Edward J

What's the big fuss? Listen, this is N. America, we have no standards as to what constitutes a "Cook" and what constitutes a "Chef". No stnadards for education, trade qualifications or even standardized text books for the multitude of Culinary Schools. Media would have us believe that only "Chefs" can prepare good food, while only "cooks" are deemed fit to work in greasy spoons or in fast food kitchens. What we need is a Judge. And I have one for you, this Judge is called "Life" His Honour "Life" decrees the following: A "Cook" shall be judged by what they put on a plate. In other words, a cook is one who prepares food. A "Chef" shall be judged by how they run a kitchen. If the food is good, the kithcen clean and organized, and most importantly, the kitchen turns a profit, the "Chef" stays. If not, the "Chef" is out the door fast. I have worked for many Chefs. Some can really cook well, others not so well, yet they stay. Why? Because they can lead, delegate, and most importantly, turn a profit.

Been using cloth diapers for this purpose for quite some time now (20+ years). Make sure the diapers are all-cotton and wash them twice before using.

F.G., I have to confess that after 30 years in this biz, I am lazy and don't like to clean. My choice--at home or at work, is still a knife and cutting board. Food processors don't excell at dicing. Shredding, slicing, julienne, yes, faster than by hand, but dicing is lousy. Some have a grid that you jam down the vegetable over to cut into strips, where it gets cut into cubes by the whirring blade. This is kind of like splitting a log with a dull axe. The only exception to this is a contraption called a "power dicer" made by Hobart, to fit onto 30 qt to 80 qt mixers. The vegetable sits on a chute that is is driven by a worm gear and is forced into a grid, directly behind this grid is a whirring blade. All sorts of configurations for dices. Horrendously expensive plus you need an actual mixer. On the other hand, with this contraption, a potato becomes french fries in a matter of seconds and an onion into 1/2 dice in a matter of seconds. BTW onions jammed down a grid or battered around in a food processor get bruised easily, and start to stink pretty bad within hours.

Yup. Cocoa butter solids 38% Cocoa butter 34% Lindt "Extra au Lait" Nice stuff, but very fluid. Mentally back tracking here. The other night I filled the melter, and set it around 45 C to melt overnight. Next morning, tempered with about 1/4 more couverture, then let it rest for maybe an hour. But when I think about it, the tank had a lot of bubbles in it. I wasn't stirring excessively either.

It's worth a shot, try it tommorow.

Got myself a head scratcher. Making solid milk 50 gr (2 oz) chocolate bars, but am plauged with bubbles on the back. It's a fairly fluid couverture, 34% cocoa butter, 38% cocoa solids. I fill the mold, vibrate for about 45 seconds, lay a sheet of plastic over the back and scrape smooth. At first, it looks great, but after a few minutes bubbles appear under the plastic, and when it hardens, these appear as large blisters. I do the same with a 70% dark with no troubles. I do the same with the same milk couverture and chopped nuts with no troubles. Any suggestions?

My analysis is based on conversations with many merchants who used gc's. General concenus among all was that less than 5% came back as "regular" customers. General conclusion: gc customers are only there for the discount. Should a gc offer any statistics or contradictory findings to my "seat-of-the-pants survey", I would be most interested in hearing it. As I have said in my above posts, I have been solicited by several gc's, and no such information was included in their "sales pitch", inspite of my requests. Perhps we could get some input from other merchants who are e-gullet members?

I agree with almost everything you say. However I need to point out one obvious elephant in the room. "Traditional" media--newspapers, radio, TV, etc., produce a product/service that is attractive to their customers. Gc's do not produce any such product or service. The only thing they produce to "appease" their customers is to offer significant discounts. Not their money of course, other people's money. They are charging the merchant to spend thier money. Scratching your head? I am.

I've had some given to me as a gift, and was almost "forced" to use them. For filled bon-bons it is impossible, for solid do-able-- provided you use a piping bag to fill. No need to scrape off with a spatula.

This is true, but just the same a lot of money has been spent, albeit in other ways. The whole reason for the 50% discount is to attract people. It is these people that are the gc's customers--notthe merchant's, since it is the gc who recieves money and doles this out (less the commission) to the merchant. In other words, they (gc's) are spending opm (other people's money) to attract and maintain thier own customer base.

