Edward J
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Posts posted by Edward J
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No... It's just that I've been there and I realized about 20 years ago that the cheapest way to go is to buy a proper, dedicated pastry case.
A sushi case is designed for sushi. Customers have no problem visually with a side of salmon or tuna directly underneath a hunk of ice. These cases need to be defrosted every two or three days. Every time you open the door, warm air goes into the case and sticks onto the coil where it turns to ice/frost. After a few days the ice layer gets so big you don't have much room left in the case. Plus the ice/frost melts and drips--which isn't such a big deal for a hunk of salmon or tuna, but deadly for Tirimisu or other delicate pastries. Once you buy equipment and decide you don't need it/want it, very rarely will you get back what you paid for it. Used food equipment is just as lucrative and profitable as used cars--dealers always make money
How much can a sushi case hold? $20 or $30 worth of goods? Is it worth the effort to defrost every two days and deal with water and spoiled goods?
You're better off getting a forced air cooler and packaging your items in see-through takeaway containers. On the plus side of this you can buy any type of refrigeration, and the desserts are grab n'go, no fussing around with taking out and transferring into boxes or bags. You can also display bottled drinks and sandwiches in there too. On the minus side you will have to pay more for see-through containers and they do take up more space.
I mean no dissrespect, I hope this helps.
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Did that, and the sales rep re-confirmed the price. Rep is very knowledgeable and quite good, but I did tell him to tell the boss his mark-up is too rich for me.
And then, back in November Qzina put out a "Christmas special" flyer. Prices looked fishy to me, so I called the reception to confirm on prices and unit quantity. Hmmm..... $9.00 for 1(one) dipping fork? $54 for one(1) litre bottle of Sucrea Mauritous Vanilla (I buy usually at $19.00/lt btl.) I thought the price was for a case of 6, but no, reconfirmed, $54 for one bottle. PCB schtuff was a bit higher than what I paid a few months back too.
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Currently I'm paying around $13.00 per kg for Lindt 70% Ecuador, but I'm looking to purchase direct from Lindt via toronto and cut out the middle man.
I do know of several independant guys in the Vancouver area paying around $4.00 per kg for Callebaut 70/30, but they bring it in by the pallet,--usually one pallet per year, still.....
My last quote for Callebaut 70/30 from Qzina Vancouver was $11.30 per kg, on Dec 20th. In the summer I was getting it for around $8.00. I still use them (Qzina) for PCB and other hard to get stuff, but I think the leash and choke collar belong on my dog, not on me--the customer.
Chocolate is a commodity-demand goes up, so does price,and demand before Christmas is THE time to really yank the prices up, and those boys really yanked up the prices.
Now I understand a supplier has to mark up, they have overhead and profit to make, but what's fair? 35%? 40%? 70%? Certainly not 150%. And those boys buy by the container--not pallet, heckuva negotaiting tool to get good prices.....
I was born in '64, not yesterday, so I won't listen to any B.S. about they US$ or the Jap Yen going up, all the chocolate is European, in Euros, and shipping cost have dropped dramatically since the price of oil dropped too.
Like I said, I'll be putting my money where my mouth is and negotiate a volume based price with Lindt in the next few weeks.....
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Nastiest joke I ever saw was the old "Easy way to clean out the deepfryer". This was in Luzern, and the hotel always had tour groups coming through with Fritto Misto on the menu.
The Chef de partie played the apprentice like a violin and conned him with "look, you clear a consomme with eggwhite, right? So, why bother straining the oil? Just clear it with eggwhite. And the eejit apprentice goes for it, dumps almost a liter of eggwhites into the fryer. For a minute nothing happens, then "Swamp thing" starts rising up and crawling out of the fryer, a huge cake of eggwhite, dribbling oil all over the place. The look on the apprentice's face was priceless, the mess horrific.
The same Chef de partie was in the habit of hollowing out eggs, threading butcher's twine through, and hooking this assembly on the back of unwitting people's apron strings--both boh and foh. Nothing more hilarious than seeing someone walk with an egg dangling between their legs. And the same guy would take urinal pucks (pina colada flavour) sneak into the women's changeroom and stuff them in the a/c grilles.....
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Maybe we've been lucky, but we've bought used and not had disasters. Look for auctions, restaurant supply places that sell used equipment ... sometimes they even give warranties.
