Edward J

I am a small producer, maybe 1200 pcs a week, but I have come to a few conclusions about ganaches "The holy grail"--long shelf life for ganaches IS achievable, BUT the flavour changes after a few weeks anyway. The best possible comparison I can give is that of wine: What goes into the bottle changes flavour after while. Problem is, with chocolate, cream, and fruit/various flavours, the "aged" flavour is not always agreeable. There are some very high end chocoaltiers here in Vancouver who have far better training than I , with far better equipment, far better packaging, and a heck-uva worshiping clientelle, yet they keep the "3 week" shelf life on ganache chocolates inspite of all this. "Short shelf life" (3 weeks) is what separates me from the drug-store chocolate, and "allows" me to charge a non-drug-store price. Customers start to realize that there is fresh cream and real fruit in there, and that they can't shove a box of my chocolates in a cupboard for 6 mths and expect them to be perfect. I currently offer about 25 varieties. Maybe half are ganache based, with the rest being caramels, nougat, nut bases, enrobed PdF, etc. In the future I will be "fooling around" with vacuum packing and freezing. Right now I'm too small for that. I'm very open to discussion and critiques of my "conclusions"...

I dunno if pastry chefs are "at the bottom of the totem pole", certainly in many places they are, especially clubs, but I've know a few "rainbow poopers", who, as long as they keep their hands off of the Chef's wife, can basically do anything they want. What's a "rainbow pooper"? A pastry Chef who gets hired into a mayhem, and within 2 months can lower the overall food cost by 4 or even 6% all the while keeping the overall labour cost steady, or even lower a percent. I've seen guys (and one gal) who could wipe out the bakery delivery bill by using a combination of bake-off doughs, frozen doughs, and scratch bread doughs--with nothing more than themselves, one p/t er and a few d/washers stolen or bribed from the main kitchen with a dessert--for a 200 rm hotel with bqt faciliteis of up to 400. "Obtaining" 9" abs sewer pipe from the hostess's boyfriend who works at city works and slicing said pipe into 3" rings--for cold cakes, entrements, and even poached cheesecakes. Turning a purchaser's screw-up of ordering 24 grey plastic cultery bins into semi-freddo and christmas yule-log molds. Convincing the GM or Resident Mngr to buy and install a new walk-in freezer. Educating the maintence staff (and bribing them with pastries) to install new thermostats and elements in the ovens BEFORE they break down, replacing the evaporator coil in the main walk-in BEFORE it breaks down. These kind of people can work around and with the Chef with no problems. Now, a combination rainbow pooper AND lemonade pee-er is a pastry chef who brings old customers with him to his new work place--he produces and sells goods for them and the hotel gets the money--food cost is even lower, AND these type of people attract student from local culinary schools, begging for the chance to work--lower labour costs, no union hassles, smiling, happy, shining faces all around. In two places I've worked at, the orders came down that the cigar shop/ coffee house remodeled, and in it's place, a deli/bakery/gift shop. Mega headache for the Chef--perfect opportunity for the pastry chef, all manner of baked goods, cakes, and confectionary items can be sold. Anything the pastry chef wants--toys (equipment) expensive ingredients, time/money for competitions, staff, they get, BUT they have to produce.

Amen to what chiantiglace wrote. The Chef is the boss, it's his food cost, his labour cost, his reputation, his butt on the line, AND he also has to deal with club members, club steering commitees, F & B comittees,--all that schtuff. If the members want pound cake with sauces then they will get it, --even if they have to fire the Pastry Chef or even the Exec Chef.. Most clubs run this way, o.t.o.h. most private resto's run on what the customer wants and is willing to pay for. At least you got your requested days off. Last club I worked at the F&B would purpoely change the days off off of the mangement AFTER the weekly schedule was written, and make the management do the same for their staff. "Never give 'em the same day off, they might get too comfortable" was what he always said.....

The "magic balls" are none other than ....(drum roll please) 3/32" loose ball bearings, and believe me, they work fantastic: No need for soaps or detergnets, just water and ball bearings. Totally reusable, and if you think cleaning wine decanters is hard, flower vases--especially clear glass ones with tiny necks are even harder, but the ball bearings get into every nook and cranny and do the job Back in my dishwashing days I watched wide eyed as an old waitress would clean out the stained and scorched "Bunn-omatic" glass coffee caraffes with pennies and hot water. Like new again....

I went out and got a Make-up blush brush. goat hair, made in China, and not cheap either--$28. It actually did remove some minor blemishes. Since the piece is croquant and chocoalte, I had to spray laquer on the croquant anyway, so I gave a shot on the chocolate. Looks O.K. Now, is there any idiot-proof instructions for me posting photos of the said piece? I always have trouble with resolutions and stuff, but I'd like to post the photo anyway.

