Is there any food you wouldn't eat out?

[chefb]

I've been in the back of the house for some time and I constantly look at menu items that are safe to eat while dinning. I won't eat shell fish at most places and I am suspicious of most specials. Anyone else??

[Oreganought]

I don't eat in or take out chinese food. What is that stuff anyway?

Could you elaborate on your comment about specials?

[Wilfrid]

I don't eat anything I haven't cooked myself. I've been thrown out of more restaurant kitchens than I've had hot dinners.

[

]

[nightscotsman]

I never order anything that sounds like a "home-style" fruit dessert at a restaurant - especially pie. Even at the best places I'm always dissapointed. In fact, I will only eat pie baked by myself or my Mom.

[chefb]

to elaborate.. "Specials". have always been away of getting rid of left overs in most places. Even in the best HotelsI had worked in our alacarte "specials" came from leftover banquet items. Prime rib became English thin sliced steak. Fish was made into croquets. etc..

[Brad S]

For me specials have always been a way to highlight the seasons finest produce or seafoods that are running.

When I develope a special I do it with the intention of really showing off what nature has to offer. Leftovers go to my staff meals in which I feed 120 a day.

And thier is no such thing as "home made" in a restaurant. it should simply be credited as "A scratch item"

[Oreganought]

For me specials have always been a way to highlight the seasons finest produce or seafoods that are running.

When I develope a special I do it with the intention of really showing off what nature has to offer. Leftovers go to my staff meals in which I feed 120 a day.

And thier is no such thing as "home made" in a restaurant. it should simply be credited as "A scratch item"

A caped Chef that's exactly why I asked the question.Specials for me is also to highlight the ingredients that come into season briefly, such as

softshelled crab,fiddleheads,asparagus,truffles etc. My staff isn't that big,

but it's free and they don't complain too much,but nothing I would ever turn into a menu item.

But I know what chefb is talking about,I see it all the time.

[nightscotsman]

And there is no such thing as "home made" in a restaurant. it should simply be credited as "A scratch item"

Oh, of course it wouldn't actually be called "home made" on the menu, but from the description or title it would appear to be the type of thing that is a "home style" dessert like pie, crisp, cobbler, shortcake, pudding-in-a-cloud, etc...

I would expect everything on the menu of a fine dining restaurant to be from scratch except for maybe a few components like puff pastry dough or fruit purees.

[Jinmyo]

Well-

edit:

[duct tape swirled around mouth and head for whole roll, cardboard tube thing left attached, dangling at back of neth]

Mmmmmfff. Dooonorrerfabyhjkiitfch. DOOONORRERFABHJIITFCH! DOOONORRERFABHJIITFCH!

[tommy]

to elaborate..  "Specials". have always been away of getting rid of left overs in most places.  Even in the best HotelsI had worked in  our alacarte "specials" came from leftover banquet items. Prime rib became English thin sliced steak.  Fish was made into croquets. etc..

i really don't think this is the case in most of the better, or even decent, places in and around NYC (which is where i eat most of my meals).

[Brad S]

Oh, of course it wouldn't actually be called "home made" on the menu, but from the description or title it would appear to be the type of thing that is a "home style" dessert like pie, crisp, cobbler, shortcake, pudding-in-a-cloud, etc...

I see the term "Home made" many times on menus

I understand your point, But soon we'll see "Home made Cioppinno" on menus. Then we run into the conflict of a different term "House" cured olives as an example. "house" smoked salmon.

When a pastry chef offers a seasonal souffle should he/she call it home made? I don't think so.

Short moral to this is know where you dine and don't get so enamered with the menu copy.

[chefb]

Tommy, having worked in a few, you would be shocked. Even the finest Chefs are concerned with food costs.

[=Mark]

When eating out I generally won't order a steak. It is too easy to do just as well at home. When I dine out I want that kitchen staff back there busting butt and rattling those pots and pans, not just tossing a hunk of meat into a broiler and turning it once.

[Jinmyo]

tommy, it happens. "Garde manger" station is short for "[hope no one] looks [too closely at what they're] eating."

[tommy]

Even the finest Chefs are concerned with food costs.

i don't know that there's necessarily a direct correlation between the two. i'd be interested in hearing others people's opinions regarding this and restaurants in NYC.

[chopjwu12]

I understand that alot of lower end restaurants do that kind of stuff. Hell i had to do it when i worked in florida at the beach club. But thats fucking gross. I will never work anywhere that turns scrap into profit. Specials are ment to highlight things like its been said before. The frog and the peach in new brunswick orders things for there specials. They dont take shit and sell it again. No restaurant worth anything does that. The good places ive worked all left overs get turned into family meal and thats the way it should be.

