nwyles

Eddy, I seem to recall that one our Vancouver restaurants have a total tip pool , divided equally between everybody. I think it is Subeez on Homer Street. Great for the support staff, but not so great for the servers. I recall it has caused a few people to leave.

If you want an education in the business side of life at the restaurants, come on down......................a couple of shifts in every dept followed by a master class in income statements will give you enough knowledge to question why anyone does it .

Jamie, sourcing quality vegetable locally is a major issue. Especially in the winter. Unless, of course, Sysco, Allied, Koo & Co do it for you. Farmers (organic famers, i'm talking about) in the lower mainland need more support and feedback from both professionals and the public. It is an ESSENTIAL step to help improve the overall quality of food in Vancouver. Generally speaking, few chefs here understand the importance of this issue. THERE IS NO GOOD FOOD WITHOUT GOOD PRODUCE. But i know you care, i saw you at Vista d'Oro last saturday... I, for one, plan on solving this issue by having a farmer to work almost exclusively for me and to grow heirloom varities successfully. But i'd also like to see the creation of an organization (a co-op?) that brings together farmers and chefs, with maybe a warehouse at the heart of it where interactions will be made easier & faster. The island seems more succesful at doing such a job. ← Eddy, you have hit the nail right on the head. It is not all that easy to get your hands on all of the good bit and pieces without a bit of legwork and / or driving around. Supply lines are inconsistant and sporadic at best. I am guilty of doing lots of vegetable purchasing from the larger suppliers for the ease and consistancy in delivery times and always having what I need. I admire your passion for this and hope your idea of an organization / centralized "warehouse" come to reality one day.

I had the chance to work with Olivier Andrieni for two years after he left the culinary school. He was an interesting Chef, great technique, patient and had a wealth of knowledge to share. That being said, I found he had a very poor understanding of how a business worked and all of the things / components that it took to make it all happen. As much as I was given a chance to have two years of one on one cooking lessons, I found that I became the instuctor when it came to dealing with the business. An experience I would not trade for anything.

Trans Fatty : I am always looking. I always find myselt either half a cook up or half a cook down when doing the schedule. I can never seem to find the happy medium. All hell breaks loose if someone wants a vacation !

And I feel that these facts are stangely realted to the other two threads that are raging in the Vancouver Forum. ( Lumiere and are egulleters soft on restaurants )

I have had a few students from various culinary schools work at the restaurant over the years and I have formed impressions based on what I have heard from the students and how I think they have been taught. One of our recent Vancouver visitors was egulleer HKDave, and he was here to attend Northwest Culinary School. My impressions from him about his education and how much he paid for it was that he chose wisely. I was a little less $$ than some of the other schools and prepared him very well for a life in various types of kitchens. I currently have two students from Pacific Culinary working here. It is very early in the game to compare and contrast my impressions of the school. I have had two students from the “old” Dubrulle here and both were elitist little snobs. That is no reflection of the school. Their knowledge of classic techniques was good, but in my opinion, these two were not very well prepared for a commercial kitchen. I have found that VCC has a good program and gives the student a great beginning in all types of kitchens. Are there any others out there? Did you attend any of the culinary schools here? What are your impressions of them? Have you had any graduates from these schools work with you? What was your impression of how well they were prepared for the workplace?

Lots of interesting debate going on in the local forum and it got me to thinking about our talent pool in the kitchen. I am getting about ten resumes a day and about one third of them have kitchen experience, but have no desire to get back in there. One resume in 100 is a kitchen resume, and usually with very little experience, and / or English as a second language. Half of my kitchen crew right now is culinary students. It makes things a little difficult at times because you have to watch absolutley everything that they do. I do not mean to say that you do watch all things that your staff do, but with the students, eveny minute detail has to be observed. I have always found kitchen positions difficult to fill becasue of the lack of people looking for work. What has caused this ? This city certainly has a glut of culinary schools and they are cranking out graduates at regular intervals. Where are these people going ? Do we have too many establishments and too few hands ? Are the hotels filling their ranks with them and the lure of set hours and benefits weighing in over the attaction of an interesting career in an independent restaurant. Are they going offshore ? Is this yet another B.C. export ? Am I the only one with this problem ? Is the word out that I am an asshole and no one "darkens" my door with kitchen resumes ? Is the Human resourses Dept. at Earl's great at hiring kitchen guys as well as the pretty young girls ? Let's hear it.

Eddy, You bring up some valid points. For my self, I don't care to "micro" critique places in my own town for a couple of reasons: 1. I usually work between 80 and 90 hours a week in the restaurant and I am happy just to be out having a meal that I did not have to cook , prep, or clean up after myself. 2. I tend to go to places that I know to be good. I am not the first guy to try out a new place as I do not get that many meals out and do not want to risk that it will be a shitty one. 3. I usually know someone in the restaurant I am dining. That is not by design but having worked in Vancouver restaurants for nearly 20 years, it just happens. The service I would get possibly would be less formal and a bit more casual because of that association. 4. When I am out, I really want to enjoy myself. I do notice when things are are not quite right, but I tend put that aside very quickly so it does not ruin my evening. It has happened that some thing in a restaurant has set me off and I have let it ruin my night as well as my wife's and possibly the next day. Really it was just a meal and I should let it go. That being said, when I travel, I tend to be hyper critical and notice everything about everything. I am looking for chinks in that armour, I want to see people fuck up. I am looking for ideas for something or for some sort of strange satisfaction when someone screw up. I take a perverse pleasure in a busboy in a strange city dropping an entire tray of glasses in the dining room. Is that sick ?