Oi vey... Then you must be lucky. Auctions are not in the habit of giving warranties, reputable used food eqpt dealers (stress the word reputable) usually give a 3 mth warranty.
Look, the older the unit is, the more harder it is to get the right type of freon gas. Units older than 10 years run on R12 gas, which is illegal to get. Newer gasses are much more thinner and more prone to leaks. Read my above post on caveats of used refrigeration eqpt. Then stop and think: A refrigeration repair guy charges around $60 per hour, plus a truck fee, parts are extra--if he has them on the truck.
No one said you couldn't buy a used case and either yank out the guts or leave it unplugged and use it for dry stuff like cookies.
I frequently haunt the auctions and used food eqpt places, but I never buy any refrigeration. Smallwares, pans, bowls, china, sinks, tables, preptables, shelving, all that yes-either it's broke or it isn't. Most gas eqipment is fairly reliable and easy to repair, used Hobarts are bomb proof; but don't stick out your neck and buy used refrigeration.
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"Good" pastry cases usually run about $1000.00 per foot. (ie a 4' will cost 4 grand). You can get cheap cases and they are cheap.
The cheap ones are gravity coil, that is the coil is mounted at the top of the case, and works on the principle of cold air flowing down. These invariabley ice up and drip water.
Unless all your pastries are sealed or otherwise covered, don't use a regular forced air cooler, like for pop, The fan will blow and dry out your pastries in hours.
The best pastry cases use forced air, but cold air is gently blown around in a curtain, from the bottom of the case to the top, pastries don't dry out. The ideal case has double glazed glass, so the case never fogs up--even with direct sunlight shining on it. So-so cases direct a curtain of air on the outside of the glass like a window defoggger, and cheap cases ignore the problem all together and you get fogged up glass and condensation water allover the place.
Ideal pastry cases have a good sliding door system, the very best cases use a drawer system. Think about it, bending over and reaching in that case 8 hrs a day is hard on your back. Cheap cases have cheap doors with lousy seals and tracks that self destroy within a few years.
Unless you're competant in refrigeration mechanics, DO NOT by used. Like cars, 1 and 2 year old units can be badly abused and still appear to be in good shape. Insufficient amperage at the outlet, not cleaning out the compressor radiator, running the unit with open doors or lousy door seals for a year or so will wreak havoc with the compressor. Storing acidic items like vinegars, salad dressings, tomato products, yeast, and unrisen breads will corrode the coil. You won't know this if you buy used.
Find reputable dealers and really study the brochures. Best scenerio is to buy smaller units as you need them, but buy good quality. There's nothing more heart wrenching then coming into work at 4 am and seeing a puddle of water all over the floor, all your work waterlogged, and having to pay for repair as well......
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Title pretty much says it all. A friend requested chocolate covered jellies be found in his Christmas goodies, and the only thing that comes to mind is pate de fruits.
Is it the same thing, or are they slightly different? Is it a safe assumption that the pate de fruits would really, REALLY need to be dried- and not rolled- to do the enrobing?
I learn something new every year!!
It's a standard on my selection, I do raspberry jellies, but cast them into half-sphere silicone molds. I use a dark 70% to enrobe,
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I've got chocolate on the brain....
Does anyone frequent Cocoanymph on W. 10th near Alma?
They have really good artisan chocolates and the thickest, richest hot chocolates anywhere in the city that I've tried.
I'm wondering if anyone has taken chocolate classes here in Vancouver (or anywhere in N. America) and has any recommendations?
Also, does anyone have any chocolate books to recommend?
I give chocolate workshops, but these are geared towards larger parties of 6 and more.
Sugar Arts in Steveston does give 1 on 1 chocolate classes, and then there are the professional classes/school run by Cacoa-Barry in Quebec.
One of the best books on chocolate is P. Grewling's "Chcocolates and Confections", I picked mine up at Barbara Jo's on Granville Island.
I also o/o a artisan chocolate and pastry store in E. Vancouver. You can e-mail me for the website.
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Is #1 the machine that you mentioned? Design and Realization Do you have to change or add water often?
