Edward J

Well.............Maybe it's just that 3 posters who have had extensive experience in cutting this product and who have a choice of knives available always choose the Western smoked salmon knife. Maybe we're all wrong,(We didn't choose Japanese steel) you'll just have to ask Chefs in places where they still slice salmon by hand for thier opinion. As far as I know salmon is not found naturally in Japan, nor is smoked salmon, and not much smoked salmon shows up in Japanese restaurants. O.T.O.H. the Western countries have developed a knife specifically for this purpose for quite some time now, as far as I know, the Japanese have not. See if you borrow or buy a smoked salmon knife and try it out yourself, so you can have the experience. The blade is very thin and flexible and has no spine

Must give my congratulations to your fish expert, it's not every fish seler that slices smoked salmon to order for customers. Virtually all smoked salmon availabe now comes pre-sliced, interleafed, and vacuum packed. Thing is, smoked salmon is not octopus, smoked salmon is smoked. But before it is smoked it is brined--as is graved lax. Thus the flesh goes through chemical and physical changes that differentiate it from plain raw salmon Smoked salmon will have a "skin" or a crust on the outside, as a result from the brining and smoking. Many European mnfctrs remove this before putting the salmon on the market, and many N. American ones do not. Smoked salmon is almost always sliced across the grain--as is all other meats, so that the eater does not encounter long fibres. The "Kulenschliff" or Granton edge is just a simple matter of physics: When you slice a raw potato or cheese, or any other moist sticky food, the potato sticks to your knife. Sometimes its the starch and sometimes its just a simple vacuum that makes the item stick to the knife. You have a smooth knife and you have a solid item; when you slice, little or no air is introduced inbetween to the two slices. With the Granton edge, you have a series of vertical shallow grooves, as you draw the blade back, each groove introduces a little air and helps the slices from sticking to each other.

Must appolgize, I meant for this post to appear after Budrichards, someone else posted in the same time I sent my post. I should have copied and quoted his post and added my comnets after it.

Hi Merlicky, Wow...big subject For now, may I suggest grabbing whatever you can--farmer's markets, internet, small cafes etc., perhaps even school fundraisers?.... Distributers are a double edged sword. They require their mark up, and then the customer(retailer) requires THIER mark-up... Figure on each one wanting to make at least 35%. When it gets to this stage, you have a good product but the packaging doesn't reflect the sales price. And you also feel somewhat cheated, watching your product go out and only earning pennies... Retail is all about packaging, product is only secondary. Packaging is an industry unto itself. There are N.American mnfctrs of packaging, but they are very expensive, and there are many importers and retailers of imported packaging in N.America, and they too, are expensive and inflexible. Most of the packaging material is produced in China, and when you get to a stage where you are comfortable to start importing shipments of $10 and $15,000, it makes great financial sense to do so. The large/bulk retailer is interested in: Brand recognition, shelf life,and of course, consigment only. Matter of fact if he can make a buck "selling you" shelf space, he'll probably do it too. Don't want to scare you off of the "big boys", but the old adage of "giants play best with giants is true here. Even if you get your foot in the door, with a large chain, you have to constantly check uyp on ethem (evry day or every other day) to make sure they haven't torn down your display and shoved it all back in the warehouse, or shunted it off to the women's hosiery/undergarment dept. D.A.M.H.I.K.T........ The smaller retailers are a better bet, but they too, need some education. Most won't display your products in cases because they don't have the right display cases--they either put it into a refrigerated display case, and then call you up in a week to complain that they've gone all "mouldy", or they put your wares in front of the store window, exposed to "Mr Sun". The easy fix for this--for a "good customer", is to trott off to Home Despot or the like, and get a $200 wine cooler, and place it out of direct sunlight. The usual wine cooler is about the size of a mini-bar with a glass front door and keeps the right temperature for your wares. Product shelf life is very important, and if you tell them that you have a 3 week shelf life, they get very worried and either cancel everything or insist on consignment only. Start looking into longer shelf lives and items like bars and novelties. Cafes, hotels and clubs are a good place to look too, but they are very price conscious--there is no brand loyalty--and if someone more aggresive than you or someone cheaper than you comes along, they'll go for it. I don't want to dissapoint you, but I must be realistic. If you rent the kitcchen space, you might as well make the most of it and strt to offer things like choc. dipped cookies, brownies, choc dipped novelites, etc. Hope this helps......

