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TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND AS A COOK

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BEING A COOK IS MORE THAN THE PROCESS OF COOKING

If you are a cook who is happy working just for a paycheck – more power to you, but you can probably save some time and not read this article.  If, however you have the sense that cooking is more than that and you have your eyes on many years connected to the professional kitchen, then read on.  Moving forward in search of doing something meaningful and growing your position into a career may require some adjustments and a definite plan.

So, here are some golden rules that will help you to move in the right direction.  Maybe this is who you already are, but if not, then view these as some “food for thought” that can turn your professional life around. 

[]       BE POSITIVE:

Simple, right?  Pushing aside the challenges and problems cooks face every day and resisting the tendency to find fault and complain is not easy.  We can always find things to disagree with and people who frustrate us, but very little good ever comes out of this approach.  As is often said – learn to become a problem-solver and not a finger pointer, build people up instead of tearing them down, and reap the long-term benefits of a positive attitude.  People will notice.

[]       INVEST IN YOURSELF:

Self-improvement is the ticket to competence and confidence.  Don’t wait for someone else to build your skills and knowledge – take charge of your own growth.  Join, engage, read, learn, practice, connect, experience, and volunteer – this is how we improve.

[]       BE A TEAM PLAYER/LEADER:

Start by becoming an exceptional follower and an advocate for playing your part in a team effort.  Look at your current role as the most important in the success of the operation and the power of the plate.  Master your role and support those around you.  Share, teach, and train others – this is the fuel that drives your own leadership engine.  Every good leader understands how important great followership is and how the leader’s role is to give them all the support he or she can muster.

[]       DEFINE YOUR BENCHMARKS:

Find those cooks, chefs, restaurants, companies, or inspirational leaders who define excellence and learn from them.  Study how they work, why they are so committed, and how they approach their work.  Use all of this as your roadmap to success.  Push yourself to be better and use their performance as a guiding light.

[]       WORK WHERE YOU CAN LEARN:

As you build your skill set make sure you select employers who are willing to invest in you; places where mentorship, training, and helpful critique are part of their method of operation.  Everything else will come to you as you fine tune those skills and the knowledge to be exceptional at what you do.

[]       BE YOUR OWN WORST CRITIC:
Don’t wait for someone else to critique your work – assess your performance and compare it to those benchmarks.  If you can improve then set a course to do so.  Find out the best way to improve, seek out those individuals who have mastered a particular task and connect with the intent to accept critique.

[]       FIND A MENTOR/BE A MENTOR:

Set your focus on finding a person who will be honest in their critique and willing to show you how to improve.  Don’t settle for a person who always seeks to compliment – you will only improve if someone is honest and helpful at the same time.  Finding a mentor is the most important step you can take to change your professional life.

[]       THIRST FOR EXPERIENCES:

Be willing to step outside your comfort zone if there is an opportunity to learn.  Seek out unique opportunities to experience great food, the source of that food, the people who dedicate their lives to it, the service that accompanies exceptional dining, and the commitment to excellence that very successful cooks and chefs are a part of.  Immerse in experiences whenever they are available.  Spend a week working on a farm, tour a meat processing plant, work on a fishing boat, save your money and dine at extraordinary restaurants, work the crush at a local vineyard, help the best ice carver in your area, stage at the best restaurants on your days off, shadow a coffee barista and learn their craft, attend food shows and culinary organization workshops – everything helps to build that base of knowledge, improver your resume, and change your professional life.

[]       FIND A WAY TO BALANCE:

If there is a lesson that most seasoned chefs will point to is finding balance.  All work and no play make any cook rather dull and positioned to fail as a friend, sibling, spouse, or parent.  Make sure your plan includes diet, exercise, free time, family time, travel, and relaxation.  Work hard but know how to step away.

[]       CONNECT:

Be part of something larger than you, join groups of cooks, restaurateurs, bakers, and food enthusiasts who can offer a different perspective, cutting edge changes on how we cook and present food, or the best way to ensure financial success in the restaurant business.  This will feed your competence and confidence and provide a network of resource experts who will be there when you need an answer.

[]       RESPECT OTHERS:

Remember the rules of thumb for teamwork and leadership.  They all evolve around a commitment to respecting those around you who share a stove, grow the ingredients you use, carry your food to a guest, and manage the operation to ensure that it remains financially healthy.  Respect for others leads to the respect you receive in return.

[]       RAISE THE BAR:

As good as you may be today, you should never accept good as the best you can become.  Always push that carrot a little out of reach and then work like crazy to grab it.  Just when you think you are there – push it out a little further.  Remember, excellence is a journey, not a destination.

[]       ALWAYS BE IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE:
Use the concept of excellence, even perfection as the goal knowing that it will never be reached.  Again, the journey towards excellence will always result in constant improvement – a chance to “wow” those around you.

Stay the course, enjoy the ride, and know that when your sights are on excellence your life will constantly change for the better.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Seek to be all that you can be.

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting

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(Over 800 articles about the business and people of food)

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More than 50 interviews with the most influential people in food

WHY CULINARY PROGRAMS FAIL

15 Monday Mar 2021

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There has never been a more important time for culinary schools than right now.  Sure, I know how much the restaurant/foodservice industry is suffering and how many operations are shutting their doors as a result of avoiding decades of challenges brought to a head by the pandemic, but believe me when I say that this will change.  Everything will change for the better if we (the food industry and the culinary schools that provide the talent) change as a collective group.

