AlaMoi

having schooled, lived and worked in Germany for years/over decades - there is zip comma zero comma zilch question - in my mind / experience - that the USA Aldi's would died a faster than an immediate death in Europe. Europeans simply do not put up with the trash and garbage Americans do.

flour and the sugar absorb moisture/humidity.

freezer, yes. refrigerator, no. soggy soggy maker

>> Oddly, they seem to be busy. I don't get this. not everyone can afford to pay $15.95 for a pound of beef . . .

Aldi made its bones on "high quality - low cost" with a number of "cost cutting measures" - cash (later checks); no credit cards - now credit cards, no checks. - no baggers / utility employees - no frills - minimum "display" effort - open the case lot - plunk it on a shelf - no free bags - BYOBag/Box - Feed-a-Quarter shopping cart control; put in a quarter to release a cart; get a quarter when it is returned the "high quality" bit is somewhat imagination. few national brands - many local/store brands which in their marketing hype are "better" - your experience and opinion may vary. personally I _like_ the shopping cart "deposit" idea (this is common throughout Europe) - if you've ever come back to your car on a windy day to find some lazy SOB's cart embedded in your car door, you might like it too.... dimly from memory, it's a German originated business; three brothers currently doing their thing; they got along so well that they had to split the business into North Germany, South Germany and USA. what you're seeing in USA is one man's vision of how to run a grocery store - absence any input from reality. well, except for the credit card bit. they finally figured out not everyone walks around with $200-$300 in their pocket. actually that credit card acceptance co-coincided with the Federal move to food stamp debit cards. funny thing about that....

perhaps more than you may ever have wanted tot know . . . from cornell.edu ag info... Red currants (Ribes rubrum, R. sativum and R. petraeum): Fruits range in color from dark red to pink, yellow, white and beige, and they continue to sweeten on the bush even after they appear to be in full color. .... White currants: A type of red currant, white currant cultivars are sold less frequently by nurseries. Black currants (Ribes nigrum) and their cousin Gooseberries: There are two types of gooseberry plants -- American (Ribes hirtellum) and European (Ribes uva-crispa) it was illegal to grow these in the US because /quote In the early 1900s, the federal and state governments outlawed the growing of currants and gooseberries to prevent the spread white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola). This fungal disease attacks both Ribes and white pines, which must live in close proximity for the blister rust fungus to complete its life cycle. /unquote in the 1960's that ban has was relaxed in certain areas and/or for certain varieties, etc.... from Wiki: "The blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) is a woody shrub in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its piquant berries. It is native to temperate parts of central and northern Europe and northern Asia ..." "The redcurrant or red currant (Ribes rubrum) is a member of the genus Ribes in the gooseberry family. It is native to parts of western Europe (Belgium, Great Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, northern Italy, northern Spain, Portugal and Poland). The species is widely cultivated and has escaped into the wild in many regions" the theory cooks in UK would only refer to the zante as a "currant" appears to be busted.... Chris did not say which dish he was preparing - other than it's from a vegetarian cookbook (right?) - and it occurs to me that: zante aka grape currants are used extensive in baked goods while berry currant are more in the confecture / sauce arena. .... in a vegetable dish, it right well could have been a berry currant. as for the zante aka grape currant: (again, Wiki) "In the 14th century, they were sold in the English market under the label Reysyns de Corauntz, and the name raisins of Corinth was recorded in the 15th century," apparently, currants of every sort have co-existed in northern European cooking for a long time . . . zante currants were one presumed imported to the USA food scene fairly early, since: "The first attempts to introduce the Black Corinth cultivar in the United States date back to 1854. The first successful vineyards of White and Red Corinth (related varieties), were established in California in 1861 by Colonel Agoston Haraszthy. Around 1901, David Fairchild of USDA imported high-quality black currant cuttings from the Greek village of Panariti, a renowned producer, and established the first commercial crops."

dried exist . . . https://nwwildfoods.com/product/dried-black-currants/ http://driedredcurrants.com/

Tri2Cook is correct - I've no clue about your background. I'm guessing there's more to the proposed concept - if you're in the business you are in the best position to know what the numbers say. and I sincerely wish you good fortune with the endeavor. one of my specialty areas in near 30 years of consulting was sorting out "WTF? Why am I going broke?" for independent eatery owners/operators. I developed a slightly different viewpoint from that kind of cold hearted analysis.

yup. 16 x 5 x 52 = 4,160 patrons. at $75/head = $312,000 gross. at a whopping industry unheard of 20% gross profit, that's $62,500/yr in "fine dining" something on the order of 5-7% is more realistic. booze is always a good mark up with relatively low costs. go wild - explode the estimates - $30/patron pure profit. x 4,160 = $124,800/yr; max, not likely to approach that..... Red Lobster / Outback / dozens and dozens of 'other' run to $50-60/head, all inclusive. perhaps "better dining" is more apt that "fine dining?" have you had exposure to all the costs in running a food establishment? there's a whole lot more than the Sysco and payroll items. I'm very doubtful one can provide "fine dining" and booze at a $115/head cost.