[mamster]

I've gotten pretty wary about ordering fried things after I ordered a "mixed seafood tempura" at a non-Japanese restaurant and got a soggy (heavy batter, oil not hot enough) plate of grease. I'll certainly still get tempura or tonkatsu at actual Japanese restaurants, and I'll try the fries anywhere, but the whole fried entree almost always sounds better than it is.

I'm surprised no one (including Jinmyo) has mentioned dessert. If I've had a mediocre meal, I don't expect dessert to be any better; if I've had a good meal, I don't want to ruin it with a bad dessert. A lot of restaurants that turn out respectable savory food can't make a dessert to save their lives.

[Jinmyo]

I hate dessert. It's a betrayal of everything that food is about.

[tommy]

I hate dessert. It's a betrayal of everything that food is about. 

even pie?

[Jinmyo]

I like savoury pies. Steak and kidney. Wild mushrooms. Real pies. Nourishing pies. Food.

[nightscotsman]

I'm surprised no one (including Jinmyo) has mentioned dessert.

He-llooooo! ::jumping up and down, waving arms::

Please see above post on fruit desserts.

I love dessert and must have it after every meal, but restaurant pie is almost always an abomination.

When I dine out I want that kitchen staff back there busting butt and rattling those pots and pans, not just tossing a hunk of meat into a broiler and turning it once.

I agree - that's why I go to restaurants. I'm not going to order something I can make easily (and usually better) myself at home.

[ngatti]

For me specials have always been a way to highlight the seasons finest produce or seafoods that are running.

When I develope a special I do it with the intention of really showing off what nature has to offer. Leftovers go to my staff meals in which I feed 120 a day.

And thier is no such thing as "home made" in a restaurant. it should simply be credited as "A scratch item"

yup! fer sure, fer sure.

Cape is right. I have no problem ordering specials in restaurants. But many of us can sort of smell a place or can tell by the description of a special whether or not it'll be worth ordering.

Having said that, and to answer your question, I will never order a (insert fish name HERE) fish dish Arribiatta. If the fish is pristine the Arrabiatta topping will ruin it and, IMO is uneccessary. If the fish is less than pristine, the Arrabiatta is used to cover it up and I ho wants to eat old fish anyway?

The resaturants that do this (attempt to reutilize and rcycle old food) only do a diservice to themselves and ultimately it is the chefs and cooks who have their reputations sullied. It takes a pretty experienced guy to be able to pick and choose which leftover to rcycle and which not to. Look at it this way: You are the COOK! And you are saying that you wouldn't eat it if you were a diner in a restaurant. Why the F*ck shoud I. Ask your chef to think about that before he hashes something onto a plate merely to fill up a specials board or to satisfy some F&Bs wish for a lower food cost number!

Nick

[ngatti]

When eating out I generally won't order a steak.  It is too easy to do just as well at home.  When I dine out I want that kitchen staff back there busting butt and rattling those pots and pans, not just tossing a hunk of meat into a broiler and turning it once.

I kinda sorta agree. Let me qualify thpough. I generally won't order the prosaic, "we gotta have a steak on the menu, so let's put a wet aged NY sirloin on it" ubiquitous beef that passes for steak on many restaurant menus. However for a truly great piece of 28-40 day prime dry aged porterhouse, t-bone or rib chop, I feel thast the best meat is in a good steakhouse. They have or have access to the facilities that can age the meat properly and also have their reps at stake (no pun) when it comes to selecting the loins to age.

Nick

[Oreganought]

A lot of restaurants that turn out respectable savory food can't make a dessert to save their lives.

I agree with you there mamster.BPC (before pastry chefs) most restaurants ordered from a respectable dessert wholesaler,but generally these desserts were designed primarily for shelve life,and it seemed everyone had the same desserts to offer, it got really boring.

And it seems savory chefs,of course not them all,where not very good or didn't have the time or patients to put a half decent desert menu together.

One place where I was hired as EC a new mandate from the owner,was to replace this practice with from scratch recipes.This particular restaurant

was a 40 seater 4 in the kichen + dishwasher and was only open for dinner.

What I did was compress the desert menu to 5 items from about 15

and it worked rather well. And changed this up depending on seasons,

special occations or if I felt inspired from something that stuck in my craw.

[tommy]

I kinda sorta agree.  Let me qualify thpough.  I generally won't order the prosaic, "we gotta have a steak on the menu, so let's put a wet aged NY sirloin on it" ubiquitous beef that passes for steak on many restaurant menus.  However for a truly great piece of 28-40 day prime dry aged porterhouse, t-bone or rib chop, I feel thast the best meat is in a good steakhouse.  They have or have access to the facilities that can age the meat properly and also have their reps at stake (no pun) when it comes to selecting the loins to age.

agreed. i generally don't have access to aged prime beef. but that said, i generally don't order steak unless it's at a reputable steakhouse where i know it's something a bit more special than i could buy at Kings.