I love this stuff. Rob Feenie again proves to be a major lightning rod on this forum and , again, he probably does not even know it yet. There are a few restaurants that evoke this kind of response - check out the French Laundry thread in California. Dining at Lumière is not inexpensive. I have dined there four times - twice with my wife and two times by myself. I loved it every time. Does every dish hit it out of the park ? Do angels weep with every bite ? No. Are they good ? Yes. Most are exceptional. Expectations are high when spending big money, but perfection is rarely achieved, and when a person expects perfection, they are often disappointed. The last time I dined at Lumière, 12 out of 14 dishes I tried were fantastic. They other two, I did not love. That certainly does not go to say that they were not good, simply I did not love them. How would I rate that experience. Excellent. Service - excellent. I certainly did not let the two dishes that I did not like bring down my whole experience. Foodie-girl : Was your whole experience a complete train wreck ? I am not asking you to defend yourself, just fill in the blanks a bit. What made Araxi exceptional over Lumière. What did you like and what fell flat. If you check out the French Laundry Thread : Too late to vent ! The diner had an excellent experience right up until a snooty manager / server made a negative comment about how he had secured the reservation. This utterance ruined the whole experience. Is this a similar situation ? One tiny thing brings down the whole house ?

I am off to Vera's for a late night burger after service tonight, probably around 11:30 ish. I will drag Chef Fowke with me as it was he and I who made a visit to Fatburger together and we will compare our experiences. I must add that the very fact that Vera's will serve us a beer after shift is going to make it the sentimantal favourite. If that is not a pretty picture, two chubby Chefs, beers and burgers in hand watching the full cross section of humanity walk by on Davie Street at midnight on a Saturday. Having read and re-read Gerald's post, I would think that fresh is always better. Fatburger serves the large "McCain" style wedge cut french fries. They certainly do not make those in house. Does anyone know how much mess fresh cutting that many fries in house is ( besides Gerald ) - potato starch everywhere........it never seems to go away. There is a consistancy problem that would develop over the year with fresh fries as potatos are not harvested all year round and are store in dark sheds. This allows for the sugars to develop in the potatos and sometimes during the year you would tend to get darker fries as the sugar makes them dark. If I recall, it is about now. That is a slight advantage of using a frozen fry - consistant 365 days a year, but still, a frozen fry. Intercity Packers has been contracted out to make the burger patties for Fatburger IIRC. They certainly would not be making them fresh everyday. Intercity would mass produce amd then freeze them. I would not think that one store would demand the kind of volume to be making and shipping fresh everyday. Just economics. Too expensive. I will report soon.

Lee : I must disagree with you on the onion rings. I thought them to be bland, tasteless and greasy. I actually left some. Those of you who know me know I do not leave food, ever. I thionk that A & W onions rings are far, far superior to that of Fatburger. Now, as for the milkshake: probably the best that I have ever had, including any that I have made. I can imagine that you all must be rocked by that statement : A chef actually saying that something was better than he could make, but it is true. I will edit this part out later so it can never come back and haunt me. The burger was OK , the bun being a bit soft and "Wonderbread" like for me. As you know, I serve a Portugese bun on my burgers as I like a bit more "chew" to the bun. If I could get away with serving burgers on Ciabatta bread, I would. Arne made to offer to deliver one to me but I turned him down as I am starting to reach maximum density.

Yes Arne, that was Copper River. It was an "egullet" complimentary upgrade. It was really a bribe: hoping never again to have a post deleted. I see this morning that it did not work. Next time, Silverbrite ( Chum ) for you !

What ever happen to dishwashers cutting holes in heavy duty garbage bags and making belts with duct tape ? I worked at a restaurant where the dishwashers were called "goats" 'cuz they would eat anything !

Bridges in the summer, especially at lunch. I would imagine they do a few covers.

I have two KA. I have worn out the bowl, two shafts, 5 rubber feet, two lids and one large blade. I know it has a small bowl but have never used it ( who wants it ! Like new ! ) When this one bites the dust, I will get another. One thing that is a pain is when you are makeing a salad dressing - you have to make it in small batches because the liquid leaks out from the center shaft hole in the bowl if it gets too high.

What was here before ? Is this a new location ?

Eddy is quite correct. A polite PM to the fellow egulleter about his establishment is the route that I have taken on occasion rather than putting up a post that is not so glowing, but I must say the only reason I would and have done that is because they post here. If someone is not on the board, good, bad or indifferent, it goes up. There certainly is no etiquette as to posts about a fellow EG'ers establishment (s). Everybody handles them in a different way.

It has been a couple of years but the last time Joan and I were in the Okanagan, we had a fantastic lunch at Cedar Creek Winery. Great Value, cheese plate was huge etc. and I was travelling incognito ! They did not even know I was nwyles from egullet ! Could you imagine the fanfare if they did ! Seriously, killing two birds with one stone : A wine tour and then a great lunch

Amarcord in Yaletown. Very nice and reasonable.

Make a reso at Tojo's for the sushi bar. You will be facinated by Tojo, and certainly made to feel welcome.

Keith : If you decide that the wine storage thing is too much hassle, let me know and I will happily assist you in depleting you inventory to a manageable size - like something that would fit in a two bottle wine cooler bag - that would be manageable

I had a friend who had a device like an air conditioner installed into a room in the house. I do not think that he had any special insulation or anything in the room, just this air conditioner running. A good refrigeration guy could put in a fine tuned thermostat so you could be very accurate with the temperature. Inexpensive and all of you wine is close at hand for emergency consumption. Cheers

I just read upthread that the open date was June 15th. I drove by today and not a soul was in sight. No way. Maybe July 15th !

And how did the Lesser Talents fare with this dinner ? My youngest freaked out when we brought lobster home!! I told them we set them free when they asked what we did with them the next day.