the chef's tables with tasting menu's I've been to have at least 3 choices of appetizer and 3 for mains and 3 for dessert. and actually the really high end M-starred joints typically have a very limited menu. I appreciate that - do what you do very well.... which does not answer or address the issue: you have 140 seats. do you make 40 fish, 40 chicken and 60 beef portions, or the last people seated get whatever is left? there's niche for everything. do you tell prospective customers the entire menu when they make a reservation? what do you do when a eater shows up and is allergic to the sea breeze fresh clams casino appetizer? it would seem preparing a one-and-only menu that no one is allergic to / has no intolerance (real or imagined) to is a pretty tall order. so, as suggested and as now verified by principals, there is no cost savings involved in a 24/48/72 hour cancellation policy. it's bogus, it's a fib. there is a loss of revenue; the impact on costs is nadda. the no menu choice reinforces this - everything is the same price - a no show for sloppy joes is the same revenue loss as a no show for lobster thermador. the costs are different, but if the menu is lobster thermador, buying/fixing less quantity and counting on no shows to make up the cost loss vs. sloppy joes is probably not a good idea. either the patron shows up and pays the full fare, or the patron does not show up and raw food costs are recovered by the cancellation fee. or, on the brightest side, the eatery keeps the cancellation fee and fills the seats anyway. any high end joint in a major city that can't fill their seats has not chatted up the expensive hotel concierge people. you know - those people with the magic fingers who can get you in near anywhere at a moment's notice.....

>>The "fibbed about" comment is odd to me. Like my menu, most restaurants who do this are tasting menus. So I'm curious what do you think is being fibbed about? how many seats? how many entrees? if you have 40 seats and three entrees, that's a max. demand splatter of 120 "portions" to be "on-hand" not everyone orders the same thing. so, how many total portions do you intend to have on hand? and, how significantly does a 48 hour notice impact that? it's a bit that makes for great marketing BS, but escapes logic. the potatoes, green beans and cabbage don't count - only highly perishable / time-quality sensitive stuff - fish, shellfish, some micro greens for example - where such precise on-hand quantities will have a serious impact. and having enough on hand so as not to disappoint vs. some magically reduced qty garnered by 24/48/72 hour notice is highly questionable. a single fish do-over will wipe out all the "savings" - if in fact any real savings can be achieved. or, consider what the home cook does.... you stock 10 live lobsters, 2 people don't show up, so the two left-over lobster - which pushes $70 per pound net, becomes lobster bisque . . . at a lot of money per cup . . . I've been to many many walk-in joints and gotten the "Oh sorry, that's all gone" routine. this is not what one would expect at a higher end / aka featured tasting menu joint. a night with empty seats? yeah, that's an income impact and yeah that's a rational basis for a xx hr cancellation policy. running out of 20 day dry aged butterflied beef filet - that will not impact tonight's numbers, but it's going to leave a mark down the line in reputation. you might consider - (1) is anyone really going to object because their beef is aged 21 days instead of just 20? (2) ye'olde phone call at 24 hrs: "Say folks are you still coming?" as an much more customer attractive option. all presuming we're not talking about one IQF pouch from Freezer A and one IQF pouch from Freezer B . . .

with a good reputation, it would work. but not for me - simply because - as others point out - a 72 hour cancellation policy is an unacceptable risk. and one thing I've never understood, the argument of: "so then we know how much food to prepare" this implies there is one dish being served to every patron. logically doesn't work for me and makes me wonder what else is being fibbed about.

whee. the old grey cells aren't as grey as I thought.... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kraft-removing-artificial-dyes-preservatives-from-mac-cheese/ /quote Kraft says it will remove artificial preservatives and replace dyes with naturally sourced coloring ingredients like turmeric, paprika and annatto.This reformulation isn't entirely new for Kraft; the company has already changed its popular Mac & Cheese recipe for parts of the European Union where certain yellow artificial dyes are banned due to health concerns. /unquote

I don't follow the wishy-washies of prepared junk foods, so I'm not really sure this is correct comma however,,,, as I dimly recall - Kraft et al were trumpeting their cutting edge activities of removing artificial _coloring_ agents. which begets the question,,,, in a blind taste test, would ugly homemade non-color perfect mac&cheese taste better than the out-of-a-box with red&yellow dye #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9?

splendid example of why marketing types should never be allowed to demonstrate science. besides, how did the butter gun make all those ridges - ala spread by knife?

Semolina: Bob's Red Mill brand - widely available in USA, dunno about Canada.

