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Hay guyz My bar and a bar across the street are hosting some 100 moped riders from around the country soon. I'm a vegetarian, and I assume the mopedders from CA at least will prefer some vegetarian options, and options for people with diet restrictions. What kind of labels can I put on this currently? Gluten free, vegan, etc? Mini veggie flautas: Sauteed peppers, zukes, squash, roasted corn, black beans, garlic, safflower oil in there somewhere; rolled in smallish purple agave corn tortillas; fried in canola oil... or maybe baked; I'll serve like 3-4 of these little flautas in a standard plastic fry basket with thin avo slices over each one, s+p, cilantro, slice of lime, and salsa in a ramekin. Anything I could do differently? Different oil? Or should I just use little sizzle plates for each order and turn up my oven? I am mostly thinking out loud, but I welcome reasons to avoid frying well prepared veggies. I generally use canola oil for frying and safflower for everything else, but I could possibly get enough for this special. Some things, like safflower oil prices, make the owners go noooo! I'm probably going to make red beans and rice too. The most genius, simple, cheap vegan dish ever. A bar in the Marigny in Nola had red beans and rice nights. They gave bowls for tips, which I think is a good tradition to keep.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:41
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Smash up half the black beans to hold everything together, get a little cumin in the veg mix, and make an avocado mousse instead of slices. Just blend in a vitamix or robot coupe with lemon juice and s&p.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:49
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Smash up half the black beans to hold everything together, get a little cumin in the veg mix, and make an avocado mousse instead of slices. Just blend in a vitamix or robot coupe with lemon juice and s&p. I'll add some cumin and cayenne, and I like the black beans idea, that will make things more simple during prep. I could make an avo crema/aioli(lime juice, s+p, safflower, cilantro) to take care of the accoutrements. I'll see how it looks today~ The toss-up on that for me is presentation vs efficiency. With what I get paid though, efficiency is the better option. I'm going to ask the owners for a ton of baskets and other lightweight easy to clean plate-things. I feel pretty silly selling a heavy ceramic plate with one small corn tortilla taco on it.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:16
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Mini veggie flautas: Sauteed peppers, zukes, squash, roasted corn, black beans, garlic, safflower oil in there somewhere; rolled in smallish purple agave corn tortillas; fried in canola oil... or maybe baked; Pet peeve of mine, but if you want to call them flautas use flour tortillas. If you're dead set on corn tortillas call them taquitos. Not to be a dick or anything, I just happen to be partially Mexican ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taquito
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Jun 6, 2014 23:43
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Simoom posted:Hello industry thread. I don't know where to post this or who to ask. After years of working in crummy diners I got bored and applied to a bunch of places and a very very very upscale small french place really liked my interview. They want me to come in next week for a trial run and have already said they do not expect me to know anything, as my resume shows I clearly do not have the knowledge for this level of fine dining. They said it was cool and would be willing to teach me from the ground up if "the week goes well" because I seem to have the drive for it and have proven in my years of diner work that I most certainly can stand for eleven hours at a stretch. I basically came into this thread with a similar question about a month ago and now I'm working a cool job that I really like, so good luck! I can't tell you how awesome it is to be working at a kitchen full of professionals, rather than, like, surly line-cook lifers, and college kids working a summer job, and weird guys who are thirty years older than everyone else on staff.
