Edward J

I had the opportunity to visit a pro ice carver--this guy had CNC machines to do a lot of his work, and he did a lot by hand as well. He had this one room that looked like something out of the movie "Invasion of the body snatchers". Filtered water was circulated in huge molds, but the freezing only occured in the top 1/3 of the mold. Basically the ice block was frozen from the top down, and any impurities would natually settle to the bottom. When finished, he would bandsaw the bottom 2-3 inches off that contained any cloudiness I think he said it took something like 48 hrs to freeze a block, and he had 6 freezers for the blocks and a huge walk-in for storage. He would also do "Custom blocks" with stuff frozen in the center of the block, as well as "Bartenders show-offs" where he would freeze a length of plastic hose in the block and then later carve the block into some shape with a funnel at the top, bartender would pour the drink through the block, making a big show.

I've had success with a mobile truck called "Mobile Edge", Rod was very professional, but don't know if he's still around. For Japanese knives, check out this guy: www.tojiro.ca wakatake@uniserve.com

So, the big question is, do you want to go "full blown" catering, or just p/t / weekends? If you choose p/t, sooner or later your regular work and your catering will clash--big time. Your plan will estimate your projected earnings, fixed costs, and equipment outlay for the next few years. We focused on "bread & butter" catering, that is, corporate stuff, M-F, and we had our own commercial kitchen to work out of. I did all the cooking and everything else, Jane did all of the sales, and it was a good partnership. The sales are where you will have to put all of your energy into. One of Jane's best tactics was to make appt.s with law firms, investment co's, etc. and show up to the Office Mngr with a "sample tray". These were good bread n'butter accounts, and while they took a lot of effort to secure, they paid off years after the first inital visit. One time events suck up alot of time and energy and it's not guaranteed that you will get repeat business. Networking helps a lot, as does trade shows, and of course, websites and brochures. These are all time consuming methods, but pay off for years and years. Check out/google "Caterplan" for ideas and information.

Love dried pears, and hate the sulphured ones. Like you, I can't seem to find any--other than sulphered ones. My solution? Bought a $89 dehyradtor and make my own. Don't bother with lemon juice or citric acid, just peel, slice and stick in the dehyrator, 12 hrs later, they're ready

No, Vancouver. Trying to convince the partners to go East for a course or two, but alas, Callebaut isn't offering much for professionals In Montreal, and the US and Europe are too far and too expensive right now.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. My chocolate room is just one thin wall away from the guest's dining room in my shop, so I have to have something fairly quiet. I don't mind spending serious coin for a serious comprssor, but I must have some kind of dependability. My partners are notoriously cheap, and if something ever breaks down it's almost impossible to get it repaired or replaced unless it is absolutely neccesary. So I have been cruising the 'web and learning a bit about compressors. As with any other electro-mechanical device, I am highly suspicious of anything that carries only a 90 day warranty--and many of the sub $100 compressorsdo. Many more are factory refurbished. Most of the sites will list specs, and quite a few of the smaller ones are running at 80-98 decibles--waaay to loud. Oddly enough many tanning salons, nail salons, and airbrush tatoo parlours use smaller compressors. Kerry, if I understand correctly, I need an external mix airbrush (the 350 is)and a compressor capable of max 40 psi? On my next day off I'll be cruising some hobby shops that specialize in airbrushes, as well as tool houses. Might not make a purchase, but I don't like to buy something unless I get my grubby mitts on the item first and examine it.

Thanks, No, no Harbour Freight here in CDN but I will look them up. My concerns regarding a compressor are if it is reliable (has anyone used this type of model, and if so, comments?)and if it is made for airbrush use. I operate with two other partners, I can and do get equipment as I need it, but I must make my decisions very carefully--if it breaks down I am S.O.L., so I'd rather pay more and sleep better at night.

Mostlylana, the picture you show is what I would call a tomato or food strainer. There is a Kitchenaid attachment that is very similiar to this, but you need the meat grinder attachment to attach it to. I'm guessing some of the food mills would do a pretty good job, and probably alot cheaper too.

