I do a menu change roughly every 6 weeks, (thats not to say I change every single item. As long as I can get the ingredients in optimum shape, and affordable, and it sells, I keep it). My cooks and I are pretty much on the same wavelength, and I keep them in the loop about the changes I’m considering. This gives them the opportunity to present their ideas before its a done deal. Any good cook will take pride in his or her creation, or any dish in which they offered constructive imput.
These are important interactions in a kitchen, especially when you reject an idea. You have an opportunity to teach…those who are interested…lessons that can prepare them for advancement. In other words, you can show them how to make money for the restaurant.
So anyway, The kitchen knows whats going on with every new dish. We then have a meeting with the front of the house. Each cook prepares what they are responsible for, presents it for tasting, and describes the cooking methods. Then I tell the waiters how I want them to sell it, and what percentage of sales I’m shooting for with that item.
Then there are nightly specials, which the Sous Chef usually comes up with and offers a description and taster just before service.
Smoking destroys your palette, and you tend to over season. I see many more smokers in kitchens where the required skill level is low, than in kitchens where tasting everything is required. At the fine dining places I have worked, no one smoked. At the family joints, around half the kitchen smoked.
Smokers also get more breaks. I despise that.
That’s a great plan! Many customers will get bored with the regular menu and try the specials. You can “flesh out” your ideas and see what you can accomplish in your tiny kitchen, and what you can’t. The Hot Brown sandwich sounds tasty, I may steal that for my sandwich special tomorrow!
It depends on how creative I feel when I develop the specials. Honestly, EVERYTHING has already been done, so its a matter of teaching myself something new vs. using a recipe/technique that I already know. My last round of dinner specials included a trout dish from a previous chef (nothing new there), petite shoulder tender medallions (a new cut that I haven’t worked with, but the sides and sauce were all familiar), and pork belly with a squash fritter (both of which I was very unfamiliar with). So there was a good mix of new and unknown things. My assistant focused on the Pork Belly, and though we had some trouble on the pick-up time, we learned to serve it like a duck breast, by rendering most of the fat first. I worked on the spaghetti squash fritter, and found the right ratios of flour, egg and squash to get the look and texture I wanted.
When I was a line cook, It took me a few rounds to get everything right, and then a few more to get a good rhythm. The better chefs I’ve worked for took the time to show me what they wanted and teach me the proper technique. The crappy ones just yelled at me when it wasn’t perfect, but never told me what I did wrong. Actually, reflecting on this question, I realize that I could be doing a better jb teaching my line cooks how I want my specials prepared. I like to give them a lot freedom, but some more direction could be helpful to them.
I spent several years working as an English teacher at a culinary college, and I can tell you that culinary students (and chefs) are very different from baking/pasty students (and chefs). Different temperments, different attitudes … different genders. (Culinary students were 75% male, baking were 75% female, 20% gay male). All of them were very aware of it, and would say things like “I’d rather not cook than be a pastry chef.” It wasn’t so much dislike as just an awareness that they were apples and oranges. The difference was less pronounced among the experienced chefs, but still there.
Also, for whoever asked: lotta smokers, including the chefs.
I have been in “the biz” for the better part of 30 years…starting from my first time in a commercial kitchen at 16. I was hire to be a dish washer but the prep cook got hurt, then a line cook quit. At 16 and in less than a week I was working the main line in a high end Steak/Seafood house. With the exception of a few years sabbatical as a Real Estate Appraiser (family biz) I have worked my way up and down the ranks. I now am GM of a large well know Bakery/Cafe. My specialty was Chef/menu designer but I have also spent time in the FOH in a fine dining house.
In 35 years I have seen just about everything mentioned in Bourdains KC. Never got head in the walk-in but the store room is an entirely different matter.
After cooking/cheffing for the better part of 15 years i moved to where the money was; Waiting/bartending and managing. I can’t imagine being in a kitchen for 12+ hours a day at 50. I still work long days but a lot of that time is paperwork/scheduling/ordering and customer relations.
As for “Big Night”, I don’t know how realistic but it IS one of my favorite movies. It was set in 50’s and I didn’t enter the kitchen till mid 70’s.
Books: “Joy of Cooking” (older edition) is essential as a text book. The “Professional Chef” is also pretty darn good. I have about 350 or so cook books and use them for inspiration. Rarely have my dishes been exactly as written, baking being the exception to that last statement.
oh…GOOD sharp knives and knife handling skills go a LONG way.
TV chefs: grew up with Julia, Graham Kehr, Jeff Smith (pre pedo days). I enjoy the show “chopped” a LOT…in your basket you have a Carrot, Yak milk, and a jar or pickled snakehead fish, have at it chefs…LOL
I’m very surprised that “Chopped” is based on anything real. It seems so odd - you have less than the minimum time to prepare a world-class dish in an unfamiliar kitchen, and you must get it right the first time. Yak milk and snakehead fish indeed. :-b
I can see where Chopped and Iron Chef are tests of a chef’s culinary knowledge, technique and creativity. But they seemed completely out of line for what I imagine a restaurant chef’s work day is like. I enjoy watching the shows, but I keep thinking that before serving it to his most hated enemy, Gareth Blackstock would make his new recipe a dozen or so times until the prep and cooking times were minimal, and the flavors were perfect.
Please continue to correct me, you pro’s!
I have never worked in a professional kitchen - not even fast food. I have had the fire department called on my cooking. I hope none of you can beat that.
I didn’t say “Chopped” was anything like realistic…i think it is freaking fun and funny as hell.
I have seen ingredients that no chef on the show knew how to deal with and “chefs” that should never have been there in the first place. It makes me chuckle.
Baking/Pastry is a totally different animal and therefore attracts a totally different temperment.
I’ve been on both sides of the coin. I’ve been baking much longer than I’d been cooking. I’m not typical in that I still possess a lot of “cook mentality”. Few if any bakers or pastry people do (it’s probably also why I’ve been in retail for so long, but I digress).
One word to describe baking/pastry? They’re to the culinary world what neurologists are to medicine – very specialized, very labor-intensive, very delicate, very exacting. I have yet to meet either who is not a perfectionist in some way, even to the point of actual OCD. The science of it, I think, has a lot to do with it. Anyone can throw a steak onto a grill and call it a day; it takes knowledge and know how much flour to add to how much water to how much yeast and what exactly happens when they mingle. What exactly happens when you proof dough, how long it will take, how to tell when it’s ready for the next step, what to do with the next step. You need strong hands and a lot of upper body strength. As for pastry, cake decorating? You’re talking about half technician, half artist. Lots of specialized equipment, a steady hand, an eye for detail, and innate talent. Unfortunately this sometimes translates to “screaming artiste”, which is never a good thing :eek:
Oh, and for the gender inequity? It’s cleaner – no grill fires, no sizzle, no loud, crude, lewd men – and quieter, as well as physically easier on the body; ergo, it’s always been seen as a “women’s domain”.
:nodding: I’ve known more smokers in both the culinary and retail professions. It’s definitely a stress release, no question.
I started watching Chopped when I got a recipe idea from them using croissant dough and jellybeans. I think the show helps to get people to think outside the box. Not realistic, but occasionally helpful