Yeah, I know, that's pretty much what I said, and you're using the same knife I use. Problem is, the knife isn't Japanese, and that's just not right. The Kullenschiff ws invented over a hundred years ago for moist sticky foods, like cheese, smoked meats an the like--foods that the Japanese were not familiar with. Doubt if it's "maybe Physcological" True, a granton edge on a ridgid chef's knife is useless, a sales gimmick, but if works very well on thing flexible blades for mosit sticky foods.

You can "convert" a stone from oil use back to water use, the same way you can "rescue' a dished-out, plugged up flea market stone: Put the stone in an old pot and fill with cold water, bring slowly to a boil. Turn off heat and let cool, rinse the stone off, repeat as neccesary.----In other words, the same method you'd use to blanch off bones for stock.... The only reason I'm not a big fan of using oil stones is that becasue in just about every kitchen I've worked in, I see otherwise good stones plugged up and glazed with crud and vegtable oil. Vegetable oil is a big no-no, as it will get gummy and harden up fairly quickly. Most of the oils used for sharpening are toxic or have some kind of a kerosene base--not the kind of thinkg you'd want in your tookbox or kitchen. But like the others say, cheap stones are good for re-profiling, re-tipping, etc. For honing a lot of woodworkers use green honing paste (about a 8000 grit equivilent) rubbed on leather strops, hard felt blocks or even MDF wood boards. The honing paste is fairly cheap and lasts for a long time.r

Google "Thomas Haas, Vancouver" and look at his oveseas packaging Clever man. He packs his chocolates in a plastic tray with indentations or dimples. The air is sucked out and a sheet of clear plastic is welded all over the tray. Basically each dimple or cup is sealed tight. Bomb-proof, but..... The only thing you have to worry about is temperature extremes. Don't know what the ambient temp is where you are. I do know that "Cargo" in airfreight can be unpressurized and therfore quite cold, and we've all seen piles of luggage and stuff lying in carts at the airport under the hot sun. If you can "buddy up" with food/fruit exporters who ships out fresh fruit, you can avoid the temperature question. The packaging and machinery needed can be very very pricey, however.................. Another option is frozen "Bulk packaging". Your goods are vacuum packed in a bag, or in a box and then vacuum bagged. Any butcher or food mnfctr near you has this equipment. Next you refrigerate the goods for 24 hours, then freeze. Once frozen they are "stable" and can be treated/shipped like ice cream or frozen persishibles. Once the customer recieves them he either keeps them frozen, and when needed puts them in the fridge for 24 hours, then to room temp, then opens the bag. Virtually no damage to the goods if they are treated this way. The pro's to this are easy access to packaging and a guaranteed frozen shipping chain--again, if you "buddy up" with a supplier who sends out frozen stuff. Good luck!

During my apprenticehip I'd slice about a side of smoked salmon every couple of days, and after, in some places I'd go through a side in a night or at a buffet. In this case the "Kuellenschliff" or Granton edge is ideal, and it was for this purpose that it was designed(over 100 years ago). The hollows allow a bit of air to gt inbetween the knife and the meat. The more surface area you have on the knife (width), the greater the chance for the meat to stick, so narrower is better. If you use one continious strike you can't get a jagged surface or boken bits, so long is good. The blade needs to be flexible, ridgid blades will only squash the meat. Hope this helps..

Not much of a Japanese knife convert. I have the usual assortment of western style knives and they have served me well. But the oddest knife I have in the bunch is a.............. Black & Decker electric knife. O.K. know, force shields up while I 'splain......... Nothing, but nothing cuts a pate en croute better. Any other knife will tear the crust off of the pate, or tear out the aspic, but not the $10.00 p.o.s. Head cheese, and aspic as well. Nothing cuts a mousse cake better. Layers of mousse, sponge, and chocolate curls. Lasagna, still hot in the hotel pan. Anything else would tear the pasta sheets.