1) Liablity insurance, 2-5 million should do it. 2) Contract form. Spend as much time and money as possible on this. Your contract should state the terms and conditions of guarantee head counts, extra guests, no-shows, cancellations, percentage to book a date, percentages for 1 week prior to the event, and percentage to be paid on site BEFORE the event. Get a lawyer to draw it up. After 13 years in the catering business I can honestly say this will be the best fitting pair of brass-bound, titanium-clad underwear you'll ever need. Equipment? Some kind of a mini-van or van. This can also be your regular personal transportion Stacking bread trays. I operate like this, and I can fit alot of party trays into stacking bread trays. DO NOT use a rigid shelving system in your van. A very good trolley. Get one with welded steel tubing and pneumatic (if possible) wheels. A cheap trolley with cheap wheels will catch on cracks, elevator thresholds, etc and you will be sorry, very sorry... Cambros. I like the 300 mpc, and at one time had 6 of them. These are ideal for moist hot foods, but NOT for anything crispy. They can also be converted into coolers with the optional Cambro Icepack. I transport my wholesale cakes and pastries this way too. They also do double duty as "retarders/proofers" in my kitchen, as they are air-tight so any yeast products don't need oiling or covering and won't skin over. Coffee........If you invest in coffee cambros and a coffee service for say, 80 pax, you should make your money back after 3 events. I have listed what I feel is most important, please note my order, and what I feel is vital. Smallwares and the like can be bought at auctions or new, and are very easy to come by (didn't say cheap, but easy to come by). Good luck, and don't work too much!

My head is hurting from reading all 18 pages Plus the othe airbrush thread, but I'm not finding any information pertaining to compressors. A couple of weeks ago, I passed a garage sale and picked up a Badger 350 with a few extra tips--all apparantly new, but no air source--for 5 bucks. Reading through the thread, I understand canned air is a bad idea--nasty chemicals and a tendancy to freeze up. Today my daughter dragged me to Micheal's (bitten hard by the beading and jewlery making bug) and I looked at their airbrush stuff. They had one compressor there, badger recomended, Cyclone something, with a max output of 40 psi and I think a cfm of 20 (or is it two hundred?) for the princley sum of $349 CDN. However, they do have a 40% discount running, which would bring the price down to aprox $210 CDN. 1) Is this a reasonable sum? 2) Will the compressor perform as needed for chocolate work? 3)How loud is this thing? I have a "Chef rubber special" table top vibrator at work, is it louder than this? 4) Assuming I use it for an hour a day, what kind of life can I get out of it? 4)Not wanting to plug up my lungs or sneeze in technicolour, what type of mask should I be using? The cheapie fabric ones with the metal nosepiece avaiable at hardware stores? 5)Anyone use a Badger 350, or should I just bite the bullet and get the 100? Streamlining...... I currently use four colours at work: Red, green, blue, yellow, and orange. As I've never used an airbrush yet, these are brushed on or a "mouth atomizer" is used. I mix my own colours, some are from PCB, some from a Dutch Co. (Attended a Callebaut thingee where Derrick was featured, he said to dissolve the colour into hot c.b, stir well, cool until solid, melt again, stir well, and you're good to go. Good advice) a)Is it practical to buy four 1/4 oz bottles (one for each colour) for the badger and keep these in a warm place (top oven, never used)? b)Does the brush need to be cleaned out between colours, or just spray out the old colour until a clean new colour appears? Thanks, Edward

I have used a food mill attachment for the Hobart mixer with great success. This is an attachment that fits over the mixing bowl and is basically a drum sieve with various grids of fine and coarse mesh. Next comes the rollers. In place of a dough hook or a paddle, this is just a shaft with two nylon rollers that push what ever it is you want though the mesh and it drops down into the bowl. This attachment is the cat's meow for purees, puree soups, bisques, and the like. Included with this attachment is another device that you can exchange for the nylon rollers, it resembles the rollers but has instead two brushes. And it is this device tht is ideal for removing seeds from jams. Altough Hobart makes this attachment for it's 30 and 40 qt mixers, it is not a popular attachment, and you find it only in kitchens with very knowledgable Chefs.

Last winter, I was "gifted" with two cases of Seville oranges. Not knowing what to do, I ended up making marmalade with them, put them up in 250 ml jars, and stuck them on a shelf in my store. They sold, all of them, within two weeks..... I now do a batch of 72 jars every few months, and am dabbling with strawberry jam and blueberry jam. Vancouver area has earned a reputaion for blueberries, and I can can pick up b'berries for CDN $1.90 per lb from many growers. I like to put in 1/5 of the b'berrywight of 3 time blanched lemon peel in the jam. I'm now working on a mincemeat to put up in to jars for the upcoming Christmas season. Maybe I do cheat a bit, I have a 15 qt electric steam kettle in my kitchen. Not very powerfull, but no hot spots and no scorching, it's perfect for small batches of jams......