 Just as the restaurant industry evolves, so too must the industry of education.  When this change does not occur then the strong shall survive and the weak shall perish.  There are ample examples of culinary school failure over the past ten years with the lion’s share since 2016.  If you understand that one way to avoid failure is to know why others wave the white flag, then a course might be set to do just the opposite: succeed.

So here are my 20 observations pertaining to why culinary schools fail:

  1. ENROLLMENT DEPENDENCE/ENROLLMENT DECLINE

All culinary schools are businesses as well as altruistic institutions for the betterment of mankind.  This means that the top line drives the bottom line (more students equals the ability to continue providing their products and services).  When enrollment declines then colleges must make decisions to trim services, increase class sizes, eliminate content, reduce investment in supplies, or shut their doors.  Programs need to either find ways to stabilize enrollment or come up with some other source of funding to support their efforts.  When schools seek to solve the challenge by lowering standards to attract a broader base of incoming students then the entire system begins to crumble.

  • LACK OF COHESIVE MISSION

What is the program’s purpose?  What are they trying to accomplish and what are the standards that they insist living by?  How will they measure their success as aligned with these standards or objectives?  If this is not clear then the organization is left without direction – a surefire way to fail.

  • LACK OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE BUSINESSES THEY SERVE

Do you really connect with restaurants, hotels, resorts, food manufacturers, retail, food research and development and other groups to make sure that your program is in line with their needs?  If not, how will you be able to create a clear career path for your graduates?  The businesses that will hire your students need to be vested in your effort – this is how success is defined.

  • STUBORN ADHERENCE TO THE WAY IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE

When program administrators and faculty believe that they have all of the answers, when they design a culinary program to match the way that they learned or the way that everyone else delivers a culinary education – then those stakeholders are missing out on the natural evolution of the craft and the people who are inclined to seek a place in the system.  What the industry needs today is different than a few years ago and the young people entering the trade are different in the way they learn and what their priorities might be.

  • POORLY DEFINED BRAND

Who are you?  How do potential students, businesses, the community, current students, faculty members, and program alumni perceive your program?  Perceptions become reality and how you support these perceptions defines your brand.  Make sure that it is clear and positive.

  • LACK OF REALISM

Is what you are teaching real?  If you teach in a live restaurant environment on your campus is it operated with five times as many cooks in training as would be possible in a real restaurant?  If so, what are students learning about cost effectiveness, efficiency, speed, and effective menu execution?  How will they be able to function when faced with that first job?  If your teaching kitchens are filled with every cool piece of kitchen equipment on the market how will graduates function in a real kitchen when there are not limitless supplies of combi-ovens, sheet pans, Robot Coupes, Vitamix blenders, and sous vide circulators?  Until students realize that the one kitchen Robot Coupe must be shared by the entire crew – they will never learn how to communicate and work as a team.

  • LACK OF AWARENESS ON THE PART OF FACULTY

A chef instructor’s learning curve does not end when they accept the job.  Yes, even faculty members need to continue to engage in the learning process.  Volunteer for a stage at a great local restaurant, take an occasional sabbatical to re-enter the industry, attend conferences and workshops, take a class on a new method of preparation, and belong to professional organizations.  You can’t teach what you don’t know.

  • NOT ABLE TO TEACH A SENSE OF URGENCY

One thing that I hear constantly from chefs who are asked about their opinions of culinary school graduates is that young cooks do not understand “sense of urgency”.  They must be able to multi-task and complete work at the highest level of quality with speed and dexterity.  When there are 100 reservations on the books – you don’t have the luxury of spending three hours to turn six-dozen potatoes.  No matter what – you need to be ready!

  • LACK OF REPETITION

How do you get better at any task in the kitchen: knife skills, making stocks, filleting fish, trimming beef tenders, shocking oysters, or peeling shrimp?  The answer is simple:  you invest the time in doing the task over, and over, and over again.  When a program spends two days on teaching classic sauces – the student will never become competent at making any of them.  When a stock is something that you do in week number four of Foundations of Cooking, then you will never be confident and competent at making stocks.  Exposure is nice – repetition is how we really learn.

  1. UNWILLING TO REALLY STRESS THE FOUNDATIONS

The foundations are only relevant if they become habits.  A recipe that takes two pages of dialogue to explain how to braise a veal shank does not make a cook a master of braising.  When we stress methods and practice them constantly then they become habits and all that a recipe need do is direct the cook to “braise”.  Everything else is imbedded in a cook’s subconscious.

  1. INABILITY TO TEACH STUDENTS TO THINK

What drive chefs crazy are the foolish questions that abound when cooks are not taught to think things through.  Give a young cook a list of six tasks to perform in a shift and watch to see how many will prioritize those tasks by the amount of effort required and the time involved in their completion.  Ask a student to follow a recipe and watch to see how well they think through the organization of their workstation to accomplish the task.  Think before you act – this is what builds confidence and ability.