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Jun 7, 2014 09:12
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Uncle Lizard posted:Pet peeve of mine, but if you want to call them flautas use flour tortillas. If you're dead set on corn tortillas call them taquitos. Not to be a dick or anything, I just happen to be partially Mexican ;-) haha, oh yeah its cool, just a memory slip. I grew up in Texas, so not knowing what to call them was confusing me. All day I couldn't think of the right word, it was just beneath the surface. My buddy that bartends reminded me as I was making them and I felt enlightenment, "ohhhh yeahhhhh!" The owner and her son(the bartender) are Mexican, and I'm white, so I am learning about the details. Early in the shift I made some prototypes for me, the owner, and the bartender. We were pretty satisfied. Sauces are essential though. I'm waiting til next week to make the avo aioli. I thought I had some kind of purple tortillas, but I was mistaken. They probably would have looked like turd logs anyway. We did have agave corn tortillas hidden away and they are delicious. I steamed the tortillas like crazy so they wouldn't crack, filled them with veg, rolled them, and then set them on a flat top to seal the edge. Next week I'll prep them, lay them all on a sheet tray so I can seal a bunch at once in the oven, then store them in the fridge. I'll steam them on the flat-top for ticket orders and serve 4 with salsa and avo aioli in ramekins. We have a pot-lid thing that is basically a deep bowl with a wooden handle coming out of the top. I use it like a little steam oven on the flat-top, everything heats evenly. One taquito was fried for science, and it was good, but the other system is more simple and still meets my goals. Smashing half the black beans into the mixture before taking it out of the saute pan helped a lot. The bean mash basically filled in all the open areas, which lead to a tighter roll. Thanks Chef De Cuisinart Later in the shift I was bored so I started on a project I've been thinking about. I want to sell ice cream sandwiches during the summer, so I'm learning how to make ice cream. I'm starting with simple custard recipes to practice. Here's some examples of what I want to make: Snickerdoodle cookies with horchata ice cream Nilla wafers with banana custard ice cream. I would have to make the nilla wafers, so that they can be large enough for an ice cream sandwich. Don't know how to do that... yet. They're basically sugar cookies I guess. Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 10:07
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I'm meeting a lot of long-term cooks in this hotel and every single one of them, without fail, has brought up the number of years they've worked in the industry within the first ten minutes of me meeting them. There's a lot of gravity to it. "I've worked twelve years here, and I've been doing this since 1996." The sous chef told me that, when you tally it all up, I am working with two hundred years of cooking experience.
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Jun 7, 2014 12:18
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How do places, like a stereotypical Greek diner, with these menus that run 5-6 pages plus breakfast manage inventory? The specific place that made me think about this can't have much in the way of storage, looking at the seating area vs building footprint.
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Jun 7, 2014 15:32
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Because almost every item has the same ingredients, just a different sauce/meat.
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Jun 7, 2014 15:59
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Little Blue Couch posted:I basically came into this thread with a similar question about a month ago and now I'm working a cool job that I really like, so good luck! I can't tell you how awesome it is to be working at a kitchen full of professionals, rather than, like, surly line-cook lifers, and college kids working a summer job, and weird guys who are thirty years older than everyone else on staff. Yeah honestly the place is way above my skillset and I essentially told them as much, so my hopes aren't too high. On the other hand I would really love to work at a place that doesn't have burning contempt for its customers and employees. Somewhere where the first question customers ask front of house isn't "are your coupons still valid". Maybe a place where the menu really changes. Also somewhere with steady hours and a wage that lets me afford a place that isn't a basement or a box. Somewhere that I don't gotta gloss over when old friends bump into me and ask what I'm doing nowadays. Well here goes nothing.
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Jun 7, 2014 16:02
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Isaac Asimov posted:What kind of labels can I put on this currently? Gluten free, vegan, etc? Be insanely careful about calling anything gluten free, you can really gently caress someone with celiac disease up. It's probably way better to say that, although you've tried to make a thing without gluten, your kitchen regularly works with gluten etc etc
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Jun 7, 2014 16:23
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:Be insanely careful about calling anything gluten free, you can really gently caress someone with celiac disease up. It's probably way better to say that, although you've tried to make a thing without gluten, your kitchen regularly works with gluten etc etc I know that in Iowa, calling things gluten free requires a -lot- of effort. For the bakery, it would have required us to fully stop production, give it a couple hours for the dust to settle, sterilize the place top-down, and then we could start production on gluten free items with completely separate tools and bakeware. Wasn't worth it, so we just told people we could make things that would be minimal gluten, however we work in a flour atmosphere so some may be present.