I dunno about all of this.... I am very old school about menu writing. During my apprenticship we took the subject "Menu writing" in all three years and it was a critical part of the whole program. Firstly we were brainwashed into the "14 methods of food preparation",(saute, poach, braise, blanch, etc,) and this theme was carried out through the whole program. If an item was stated in the menu as "sauted" it MUST be sauted. I have lauging fits evry time I see a menu here in N.America with something stupid written like "Penne sauted in Marinara sauce". "Oven roasted", "Fire Roasted", "pan seared", are all terms tht give me the laughing fits as well. The language thing too, was big. The Swiss have 4 national languages but they oly want to see ONE on the menu. "Chicken a'la King" is a no-no, "Chicken King style" is accepted, "Veal Piccatta Milanese" is a no-no, but "veal scallops in a cheese and egg crust" is O.K. But this is ld fashioned stuff, and you never see it on menus anyway. Still, it's always a good idea never to mix languages on the menu Like many others, I'm a big fan of K.I.S.S. (No, not the Gene Simmons thingee) Keep It Simple, Stup--, well you get it. As few words as possible, enough to get the guest interested

I am ashamed to say it, but I keep my big old Henckels 10" purposely dull. I use it to hack up those 5 kg blocks of couverture, to break down 25 kg blocks of butter into smaller 1kg-ish chunks, and to cut slabbed ganache and caramels. Basically I could cut caramel with a tin-can lid, the trick is to keep the knife constantly moving with very little pressure, no need to grease the knife at all. The biggest insult to this poor knife is cutting slabbed ganache. I need a hot knife for this, not neccesarily a sharp one. Either I toss the knife in the oven for a minute or two, or "heat it up" by running a torch along the blade. I know, I know, I know..... I keep my trusty Victorinoxes in decent shape. My "sharpness" criteria is the humble ripe tomato: If I can get clean slices with no pressure and very little back-and-forth movement, it is "sharp". That being said, I am a woodworker hand-tool nut, loooove spending hours gretting plane irons and chisels in shape and then dulling them all over again when I plunge them into quarter sawn oak or rock maplet

Fair enough.... My last episode cost me: Cost of throwing out goods was arund 150 bucks, including labour About a half an hour mucking out the fridge, time I should have spent prepping Total cost of repairs was 300 bucks About 3 hours total making the replacment doughs, mousses, sponges, etc Figure in maybe 40 bucks for the ingrdients Figure in maybe 150 bucks for lost sales during this time

Sigh....... Look, I just gave a very detailed list on why NOT to buy used refrigeration. Now, stop and think how I got this information......

Maybe I'm not clear... A refrigeration guy is $70/hr plus transport time, and if you're lucky he has parts. Costs maybe $400 to have the impellor/pump motor on a d/w replaced, and to have the burners in a gas convecion oven replaced about the same. If you have back-up equipment you can afford to wait for an ideal time for repairs. I am stressing all MECHANICAL equipment here, and yes, Hobarts can have the crap beat out of them too. The people buying mechanical equipment at auctions and on Craig's list etc., fall under the categories of: 1)People who know where the equipment came from and how it was used. 2)People with mechanical/hvac experience 3)Suckers thinking they're geting a deal and the biggest ones are: 4)used restaurant equipment dealers, who give said equipment a shave and wipe down it's armpits to re-sell back to suckers who think they're geting a deal With refrigeration, the biggest problem is the coil. Acidic foods like tomatoes, salad dressings, condiments and especially yeast will corrode the coil in very short time. Second biggest problem is not enough amperage, and you put stress on the compressor, which fails prematurely. Third biggest thing with refrigertion is they keep on changing the gasses. Half of the gasses are illegal to obtain now, so with stuff 5, 7 and 10 years old, you have to convert to a new gas when the unit breaks down. Fourth biggest problem is when newer refrigeration doesn't get used (place shuts down) the gasses sit in the coil or in the lines and start to corrode and leak. "Been used only 6 mths and then sat around for a year" can be problematic Since day 1 I have bought used non-mechanical equipment: Prep tables, sinks, d/w tabling, shelving, smallwares, attachments for Hobarts, etc. The logic is simple: Either it's broken or it isn't. Gas equipment like stoves and broilers are usually a safe bet, and the stuff is very low-tech, so replacing a thermostat or thermo-coupler is dead-nuts simple and painless. Convection ovens usually have the crap beat out of the doors, but many of them are very low tech and it is easy to replace the burners. Hate deepfryers. Never bought one yet, and never hope to. Murphy's law will always dictate that equiipment breaks down when you need it the most. There is no feeling like the one you get walking in to work one morning and seeing a puddle of liquid on the floor and warm air blowing out of a fridge or freezer. Be warned..........