Thanks again for the ideas. Cheers
Yes, that's the one. You don't have to change the water if you don't move the pans a lot. Every time you remoe the pans, crumbs fall in and dirty the water. Since I have a full size (1/1gastronorm, or for N. America full hotel pan) I have a 1/2 pan of milk and a 1/2 of dark, and thse get contantly moved. So I change the water on a bi-weekly basis. Water doesn't need to be topped up, since the water never gets very hot and the unit is fairly air tight.
This is a big, cumbersome unit, not very portable, but very stable and consistant. It doesn't crack or melt like plastic, and it will take any brand of hotel pan--as opposed to the European units which only take European hotel pans and thse have much tighter radiused corners--N.American (or should I say Asian?) pans will not fit into the molded plastic melting units
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There's the rub, a bain marie thermostat that is accurate.
What I have is the D+R (design and realization) unit, and as I described earlier, it is just a bain marie with a very accurate thermostat. Most commercial thermostats are only accurate within +/-10 degrees. An thermostat accurate within a 1/2 degree is not so easy to come by, and not very cheap either.
There are other methods to try out though. Electric blankets are one source, they never get hotter than body temp--which is pretty darn close to 32C. Home gardeners employ a "sprouting mat" which is a thin mat, slimilair to an electric blanket, that keeps temperature to around--again 32C. And then there is low-wat electric light bulbs as a heat source and a couple of computer fans to circulate as well.
And last but not least there are insulated double walled salad bowls--flogged by the restaurant supply stores for caterers and the like, guaranteed to maintain tempertures for up to 4 hrs.....
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Perfect purees puts out good product, I use the lemon and orange zest.
Butt-tum, ahmm....the going rate for a quart is around $12, about the same price for a kg of Bioron puree. reduce this by half and you've got $12 a lb, or double what I pay for good quality couveture.
Think I'll make inquiries into the jam.....
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Has anyone used an inmmersion circulator for chocolate tempering? Not directly of course but a metal pan with the chocolate in a water bath temp controlled by the imm. circ. I've been looking at the Mol D'art melters and for just a little bit more I could be an immersion circulator (or the same price if I'm lucky) which may have many more uses in a kitchen.
Any thoughts or experiences?
Actually, yes. I had a mold'art melter, but it melted, came into work one morning and smelled burnt chocoale and burnt plastic.
What I have now is large tank, basically a s/s bain maria very similiar to what you would hold soup in. The temperature is governed by a very accurate thermostat.
This is not a temperer
In order to temper you must melt the chocolate--usually around 45 C and then bring it down to 32 C, you also need a lot of agitation (stirring) and a certain amount of time. The device will hold the chocolate at a very constant temperature, but even when chocoalte is held at this temp, it will still solidify if not agitated from time to time.
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Growing up in Saskatchewan, I would take advantae of the weather and the snow. I only let my chicken stock cool down once in the mound of snow on our deck--as soon as the stock cooled down to body temp the cats got into it! From then on I'd scoop snow into a washtub/bus tub and haul it inside and set my stock into that.
I remember one of my first jobs working as D/washer in Saskatoon,. The owner was very, uh, "ethnic" and always looking for an easy buck. One day an abnormally large meat order came in,and when the Chef complained that he didn't have enough freezer space, the owner looks at me, and asks me to load the stuff into his car. After loading, he told me to jump in and go for a ride. We go to his house, and load the meat into a metal garden shed in his backyard. (Temps from late October well onto March were always below freezing, WELL below freezing....) Every day from then on, the owner would bring a case of bacon or prime ribs with him to work. This arrrangement went on for a few weeks until one day I came into work and met the owner all red-faced and angry.
You! You know where I live, don't you?
Uh, I think so, don't really know the adress we just went into the backyard. Why?
You!!!! You steal all of my meat? Huh?! You a thief?!!!
Glory days.....
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Yeah, I guess I could make my own compote....
See, of the 30 od varieities of chocoaltes I make, the majority of them are fresh cream ganache, and they have a shelf life of only 3 weeks. Obviously I need a few varieties with longer shelf life. Butter ganache is one type. This is fairly shelf stable of about 2 mths, and is made of jam, butter, couveture, and flavourings. Booze of course, gives me great flavour and doesn't hurt the shelf life either....
Since jam already has a great shelf life my first choice is to use this, and I'm not too sure about making a compote, how long I can keep it, or the ganache. I know in Europe--particularily Switz. there are pear concentrates or "honey", basically a pear butter or jam, and these again are very shelf stable.