1) nylon cutting boards. Yes, I admit it, I buy them at Ikea or China town. One is always in the d/w, one on the counter, and one beind the sink. 2) Rubber spatuals. I swear by "Rubbermaid Spoonulas" have at least 6 of them. They get used, abused, and thrown out--the foodprocessor tends to scar them badly. Several of the "used" ones have found their way into the garage/workshop, where they do extra duty with paints,(getting the "last drop" out of a paint can) drywall plaster, and the like. 3) Extra bowl and whisk for the Kitchen aid mixer. It's like having an extra mixer.

Are you sure you guys actually want one of those beasts? I've filled out more WCB (workers comp board) forms than I want to, and all dealing with cleaning out the fryer. I haven't been back to Europe since the early '90's but even then, the Euros were waaaaay far more advanced with fryers and fryer safety than the N.American mnfctrs. To drain a N.A fryer you have to manually screw on a spigot, then turn a ball valve to release the oil into a separate bucket or pot. This bucket or pot may or may not be equipped with a paper filter cone to strain the oil. This is where the majority of accidents happen. True, many of the chains have a bank of fryers with a "dummy' fryer that is actually a pump, and all draining and filtering is done without any human contact. Many kitchens with just one or two fryers don't have this though. The Euro fryers come equipped with a self-contained draining tank. With the oil COLD, you drain directly into the drain tank. No messing with spigots or ball valves. The tank has built in receptacle for a nylon filter--which can be washed and re-used over an over again. As the straining of oil is done cold, fewer accidents take place. I think, if provoked, I could live very nicely without fryers.........

Just came back from Russell Food eqpt. a large CDN restaurant eqpt. supplier to pick up a few things and wandered out to look at some of the commercial cookware. 1) The aluminum roasting pans have spot welded plates that support a loose (free swinging) aluminum handle. The straps on the bottom and top pieces of the roasting pan are aluminum and are also welded on. These are fairly thin guage aluminum, and considering that they can accept a baron of beef or two banquet turkeys, not MY first choice for a roasting pan.... 2)The braziers (marmite base) and marmite hauts are a heavy guage non-treated aluminum with loop aluminum handles. These are riveted on with aluminum rivets. All lids are at extra cost, with a strap of aluminum for a "handle" riveted on. 3) Saute pans: The large aluminum, teflon coated (or some new kind of non-stick coating) over $50.00, have steel handles with what appears to be s/s rivets. The cheaper, non treated aluminum 6-9" saute pans have steel handles with aluminum rivets. Blue rubber "handle covers" are at an extra cost. The onus (at Russell anyway) seems to be on s/s cookware for any liquids, and aluminum or carbon steel for sauteing. On every s/s piece of cookware, the handles are spot welded on. This includes the "monster" 30 and 40 qt stock pots. When you think about it, the handles take alot of abuse, as 1 liter of water = 1 kg or 1 qt = 2.? lbs, (aprox 20-30 kgs or over 50 lbs if the pot is 3/4 full) which means that those handles take alot of stress when jerking the pot around the stove, or into the sink to cool down.

I think that's the case. Welding aluminum is commonly done on many, many other items (boats, bicycle, baker's tray trolleys, etc, etc.) I don't know if this requires special equipment, or is more costly than "regular" welding. That said, to date, I have never seen an aluminum pot/pan with welded handles--in any price range

I really don't know if the holes get larger or the rivets "stretch" and work themselves loose, all I know is I've got a saute pan with a loosey-goosey handle that dribbles hot liquids/oil all over the place. When this happens, for over 25 years now, I take the pan "out back, and pound it" peening the rivets flat again over a cement curb or cement fillled post. And after a few months of shaking and sauteing, they work themselves loose all over again... Virtually every N.American restaurant has a stack of cheap aluminum saute pans, and these all have aluminum rivets, most of them have 4 and 5 qt aluminum pots as well with riveted handles--and they fail as well. Some of the higher grade "wearever" heavy guage aluminum braising pots and stock pots have aluminum rivets as well, but these seem to hold up very nicely, even after 20 -odd years of daily abuse. I too, have solid copper sugar pots that are riveted and are holding up very nicely--again after 20 -odd years of abuse, but it's very rare that I see a riveted s/s pot in a commerical setting. Virtually every one I've ever used has been spot welded. My "collection" of cookware at home is almnost all commercial s/s cookware, with the odd Ikea pot. No failures yet.

