it to ice up. The humidty also sticks to the walls of the fridge--condensation, if you will, and if not removed it can, and does turn into mold. Cheap tricks? Fill up a milk jug with water and freeze it. Drop this into a pot of hot soup to cool it down. In winter, fill up your sink with snow and set a pot into the snow. (never keep a pot of food outside in a snowbank, animials will eat it. D.a.m.h.i.k.t....)

Convections area true workhorse, they shine in commercial kitchens, baking everything from buns to roasting bones. You, however, need a thoroughbred. With a convection you have no control over botom/top heat, you will get lop-sided muffins and cakes from the fan blowing in only one direction. You can, of course, work with these problems--baking on sheet pans lined with bbq bricks to "simulate" bottom heat, stopping mid-way and reversing sheet pans/cake pans to stop lop-sided tops. And of course, everytime you open that oven door, you get a fan-assisted blast of hot air heating up your kitchen..... A deck oven won't do this. True, they do take a bit longer to bake with, but you have flexibility and better results. Still, if you want a convection, start loking at spec sheets. Don't judge the oven on features, judge it by the length of warranties and what's covered. Blodgett for instance, has one of the best warranties on doors, which is the most common thing that goes wrong with convections. Stay away fom electonic mother boards/controls. The simpler the controls, the fewer problems you will have. Don't get suckered in by "steam buttons". All this is, is a solenoid that sqirts water on the squirrel-cage fan, which flings droplets all over the oven's cavity. Water needs energy to convert it to steam, and this energy comes from your oven's heat: Once you press the "steam button", your temperature will drop dramatically, and needs almost 10 minutes to recuperate. Choose a brand that has a reputable dealer in your area. I can't stress this enough. Even with a good brand things can go wrong. If the factory authorized repair guy is 120 miles away, you're out of luck for at least a week untill he makes to your place. If you use a non-factory authorized repair guy, odds are he won't have the proper parts in stock Deck ovens? Nothing much goes wrong with them---there are no moving parts, nothing to wear out, maybe the light buld burns out, but that's it.

As you can see from the variety of answers from the posters, sharpening is a very personal thing, with a huge variety of choices. When to "sharpen"? For me, when I have to put pressure on a knife to cut a tomato, but everyone else has different ideas. The "steel" is not really a sharpening tool--that is, it is not an abrasive. The job of a steel is to grab hold of the knife edge that has curled over, and to straighten it again. This works well for a few times, but the edge will eventually fatigue and break off, and this is where you need abrasives to re-define the edge.

If it's 53% cocoa content, what do you thik the other 47% is? Allow 1% for vanilla and soy lecethin and you stillhave 46% sugar--almost half. That, combined with a caramel is going to be very sweet.

You're forgettin a few important aspects. 1) You need to have a mechanical engineer's drawing to submit to city hall/municipal office. Period. End of discussion. Failure to comply and you will not get an occupancy or business license, and if the insurance co. or landord ever finds out that you're operating without the proper licenses in place, well then.... 2) You need to have a fire supression system for the hood. The cavity behind the filters of the hood is called the plenum, and this needs a fire nozzle as well, some municipalities require a nozzle inside the shaft as well. For every piece of equipment you will need one dedicated nozzle as well 3) You need to have make-up air. The fan removes a certain amount of air, say 30 cu feet per minute. This has to be replaced, or you will all need scuba diving equipment. How is this air replaced? Some municipalities will allow an open window in the kitchen, some require a separate fan bringing "tempered air"--that is, air-condtioned/heated--air into the kitchen. Check with your municipality/city hall. 4) The shaft must be designed for the hood. The shaft is the "pipe" from the hood to the fan. It must have a certain fire rating and comply with fire codes. You will need a fan at the end of this shaft to draw out the air. Where will this fan be located, and does is it accesible for the mandated cleaning that it requires? Your best bet? Call in a mechanical engineer that does this type of work for a peek and a quote. It will be cheaper in the long run and save you from headaches an anguish fom the city boys, the fire boys, and the insurance boys.

A lot of ink has been spilled on coupons, group coupons, etc, and my hands are as inkstained as much as anyone else. From my observations, you WILL get "surly" service if such a coupon is produced, since a large portion of the coupon holders don't tip, and many are reluctant to pay applicable taxes as well. It is poor business sense, and it is desaration, but also it is very aggresive sales promoters. I should know, I've flaty told two of them "No" and asked them to leave my premises, and I am still plagued by e-mails. My secret conspiracy theory on why a lot of places use the group coupons? I think that the business is for sale, and it looks good to prospective buyers when the place is full.