Let's go through the numbers again: 50% reduction of a regular sales price 25% commission from what's left over. This isn't a few cents below sales price, this is a significant reduction, over 60% reduced from the sales price, it's guaranteed to loose money. Whom does it benefit? The gc and the customer The retailer is guaranteed to loose money with each coupon sold. Is no one upset with the gc? They are spending the retailer's profit, overhead, and some of the labour costs to attract their own customers. And you call this "advertising"?????? Is no one going to scream out "The emperor isn't wearing any clothes!"? This isn't advertising....

Every tool box needs at least two things: Duct tape to stop things from moving Wd-40 to get things moving again. (pretty sure that was a "Red Green" quote......

Whyt? Good question. Like theothers, I tried them once for chocolate, and they are not good for this. They are cheap to produce, and since eveyone else is using slicone brushes, mats, bake ware, etc. it's worth a try to flog them on the N. Ametican market where people buy stupid things.

A-yup. Totally agree with you on that. But... But, no one can tell me how a restaurant or any other business can cover costs (or make a buck for that matter) when they "do a deal" with a gc.

Oh dear... In the past 6 mths or so I have been "contacted" by no fewer than 6 gc's, and on various other forums dedicated to food and cooking, have been solicited by another 3. I had only two questions for them, the first being how do I make money by offering a 50% discount+ a 25% commision, and the second question, what is the return rate of ex gc customers? They say you can tell more about the lack of an answer than by an actual answer. None of the gc's answered my two questions. Some gave me a "wall of voodoo": B.S., accusations, assumptions that I hadn't heard of f.b. or twitter, contempt, anger, etc. but no one could answer my questions. So lets do the math: Say I have a $25.00 entree. If I do a gc "deal" it is now $12.50 and less the 25% commission, it is now $9.37. Food costs typically range from 20-30%, 30% of $25.00 is $7.50. Fair enough, but I still haven't paid my overhead costs or my labour costs, which typically are another 60%. I am loosing money with this deal. I don't know, maybe there's an algebraic equation or so kind of wierd trig that can explain how I can possibly make money with this deal, but I've yet to hear of one. The second one is more important. Lets say I designed a car that could get 100 miles to the gallon of gas, but cost $100,000. The price is a hard sell, but the low fuel costs over a 10 year period would be more than enough to convert the most miserly car driver to buy my car. No gc. can give me the return rate of their customers. This is the main selling point of doing business with a gc, as I have already established that it is impossible to make any money--let alone cover costs, with a coupon deal. The only real way I can make money is to sell at my normal selling price, which is not the gc's "forte". Of course there are other ways, marking up high, buying inferior product, using bad staff, but this is not conducive to a succesful business. So why do some busineses do it, use a gc? Honestly, I don't know. I do know, as most everyone elses knows, of relatives or friends, otherwise very intelligent and finacially savvy, get "taken in" by bad invetments, scams or really lousy overpriced telemarketing products.

Kellytree, tell me what you think of this hypothetical situation: You are a store owner of say, a bookstore. Some one contacts you and wants to sell you some new kind of advertising. Here's the deal. The third pary will spend your money and charge you for it, the third party gets all recognition for the giving away of your money. Here's how most group coupons work: The Group coupon (or gc's, as I call them) have their subscribers, usually via smart phone. In order for the gc to attract these subscribers, they offer dramatic discounts on products or services, usually in the range of 40-50%. This does not cost the gc one cent, the 2nd party--the store, has to bear this expense. On top of this, the store must pay another 25% of the coupon cost to the gc, which is the cost of doing business with the gc. Basically the coupons are what keep the gc going. O.K.? The gc's like to call this "advertising" or "marketing". Problem is, with each coupon that is sold to the customer, the store loses money--big time money, usually around 75%. No gc has yet given out facts as to the return rate of coupon customers--the % of customers who paid discounted price the first time, and are now coming back and paying full price--the full price that is neccesary to keep the store in business. The gc customers are just there for the discount. Many are reluctant to buy anything else, many are reluctant to tip, or even to pay applicable taxes, many make reservations and change them several times. They are just there for the discount. And the business/store loses money with each coupon Now, if a store was selling last year's fashions, or milk with 2 day's expiry date left, it might be possible to make some kind of money with a gc. Problem is, a restaurant makes a made-to-order product with a made-to order service. It doesn't come out of a box, and go back into a box on a shelf if it doesn't get sold that day. So, for customers, gc's are a good deal. For the business, a bad deal. Choose wisely.....