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Jun 7, 2014 16:52
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Fuuuuuuuuck, Wolverine stopped making the Neptune slip-ons I've been wearing since culinary school. They have essentially the same shoe as a steel toe but even in extra wide my toes still chafed like a mofo the one time I tried them. I would have been perfectly happy buying those shoes for the rest of my life and now I gotta find something as good or I'm gonna go crazy.  EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:Be insanely careful about calling anything gluten free, you can really gently caress someone with celiac disease up. It's probably way better to say that, although you've tried to make a thing without gluten, your kitchen regularly works with gluten etc etc My boss is always asking me about offering gluten-free pasta on the menu and I have to keep telling him no because I don't trust some of the line cooks to not reheat it in the same water as the regular pasta. Republicans fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 02:25
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You know it was a good Saturday when no less than three servers, including yourself, ended up crying in the bathroom.
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Jun 8, 2014 05:19
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My whole loving section was full of weirdos today. A double shift full of weirdos who didn't know how to dine.
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Jun 8, 2014 06:18
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alright time to go in for trailing at a kitchen i am seriously underqualified for...got my winning smile on dear future me- please don't gently caress up
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Jun 8, 2014 19:00
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Simoom posted:alright time to go in for trailing at a kitchen i am seriously underqualified for...got my winning smile on Good luck. I got better at cooking by staging at places that expected better. That's pretty much the only way to improve, unless you have money for a poo poo ton of groceries and equipment, or if you have money for JWU or CIA. This is kinda late for your interview, but just be honest about your goals. Your Chef will always know what your weaknesses are and you will be trained by the other line cooks regardless of your skills. I usually say this in an interview, "My goals are to learn how to cook, and I need money." Most of my stages were set up after walking in to a restaurant, asking for Chef, and saying, "Hi Chef, I'm a line cook and I need a job, here's my resume. When could I stage? I have my knife and a hat in my bag." Most of the Chefs I have worked with can relate to being broke, and they always tell me to never go to culinary school. "We'll just teach you everything" has been said to me a few times. My best advice for you in this time of new kitchens: Take notes on everything they teach you. I have never worked with someone who took notes. This means they think they are smart. They aren't smart, they're stupid. I can memorize most of what I've learned, but I also get to review the notepads I have been filling out since my dishwasher/smoothie days 2 years ago. When I was a kitchen manager, I made it mandatory that new hires carry: a pocket-sized waterproof notepad(provided by me), 2x perma pens, 2x perma markers. Then I told them to go to the recipe binder and write down *these* recipes so they'll have a quick reference guide. The first time they forget their notepad I call them out on whatever I can, "oh man, you mean you can't even remember the three ingredients of this thing that I told you yesterday?" If I was a mean person I would say, "You know we're an 'at-will' employer right? WRITE EVERYTHING I SAY DOWN." ha Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 22:10
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I'm a big fan of notepads, I can remember 80+ recipes off the top of my head, but I've had this same gig for 4 years now. The first 2 I had a notepad.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:23
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Kenning posted:My whole loving section was full of weirdos today. A double shift full of weirdos who didn't know how to dine. Any particular standouts? My least favorite couple was in last night, they always come on Saturdays and holidays and after dinner want to sit at the bar and chat with the staff constantly, which would be fine if they realized that we don't have time to stop and chat for 20 min in the middle of the rush, or left around the time that everyone else does. Everyone's exhausted and wants to go home and they just sit there at the bar for hours after all the other customers have left. They also want us to turn the music up to completely insane levels every time. When I mentioned that the owner's pregnant wife was upstairs sleeping her response was, "well, let her come down and tell us to turn it down, it'll be fine!" 
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Jun 8, 2014 23:01
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That's when you say things like "no" and "I'm sorry but we are closed."
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Jun 8, 2014 23:14
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:I'm a big fan of notepads, I can remember 80+ recipes off the top of my head, but I've had this same gig for 4 years now. The first 2 I had a notepad. Worth noting that everything that ever needs to be done regularly is a 'recipe' and this same practice helped me a lot when I took over a procedure-intense desk job from the a) only guy in the company who knew anything at all about that particular job, who was b) leaving forever in 4 days.