I've got a small showpiece to make next week and I'm incorporating cast couveture and croquant, I've got some minor blemishes on the cast chocoalte and I've heard about using a makeup brush to "deal with them" Does a make-up brush actually erase minor blemishes? Will it give the item a shine? I am totally dumbfounded by the variety and quality ranges of brushes available at the local drugstore. Any suggestions on what type of brush to start with? Any suggestions would be helpful

Butter, cheese, cigarettes, tea, coffee, chocolate. All are packaged with some form of aluminum. The aluminum is a great barrier to odours, stops foreign odours from permeating the product. As far as I know, the foil has no odour of its own......

A lot of confusing, albeit great, ideas and theories. It's the statement about sauting a steak in cottonseed oil in the O. P. that gets me going. Big secret here: People are cheap. Joe Schmoe decides to buy his wife a diamon ring. He'll seek out the cheapest price. Same for a luxury car. And, after spending my entire carreer in the hospitality biz, the same attitude prevails. It's not uncommon to see someone pay for a "white tablecloth" meal with a coupon or some kind of a discount.--Cottonseed oil for sauting steak.......

Propane will burn hotter than natural gas--but... caveat here.... only if the device was designed for burning propane. Most equipment is designed for nat. gas, and most equipment comes with conversion kits for propane. Once you convert a piece of equipment designed for nat. gas to propane, the btu output is usually much lower. If you go on pro cooking equipment websites (garland, US Range, etc.) and look on the spec sheets for each piece of equipment, you will notice about a 10% drop in btu's when converting from nat.gas to propane

Put it this way, every single piece of cooking equipment-gas or electric-- requires a hood AND fire suppression. The only exception to this is an electric deck or convection oven. The "Ventless" fryers have a built in fire suppression system and air scrubber system, mot are electric so they don't have to vent out exhaust fumes from the burnt gasses. If you're still looking for a space and aren't familiar with your City's requirements for a food service establishment, go down to city hall and get all the information you can--incluiding health requirements. Most N.American municipalities require a MINIMUM of a 55 gal. grease trap/interceptor--just a metal box with an inlet and outlet line, but depending on the installation, can get pricey. There are a lot of requirements and hassles for restaurant kitchens, and usually the cost of the kitchen's ventilation system is the largest single infrastructure cost. On the other hand there are many "black" or illegal kitchens, and I've seen my fair share: Mickey- mouse 4" house-style ducting lines in lieu of proper fire rated shafts, no grease traps, "uncle Fred's" wiring/gas fitting jobs, shoddy floors and mickey mouse home made walk-in coolers. These places run for quite some time until something happens--perhaps a complaint lodged with the health dept, or a fire marshal actually doing a decent job, but usually because the landlord changes insurance companies. Landlords don't care if you set up illegal or not, (your just supposed to pay the rent) but when their insurance gets too high, they cancel and get the new insurance company over for a pre contract inspection. That's when the crap hits the fan, and that's when you see "equipped restaurants for lease/sale by landlord" in the local papers........

Hard to say without seeing your operation. A hood itself is just a hunk of s/s, BUT, you need a mechanical engineer to submit drawings to Cityhall showing the cfm of air removed, where the vent shaft goes, and where it exits, as well as where the extraction fan is located, and the make up air fans are located. If the route is short and the walls are cement or brick, it should be fairly easy, if the walls are wood or other combustible materials, elaborate fireproofing for the vent shaft is needed. So no real answer. A hood makes sense if you are going to be adding other pieces of equipment (grill, broiler, 4 eye burner, etc) as the cost can be shared for more pieces of equipment. Figure on 3-4 thou for the fire suppression system If it's ONLY a fryer you want to install, one of those ventless fryers with built in fire suppression would probably be the cheaper route. But then again, those boys aren't cheap neither

Actually, I think that garbauretors should be banned. Yeah, yeah, I know, but before I put up the force-sheilds, let me explain a bit. I've seen the damage done to drain lines from sinks with this device, and I've had some lengthy dicussions with plumbers and City public works guys about it. Fact is, that food waste and especially F.o.g.s. (fats, oils, and greases) really clog up the drain lines and sewer lines. Not a good scene. And rotting vegetable matter produces foul odours and methane gas--again not good. Disposal sunits puts some serious strain on the home's drain lines, and subsequently, teh city's/municipality's sewer lines. The city works guys get kinda ticked off, and like to run a vidieo camera snake up clogged lines and get the home with clogged lines to pay for alot of the damage. I've spent my entire working life in restaurants, and I've come to the conclusion that garbaurators should NOT be installed in commercial kitchens. They get abused--badly. Bacon grease? Down the hatch. Half a roasting pan of beef tallow from the prime rib party? Down the hatch. Too lazy to scrape off rissotto from the plates? Down the hatch. Folks, this puts some serious strain on the grease trap (a.k.a. grease interceptor, a.k..a honey tank). At $200 a service call to muck out the grease trap, places with a disposal unit spend alot of money getting crud sucked out that should have gone in the garbage. O.K. force sheilds up now, fire away....