ohh-oh, I know that attitude. In many of the places I've worked in, if that attitude was given to the bartenderd, the server would be cooly told all they would be serving was icewater. If that attitude was given to the bus-boys, the busboys would either request from the owner not to work that server's station, or draw lots to see who would "loose", and work work that server's station. And if the host/ess knew of the server's attitude... Every coach knows that it is the whole team that wins the game, not just one or two star players. But the poster made a good point about special requests. Here's a scenerio that was quite common in almost every place I worked at: Mr. Smith makes a reservation, big night, a b'day or anniversary. But, could he have the lamb dish like last time? And be sure to have a bottle of his favorite Bordeaux? Now while the lamb dish was great, it was not a good seller, hence it being off the menu. So the chef has to go out of his way to get lamb racks, make a dedicated sauce and garniture, and the owner has only one bottle left of that particular wine, so he goes out of his way to get a case or partial case. But Smith is a good customer, and he and his wife have an excellent time. Smith knows that the entire place went out of their way to make that dining experience memorable, and he tips well. Like I said, this happened quite frequently, and when I knew the server made good tips from special requests and refused to even get a pitcher of coke for the kitchen crew, I asked him/her one simple question: Do you really think you were responsible for the entire dining experience? Many would argue that a server is a sales person, and tips are a commission. For me this is not quite true. The server upsells. That is to say, when the guest walks in the door, 99% of the time the guest will order food and beverage. However, an incredible amount of effort was made to get the guest through the door--the biggest obstacle. This can be done in many ways, websites, brochures, advertising, networking, skillfull management of good food and service, etc. etc. etc., but this responsibility falls mainly on the owner, not the server.

You can make green tea flavoured ganaches quite simply by steeping tea leaves in cream, and then making a ganache--use white chocolate to keep the subtle tea flavours, but enrobe in dark chocolate. Actually cream has more water in it than booze. Plain jane whipping cream is usually 33%--33% butterfat content, so that's 66% water. Most boozes are around 40-50%(80-100 proof in the States) or higher. You can make ganaches with all-booze and no cream, but the flavour (and alcohol) evaporates pretty quickly, even when enrobed or in a chocolate shell. Stick with tj's chocolate for now. You can get decent chocolates at specialty stores, but the mark up is pretty high. Have a peek at some of the websites like Chefrubber or Chocolat-chocolat, they sell good chocolate at decent prices, but don't know about what minimum quantities areha

If there's one book you should get, it's Grewling's "Chocolates and Confections". More than likely your libarary will have it, but I have seen it in Chapters(CDN bookstore chain) for under $60.00. Here you will find information not only on chocolate and it's manufacture, but information and recipies on ganaches of all sorts, caramels, nougats, brittles, etc. etc. etc.. You're forgetting one huge impact on ganaches--booze! You can substitute part of the cream with any flavour of spirits or eau de vie's. I don't suggest liquers, as these have a low alcohol content and high sugar content. a 72% chocoalte is exactly that--72% cocoa content. But that's kinda like saying all red wines are made with red grapes. There are huge differences in the type of cocoa bean, the region it was grown in, how it was processed before shipping to the factory, and how it was processed at the factory. Read your labels!!! Any chocolate mnfctrd and sold in the E.U. can not have any dairy content in it. Milk chocolate is another designation however. The U.S has some of the strangest laws regarding chocoalte, for instance "Bittersweet" mut have a minimu of 35% cocoa content, and Semisweet? 35% ocoa content. After that, anything goes. The best thermometer for tempering (or properly called "pre crystalization) is in your medicine cabinet. Chocolate melts at just a few degrees belwo body temperture, and most fever thermometers are scaled in percentages of one degreee, more than accurate enough for chocoalte work. Silicone molds are lousy for chocolate--they flex and this is not good for chocolate as you can't level off and scrape the molds clean. You can get cheap (thermoformed) plastic molds--usually for under $3.00 each, and these are O.K. for chocolate work, you can get good results, but thse molds fatigue and crack very easily. Remember all molds are exact negatives of what you cast--any scratches in the mold will show up as scars.

Thank you for your response. I will now make my third and final request of considering my suggestion of printing out this thread and stashing it, to be reviewed a few years later.

gfweb has an excellent point. Sell it off, wash your hands, and move on. Even if you went the contract route and things went sour, it's a question of who has more time, money, and patience to go through the court system to win. Avoid this scenerio at all costs.

