indesertum

Maybe, for 1 clove. How about 40? And if it tastes the same, which to me it does, what's the point? There are no awards for performing more work for no reason. There is a video currently circulating on Facebook where someone in one of Saveur's test kitchens "peels" a head of garlc in 10 seconds. No, that is not a typo. Place a head of garlic between two metal bowls, shake vigorously for 10 seconds and voila. Instant peeled cloves. That being said, I do not know when I will ever use an entire head of garlic as I do not foresee myself ever in that situation but it is good to know. The method I use is a variation of the one I once learned from my mom -- place garlic clove on cutting board, place cleaver on top of clove, whack with the heel of your hand on top of cleaver; instant peeled clove. A little smashed or bruised, but you can't make an omelette without breaking an egg. Time: I dunno, 1 or 2 seconds maybe? I don't think El Gordo is advocating to stop doing everything the right way as we each choose our own shortcuts. It's just that pre-peeled garlic cloves is something I will never be able to wrap my head around. Ever. edit: spelling you can do exactly the same thing, but use individual cloves instead of the head. works perfectly and you get a whole clove instead of a semicrushed one

Let's say you're eating at a small clean ethnic restaurant maybe 20 tables at most mostly 4 top. 2 waiters, no host/ess, no manager, constantly busy. Do you still expect servers to bring mains only after appetizers are finished or is it acceptable accept mains even when you barely started on apps or somewhere in bw?

It's a little unconventional but there's a place called I think ithaca tea house where you can have a simple kaiseki ryori with a certified master of tea. A local pig farm called the piggery opened up a small deli near the ithaca farmers market. Their breakfast burritos are damn good. Otherwise the three best restaurants in the area are the heights cafe, just a taste, and hazlenut kitchen in trumansburg. I would not order cocktails anywhere except from madelines, mercato, and heights cafe. Sarah's pattisserie makes some decent pastries. Cayuga creamy is the better of the three icecream places. Gimme coffees featured coffees made by pourovers are damn good and their roastery? Is nearby possible open for visiting. Ithaca brewery just released a renown roughly Belgian saison style sour golden ale called brute that's pretty good and might already be out. Red newt and Herman j wiemer are consistent hitters out of all the wineries. Red newts lahoma vineyard is pretty good. If you want a nice relaxed picnic grab some cheese, cured meats, bread, fruits from wegmans, get a bottle of wine from northside almost across the street and head to Robert Truman state park on a sunny day. Take a hike. Chill. Throw some frisbees or football. Two really good brunch joints are carriage house and the dewitt mall cafe. Dougs fish fry in cortland is excellent if its on the way

Wow. Some of you hate it when.servers ask how is everything or how does everything taste. Others hate it that servers drop food off and never check up on you. Some of you hate it when water glasses aren't filled enough or often. Others hate it when water glasses are filled too frequently. Tough crowd. I feel sorry for your servers

This is also what I wanted to do, plating a fan shape with the pears, but I didn't think we'd have enough time to cut all 52 pears into fans. Maybe if we had like 20, 30 people instead of 100. That dessert sauce idea above would have been awesome. Easy to make, easy to plate. Next time..

Thank you guys so very much for all the kind replies. I think the best dish was the Bourguignon. All the facebook and picasa comments were gushing about how good the dish was and soft the beef was. I added green beans for color and on somebody's recommendation I blanched the carrots for color instead of adding them in the beginning to stew with the beef. I personally really liked how the salad looked and I think the radish and the cantaloupe went really well with it, color wise and taste wise. The tapenade was a huge hit. I think the description about olives, anchovies, and capers turned ppl off, but we made them wait so long I think they ate them anyways and it turned out they really liked them. The pears were apparently pretty good even though we left out the cinnamon sticks on mistake . I got a bunch of requests on recipes for the tapenade and the pears and one person asked if he could just drink the leftover poaching liquid. Cheesecake was also very very good. Not sure about a worst dish, but one thing I really really wish I had done was figure out a system for taking orders. Woulda saved us a lot of time and yelling One other thing I really really wished we had the resources for is a proper sauce to plate the pears and bourguignon nicely. They kinda looked bleh and I think so did the cheesecake. Could have used some sort of garnish and creative plating. I'm not even sure how to plate a cake nicely. All in all a ton of fun. I think this is a first that they made the cooks and servers come out and receive some applause. ; I was so embarrassed I didn't know what to do, just kinda smiled awkwardly, said thank you multiple times, and ran back inside. I honestly didn't do much. Just tried to delegate people to tasks. I was really glad that one of the cooks knew what he was doing and even showed me a cool way to cut onions (cut in half, cut diagonally to the center, and chop instead of the classic cut across first). I put him on carmelizing the mushrooms as he already knew how to do it. They were quite excellent. Again thank you sooooo much. We honestly could not have done this without all the advice you guys gave me.