Writing is on the wall. You must now perform the impossible: Encourage your owner to pay market price for what's out there. Pay peanuts, get monkeys....

Best way to clean and sanitize natural bristle brushes is to boil them: Put them in a pot with cold water, place a plate on top so they don't float to the surface, and boil the suckers. I hate natural bristle brushes, they shed and smell like wet pig. Meh, each to his own.....

For greasing out baking pans, a silicone brush wouldn't be ideal. What do they do in the mega-bakeries? They have the pans glazed with a special glaze. No, not the teflon non-stick stuff, but a clear glaze that works great but needs re-applying every 4 or 6 months or so. For this reason many of the mega-bakeries have two sets of bread/cake pans. The cost to get a pan glazed is about 75 cents. So, if you don't want to get your pans glazed, then don't use a brush at all. If I have to grease out a pan, I use a wad of paper towel. For many of the reasons everyone has listed above, I hate brushes, and many brushes smell like wet pig (well, it figures, doesn't it?) when washed anyway..... I never grease the bottoms of pans anyway, I lay down a disc of parchment/silicone paper. The cake comes out of the pan with the paper disc, and then the paper is removed. No sticking, no grease/flour build-up. And if you're cheap (like I am...) you can use the same disc a few times. For things like 9" square brownie pans I make a "sleeve" of slicone paper--bottom and sides, this gets put into the pan first, then the batter. After baking, the whole thing is removed and when cool, the paper is removed.

Depends... In many kitchen I've run in the past I made sure there was no music, but these were kitchens with 5 and more staff. Too many tastes, preferences, and rather, um, strong musical views. The roaring silence is the same for all........ Now, with my own biz, I usually work solo so I might play music, especially with lots of prep or repetitive work. This is ALWAYS CANNED (ie, ipod, cd's), NEVER, EVER live radio. Life's too short to put up with degrading, really pathetic commercials that take up over 1/3 of the radio air time, and I don't have time to change channels every 15 minutes. That being said, I almost always listen to CBC radio morning shows from 6 or 7 to around 9 am, I get my news and and weather fix. CBC radio has no commercials.....

I get bullied a lot at work, but its the whole break you down, build you up technique. If this lad really wants to be there, a bit of bullying with show his true colours... if he really wants it he will push on so he can stay there, if he doesnt, he will bugger off on his own accord! Wozza ← Bullying works with some people, and with some it doesn't--it backfires. I've only been in this biz for maybe 25 years, but I've seen people's cars being vandalized, broken bones, lawsuits, food posionings, revenge attacks outside of the workplace, smear campaingns, and alot of nasty business just becasue either the person won't fit in or refuses to do what is expected of them. Basically, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword, and kitchens can become very dangerous places. Many union places are not pleasant to work in, because it is the Union who thinks that X person should be moved into such-and-such-a job. Very rarely is this decision based on merit, competance, or potential, and then the stresses begin all over the place. In many cases the Chef's hands are tied and the only thing he has on his side are rules and documentation, documentation, documentation, and a lot of patience and wishfull thinking that all the good people stay until the rotten apple is gone. Pity the Chef. The only way to play it safe--and smart, is to go by the book.

Toufas, If the first thing your feet feel is painful when you get out of bed, then you need to see a podiatrist- a foot doctor. You most likely will need orthotics--little plastic inserts in your shoes. For these to work properly you need solid shoes--one of the tests is to hold the empty shoe, gripping the heel with one hand and the mid-slole with the other and trying to twist/flex the sole. If it remains rigid or doesn't flex much at all, it is a good candidate for orthotics. There's a couple of billion people out there,and each one has different feet, some are health and strong, others (like mine) aren't. There is no one-allpurpose shoe for everyone that works ideally. That being said, a couple of notes: Feet prespire, leather and most fabrics breathe, vinyl and other man-made leather imitations don't. Bad things happen when feet prespire in vinyl shoes with no ventilation. Building on to the above, damp socks will abrade the lining of your footwear. Polypropelne socks are great, so is changing your socks every 6 or 8 hours