Thanks for responding. FWIW I o/o a chocolate bonbon shop not a true blue restaurant, although I have worked constantly in the hospitality--in three continents and gawd knows how many hotels and restaurants since I was 16. O.K., so Subway. It's a fastfood take-way franchise, not a sit down restaurant, and I doubt if customers tip. It is customer service however, and if you quit after 6 weeks because you couldn't keep up, then you must acknowledge that servers can get bogged down with tables as well. I'm hazarding a guess that pay was minimum wages and training--if any--was little more than a 15 minute DVD. But it is experience. O.K. so if a sever is not performing to the best of their abilities, you're not tipping to the best of yours, fair enough. You didn't mention what State you reside in, or if in that State there is a "server's minimum wage". Many people on this site acknowledge that servers get paid crap and do need the tips to pay rent. Thing is, how do you determine that a server is performing to the best of their abilities? And just what should a server be capable of knowing and doing? Like I pointed out in many of my posts in this thread, there are no qualifications for servers, no benchmarks, no standards. A server in an Enchilada place does not need extensive wine/cocktail knowledge, does not need to know how food from the menu is prepared does not need knowledge of proper silverware and gflassware palcement, or how to change a tablecloth or clear off a table without drawing attention. O.K. so you compare yourself to others in your group. I don't know if that group is age/gender/race/financial based, and frankly it doesn't matter one iota. Why compare yourself to others? I described my experiences with bloggers and event planners because I highlighted a quote from one of your posts, something about "increasing patronage at a few places and probably maligning a few others" (not a direct quote). And frankly, it infuriates the crap out of me. Do you honestly take sole responsibility for incrased patronage? Manage a restauarant, put out consistantly good food and service? Because that's what customers pay for, not for reviews. In any case, you have acknowledged my first request, but not my second, and that one won't cost you more than a few sheets of paper, an envelope, and smidge of ink. Please consider it.

Oh geez, stop and think a minute. A recipie can't really be owned, you can change one ingredient, or change the proportions of several, and presto! It's a new recipie. Think evil now. Pretend you are a company that distributes products, your only thought, your only goal, is volume. Can a smaller producer provide you with this? Or do you use a smaller producer to "get your feet wet", then take a product that is proven marketable to a larger mnfctr and subsequently to more retail outlets? I've spent a liftime in this business, and I'm still in love with cooking and confectionary. However. However the money is in sales, not in production, never has, never will be. Remember this, and use it to your advantage.

A-yup, that's the group that's pushing for a "server's minimum wage" here in B.C., time will tell if they succeed or not. Yad think by now they'd have figured out if you pay peanuts you get monekes. Oh well. The O.P. of this thread hasn't responded for a while, maybe it's time to shut er down.

Yeah... I've heard all of that before. Problem is, what the waiters want and what the customer wants are two different things, I guess. Most tips here are on Visa, especially in the fine dining places. Waitstaff are pulling their tips out of the till end of shift, and it's true, they go home with cash. Meanwhile the owner has to wait untill the Visa cheque comes to get paid. Sound right?

Look at the situation a little differently, and you'll find it isn't communism. As I've mentioned above, there are no standards or benchmarks for waiters, or for that matter, cooks, bakers, butchers, or pastry Chefs. There are a lot of individual schools for these trades, but each school is it's own island, with it's own curriculum, own textbooks, and no set benchmark to follow, other than their own. So how do you negotiate a fair wage with an employer if there are no qualifications available for that trade or profession? You can't, you rely on minimum wage and anticipate tips. But in many cases in individual States, minimum wage doesn't apply for servers, "someone" lobbied that State gov't to apply a "server's minimum wage" which is lower, much lower. Doesn't sound like communism to me. As I wrote in a previous post on this thread, the same thing is now happening in Canada. Currently, a lobbying group is asking for a "server's minimum wage" that would be lower than the minimum wage, as the minimum wage will be going up--from $8.00 to the current $9.00, and will cap off at $10.00 by next summer. A lot of the hospitality industry's problems can be traced back to a lack of qualifications and standards. A plethora of private schools flourish and have no guidlines to follow other than their own, the Unions have made no effort for benchmarks or qualifications either; anyone can open up a restaurant, no qualifications are needed, and it shows--90% of all places fail within the first year. The result of all this? Hospitalty workers are one of the lowest paid groups, and there is so much fierce competition for the dining dollar that owners will do anything to sstay financially afloat.

Totally agree with you on the tipping issue, for I honestly don't believe a server should get a tip based on a percentage of the entire dining experience, and I honestly think servers should get paid a fair wage and not have to rely on tips as the lion's share of their paycheqe. However........This is N. Anmerica. There are no standards or qualifications for what a cook should be,there are no standards or qualifications for what a servers should be, and the same for owners. In Europe cooks are appprenticed for 3 years, waiters for two years, and owners/operators must pass a specialy designed couse for foodservice businesses. Should N. America ever get qualifications in place within the hosptiality industry, then the whole issue of tipping could be tackled.

Fair enough. What scares me about jrshaul's post was what I quoted. As a business owner, I get e-mail requests at least once a month from bloggers, asking if they can visit my place and blog about it. I respond with of course, and I get return e-mails with "but-tummm, uh, well, ah, you don't think I'm actually going to pay the full price, do you?". (You insignificant litte piece of snot, don't you realize I can make or break you?) I get the same attitude with trade shows, marketing people, etc. They need me to help them promote thier trade show/marketing thingee, but spin it around so that the onus is on me, "Look, we're doing it all for you, and because of that, we want a piece of your action". But honestly Simon S, don't you think it would be important to work in a restaurant if you want to write about it? No special skills or qualifications needed to work in restaurant, and it just might give some good insight.