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Jun 9, 2014 01:35
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Splizwarf posted:Worth noting that everything that ever needs to be done regularly is a 'recipe' and this same practice helped me a lot when I took over a procedure-intense desk job from the a) only guy in the company who knew anything at all about that particular job, who was b) leaving forever in 4 days. every kitchen job I've ever walked in to, I've walked in to with a moleskin and started furiously writing notes. 100% of the time, I've gotten surprised looks and like 'oh, this guy is gonna really work out' compliments. I just do it as a matter of course for any work environment I walk in to, but apparently its really abnormal in kitchens. I'd definitely highly recommend this strategy - even if you're just scribbling pictures of butts, whoever is interviewing you will apparently be impressed.
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Jun 9, 2014 06:08
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:That's when you say things like "no" and "I'm sorry but we are closed." Which would work really well if the owner didn't chit chat with them for 20 min, say "whatever they want to drink is on me" and then leave. Then we're stuck with them for an hour at least. There's too many regulars that have known the owner for 30 years, and telling them we're closed is worth more than my job. I don't want to be a dick about this, and I'm not ever at the customers, if they ask "are we keeping you" and they're literally the only people there I will always say "of course not" and smile and be polite. If they ask what time we close I will smile and say "well when all the customers are gone". Some people are just drunk assholes and don't take hints.
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Jun 9, 2014 07:21
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Simoom posted:alright time to go in for trailing at a kitchen i am seriously underqualified for...got my winning smile on Just finished my four training shifts and I feel completely out of my league despite having 20 years restaurant experience. Going from managing a high volume production kitchen to higher end dining was probably a dumb idea at my age. I'm just keepin my head down and trying to bust rear end. Just ask tons of questions even if they seem dumb.
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Jun 9, 2014 09:35
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sporklift posted:Just finished my four training shifts and I feel completely out of my league despite having 20 years restaurant experience. Going from managing a high volume production kitchen to higher end dining was probably a dumb idea at my age. I'm just keepin my head down and trying to bust rear end. Just ask tons of questions even if they seem dumb. Yes I got my rear end kicked and this is an entirely different world but they asked me back tomorrow and will decide then. gently caress me.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:38
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Simoom posted:Yes I got my rear end kicked and this is an entirely different world but they asked me back tomorrow and will decide then. gently caress me. I did a couple stages at my current kitchen, totaling a little over a week. hosed a few things up, got buried a lot, but at the end I still got a job. It matters more that you show you can learn on the job and have a good attitude and work ethic than anything else.
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Jun 9, 2014 16:18
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Boss actually did my annual performance review *on time* this year. Got my $0.25/hr raise. Woohoo?
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Jun 9, 2014 22:15
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Do Hilton hotels drug test? In Colorado?
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Jun 10, 2014 00:12
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Isaac Asimov posted:Do Hilton hotels drug test? In Colorado? The Hyatt never tested, v0v
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Jun 10, 2014 01:26
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Isaac Asimov posted:Do Hilton hotels drug test? In Colorado? Initial hiring process a drug test was mandatory when I worked for Hilton and Starwood, never got tested again after. Currently working at a Hyatt and correct, it was just a background check. This was all in Chicago though.
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Jun 10, 2014 01:42
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Isaac Asimov posted:Do Hilton hotels drug test? In Colorado? That could vary between Hiltons because many of them are actually run by separate management companies which will all have their own policies. If you find out the name of the management company you could probably google it.
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Jun 10, 2014 02:03
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Almost certainly, with a high risk group like the kitchen. Alternatively, if you don't get high at work and plan on keeping it that way take the test and if you pop hot deny everything. If your roommates smoke it could trigger a false positive (" "), but don't be the shitbag who smokes in the alley for obvious reasons.