  1. INABILITY TO TEACH STUDENTS TO PROBLEM SOLVE

What happens when an emulsion breaks?  How can it be fixed?  What can be done if a particular ingredient fails to arrive in time – can it be replaced with something else?  How will you act if one of your fellow cooks fails to show up to work – do you just ignore his scheduled work or do you accommodate that into your production?  Your sauté pans are sticking – do you wait for someone to walk you through the process of polishing those pans, do you ask the chef to solve the problem for you, or do you take the initiative to make it work?

  1. LACK OF DISCIPLINE

What are the most primal expectations that a chef has of any cook?  Most would say: show up, be prepared, listen, work well with others, work fast and efficiently, and work to the standards of excellence that are established for the business.  These are disciplines that rank very high on an employers list, yet do we adequately emphasize them in our programs?

  1. INABILITY TO TEACH TEAMWORK

Our students will more often than not – seek to earn the best grades for their individual work.  When we set the stage for students to strive for that grade we oftentimes lose sight of the fact that individual effort on the job will always pale in comparison to the team effort.  It is much more difficult to learn to depend on others and support them than it is to put forth the best individual effort.  Cooking is a team sport!

  1. LACK OF COST CONSCIOUSNESS

Restaurants are businesses that operate on profit measured in pennies.  Every product that a student handles in class should carry a price tag.  What are the raw costs of the materials, what is the production costs associated with seasoning, oils, flour for dredging, etc.  What would it cost, from a labor perspective, to produce that dish and what selling price would need to be attached to maintain a reasonable profit?  Aside from taste and appearance – this is what we should be teaching.

  1. A POORLY DEFINED OVERALL EXPERIENCE

Are you building in experiences that complement the learning curve?  When you talk about the beautiful raw materials that a cook is able to use in restaurants – the meaning of that becomes much more vivid if it is accompanied by a visit to a farm, dockside fishing vessel, cattle ranch, or cheese making facility.  This is an essential part of learning in schools that have “success” as part of their vocabulary.

  1. NOT COMMITTED TO THE LONG HAUL

Schools that put a timeline on an education are missing the chance to embellish their brand and help support a graduate through the stages of his or her career.  Developing and presenting ways of enhancing their degree through continuing education, on-line resources, short training videos, and other communication pieces such as blogs and a resource center that students might contact once they graduate is a great way to become a partner in student success.

  1. LACK OF PARTNERSHIPS WITH INDUSTRY

Developing internships and externships that are measureable, training chefs how to continue a student’s education while on a work program, inviting chefs and restaurateurs to visit the campus, speak with students, work alongside them in classes, or present a demo will build partner relationships that are bonding. 

  1. INABILITY TO EXPLAIN VALUE

When a guest leaves a restaurant and is most concerned with how much the meal cost – then the restaurant has failed to demonstrate value.  When a student graduates from a culinary program and spends years complaining about the cost of his or her education – then the school has failed to demonstrate value.  Know what it is that you uniquely offer to justify the investment of money and time.

  • NOT PREPARED TO BE A COMPLETE RESOURCE FOR INDUSTRY

Finally, schools will have a difficult time succeeding if they do not find ways to support the needs of the businesses that hire graduates.  This might mean simply serving as an information resource, offering refresher courses for their employees, or even providing consulting services that will help food businesses survive the ups and downs of serving the public.

Those schools that “get it” will find that the years ahead will be very bright and students, employers, and alumni will want to connect with them and become a part of their success.

PLAN BETTER –TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericacues.com  BLOG

CAFÉ Talks Podcast

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A COOK’S SENSUAL OVERLOAD – TOUCH, TEXTURE, CHEW

12 Thursday Nov 2020

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We are tactile beings – the feel and texture of things that we encounter is very personal and very important to our life experience.  Such is the case with the food that we consume.  As is stated by the Institute for the Psychology of Eating – some believe that chew or experiencing the texture of food is an innate need to show a level of aggression – a necessary release for our piece of mind – while others simply point to the process of chewing as an essential part of the digestion process.  In all cases, the concept of flavor depends on the texture of food, to be complete.

To this end, certain foods are defined by their texture or chew.  What would a September apple be without that crisp snap when we bite into it, what would a great bagel be without the hard work of chewing, a pudding without the creamy texture of softened butter, or a steak without the rich chew that releases the deep umami sensation that is a result?

“So important is the level of crunch that many years ago, potato-chip manufacturers developed a sophisticated apparatus to measure the perceived level of crunch that consumers hear in their heads. The most pleasurable decibel levels were deciphered, and potato chips were subsequently manufactured to these standard orgasmic crunch levels.”-The Institute for the Psychology of Eating

Flavor is a complex and complete experience – it is far beyond the stimulation of taste receptors.  To taste without chew is shallow and incomplete.  Chew is something that has lasting meaning and, like smell, there is memory attached to it.  Just as we remember and look forward to the texture of that fall apple, so too do we vividly remember what that experience is and use it as a benchmark of quality when it comes to judging all other apples.

Texture and chew is also a metaphor in life that points to how these “touch” events determine the depth to which we become one with life’s experiences.  We are told to “chew on it” when presented with an opportunity or problem.  Accountants “crunch” the numbers signifying a commitment to ensuring that the results are accurate and when we over-extend or take on too much responsibility we are said to “bite off more than we can chew”.  It is this physical process or association that helps to define the type of experience that is a result.

As cooks and chefs build their flavor memory they must understand and categorize the process of connecting with texture, touch, and chew.  Think about these products and experiences and how important touch, texture, and chew are to the dynamics of flavor.