Oh dear.......... That kind of a statement puts icebergs down my, uh..."bathing suit area". Look, Mr. JR Shaul, I have but two requests for you, and I really want you to consider them--you don't have to follow up on them, (although it would be ideal if you did) but I really want you you to consider them, O.K.? The first is to "know the enemy". Please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top, get a a job in a restaurant. Just for a month. Walk the mile in the man's shoes before you judge him, O.K.? Everything you do in life is experience, and you can really use this experience, especially if you want to continue writing about the hospitality industry. The second is to print off this entire thread on paper and stuff it in an envelope with a note on that envelope to be opened in 3 year's time. If, after that time you can open the envelope and read it's contents and can critique your comments as well as all the others, then the world is a good place. If you can not open the envelope and refuse to read the thread--including your posts, well then, the the world is a bad place. All I'm asking is to consider these two requests.

This is a question that ranks up there with "What is a Chef?" Here are my thoughts on tipping: The guest tips a percentage of the entire bill, right? That is to say, a percentage of the entire dining experience. Now, the server works very hard, but every one in that establishment is responsible for the entire dining experience. Doesn't make sense for me, in perfect world the tip would be split up. But Patrickamory brings up some very good points. Firstly, I mst declare that I never really have been to the States--other than an obligatory pilgramage to see the duck and the mouses when the kids were small. Currently, in B.C. (British Columbia, Canada) the minimum wage is $8.25/hr. Provincial Gov't will raise this to $10.00 in the next two years, probably in two "jumps" or increases of a dollar each. There are no "minimum, minimum" wages for waiters, they get the eight bucks plus tips. With the recession, a new law on lower blood alcohol levels (.05%) and now the new minimum wage, many of the restaurants are screaming--a triple whammy. A proposal for a "minium, minimum" wage for servers that will be cheaper than the minimum wage will be given to the Provincial Gov't. I am set dead against this, and I wrote to the lobbying group with a letter in which I made two points. The first was about tips itself, same as what I wrote in the above paragraph--the waiter can not possibly claim a percentage of the entire dining experience. The second point I made was that there are no standards--no benchmarks or qualifications for waiters, so how can you have a special wage for a singled out trade that doesn't even have standards?

When is it O.K. not to tip? From a different perspective (and we all need those, right?) let me count the ways: 1) When the guest deduces you are the owner or manager of the place. 2) When the guest deduces that the server is a family member of the owner 3) When the guest deduces that the server works too hard. This one needs a bit more explanation Let's say you go into a Deli, you order a custom made sandwich, a Latte or some other hot beverage, and a dessert with some kind of modifier, like whipped cream or a side of ice cream. Total bill is $15.85, including taxes. Now the server not only takes your money and gives you change, prepares the drink, but prepares the food as well. While doing this, s/he makes a new pot of brewed coffee and seamlessly takes orders from other customers. What do you tip? Most customers? Maybe loose change, nothing over a dollar. If paying by Visa, maybe a buck and the fifteen cents. But it's apples and oranges, right? It's a self serve deli, un-clothed (albeit clean) tabletops--not fine dining. Meh, fruit is fruit. Server is putting in the same amount of effort--probably even more, and it's still dining, granted not fine dining, but still dining. D.A.M.H.I.K.T. ......................

Of course butter is shelf stable! You just have to remove the water from it. In Indian cuisine, this is called "ghee", been used for centuries. Another shelf stable fat is cocoa butter, but it is expensive, very expensive.

I did it another way. I did a 3 yr cook's apprenticeship in Switzerland, back in the mid 80's. You do work your azz off--4 days a week in a regular restaurant, and you do go to school, 1 day per week. School is important, as it teaches you the techniques. Yes, classics are overrated, but the techniques they employ are not. N.America has a fixation with culinary schools and it's not healthy. A culinary school "front end loads" it's curriculum. The students learn all theory and technique, but have very little time to master it and make it part of their repetoire. An artist is only truly creative when he/she has mastered all the techniques needed in that medium. Very few kitchens can show an employee the majority of techniques a competant cook needs. Making emulsions, pate a choux, forcemeats, butchering, and braising are not something done in every restaurant. And even then, there are no guarantees that what is shown to employees is correct. I have known cooks who were instructed to make "ommelettes" on the flat top, to mark off steaks and pop them in the oven to order, to "saute" meat in the deep fryer, etc. Nothing will change for the better for cooks in N.America until standards and qualifications are put into place. Until then it's every man and every culinary school for themselves.....