; I apologize for the plating and general noobishness, but we did our best. Thanks for everything guys edit: I'm the dude with the topknot

Oh man. That was pretty tough. It was fun, but pretty intense. Some of the guys have waited and they set up a system of orders. I wish I had thought of this beforehand as it would have saved us a lot of time. The Bourguignon was a real bitch to cook, but everything was a huge hit. I forget who mentioned the tapenade, but a lot of people really really liked it. I think people got turned off at the description of a tapenade, but when they tried it they were pretty surprised. I got a lot of requests for seconds (and thirds) and recipes. I'm glad the cooks got to eat pizza before the dinner, or otherwise we wouldn't have had a lot of time (or maybe even food). I wish I read the post above before we started everything. Would have saved a lot of time and yelling. Things got really hectic. I will post photos as people start uploading them. I know some people had cameras with macro lenses. I'll ask them if they took any (I was too busy to take pictures). Thank you guys so very much for everything. All of you were super awesome.

This is excellent advice and somebody else mentioned french onion soup prepared a day before. I think most of the flavor in the soup comes from the carmelized onions and I think we could use bouillon cubes or a stock base to help it. It should cost next to nothing as I can get 3 lbs of onion for 1.69 Also we tried to sirloin thingy a year ago and it was a huge mess and it was very difficult to time for 60 people (which was the amount last year). I'd rather not do that again. A braised beef option just seems so much more easier in past experience. Also this is a no alcohol event. sad but we got underage minors also. I was thinking a tablespoon tapenade per crostini and that's what I calculated for. I like the tip about gremolate, but I'm not sure I want to add more costs to the menu. I was thinking about just a leaf of parsley on top ; Also looking at all the advice about not doing ravioli I was thinking about doing this http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1011294. Pasta with chickpea and grape tomatoes. It should be a bit more cheaper. Need to check out more prices. Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to have sit down tomorrow and get crackin on a work flow chart.

Someone also suggested just buying frozen ravioli. I'll look into both options. Also, shouldn't the ravioli be drained before I add them to the sauce? Is there a good way to do that? What you said about the crostini makes sense. I'll do it in the morning. Again thanks a lot

Argh. I originally answered everything to quotes, but I guess there's a limit on how much you can quote. I didn't actually toast the bread here. Just sliced. I was thinking of toasting the baguettes just beforehand so they're warm when they go out, but it seems like it'd be easier if they're served cold. Also I was thinking of the crostinis as an amuse bouche. Small slices a bit of tapenade. But I'm not sure how to garnish it. An olive on top (maybe even an olive bunny ala pepin?)? some sprouts? an herb? cut the spring mix as in cut it don't use it cut it? Just have parsley and fennel as the salad? I'll try the parmigiano reggiano and yes i'm adding salt and pepper I've done Bouef Bourguignon a few times before, one time with a 8 person dinner party. I was actually going to cook it a day or two in advance in just reheat it before the dinner. I felt that it was a good option because I could cook it the day before and all I'd have to do is reheat it the day of. ; but I actually don't know how to store the BB. I was going to leave it out. I was thinking of adding the green beans not into the soup, but as a side with the mushrooms (maybe between the mushrooms and the steak. I was planning on using the green beans instead of starch. I did not think of freezing them. Would it be a bad idea to make them the day before and leave them in the fridge? Yeah I didn't thicken the sauce as I didn't have time. I think I'm going to thicken the sauce with some corn starch and maybe more stock and wine before the dinner. What I did was multiply the recipe for stewed pears for 4 by 15 to make 60 servings. I'm supposed to be using 3 sticks for 4 pears, but I figured if they're all stewing in 2 big pots it would be OK to down the cinnamon The piece of tomato is actually a piece of carrot. Do you have any plating ideas? If I have time I'll go back and fix the measurements Alright. So the game plan is to cook everything but the mushrooms, the green beans, BB sauce, the Ravioli sauce, beforehand. That would be the tapenade, the crostini, the BB itself, the raviolis, the pears, the cheesecake. That way there won't be a huge process/rush in the kitchen the day of and all we have to worry about is the plating and timing of the garnishes. I think the BB would taste better after a reheat and same with the pears. I did not know this about the lemons. When should I be juicing them? Is a day beforehand too long? And do you have any advice for reheating the stew? Thanks a lot We have 8 servers and 4 guys (including me) in the kitchen. I think that's a good amount of help The crostinis were planned as an amuse bouche/hors d'ouerve. I did not think about the tapenade softening the bread and yes I do think I should make the toasts ahead of time, although I feel it'd be nice if they were warm. Could I reheat them in the oven or would that make it too crackery. I'll stick with chuck I was planning on making the ravioli beforehand and storing them (in the fridge? in the freezer? I was going it to make it the day of, but now thinking about it it might be a better idea to make them beforehand so they can dry out. What would be the best way to do this ie how much in advance should I make them? How should I reheat them? Just saute them in the sage butter sauce? Would it be better to make the sauce in advance too? Thanks a lot guys for everything. You guys are the best