With about half of the riveted handles on commercial cookware coming off or fatigueing, I am not impressed with rivets. Now, to be fair, many of the loose rivets came from cheaper pans and pots, and all of them were aluminum. On the other hand of all of the spot-welded handles I've seen in the commercial kitchens, only a few have come off. I think the devil is in the details, A rivet is not just a rivet. For some reason N.A. cookware mnfcts are LOATHE to weld on handles. O.K. fair enough, but the rivets they invariably use are soft aluminum, and these almost always fatigue and wear loose over time. I'm not a metallurgist, but isn't there a harder type of aluminum to use for rivets so they don't fatigue so quickly? Spot welding is not just spot welding. On the cheaper pots that do break, the junction where the handle meets the pot is very small, and is therefore subject to a lot of stress, so, with time, they break. On most commercial s/s cookware, the handle is formed with a larger plate and this is spot welded on to the pot with a series of six or eight spot welds. The stress is spread out over a larger area. So I guess the old saying of "buy cheap, get cheap" holds true m

Keri, it's a wonderfull post you've written, but "MattyC" hasn't replied to this thread in a loooong time, don't know if he's still "active" on e-gullet. The same poster had writen posts with a similiar attitude regarding a mandatory 18% tip, and this had led me to believe that MattyC was a waiter. However in this thread we are told he's a cook through and through.

Mmmm... I dunno about that. 5 years ago I had sold my catering business, and after a long, well deserved holiday, started to look for work again. At this point, I was 41, with over 20 years of experience in 3 continents, and most of the places were either 4 or 5 star. The hotels yawned at me. Couldn't pigeon hole me, and if I was management material, I would either have to come up from the ranks or be head-hunted. In the ranks they like 'em young, stupid enough to work 80 hr weeks and not complain about getting laid off 2 mths later. The restaurants wanted the same, but with the addition that I have less experience or knowledge than the owner or the current Chef. The head hunters wanted me single with a packed suitcase so they could parchute me to wherever. O.K. I guess age wasn't an issue here. Meh. Farted about for a half a year working a few part time places and then took the plunge again and opened my own chocolate and pastry place. For me, when hiring, age doesn't make much of a difference though....

Google/check out Thomas Haas, one of Vancouver's finest pastry Chefs

So, basically instead of an ambulance, the lawyer started chasing diners to get a case, and then approached the waitstaff to hire him tio get court-approved "seconds"? The more I read through this, the more I'd like to hear something from the restaurant and the actual wording on their menu and the reciepts pertaining to the charge.

So who hired the lawyers, the diners or the employees? And who gets the compensation from the case, the diners or the employees? Most clubs that I know of, have rules and regulations pertaining to fees written on the membership forms. And many catering outfits and private clubs that I know of, have "service charges" that are meant to cover regular service labour charges (setting up rooms, tables, coffee service, plating service, moving equipment from location to location, etc). Basically, if a customer wants a dance floor in teh middle of a field, the caterer would charge rental for the equipment, plus a "service charge" that would cover all labour needed to set up the dance floorhall. Gratuity would be extra..... But is a "service charge" a gratuity? Did the menu specifically state NOT to tip the waitstaff extra, as it is commonly seen in many European and some Asian countries? My brother is an architect, specializing in small public buildings (schools, churches, community centers, etc)and will not--for love or money- ever do any work in the U.S., even consulting. Mildly put, he has a healthy respect for U.S. lawyers. So do I...........

Labour laws vary greatly from province to province (CDN) and I guess, from State to State(US) What does a "Sevice charge" actually mean? It's not a "gratuity" which would imply a tip, it's a "charge". Is it the amount it costs to put ice water and a tablecloth on the table? I believe they do this/or did do this in Italy, but am pretty sure it wasn't 18% I'd love to hear the restaurant's defense/explanation for the charge, what they were paying the wait staff, what the min. wage was at the time, and since it was a set up as a club, if the waitstaff were actually making any tips. Maybe they (owners) were pocketing the money and laughing all the way to the bank, or maybe they were off-setting/supplementing min. wage, the waitstaff's wages with the charge, assuming the members didn't tip, or didn't tip very much. Like I said, I'd love to hear the restaurant's version of the story, and the State Labour Board's findings---assuming the ex-employees filed a complaint with the State Labour Board.