Eyen... A while back I was lookng for a new kitchen for my catering biz. I had operated 7 years at the curent location and it was getting too small AND the landlord kept eying and drooling over my cash register. For me, it didn't matter WHERE I located, as I had built up a customer list over the past 7 years. What mattered was that I had the proper infrastructure and a fairly central location, since 99% of my goods were delivered. When times are good and people want to spend 8-10 bucks on lunch, the coffee/sandwich place makes sense, when times are lean and you can deliver $50.00 sandwich trays, B'fast pastry trays, etc,office catering/wholesale makes sense. If you can get a few restaurants to get cakes and pastries from you on a weekly basis, it makes sense to make the stuff. If you can get 40 or 50 people per day to buy $5.00 loaves of really good bread, then it makes sense to make really good bread. If you're in the automotive industry, then you know about buying used cars. If you're a competant mechanic, have the time and tools, and a good family car, then you don't think much about buying a "project car" like a '72 Cutlass Supreme. IF you have a bakery and buy used refrigeration SPECIFICALY for say, canned beverages, AND you have an ice machine, then you don't really care that much about the refrigeration. BUT IF you buy refrigeration to store dairy, perishables, and finished/semi finished products in, then the last thing you want is to come in at 3am only to open the fridge door and find the fan blowing warm air at you, a hundred bucks of iventory to throw out, and to get someone to repair the thing (@$70/hr plus travel time and parts--if they have them.) This goes for freezers and anything mechanical like dishwashers, mixers, bread slicers etc. Basically, if you buy used refrigeration, sooner or later, you'll become a "reluctant student of refrigeration", and you'll start to cost out how much that 2nd hand p.o.s really cost you.....

Wholesale accounts are not easy. Sooner or later you'll find out that your biggest competitor is the the national meat purveyor selling frozen cheesecakes for less than what you can pay for ingredients, or tossing in a free bake-off apple pie for every 109a prime rib sold...... Either you have a very good relationship with the customer, who knows and trusts you and your stuff, or you have something unique AND something that the customer can sell(resell) at a good price---until someone else copies your idea..... Pretty girls never last long. And never let anyone get near your "little black book"--your customer files. By far the easiest is to buy an existing business. Inspections, permits, parking, and infrastructure are already there. Some modicum of goodwill is there--although this can be a bad thing as well. That being said you have to ask yourself why the business was sold, there is always a reason. Two last pieces of advice, and then I must insist that you go out and work as a baker, O.K.? 1) Never, ever, EVER believe the phrase "It's a standard lease". 2) Never, ever buy used refrigeration

Best way? What are your best sales techniques? If you have contacts in the hospitality biz, use them to get your foot in the door, If you don't, start cold calling. Best to target? The ones that match your current bakery size and labour force. No ideal ratio. You make money where ever you can. A word of advice about health inspectors.... Approach them professionaly, in their office, and ask for a brochure or handout of what they want to see in a bakery. Most of this stuff is fairly standard, and makes sense. Do whatever they demand, handsinks, potsinks, bathrooms within 50 ft, yada yada... If you comply, they leave you alone, and that's the best way for both parties. O.K. so you want a coffee shop component. You MUST have a competant counter person for this. You will only pull our hair out once when you leave $300.00 worth of goods burning in the oven only to sell a $2.00 coffee or $5.00 pastry.

Yes, PLEASE work for other bakeries. You will gain the experience and knowledge needed to purchase equipment, ingredients, and dealing with staff matters. Start looking at financial insitutions. When the time comes they will require a business plan and working experience from you, and probably some form of security. In some cases it's better to get financing from the bank---they are very easy to second guess--they only want their money back plus interest. Relatives, on the other hand... Most important thing to consider is the source of income--the customer... What are they looking for in a bakery? What are they willing to pay? What type of advertising and/or promotion will you do for the first few years? A good bakery does not survive by walk-in customers alone. How can you develop wholesale accounts? Do you have a product list, price list, and invoicing system? What does your local municipality require for a bakery? (Ventilation, grease trap, etc) What does your local health inspector require from a bakery? If you have a "dining room" what does your municiplality require for: parking, washrooms, wheelchair accesability? Have you got a lawyer? You need him/her to read through the lease carefully.

I've never heard anyone list the Belgian companies as among the best; I think they're popular because of their value. I like Valrhona better than Callebaut, and I like Michel Cluizel better than Valrhona. But I use a lot of Callebaut, especially in recipes where there are a lot of ingredients that can mute the chocolate flavors. I like Callebaut because it's good enough, it's consistent, I can buy it in bulk easily, and it's economical. Valrhona costs on average twice as much; Cluizel almost four times as much. Callebaut is priced well to be my commodity chocolate. I'm sure there are other chocolates that would fit the bill just as well, but I don't have such reliable access to them.