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Jun 10, 2014 03:50
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So, does anyone in this thread have any knowledge about sushi joints? I currently work in a chain that's basically Japanese Chipotle. And at my location I am the head sushi guy ,which means I get to have less asm responsibility so I can focus on sushi, but no pay increase. Im asking because I loving love making and prepping sushi. And also because I can make 5 8 piece rolls of anything on our menu in 15 minutes. But when I go to sushi joints with similar/same quality ingredients, they get to take 40 minutes for literally 3 cali rolls.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:49
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Vegetable Melange posted:Almost certainly, with a high risk group like the kitchen. Alternatively, if you don't get high at work and plan on keeping it that way take the test and if you pop hot deny everything. If your roommates smoke it could trigger a false positive (" "), but don't be the shitbag who smokes in the alley for obvious reasons. Cool, gonna go with this plan. Its tricky having a red card here. edit: I mean, I would have to stop for like 3 weeks to pass anyway.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:11
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Hauki posted:I have no idea offhand, I know some corporate places will still do an initial test as part of the hiring process and not after. I think the initial test is usually more of a "Are you smart enough/committed to pass this thing". If you can't pass a piss test that you know in advance....
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Jun 10, 2014 10:10
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Tender Child Loins posted:Please tell me you're a dishwasher... I'm a prep cook. On Friday's I check in and write checks for $2-3k worth of food and either lug it upstairs to be crammed into the 3 small, barely-hanging-on freezers or stuff it into the laughably small walk-in. If I'm lucky the delivery driver shows up a little early to help me with that. A 10 hour day is cool with me, but when there's only one prep shift a day for the entire restaurant? And I'm THE guy? For gently caress's sake, when I got there they were still doing tickets by hand. I'm doing 30 hours in 3 days keeping their poo poo running, and doing the job my predecessor did in 40 hours and that guy was still getting other people to pick up his slack (myself included when I was on dish, I would do prep). Shits all hosed, man.
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Jun 10, 2014 11:28
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Simoom posted:Yes I got my rear end kicked and this is an entirely different world but they asked me back tomorrow and will decide then. gently caress me. If you feel like you're in a good place, just work your rear end off and stay focused and good things will happen. Prove that you're a rock and people will love you for it. Make it happen, mang!
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Jun 11, 2014 04:18
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Nasgate posted:So, does anyone in this thread have any knowledge about sushi joints? I currently work in a chain that's basically Japanese Chipotle. And at my location I am the head sushi guy ,which means I get to have less asm responsibility so I can focus on sushi, but no pay increase. I work in a sushi place, the kind that would look down on Japanese Chipotle, but what kind of knowledge are you asking for? I'm a host/cashier, but 40 minutes for 3 California rolls (if that's all that's being ordered) is pretty lovely by any standard.
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Jun 11, 2014 04:40
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Nasgate posted:So, does anyone in this thread have any knowledge about sushi joints? I currently work in a chain that's basically Japanese Chipotle. And at my location I am the head sushi guy ,which means I get to have less asm responsibility so I can focus on sushi, but no pay increase. I've worked in two restaurants that had dragon rolls and/or makizushi on their menus, but were more gastropub-type places. I also spent a couple weeks staging at a sushi place once. Even when I was brand new to rolling and had 5 or 10 other chits coming from my section (that covered all salads, all deep fried foods, and most apps in a 150-seat place) if it took me more than a couple minutes to put together a single roll I would have been loving castrated. 2-3 minutes a roll seems reasonable, considering if all you do is sushi your rolls are probably a little more ornate than mine were. Anything past that is either just slow or lazy though, I'd think.
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Jun 11, 2014 05:00
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We started doing brunch last week. Over the last two Sundays, we've lost ~40% of our kitchen staff, including the assistant km. I warned the GM it would happen when they over worked their cooks (leaving at 1am, being back at 8am) but he seemed to believe in the willpower. I know the extreme hours and long shifts are normal for the industry, but given that there's a decent market for good line cooks and chefs, this isn't too surprising. How do other restaurants deal with over working their cooks like that? Just expect high turnover? Is that an acceptable business model for success?
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Jun 11, 2014 06:32
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