  • That first oyster or clam:

It is an act of faith in the strong recommendation from a chef or the result of a dare from others that allows us that first experience with a raw oyster or clam.  Certainly, it is rare that anyone would choose to let a live shellfish slide down your throat for any other reason – yet, if we allow that incredible texture and ocean brininess to take hold – the flavor experience is like no other.  In this case – chew is very subtle; we allow the throat to simply accept the texture of the sea.

  • The French fry expectation:

Food companies spend countless hours trying to perfect the French fry experience.  For the product to meet and exceed expectations it must retain its deep fried crunch on the exterior while yielding a soft and moist experience within.  It is a delicate balance between the type of potato, the method of processing, the state of chill or freeze, how it is blanched, the type of oil used in deep frying, the temperature of the oil, and knowing how the cook will treat the whole process before the finished product is placed in the pass.  With the French fry – texture is king.

  • Ripe melon:

Melon is one of those fruits that thrive on the extreme.  An unripe melon just doesn’t feel right in the mouth, is tasteless, and is likely quickly discarded by any who have experienced the benchmark of ripeness.  When ripeness is at its peak – the texture is soft, yet still in complete control, the flavor is pronounced, the level of moisture is intoxicating, and the overall food memory created is exceptional.  Once you experience a perfectly ripe melon – nothing else will do.

  • Vine ripened tomato:

To meet the demands for tomatoes on the market – twelve months a year, and to be able to ship those same tomatoes without damage – they are far too often produced in a greenhouse, sometimes hydroponically, picked long before vine maturity, sometimes waxed and sent your way.  The result is a firm and tasteless product that barely resembles what a perfect tomato should be.  When a tomato is exposed to the sun, grown in rich soil, picked when it is mature and consumed while still warm from that July sun – it is something to write books about and sing its praise with song.  When the texture of the skin serves to simply keep those warn tomato seeds from bursting forth, when the bite yields the powerful flavor and soft texture of that warm interior running down your chin – then you have a flavor memory that will linger until next season.

  • The magic avocado:

Maybe more so than any other fruit – the avocado is a tough client for the chefs cutting board.  Before it is ripe – the texture is uninviting and unwilling to add any value to the kitchen program at your restaurant.  Left too long in its skin and the peak creaminess of a perfect fruit turns to a stringy and sometimes blackened interior that shouts to the cook that he or she has waited too long.  When the avocado is perfect it is as creamy as softened butter, rich in flavor and brilliant in color.  This is the fruit that serves as a centerpiece for salads, appetizers, and your favorite guacamole.

  • Crispy skin of a roast chicken:

There are few preparations that point to the skill of a seasoned cook than a perfectly roasted chicken.  When the cook pays as much attention to the skin as he or she does the breast meat or rich darkness of the thigh and leg, then the chicken experience is so prominent as to become a favorite meal.  Basting, seasoning, covering and uncovering through the roasting process will yield that crisp, buttery, salty crunch that is the first thing that a knowledgeable consumer reaches for.

  • A Georgia peach at peak maturity:

Stone fruits like plums, nectarines, cherries, apricots, and peaches can be just as fickle as the avocado.  Typically picked before maturity so that shipping does not damage the fruit – these hand held products of nature can be too hard, too unforgiving, and too tasteless for positive food memories.  When picked at or near maturity – the peach is an ambassador for Mother Nature.  Soft with a small amount of bite, bursting with flavor of sweet and a little bit of tartness, dripping with nectar, and hard to put down – the ripe peach is right at the top of the food memory data bank.

  • Artisan bread:

Very few foods are as satisfying as perfectly baked artisan sourdough bread.  When done right – the combination of a crisp exterior and a chewy interior that releases more and more flavor the longer you chew is something that you can experience virtually once imbedded in your food memory.

  • The stages of salt water taffy:

Maybe not the most prominent flavor that chefs think about, but in remembrance of your youth – walking on the beach and stopping at that salt water taffy stand is something that can define an important time in your life.  Taffy has it all from a texture and chew standpoint.  The warmth of the sun makes the taffy a bit sticky to handle, but once in your mouth you will always remember the changes from a challenging chew at first to different stages of softness until it finally melts and disappears.    Incredible – imagine if chefs could re-create these stages with their dessert selections in a restaurant.

  • Al dente pasta:

Al dente – or firm to the bite defines how most pasta is designed to be eaten.  When cooked al dente – pasta is digested more slowly and thus satisfies your hunger for a longer period of time.  The firmer texture creates a more enjoyable “chew” and retains far more flavor than over-cooked pasta that bleeds out its flavor to the salted cooking water.

  • A comfortable dining room chair:

Aside from the food itself – the environment where we dine has much to do with the flavor experience.  An uncomfortable chair detracts from the process of eating and attention is placed on finding a way to relax so that dining becomes a positive respite.

  • The feel of the right flatware:

The feel and type of flatware can enhance the flavor experience if it matches the food ingredients, their preparation and their cost.  A plastic fork and knife may be perfectly acceptable for that Nathan’s hot dog and fries, but the Black Angus rib eye steak deserves a rose wood handled Henkel steak knife and heavy, long tine sterling silver fork.  The touch of the tools is part of the dish memory.