One of my favorites is "peck", as in "A peck of peppers", "a peck of strawberries". Here's a fact-oid for you: Virtually all fruits and vegetables are sold by weight: a pound of bannanas, 10 lbs of potatoes, etc. Tomatoes are sold in usually 25 lb cases Peppers? Sold in one and one ninth cubic bushels cases. Strawbs, blueberries, etc, in one pint baskets. Go figure................

In regards to the melter go whole hog and get the large melter--the kind that takes a full hotel pan size, not the 2/3 size or half size. The logic for this is as follows: When molding, you have enough "elbow room" to pour, tip and scrape the molds properly. When dipping, you can put in two 1/2 size pans, either of say, a 70% dark and a 55% dark or an organic or malitol, or you can put in one half pan of milk and one half pan of white, usually you can get away with the same common temp for these two types. In other words, you have felexibility. When money and circumstances allow, buy another full size melter. I have waterbath-type melters and have an optional wheel that fits on this melter, but I started off with just 1 melter with two pans Be sure to order a full l pan and lid AND two optional half-size pans and lids when you buy such a melter. DO NOT buy any N. American or asian-made hotel pans, or lids. DO NOT let anyone tell you differently, and here's why: The melter you buy is made in Europe, (HOLLAND OR ITALY) and Europe uses the "Euro-norm" system of hotel pans (called gastro-norm) This system has the same overall dimensions as the N. American, BUT has much more rounder, radiused corners in the pans. Thus, no N. American or asian hotel pans will fit properly into the melter. They might seem to fit, but they will not fit properly and will crack the plastic housing of the melter when wighted down. Waay back in the late 1990's I bought the "Revolution 1" temperer. It is a good machine, and I've had it and use it on an almost daily basis for about 10 years now. It is a small machine and the capacity is small. It will not work properly when the RH% (relative humidity) is over 75%, but then again, no method of tempering will work when the humidity is this high. Consider making/setting up a separate room for your chocoalte work, an el-cheapo airconditioner will give you the right tempeature and lower your humidity. Hope this helps

Qzina. www.qzina.com They've got a location in Miami, as well as Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton

How exactly are you melting your couverture, and how hot/humid is your kitchen? (Dishwaser running, steam kettles or stuff on the stove?) You should be able to temper any decent couverture. Callebaut and Belcolada are fine, but methinks the Belgians have a monopoly on chocolate in N.America. ------DON'T GET ME WRONG!!! They make good stuff, but it's kind like saying that: "only _______ (insert name of a wine making country) makes the BEST wine"...You'd have every other wine making country after you begging to differ!!! Me, I'm a Lindt user. The Swiss know a thing or two about chocolate as well. Lindt has corporate offices in Ontario and should have a distributer. I'm paying around CDN $14 a kg for the 70% single origin Ecuador here in Vancouver which is a very fine couverture and lower prices for 55%, 65%, milk and white. Tempering machines are great for getting your hands into the game, but they only come in mini or maxi sizes. The mini size is fine for fooling around, and the maxi size is very expensive compared to what you could get for a real good melting/warming unit and wheel. Hope this helps....

This is what I like to do: Toast the nuts, cool Chop 'em in a food processor, but do it in small batches, NEVER let them get oily. You will get large pieces and small pieces, I like to "sift" using a perforated hotel pan. Spread them out on a tray. I like to dip with a fork, place a line of 6 or 7 in the crumb tray (depending on choc and room temp), then starting with the first, roll them down the tray with either a finger or a different fork. Do this with the second "round", then stop and remove the first "round" from the crumb tray to the recieiving tray, then remove the second "round". Repeat.... Of course, if you have an extra pair of hands available, it can go much quicker.....

New replacement thermostat is installed. Now with my left hand firmly resting on wood, I wonder what will go wrong with the case in the next few months. It's really quite frustrating, other than the European and Asian imports, there ARE no new cases to be had. So it's either the custom guy at almost 12 grand for a 5 foot case, or suck it up and keep on fixing up this one. Currenty I am a "reluctant student of refrigeration". The wierd thing is, this case (made in China) has a welded steel chasis, marble cladding, double glazed glass, and decent lighting and shelving. No other brand can compete with the quality of the case itself, it's just that the refrigeration sucks.......