There is a solution to this mess, but it will cost you: Dental work, from gritting your teeth, hair loss, from pulling your hair, stomach complaints fromt the bile rising, but it is a solution that is used in countless situations like yours the world over. You have every legal right to complain to human rights/ local labour board about harrassment. I wouldn't. True to red-neck nature, a red-neck will retaliate when complaints are brought forward about him. Since the complaints originate from the workplace, the logical place to retaliate would be not at the workplace. It would also suggest that you are weak and not in control of the situation, hence the whinging and "running to Mommy". If I read beween the lines of your post, you like your job, the co -workers, and the challanges, if I also read correctly your bigest fear is that redneck will poison half the town and then fobb off the blame on you. The solution? Document, document, document. Every union hotel Chef knows this. Document the training on how to make a clubhouse--step by step, including putting in 4 frill picks. Get a signature on the recipie card acknowledging training recieved. Don't want to sign? No problem, go back to washing dishes, no promotion or pay increase untill you can prove that you can make a clubhouse. Same goes for removing the label of an apple.... You need ot go to the Chef and admit that redneck hasn't been properly trained. Copies of signed training forms done EACH DAY will be issued to Chef and HR, and the orginal goes into your lawyer's safe deposit box. If Chef doesn't catch on, the HR will, and if neither of those catch on, then it's best to leave the place. Hygiene. Here in BC we have a "foodsafe program", a Provincial gov't sponsored 6 hr. course for all foodhandlers. It costs $50, and is very basic. I'm sure your State/municipality has something similiar. Everyone who passes gets a certificate. "Encourage" the Chef to display photocopies of EACH kitchen worker's certificate on the wall. When redneck pulls a stunt, ask him if that was covered in the foodsafe program. Basically shame him for passing the course and then not knowing better. Either the guy shapes up or ships out with the documentation program. It is very hard on the trainer, but it is the only intelligent and logical way to go about it. Hope this helps

Can the blades be sharpened? Why not? It's just a hunk of steel with a edge on it, same as any other knife. Those blades whirling around at 3 or 4 thousand RPM and chopping up nuts, ice, etc. can get pretty blunt. If it's an old blade and you can find replacements for it, I'd say go for it. I use a diamond hone on mine when they really get bad, and a butcher's steel from time to time to get out the worst rolled over edges and dings.

For wok cooking, electric just doesn't cut it. Look, a proper Kwali range has gas jets, not only aimed at the bottom of the wok, but the sides too, heat is almost the same on the sides as the bottom. This basically doubles your cooking surface, which is why wok cooking is so fast. With electric, you'll only get heat on the bottom. Now, how about getting one of those outdoor propane gas stoves. You see them at CDN Tire and Costco sometimes called Turkey fryers or camp stoves, single burner jobbies, albeit with close to 60,000 BTU's, and they put out some serious heat. A wok will fit on it, and I wouldn't worry about all that piping in of gas and ventilation and stuff in your home--Wok outside!

A wok is just a metal bowl--like a pot or pan, the heat comes froma Kwali, and the ones in most Oriental kitchens generate around 100,000 BTU's per burner, very serious heat. OTOH, I've been guilty of buying those cheap electric woks, but for entirerly different reasons. Stacking bamboo dim-sum baskets can sit in them and the wok does generate enough heat to quasi-steam dim sum, but I usualy pre- steam itmes and display/keep warm in baskets sitting on a cheap wok.

Exactly. I'm very glad that Salad fingers is asking these questions. Please be aware that scheduling will conflict with your social life. Shifts can change at at moment's notice, public holidays are worked and most definatly weekends. It's very important to acknowledge this, if you are a social person, or one who plays in a lot of team sports, you will have trouble ahead. IMHO a "Chef" IS mngmt. that is, one who hires, fires, delegates, and cooks, a cook is one who prepares food. In the 28 years I've been in this industry, I've never known a Chef not to work less than a 50 hr week. 18 hrs/day can be very realistic during Christmas or when short staffed. As everyone else says, cooks usually strive to get a 40 hr hr week. Ironically in many Union places, cooks usually work 2 or 3 p/t jobs in order to hang on to a 'starting" or p/t Union job

Another way is to line out your form as per normal, then put a matching form inside of this and bake upside down. I have to say, I use this method only with disposable pie forms, not proper steel forms with removable bottoms, but I don't see why it couldn't work. With this technique you're not fighting gravity, you're making gravity work for you. Musta done several thousand 6" deep pie forms this way for quiches.

I'm not a big fan of knife rolls for a number of reasons 1) Hygiene. The pockets are hard to keep clean and free of crud 2) Safety. Depending on the style, it can be an elaborate manoevre to extract a knife without geting your fingers near the blade edge. And I'm always concerned that during transport the knives will shift and poke out of the roll. 3) Security. A knife roll is a lot smaller than a tool box, and as such, can be shoved down a pants leg or buried under an arm full of stuff. In other words they are fairly easy to get stolen, and this can happen. Tool boxes are alot bulkier and much harder to steal un noticed, and they can be locked up as well. On the other hand, if your school issues you one, use it. P.S. Don't believe they hype about forged vs stamped blades, and don't go and spend a fortune on knives for the first year or so. You will have ample opportunity to see and try other student's/instructor's knives and make some decisions before you part with your cash. Knife theft is very real in school and at the workplace, in this scenerio an inexepesive but good knife is more valuable than a very expensive one.