I'll try more hunting around at organic stores. I'm not a big fan of on-line shopping, but thanks for the pear jam tip, I might have to use it.
I use "Williams" the generic term used for pear eau de vie--in other words a pear brandy. The englisch word "Brandy" come from the Dutch "burnt wine", which is what brandy is, destilled wine. Fruit brandies (or eau de vies) are made by making a fruit wine and then destilling it: Kirsch(cherry) Williams (Pear) Pflumli a.k.a Slivowitz (plum) Raspberry, etc. Eau de vies typically have a far better flavour thaen infused or macerated brandies are are night and day compared to liquers.
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Had a nasy shock the other day when my supplier sent me a new tub of pear compound....
Hold on, Force shields up! The compound I was using was the "Sucrea" brand, and was really nothing more than concentrated pear juice and some kind of a vegetable gum. I was using it in a butter ganche together with a healthy splash of a Pear eau de vie.
Supplier started carrying the "Braun" line now, and when I opened the jar I kicked myself, should read the label first! Thing reeked of acetone, read the label afterwards "Keep away from open flame, do not smoke..." Seriously! Ethanol was listed as second ingredient. Tried boiling off some of the schtuff with some pear juice, but the flavour was like bannanas and actetone.
So now what? I can't use straight pear eau die vie, I need some kind of a flavour booster. Not many pear jams around--matter of fact none. There's apple, and if I look hard quince, but no pear. I know pear concentrate is used in a lot of beverages, but I can't find it in consumer form. I though of running through dried pears throughthe meat grinder and then soaking it in eau de vie, but I can't find dried pears. I've cruised every health food store, all the usual dried fruit, but not pears. The closest thing I could find was a "trail mix" with alot of other fruit including pear.
Any suggestions?
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Hmmmm... I wonder....
Has anyone used a food processor to make ganaches?
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Used to have one hee in Vancouver, closed down about a year ago though...
I do a fair amount of shopping at Superstore though. Dairy is cheap--on par with Costco, but they have serious problems with maintaining par levels.
Really gotta watch your prices though. Pre-packaged stuff, say walnuts or almonds in 1 or 2 kg bags are cheaper than the stuff in the bulk bins, alot of the specialty baking items are marked up waaay to high, and stuff like OJ concentrate juices are cheaper as individuals than by buying a case of 12--go figure.
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Hold on, if the big boys work for you, then fair enough. From your post you sound like a smart operator, and whatever works, works.
I must admit that being in large city I am spoiled for choices, and running my own business, I do have a vested interst in keeping food cost as low as possible.
As you wrote in your post, and as I mentioned in mine, a lot depends on the rep, and my problem is that I have always had a noobie rep. If the rep gets wise and starts to learn his stuff--off he goes to the bigger and better accounts and I get a noobie again, waltzing in and trying to interrupt me as I'm puttting together a party.
Now when a noob rep waltzes in and lays his briefcase on my Swiss (Rondo) doughsheeter, sees me taking out hand-made puffpastry appies out of the oven and lays in to his schpeil about frozen convienience appteizers--or barring that, frozen puff heads (at quintiple the price the price I can produce them for---and I use real butter...) I already have bad feelings.
When the rep walks past flattened waxed boxes from the local poultry supplier and then proceeds to flog his brand of IQF chix brsts at me (@17% pump...) I get peeved off. Why? If the guy can use his eyes there's a "lil chief" smoker crammed full of home made brined chix brsts, a table full of boned out carcasses being stuffed into 3 kg bags (ideal for my 20 qt steam kettle, I work with liberal amounts of chix stock every day) boned out leg meat in 2 kg blocks on the same table ready for the freezer, and a pot of chick.skin, fat, and aromatics being rendered down for chicken fat to use for soups and what-not. The rep doesn't have eyes, and I don't have the patience to play 20 questions with him on what product lines he's carrying.
The rep eyes my dry-store shelves and sees that I DON'T have any instant hollandaise powder, freezable white sauce powder, salt and yeast laden beef/chick stock powder, instant pudding mixes, jello, or neon-green mint jelly, and then proceeds to tell me about how much my life will be easier if I do buy that schtuff...
Well....then I just ask the dude to leave.
