What resturants make most products in-house?

[pastramionrye]

I was just wondering what restaurants in NYC do most of the work in-house: from the bread baking and pasta making to the charcuteries, pates, sausages and what not?

a rough list would be great...or just start throwing out names...high-end, neighborhood or dives...doesn't matter, just want to find places that try to do as much in house as possible.

thanks.

jonathan

[weinoo]

Lupa, Otto, and the rest of the Batali family of restaurants serve house cured salumi. And the also serve stuff from Mario's dad in Seattle.

[pastramionrye]

Lupa, Otto, and the rest of the Batali family of restaurants serve house cured salumi.  And the also serve stuff from Mario's dad in Seattle.

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no..one..else...has...any...insight...on...this....?

c'mon...people////think...!

[weinoo]

The new Bar Boulud is making a lot of charcuterie in-house, but I don't think they are curing their own. As well as a couple of house-made pastas. I don't know if they are baking their own bread - the bread we had was suspiciously Sullivan Street bakery-like...not that there's anything wrong with that.

In-house curing just isn't all that widely practiced at this point ( I wonder how many restaurants country-wide are doing it?) - probably has to do with the space and health dept. requirements. Similar with the bread baking - and if you can get high-quality products from outside sources, that makes it easier and probably better for the bottom line.

[jkarpf]

New York Noodletown roasts its own pig and duck.

[Chris Hennes]

In-house curing just isn't all that widely practiced at this point ( I wonder how many restaurants country-wide are doing it?) - probably has to do with the space and health dept. requirements. Similar with the bread baking - and if you can get high-quality products from outside sources, that makes it easier and probably better for the bottom line.

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Looking for a restaurant that makes everything in-house seems like you are going for novelty, not necessarily quality. Making really great *anything* requires whole-hearted dedication - sort of a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" problem. I appreciate a restaurant that makes some things in house, but I'm not sure making *everything* in house is even desirable, from a quality standpoint.

[Nathan]

hundreds of NY restaurants make (at least some of) their pasta in-house.

the number who cure some meats in house numbers in the twenties or thirties (you see it showing up on a lot of menus now).

due to NY having excellent bakeries, few bake it in-house....go to Balthazar, Falai and I assume Allen & Delancey. I would imagine the four-stars do as well.

house-made sausages are found on many menus.

obviously any restaurant with an official pastry chef should be making their desserts in-house. most of the others source from Bindi or Sysco and then add a few garnishes.

[Sneakeater]

The menu at Belcourt has a notation saying something like, "Everything that can be made in-house, is."

[Nathan]

that's a place which would be a better restaurant if they didn't do everything in-house.

[flinflon28]

due to NY having excellent bakeries, few bake it in-house....go to Balthazar, Falai and I assume Allen & Delancey.  I would imagine the four-stars do as well.

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During my time at Le Bernardain they didn't bake bread in house.

And they had (maybe still have) a pretty bad bread service.

[Nathan]

Savoy does a lot in-house.

http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/01/its_wi...savoy.html#more

[ned]

I'm currently working in the kitchen at Craft and have been very impressed with their ethic for making everything themselves from pastas to meat and fish fabrication, pickles to potato chips and cured meats.

[ambra]

What about Blue Ribbon Bakery? They have that open kitchen downstairs that you walk by on the way to the bathroom. Wonderful bread smells and racks full of bread...

Don't they still do it? I hope so.

[weinoo]

I'm currently working in the kitchen at Craft and have been very impressed with their ethic for making everything themselves from pastas to meat and fish fabrication, pickles to potato chips and cured meats.

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What exactly is meant by "fabrication?" They break down whole body fish, I'm sure, but what about meat do they "fabricate?"

And what are they curing?

[weinoo]

What about Blue Ribbon Bakery? They have that open kitchen downstairs that you walk by on the way to the bathroom. Wonderful bread smells and racks full of bread...

Don't they still do it? I hope so.

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I certainly hope that a place called Blue Ribbon Bakery is baking their own breads .

[chefboy24]

I'm currently working in the kitchen at Craft and have been very impressed with their ethic for making everything themselves from pastas to meat and fish fabrication, pickles to potato chips and cured meats.

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What exactly is meant by "fabrication?" They break down whole body fish, I'm sure, but what about meat do they "fabricate?"

And what are they curing?

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had an arguement with my boyfriend about this

meat and fish fabrication is an industry word used by chefs and butchers/fish mongers

it basically means to break it down from a primal cut or a larger cut into an individual portion size for the dish

fish fabrication is: scaling, gutting, heads/tails, deboning, portion sizing

meat fab is similar, could be removing fat, frenching the bone, quartering a chicken, tieing a roast, etc etc. or, if you get an entire strip loin (or filet or rib eye or whatever), it could be portioning it into 16-20 oz cuts, for example.

Edited January 22, 2008 by chefboy24 (log)

[weinoo]

meat fab is similar, could be removing fat, frenching the bone, quartering a chicken, tieing a roast, etc etc.  or, if you get an entire strip loin (or filet or rib eye or whatever), it could be portioning it into 16-20 oz cuts, for example.

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And wouldn't most high-end steak houses (e.g. Craft) be doing this?

[ned]

What chefboy said. And more specifically, to take some recent examples, meat/fish fabrication at Craft takes the shape of cleaning frogs (really a lot of them), filetting fresh anchovies or breaking down pigs in very purposeful and creative ways.

[scottie]

Tabla.

They make their own bread (of course- that's why it's called Bread Bar), which is baked to order in the two tandoor ovens.

They make their own pickles, pasta, chutneys, and charcuterie, though there's really not much of the latter. Heck, they even sell three of the chutneys in jars. They toast and grind all the spices needed on a daily basis.

They grind their own meat when ground meat is needed. They break down whole pigs, lambs, goats, etc.

I worked there for a year and a half and can say that Chef Floyd Cardoz and his staff maintain the highest standards of cleanliness, product quality and consistency that I have seen in this business. I imagine that Craft has similar standards.

It has been a disappointment for me to work in other kitchens with lower standards.

I mean, how hard is it to grind your own hamburger?

Not that hard. Sure, Pat LaFrieda's meat is just fine, but at Tabla, that's what we got for family meal- not what we served to guests.

[scottie]

I would bet that most places do their own pickling these days. It's too easy not to.