  • The delicate elegance of the right wine glass:

Wine is such a unique beverage that is impacted throughout its life by numerous environmental factors.  The struggle that the vine goes through to extract nutrients from the terrior will determine much of the grapes integrity and flavor; the process of touch as it applies to how the grapes are crushed (gravity fed or more aggressively pressed) will determine if the grapes are bruised and possibly change the deepness of flavor; the packaging for shipment of bottles will either protect or endanger the stability of the continued bottle fermentation; and the quality of the wine glass does, in fact, impact the experience of taste and aroma.  If you have never been through a Riedl glass seminar then make sure you put it on your list of “must do” experiences

Touch, texture, and chew are essential components of the dining experience and critical elements that define your food memory benchmarks.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER
Harvest America Ventures, LLC

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COOK FOR ME

17 Friday Jul 2020

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I have seen the following quote from Anthony Bourdain many times before, but today it really resonated. It is a statement so simple, yet so profound; so foundational, yet so deep and meaningful; so intriguing and so beautiful. This statement strikes a chord with every professional cook, every chef, and every entrepreneur who owns that intimate corner bistro that opens its doors to a community. This is a statement that strikes a chord with every grandparent who protects those family recipes, every parent who tries to hang on to family traditions, and every friend who seeks to find the best way to project how much they care for another person. This is a statement that resonates with everyone who seeks to demonstrate who they are and what they care about.

“When someone cooks for you – they are saying something. They are telling you about themselves: where they come from, who they are, what makes them happy.”

-Anthony Bourdain

COOK FOR ME is a request that allows the person who ties on an apron a chance to bare his or her soul, to demonstrate how heritage impacts the plate, to talk about joy and pain, memories and challenges, and the love that they have for those who will share what they present through food. This is a big ask, a personal ask, a request to have the cook reveal everything about him or herself.

Cooks never take this request lightly – it is as if the ask was similar to “tell me everything about yourself”. There are few requests that are more personal, few that are more significant, and few that help to solidify a relationship more than: “cook for me”. To a professional – this is an opportunity to shine, to give his or her all, to stand tall and put everything on the table: “This food is a reflection of me, my history, my skill, what I care about, who has influenced me, and a compilation of those experiences that have brought me to this point”.

I paused this morning when I read Bourdain’s words again because there may have never been more important words to cooks; never more telling of why, deep in their heart, a person decides to become a cook or a chef. Once you peel away the necessary layers of: “I need a career, a paycheck, a marketable skill, a way to support my family, a way to fill up my days, etc.” – underneath all of that is a desire to bare your soul, to define what makes you happy, and a way to express that to others.

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“Why do you want to become a cook”? This is a question that many will pose to you as you contemplate a career in the kitchen. Think about your answer; think seriously about how you will answer this question. If you respond by relating to a career, a paycheck, a marketable skill, a way to support your family without giving due consideration to the deeply personal meaning behind it – then you really should think twice. Yes, all of those factors are important and necessary, but they do not reveal what makes a cook a cook, a chef a chef, a restaurateur a restaurateur.

Those cooks, chefs, or restaurateurs who peer out the front window of that corner bistro – minutes before opening the door, are doing so in anticipation of bearing their heart and soul, representing their history and their experiences on a plate, and welcoming others into their space so that they can share all of this. Cook for me is such a personal request and cooking for you such a form of personal expression.

To prepare a meal for someone else is to share everything, giving the guest a chance to find out what makes you tick – a chance to reveal so much that might be missing in simple conversation.

“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”

-Anthony Bourdain

Think about those early days of building a new personal relationship. Maybe the first few experiences together were relegated to a third party: a dinner or two at your favorite restaurant, a concert, a movie, or a gathering with friends. One of the best ways to solidify whether or not the relationship has staying power is to invite that person to enjoy a meal that you prepare. This is personal, this is revealing, this is significant. Cook for me is significant.

I have had the pleasure to work with some extraordinary chefs, not always ones with names that roll off the tip of your tongue, but extraordinary all the same. I have shared incredible meals with many exceptional individuals, and I have had the opportunity to experience the work of chefs who take their role seriously and restaurateurs who live to make guests feel at home when they walk through that bistro door. Menus are a fascinating window into the character and skill of a chef, but what is most exciting to me is when I simply say to the server: “Ask the chef if he or she would just cook for me.” Make that dish on the menu that is most inspiring to the kitchen, the dish that resonates to them in the moment, the one that he or she is most proud of – or simply cook whatever you want even if it is not on the menu. I want to connect with the cook, to provide the cook with that opportunity to tell a story and open up a dialogue on the plate. This is exciting for me.

At one point as a chef, I actually put an option on the menu called: Cook for Me. Take a chance and put the entire experience in the hands of the cook and the chef. Give them a chance to be who they are through food. At times it was a diversion from the pace of meeting the demands of a full board of orders, and at other times it caused additional stress – but in all cases, cooks and chefs take the opportunity seriously. Cook for me is significant.