I'm somewhat open to alternatives. But the deal with the cheesecake is that I don't have to deal with it. Another guy offered his cheesecake making services. He said he wanted $25 for 5 cakes (enough for 50 people) and that he'd be willing to cover whatever else on his end. Also, according to the survey we sent out more people want the pears. I guess cheesecake doesn't sound too healthy mmm sticky date puddings. i think i'll try at the next dinner.

Better than Bouillon could probably work for your needs. $8 for a jar of concentrate which will make about 15L/quarts of stock. I regularly cook meals for 100 with a budget of about $300. If you are able to do cash-and-carry/cash sales pick up at a foodservice supplier, you will be fine! In your budgeting, what cut of beef are you using? You could probably use bottom round, and cut across the grain. With enough advance notice, maybe your local butcher can arrange for a discount, and will even cut it up for you. (worth every penny, IMHO). What are you doing for refrigeration? what is a cash and carry/cash sales pick up and what is a foodservice supplier? I'm using chuck roast. I'll ask about prices for bottom round. I'm also talking to the assistant manager for meats at Wegmans tomorrow to see if I can work a discount. I've checked meat prices at most places that sell meat around here and the chuck at wegmans is the cheapest at 2.50 For refrigeration we have two big fridges and individual fridges in our apartments.

would it be a better idea flavor wise if i mixed actual beef stock with bouillon cubes and water? or should i just go water and bouillon cubes. that could save me a little bit, but id rather not sacrifice taste. ill check tomorrow to see if any store stocks franzia. any other box wines i should look out for? btw thanks a lot for the advice. really helps. edit: I read this. http://boxedwinespot.blogspot.com/2006/10/box-wine-guy-reviews-franzia-chillable.html I know I can't be picky with my budget, but I dont like sacrificing taste. edit2: lolz. i read the comments edit3: found out about oak leaf at walmart. if i can't find franzia, i'll look for oak leaf

Sorry misplaced the comments. the 5 magnums is for the wine. That's an excellent idea I did not think about. I should go ask about box wines. Any in particular you have in mind? Any places to go for reviews? The wine I'm using is Frontera cab-merlot. It's pretty good and I can get a magnum for $8 I was planning on 7 litres of wine, 2 gallons of stock, and fill the rest with water. I've been trying to save on costs and somebody suggested using water. Also, I'm planning on buying 30 pounds of meat. Is that enough for trim? I'm getting a club package at wegmans. Not sure what that entails, but I think it's just a big chunk of meat Oh and I'm using chuck roast. Couldn't think of a better more cheaper cut

well we're pretty poor students and the guys are footing the bill. hopefully it doesnt taste like prison food thanks for the link. it's been helpful so far

Alright. I've been a very long time lurker of this forum. I think I first came here researching knives 2.5 years ago and I come occasionally for learning and info. Recently I've been put to task cooking for 100 people. Needless to say I need help. The dinner will be held in a large basement. I get access to a decently large kitchen. 3 ovens, 8 burners, and a grill (the kind you see at diners), an island in the middle, 2 separate sinks, and counter tops. The idea of the dinner is to be something formal. Like prom. You know the kind of dinners where ppl dress up (it's for valentine's day). Here is a spreadsheet of all the costs. http://tiny.cc/lyabO Currently I have planned Crostini with tapenade for 100 Simple Fennel Salad with Canteloupe shavings for 100 Bouef Bourguignon for 75 Winter squash ravioli with sage butter sauce for 25 Stewed pear for 60 Cheesecake for 40 The numbers are a rough estimate. We sent out an email survey and Right now 50 people are signed up for the Bourguignon and 10 people for the ravioli, but we're expecting more people to sign up after a reminder email. I'm about $38 over budget and each person only get maybe 6 oz of meat (weighed before cooked). I am also currently considering switching the ravioli for pea, tomato, pasta, but I don't want the dish to appear cheap/inexpensive/not well thought out. It's supposed to be a nice dinner. Here's a test run of things. The plates used here are not the plates I will use. The salad has nothing in it, but salad mix and balsamic vinegar. The pear was half eaten before I snapped a picture. I'm worried about portion size for the bourguignon. I ate it and I was pretty full, but the pieces of meat (although the meat pictured is only 4 oz) seem abysmally small. Not sure what else I can cut off the budget. Any help/general advice/methods to cut costs/plating advice would be greatly appreciated. edit: crunched more numbers. got down to $320. . helpppp