A lot hangs on the rep. Maybe the country reps are better experienced and use thier eyes first before fobbing off the convienience schtufff......
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I do like to cruise the used bookstore every now and then, and cam across a "campfire cookbook" and came across an interesting recipie for coffee.
The book was written in the early '20's and for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Most, if all coffee back then (N.America)was brewed in "perculators", and this recipie called for a "sprinkle of salt and a crushed eggshell" to placed ontop of the grounds." Don't think I'd try it, but it sounds interesting.
When gelato started making big waves a few summers ago I thought I could pick out the taste of salt in almost all of the varieties. A few months ago I had opportunity to visit a bakery supplier's warehouse and opportunity to examine the packaging of many of the commercial gelato mixes. Salt is in there
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Ahh.. Sysco, yep those boys are here in Vancouver too.
I don't/won't deal with them, and for 2 reasons
1) I tend to buy locally, produce from a produce guy, meat from a meat guy, poultry, from a , well you get the idea. Dairy and pop come from Costco, I can't ignore that, there's almost a 40% difference on dairy there. Basically, my money is spread all over the place that I won't make minimum delivery charges on a big supplier
2)It's true they have a very varied catalouge, but I have eyes, and I know what's going on. I know Sysco purchases Italian stuff (xvoo, tomato products, pasta, etc) from a large local independant Italian importer, I know this becasue I live 4 blocks away from the importer and I see the Sysco trucks loading up. I buy my pastry stuff from other, localized pastry suppliers and see the Sysco trucks loading up there too. After Sysco adds thier mark-up it's waaay to expensive for me.
3) Sales reps. A good rep can really make or break the relationship. Problem is I'm a small business, earning under 1/2 million p/a. No supplier will put small businesses on the "good" rep's route, it doesn't make sense, the "good' reps get the "good" accounts--the ones over 1 and 2 million. This leaves the small guy with the noobie rep, and I have seen a distinct pattern with noobie reps: Waltzing in the kitchen during service or during plate-up during banquets, demanding the Chef's times, cracking open their handy-dandy laptop and confused and befuddled at the price lists, with the Chef peering over their shoulder and telling them the actual code for the item he wants. Then there's the "prophet of doom and gloom" syndrome too, reps coming in and telling you that prices have gone up on such and such items. Well Gee-golly-wilikers Mr. Rep., why didn't inform me before the prices went up so I could stock up and buffer myself a bit? You put out your signal light before you make the turn, not during or after, right?
IMHO giants play best with other giants. The big boys do best with big accounts like the hotels and and clubs, the unionized places where they'd rather pay higher food costs for convienience products than pay higher labour costs. Large institutions require large quantities and can negotiate and lock in prices all based on contracted quantities. This is a win-win situation for both supplier and client, but it is not feasable or possible for small accounts.
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Take your left hand and pat your right shoulder.
A word about suppliers.....
Small businesses are not neccesarily their cup of tea. They will sit up and beg pretty for the large accounts, but the small ones are "exercised" more often. I've had more expired stuff and returned stuff fobbed off on me than when I was working for large hotels...
Remember the supplier will add his mark-up, which can be as a low as 20% , usually around 35%, and when they're feeling good, as much as 120%. What ever the market can bear. They do provide a service, they purchase in bulk, warehouse, take orders, and distribute it, but you are paying for this service
You can always check with the manufacturer about price increases before accepting the sales rep's schpiel about "they just raised the prices again". Many chocolate companies have factory reps and you can get this information from them. I'm a big Lindt fan, and purchase usually in 100 kg lots, and ALWAYS call the factory rep for factory price increases before plcing an order. THere hasn't been an increase from Lindt since Feb of this year, and won't be one for '09. Armed with this information I can always snort at my supplier, catch him in his lies and negotaite a decent price. They never learn either, I've done this now three times......
The expiry date provides you with a lot of information--use it to your advantage
Refrigerated pastry display case help
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
A good sales rep will ask you what it is exactly you want to refrigerate. If you say you want to refrigerate/display pastry, Bingo, he will suggest a 3' pastry display case. Mind you, most food eqpt. places don't really specialize in pastry display cases.
Try a bakery eqpt supplier or supermarket store fixture supplier. These people carry pastry, and all types of display cases and are very knowledgeable about what you might want.