Anthony Bourdain hit the nail on the head when he proclaimed that cooking is a way of telling your story and revealing who you are. What a privilege it is to be a cook, a chef, or a restaurateur. What an opportunity cooking provides to tell your story and share yourself with others. That plate of food is your story, it is a painting that reflects so much about the person that you are.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER
Cooking for others is a privilege

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

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WHY I LOVE TO CALL MYSELF A COOK

08 Thursday Aug 2019

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I haven’t walked through those professional kitchen doors for quite some time now – my tenure as a chef ended a few years back. Even though I am not clocked in – I still cook every day and still reflect positively on my fifty years associated with the profession. Cooking is, and will always be, an integral part of who I am. The kitchen has always been my teacher, the environment is where I grew up and developed into the person I am. Many of my greatest life lessons materialized as I stood behind a range, over a prep table, huddled with fellow cooks during the design of a menu, in a heated discussion with a vendor, taking inventory in a walk-in freezer, chipping away at an ice carving, trying to regain calm through the eyes of an expeditor on a busy Friday night, or visiting tables of guests in the dining room. I am who I am because of my time in the kitchen.

Sure, we all have those moments when that question comes to the surface: “Why am I doing this?” There are ample examples of horrible days in the kitchen where everything goes wrong, or those times when the team just isn’t in sync. But, we quickly make up for it when everything is firing on all cylinders, when crazy busy is accompanied by fist bumps and tired smiles, and when you look at the food in the pass and know that it can rightfully carry your signature. Clean plates returning from the dining room are a source of pride that is hard to match.

In the end, there are far more memories of accomplishment and joy than disappointment and regret. The kitchen is an environment filled with energy and emotion, a place of complex feelings that would be difficult to find anywhere else. This is a special place that beckons a unique breed of individual who is just as complex as the environment where he or she works.

So, in reflection – what are some of the reasons why I can proudly say: “I love being a cook?”

[]         REPRESENTATION

There was always something special about putting both arms through a chef coat, buttoning up, folding up the sleeves, and looking in a mirror. As a chef I represented a proud history of talent, dedication, and service.

me

[]         SKILL

Every moment, every day, and every year – a cook enhances his or her skills, adds something to his or her repertoire, and becomes better at the craft. This is incredibly gratifying.

[]         CARETAKER

Cooks are the caretakers of the farmer’s work, of the fisherman’s dedication, of the rancher’s passion, of Nature’s bounty, and of the animal’s ultimate sacrifice. This is an honor and a tremendous responsibility.

[]         SURPRISE

Of course, there is a routine to cooking – yet every day brings something fresh, an occasional surprise and anticipation of what might be around the corner. It is the anticipation that makes the job of a “cook” exciting, invigorating, and sometimes unnerving. I miss that.

[]         DIVERSITY

Young, old, male, female; white, black, or brown; conservative or liberal; straight or gay; short, tall; and every religion, and every ethnicity – in a kitchen we are equal – we are one. We learn to accept, understand, and support every person’s right to be different.

[]         OPENNESS

Cooks tend to tell it like it is. Hidden feelings and opinions rarely exist. A refreshing transparency is the norm in most kitchens.

team MLI

[]         TEAM

Nothing is accomplished in a kitchen without team. It is comforting to know that the person standing next to you has your back. We win as a team or we lose as a team.

[]         ARTISTRY

What better form of art than cooking? No other art form appeals to all human senses. No other art form is critiqued so quickly – in the moment. A clean plate says it all. To a professional cook – the plate is his or her canvas, and every canvas carries his or her invisible signature.

[]         ADRENALINE

The rush is real. Unless you have functioned effectively on a busy line with tickets streaming off the printer, the expeditor calling off orders with a cadence, and line cooks responding with a succinct “yes chef”, then you don’t know what the rush feels like. Unless you have been on the edge of crashing with far too many orders bouncing around in your head, only to pull it out at the last minute – then you don’t understand the rush. Unless you have shifted your weight from foot to foot while clicking your tongs in anticipation of those first orders blasting through the kitchen at opening – then you don’t understand the rush. And unless you have experienced the feeling of that last order being placed in the pass after a record breaking evening with no returns – then you clearly don’t understand the feeling of adrenaline rushing through your system. This is the life of a cook.

[]         ENDURANCE

Forty hours is a joke to many cooks; standing on your feet for 10-12 hour shifts is a norm; bending, lifting, rapid knife work, burns and cuts, strained backs and carpel tunnel hands, swollen feet and pounding headaches from dehydration – this is what cooks endure on a daily basis. When it’s not there – it is ironically missed.

[]         HUMILITY

Just when you think you have it down, when everything is routine, and every day is a walk in the park – the kitchen will humble you with mistakes that should have been avoided. Cooks and chefs can never get too cocky.

[]         ACCOMPLISHMENT

At the end of the day when your food has been well received, when you can put that prep list to bed, when that rare customer sends back a “thanks for an incredible meal” note, or when you broke another record for customers served – there is a deep seated sense of accomplishment that can only come from work that makes you sweat, ache, and feel totally exhausted.   We did it!

angry chef

[]         SHARING and MENTORING

What we do in today’s kitchen is an open book. Showing someone else a new skill or a trick of the trade, watching that person adapt to this knowledge and succeed, getting that call two years later when he or she says: “Thanks for teaching me”, this is what makes it all worthwhile.

[]         MAKING PEOPLE HAPPY

We are not in the business of just filling stomachs – we are in the business of helping to make people happy – to put a smile on their face and to give them pause when your food is presented to them, and to introduce them to something memorable. Making people happy is our primary objective.