If you're brave enough, try deep frying in pure cocoa butter. Results are outstanding.

Some thoughts on this topic................... 1) You tip the waitron 15-20% of the entire bill, that is, the entire dining experience. Obviously the waitron works hard, but equally obviously, is not responsible for the entire dining experience. 2) After tipping the waitron, many think a simple verbal thank you (or tweet or f.b. comment) is sufficient for the cooks. 3) Many think that beverages are an ideal tip for cooks. As was explained in other related threads, drinking in the kitchen is not only dangerous, but illegal, and in the worst case scenerio can result in hefty fines, or closures. I have worked in many establishements in my 30-odd years as a cook and Chef. I have seen many waitrons and Maitre D's pocket money entrusted to them by customers expressly for the kitchen. I have witnessed "good" customers phone ahead and request for an off-the-menu item, which puts a significant amount of stress on the kitchen, and tip the waitron generously for "his work", while dabbing thier lips on a napkin and telling the waiter to "tell the kitchen the meal was excellent". I have witnessed arguements and fights when tips were given to the kitchen. Tipping in N.America is very very strange. Which State in the U.S. is it illegal not to tip, and the establishment has the right to call the Police and have the non-tipper arrested? Obviously, the best method is tip sharing, as every employee in the establishment is responsible for the entire dining experience. Oh, and on a final note. What do you tip someone who provides excellent service/food? If that peson is the owner, the answer is usually nothing. For some reason owners are exempt from rieceving tips. Ask any owner.......

Interesting. I had never heard of this before but when you say it, it makes perfect sense. A-yup. But..... These sites rely soley on individual's opinions. That is to say, the sites do not pay for these opinions, and these opinions are the basis of how the site gets thir advertising revenues from form. It's all about having your cake and eating it too.

Local papers are O.K., they need content, and will usually be happy to print your opinions. Publicity is very funny-strange. Once you attract attention, everyone wants a piece of it. Should a store get attetnion, it will attract bloggers who will want to blog. There are "good' bloggers, and "bad" bloggers. The 'good' bloggers write and are happy, the "bad" want some kind of compensation and will attribute the store's succees to their blogs. Getting on various websites dedicated to food is another story. I've had several customers rate my chocolates and service enthusiastically--only to find thier comments/ratings removed a day later. You see, I don't advertise with these sites, why should they contribute to my success if they don't get a piece of the action?

There is a solution to that, and they are called "Table shox" It's a little spring loaded foot that you screw on to the legs, if a table is moved on an un-even floor the little springs get itno action and level off the table. They cost about 3 bucks a piece--12 bucks a table. I've done it with all of mine, I hate wiggly tables and cleaning up wadded up napkins under my tables.

Wobbly, rickety tables. Wobbly, rickety chairs.

Worst sins I've seen were raw meat in the deep fryer, and--get this, dumping a flat of whole, shell eggs in the Hobart, put the paddle in, let 'er rip for a minute or two, then strain through a chnoise to gt "liquid eggs" for the B'fst buffet.

If you ever have Dim Sum in a busy dim-sum place, by 11:00 am you can't even hear yourself think, not for me, thanks. For those who figure the more noise the better, I have a few questions: A) Do you eat alone when dining out? B) If the answer to the above is "No", then, C) How the (deleted) can you carry on a (deleted) conversation with your dining partner?

A-yup, fuel (diesel) prices and natural diasters a lot to do with it. Take for example here on the Wet (west) Coast, this week is the first week it hasn't been raining since November. Most of the fruit crops are toast--rotting in the fields, bees won't go out when it rains so no pollination, and the bees aren't all that healthy either. Is the States actually growing corn for fuel? Does this make financial sense? I know Brazil has made ethanol from the by-products of sugar cane, but the operative word is by-products of sugar cane. Would it not make more sense to invest money into harnessing energy that will always be there like sun, wind, tides, methane?