2005? perhaps 1975?..... "do as I say, don't ask questions, I know best . . . ."

for years I read the debate about crispy / crispier / crispiest pizza crust. it's of interest because our preferred pizza is home-made. I've been using Jamie Oliver's recipe (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/basic-pizza/#rXpg5PPqIxrq5PIJ.97) adjusted for quantity. semolina is stocked in our local market, so not a brain buster.... there is a secondary theory that "double zero" aka '00 flour' makes the best. this stuff is not readily available. I had to hunt & peck for it - finally found it in the "organic" section of the local mega-supermarket chain. experimented with 'a little' - no diff - then 'a lot' - not much diff. i.e. "strong" aka bread flour plus semolina plus 00 Flour - three flours, no waiting..... so finally I took the plunge and made an all 00 flour + semolina dough; overnight rise in the fridge; extracted to warm up 2 hrs prior to baking. the dough was seriously more substantial / elastic. had to up the hydration by 3% - the 00 flour apparently takes a bit more water. rolled out / formed beautifully. seems there was a bit less dough volume using the 00 flour than KA bread flour - no explanation for that. rolled out rather thin with few complaints. used my standard at home baking technique - 14 inch round pizza stone, preheated to 500'F for 60 minutes. the rolled out crust is plunked on a parchment paper round prior to toppings, the DIY tomato sauce is applied hot from a pan-at-a-simmer. 10-12 mins, when done, removed from oven, slid off parchment onto a wire cake rack so the continued escaping moisture would not soggy the bottom. cooled for 5 minutes; cut on a wooden board with a 10" chef knife. the crust 'snapped' on cutting - veddy crispy. so, apparently the 00 flour = crispy crust thing has serious merit.

you need an instant read thermometer - "guessing" at temperatures is not going to work for a beginner. with experience you'll be able to "poke test" and judge rare / medium / well done, but not this week.

less cleanup.... oh how quickly they forget. summer camp. little rectangular boxes with perforations. slice down the middle, slice top&bottom, open box, insert milk, eat. toss the whole thing when you're done. those are gone methinks, but plastic cups with tear off lids are in every supermarket. the problem is you can't eat cereal, drive, text, talk on the phone, do your makeup _and_ update your Facebook page while eating out of the plastic cups....

you might want to consider a chef or santuko knife style. the wider blade keeps the fingers off the board. the advantage is - many lengths/style/price points available..... my dear wife has the same issue - trying to slice radishes (for example) with a paring knife on a 2" thick maple board. it's painful to watch and more painful to suggest a solution.....

have you considered the prof is out-smartering the team? he's likely been at this a while and has handed you an known impossible assignment to see how much you've actually learned..... there are so many conflicting and contradictory statements / premises to this "problem" that I hesitate on any attempt to lay it out. besides, are we doing your homework? - it's a limited customer base - who have to make their preferences known 24 hrs in advance - the establishment requires sufficient staff to research, plan, cost and communicate with the customer on a RIGHT NOW basis - what happens when the customer who demanded ground beef but from a left handed meat grinder does not respond to communications? - no conventional costing model will work because purchasing is limited to the open market and paying top dollar, in addition to "custom shopping time" and lots of extra prep/research time. not much chance to order stuff up from Sysco, for example - the theory that a good kitchen staff can whip up a delicious anything from any random recipe the customer provides is quite unworkable and absolutely guaranteed to produce customer dissatisfaction about 80-90% of the time. the reason chefs get to be so tyrannical is simply because after the time&effort to tweak a recipe, when somebody gets creative there's not enough "Yes, Chef!"s to avoid a good butt kicking. - what is Plan B when a dish fails? - what is the plan to handle (the likely many) instances of "It costs how much? Thanks but not tomorrow." huge waste of resources.

it's all a fascinating idea / concept / discussion - but them d*mn brass tacks keep coming to the surface. at the very basic level, this is a personal chef cooking at _his_ place, not yours. not actually going to survive on (3x4=12 or 3x6=18) x $30/each = max $540+/- gross revenues per day. now, iffin' you are a world reknown 20 star chef aiming to please three tables at a clip - i.e. http://restaurantjezebel.com - that's peachy keen except when it gets to the $20-30 price point. here's the snippet from the web site: "As Parind launched his global catering business he is catering from Europe, Caribbean to any city in the US. " that, my deer, is not happening at $30 per person; or $60; or $90. there are sites where one can "hire" a private chef to show up at your place with all the fixings for your heart's delight. highly local. here's a cute headline from one site: "Dedicated to finding the perfect match for your home, yacht or private jet." methinks youse likely need _both_ the yacht _and_ the jet before this kind of stuff is a financial reality. besides, after jetting your buyer to the Himalayas to get that special high altitude yak cheese, how do you handle the cancellation? as for replicating Granny's meat loaf - give it up all ye' who even think that can be done even by a 300 year old classically trained best in class 2,000 star chef. I have the index / recipe cards _in their handwriting_ from past generations and I'm _still_ trying to re-create some of my childhood favorites. actually, I think my recollections are faulty. Pinterest does not stand the remotest chance.

reminds me of multiple "contest" type cooking shows. Hi Chef - here's your mystery basket! oops - you're fired. where is it written that any given kitchen can take any requested ingredients and produce any request "dish" with any degree of "tastes good" ?

. . . we need an automatic sesame seeder for the bread stick machine..... yum! this is my A.M. brunch loaf - it's the classic no-knead approach - 14 hours on the counter at 68'F it's neat cause I can mix it at night, when I get up - preheat the oven - turn out the dough - 15 minutes covered + 20 minutes uncovered and bingo - fresh bread for breakfast. when going free form I reduce the hydration to 75% so it does not spread quite so prolifically.