[]         LOOKING IN A MIRROR

When the day is done and we pull the jacket off one sleeve at a time, when we breathe deep and splash some water in our face, and when we look in a mirror – the cook in us can smile and say: “Job well done.” This is why I love being a cook – this is what I miss.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting

www.harvestamericaventures.com

www.harvestamericacues.com – BLOG

COOKING FOR THE RUSH

07 Sunday Apr 2019

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I remember when I first encountered the jazz influenced improvisational music of Eric Clapton as a member of Cream. Many of my age were in awe of the speed and almost frenzy nature of this adrenaline infused music that started with structure and then blasted away in a hundred different directions. No one really knew where Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were headed with a song (they likely didn’t even know themselves) and we all sensed at times like they were heading to the edge of the cliff. The band was feeling the rush of energy that comes from a level of synchronicity, a baseline of real skill, and the energy created by the audience and the environment in which they played.

Every accomplished young line cook in a restaurant understands this feeling and, for a period of time, thrives on the rush of the push. When those orders are ticking off at lightening speed – when your mind is able to stay ahead of the game and when your hand and body motions are able to keep up – you feel super human. Each plate that carries your signature is an affirmation of your ability as a cook, your speed and agility, your mental acuity, and your control over muscle action. At the end of the shift those endorphins are running wild and you feel super human – you could conquer the world. Of course, the rush begins to fade in a short period of time – especially if you add a few drinks to calm down after punching out.

clapton

Over time – Eric Clapton began to mature, his body aged, his mind was likely not as sharp, and his need for the rush was replaced by that reflective state that allowed him to really think about the music, to reflect on its meaning, to study its history, and to enjoy true understanding that went beyond the rush. His music was different – more nuanced where each note had a purpose and a structure that was apparent. The lyrics became as important as the notes and his guitar work was deliberate and well thought out. He was able to earn a higher level of respect from fellow musicians, and eventually shed his image as an innovator while replacing that with a standard bearer’s suit of armor. In this role he became less of a showman and more a teacher.

Those young cooks who embrace and seek out the rush will eventually mature. Their need to push the envelope in search of those endorphin rushes will, at some point, be replaced with a desire to really understand cooking, to search for flavors that take time to develop, and to research the history of a dish so that real understanding can result in better cooking. They will channel this new knowledge towards a position of maturity where the big picture is far more important than the adrenaline rush. These young cooks will eventually mature into knowledge workers and chefs.

But, in the meantime – it’s all about the rush. So what is it about the rush that is so addictive?

TELL ME HOW DO YOU FEEL? A BAKER’S DOZEN:

[]         KNOWING THAT THE TASK AT HAND IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE

Watch line cooks when they arrive at work. Although many may try to hide the level of anticipation that is gnawing away at them – we all know that it is there. Their eyes dart around the space, they reach for their prep sheet, quickly assess ingredients, jump at setting up their work area with damp towel under a cutting board so that it doesn’t slide, sharpen their knives, tie on an apron, and start the methodical process of chopping, dicing, caramelization, finishing sauces, mincing herbs, clarifying butter, trimming proteins, lining up detailed mise en place, checking pans, folding side towels, and stacking plates to complete their stations. Will they have enough time to complete everything? Will their mise hold up to the rush? Which station will get pounded tonight? Will they be on their game?

[]         MENTAL ACUITY AND THE NEED TO ORGANIZE

Staying sharp, focused, totally committed to the plate, and ready for whatever comes their way – this is foremost in a cook’s mind. They know that the answer will always be organization and that mise en place work that defined their first 2-3 hours on shift. If they are prepped then the world is good – if not, then they are facing a load of uncertainty. When they are ready to play then that positive adrenaline is building up steam.

[]         ANXIETY AND THAT FEELING OF AHHHHHH!

Some may think that anxiety is a negative- but line cooks are able to use it to their advantage. The exhilaration of knowing that you could end up victorious or fall off the cliff is energizing and unnerving at the same time.

[]         THE ENERGY BOOST

If you are a runner, or exercise junkie you know how incredible it is to reach that point in your workout when those chemical endorphins kick in. It’s like punching the accelerator on your car and feeling that turbo jump into action pushing you back against the seat, and the jump of the car as it lurches forward with a new boost of energy. Cook’s feel the same thing at some point during a shift. It might happen close to opening if your mise en place is 98% done and you have to find the energy to tighten everything up, or it might not kick in until the tickets start flying off the POS, but at some point it will be there. Cook’s seek this out – this is what brings them back time and again for those 12-hour shifts.

[]         FEELING THE POSSIBILITY

Every cook thrives on goals. Pushing to hit those goals is a personal competition that is intoxicating. To be 100% ready at opening, to stay keenly organized throughout service, to run the busiest station, to top the number of guests served last night, to run through service without any re-fires – these are all goals that cook’s have on their active wish list every night.

[]         AFFIRMATION OF SKILLS

Cooks are proud of their skill set. They are in the game because they have a proven track record of sharpened abilities. The more they know how to do, the quicker their response, the more they can accomplish without sacrificing quality, the more charged they become about their status on the kitchen team.

