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Cookbook with restaurant techniques


Ader1

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I have been looking for a cookbook which tells you about techniques that restaurants/fast food places employ to make food preparation easier eg Cooking or grilling a meat then freezing it to be re-heated at a later time. I saw this cook boiling sausages once and she said that they now had changed colour throughout and she only need to fry them to finnish them off once they were ordered. I also saw the same cook pre-pepare mashed potatoes and then freeze them I believe. She was Thai and her Engish was not very good so I didn't learn from her as much as I would have liked. Maybe these are things that you can just learn on the job or maybe there is a book or books which give short-cuts like the ones above not necessarily those though. I would also like to learn more about the thawing of meats and how long they may be kept once thawed? How to cooks know when something has gone off? Is it the smell or the look of the food or maybe a combination? Thanks in advance.

PS I entitled the thread "....with restaurant techiniques" but I suppose "....kitchen techniques" would be usefull too.:-)

Edited by Ader1 (log)
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Hi Ader,

Among the publishers I've encountered, it seems that Wiley may have the answers to some of your concerns. Unfortunately, these pro books don't end up on shelves (not where I'm from anyway) so I don't know if they're as innovative or in-depth as you would like. It might be worth writing someone from sales or publicity to ask them about it.

Take a look at their catalogs for:

1. Food service operations and management

2. Catering and events management

3. General culinary and hospitality

4. Professional cooking and culinary arts

Mark

The Gastronomer's Bookshelf - Collaborative book reviews about food and food culture. Submit a review today! :)

No Special Effects - my reader-friendly blog about food and life.

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Thank you both for your replies and suggestions. I think I'll buy the Bourdain book. Just looked at it on Amazon and it looks interesting and some cheap used copies going. For those of you who have gone through Catering college....would college text books have in them what I am broadly looking for?

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Just another thought - have you seen the mammoth Sous Vide topic in the Cooking forum?

Sous Vide provides a practical opportunity for home cook/chill (or freeze for longer storage). Although that isn't the main thrust of the thread, it does get mentioned - and SV awareness should certainly inform whatever other cooking you do! (It ain't just "boil-in-the-bag" ...)

Edited by dougal (log)

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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John Campbell edits the series of books that are pretty much bibles in many of the UK catering colleges. They are full of restaurant level prep and technique. Practical Cookery and Advanced Practical Cookery are all available from Amazon.

Formulas for Flavour is a great book and shows how restaurant dishes can be split down into component parts.

All well worth a look.

Adam

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