Edward J

Vinne... All depending on the province you're in, the requirments ar different. In Alberta I know that you MUST do a practical exam--the only Province I know of. In B.C. it's 6,000 hrs and supposedly the hours must be done in "quality establishments". If your reasons for doing the "Red seal" are to BS the HR people, by all means go ahead and do the test. If you wnat to impress the Chef--any Chef, don't mention it on your resume or to their faces, they'll either spit out the coffee thye've just swallowed, or roll on the floor howling. Why, you ask? The test is nothing more than 2-300 true or false questions. They deal with the normal, expected items: How to saute, how to roast, critical temperatures, food safe procedures, etc.

Although I am very new to this forum and to eGullet, the topic of culinary degrees is nothing new to me. Here are my observations on the subject, based on my experience in the hopitatlity industry for last little while: Cooking is a trade, period. There is no national standard for cooking. There is national criteria for other trades such as plumbers, electricians, gas fitters, etc, but not for cooks. There are many schools that provide the training for cooks Each school has it's own curriculum, text books, and methods. Some schools pump out graduates in as little as 4 mths, some as long as 2 or even 3 years. There is no standard to adhere to or to follow. I take issue with the schools who claim that their graduates are "Chefs". They are not. They are graduates of cooking schools. A "Chef", imho, is a manager, one that hires, fires, trains, sources, book-keeps, and genuflects before the Boss, F&B , GM, Resident Mngr, or whomever. A "Chef" MUST be a competant cook in order to supervise, train, and demand from his/her staff. There are no national standards for what a Chef must be responsible for. Cooking is only one aspect--a given, just like it's a given that we can all read and write. The Chef must be able to book keep, have the basics of H.R., know the local labour codes, the local Worker's comp. codes, the health codes, the building codes, and above all, be resourcefull. There is no standards for a "Cook". It seems to me that "Cook" in N. America is a dirty word, something to be ashamed of. "Chef" sounds better and has been substituted for cook, ( and even turned into a verb too...) and this causes a lot of confusion. Thus, The employer has no tools to guage an applicant on his/her resume. A "degreee" can only suggest that the applicant is serious about his/her career, but that is all. Never the less, it is a criteria that does seperate the wheat from the chaff. Not a very good tool, but a tool none the less. Unions.. Let's not go there... s

Hi all. No we(Schokolade Cafe) are a small independent artisan style chocolate shop.

The best I've found over the 25 years in the kitchen has been a pair of "officer's type" all leather shoe, made by a local shoe company (Dayton's) For the record, I wear orthotic inserts and need a very stable shoe. Clog types are out because they have no heel cup, and besides I don't care for clogs at all. Man-made materials are out, because I'm in the shoes a good 12-14 hours, and my feet would just sweat in man-made, causing all sorts of problems...

Chocoa? It's OK... But I only use it for ganache, never for enrobing I've been using a ganache method demonstrated by a Callebaut Pastry Chef at a course I took, he instructed us to use a higher percentage of cream and use the robo-coupe, here is a sample 100 gr cream 35 gr butter 150 gr couveture Shelf life is about 4 weeks, and then the enrobed or molded chocoaltes start to dry out and loose flavour, but no hint of mould.

Morning all. Just got the go ahead to post, so this will be the first one. I am really looking forward to being part of these discussions. Hairdryers work great, but what I use is a student-type lamp with a heat bulb. This is the red type of bulb you see in heting lights at carved beef stations and serving windows. In the morning I will find a "crust" on my couveture when I take off the lid, so I just swing over the heat lamp, arrange the bulb about 8-10" from the surface of the couveture, give it a brief stir, and do something else for a few minutes, give it a stir, then turn off the lamp and do a sample dip on a spatula.