[]         HANGING THE PICTURE ON THE REFRIGERATOR

Not too dissimilar to that early student experience of bringing home a classroom accomplishment to the praise and pride shown by parents – the cook inherently loves to present a beautiful plate of food in the pass for peers, servers, and eventually guests to admire. This is the fuel that every great line cook needs.

[]         I’VE GOT THE RYTHYM

If you could step back and simply watch a line of cooks working through a push of orders you would be reminded of the grace of classical music and the syncopation of jazz dance.   This is energy and orchestrated motion.

cooks

[]         HIGH VOLTAGE TEAMWORK

Wow – this is so fluid – line cooks working as a seamless unit where communication is a nod or point of a finger, where chatter is minimal, but non-verbal clues result in a plate of food coming together in such a natural way, where acknowledgements are as simple as “yes chef”. This is super-charged teamwork.

[]         LIVING ON THE EDGE – THE THREAT OF SUDDEN DOOM

Like a daredevil skier positioned on the precipice of a steep vertical drop, every line cook knows that every moment on the line provides an opportunity to cut a perfect run or tumble with skis flying and their body buried in granular face burning snow. As scary as this seems – cooks are rarely risk averse.

[]         BLISS AND PRIDE

Cooks thrive on the pride of well-prepared food, of trouncing a big rush of orders, of making guests happy and of exceeding the chef’s expectations. The feelings associated with this are truly intoxicating.

[]         PHYSICAL STRENGTH FOLLOWED BY PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION

Like a great workout, both extremes are invigorating. That super-human rush of strength to get through a busy night and the total depletion of energy that follows are gratifying experiences.

[]         THE ADDICTION THAT HAUNTS YOU

The irony of all of these roller coaster feelings is that once you experience them they become the drug that brings you back for more. Cooks live for the rush, thrive on the rush, and seek it out time and again.

Know your cooks, understand their needs, feed the adrenaline, but help them to mature as technicians and artists.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

www.harvestamericaventures.com

 

COOKING MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT LIFE SKILL

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

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As members of an advanced society we stress over many things – to most the skills necessary to survive, thrive, and contribute to society rank above all else – some might even say that learning how to make a difference is at the top of the list. We invest heavily in formal education and acknowledge the value of informal education (our experiences), but how accurate are we at placing levels of importance on those skills that seem dispensable?

Dispensable skills are those that can be replaced through delegation or by simply viewing what they represent in the same fashion as any commodity. Do we need to learn how to repair things when we can simply replace them? Do we need to learn how to build anything when we can simply hire a contractor? Do we need to read and research when we can simply Google a question and wait a second or two for the answer? Do we really need to learn how to cook when we can visit a restaurant, order our food by mail, or make a call to Uber Eats? So many skills have become obsolete in a matter of a decade or so – we have become numb to the thought of protecting what may very well be even more important today than it was in the past.

Think about the list of skills that are no longer on anyone’s radar:

  • We don’t teach young people how to tell time when watches have digital displays
  • We don’t teach people how to make change when the register tells them how much to return to the guest
  • We don’t teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables when we have calculators
  • We no longer teach cursive penmanship since everything is typed on a word processor
  • A large percentage of contemporary musicians do not know how to read or write music tablature
  • Tying shoes is replaced by Velcro
  • Writing checks and balancing your account is passé as long as we carry a debit card
  • And even though our kitchens are filled with nifty gadgets, a significant portion of the U.S. population wouldn’t even attempt to buy fresh ingredients and prepare a dish from their family history

Now some may say that this is progress and we must learn to give up the old for the benefits of what is new. But sometimes a lack of understanding how to perform tasks that were so commonplace just a few decades ago can have far reaching implications.

So, why do I state that cooking might be one of the most important life skills in a person’s repertoire? Let’s just think about the benefits of taking raw materials and creating a dish for the senses:

  • One of the most important unifying moments in the day of a family is that time when everyone can sit down and enjoy a meal that was prepared by someone who truly cares about their wellbeing and life moments. When those meals regularly come from a delivery box, a microwave oven re-heat, or even the tray from a restaurant server-then what is lost?
  • Those moments of celebration whether they be holidays, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, or reunions have always been accentuated by the joy of cooking together, sharing stories, laughing, clinking glasses, and sitting down together to break bread. How can this be replaced?
  • True understanding of the farmers craft, the food memory triggered by your sense of smell that signals when a melon is ripe, the snap of a bean that signifies maturity, or the sweet and warm aroma of a vine ripened tomato being sliced in July for that Salad Caprese; the feel of bread dough being kneaded, the comfort of a balanced knife in the cook’s hand, the smell of caramelizing onions, carrots and celery for a mirepoix; the deep aroma of a roast in the oven or a sauce reducing on the stovetop are some of the most memorable experiences of your life. What happens when those experiences are no longer part of a person’s life cycle? What is lost?
  • When people disagree, feel deep seated anger, lack understanding of each others opinion, shy away from each other’s differences rather than celebrate them, or seem to reach an impasse when it comes to negotiations – it has always been a wonderful plate of food prepared by those who care and the subsequent opportunity to share in a meal that seems to bridge the gap. What happens when this is no longer an option?
  • No matter what we gain in life in terms of success, no matter how rich or poor, regardless of the accolades that come our way – it is our health that really counts. Food and proper cooking is the key to health.

Cooking, when a person is comfortable with the skills necessary for success, can be one of the most enjoyable tasks. Those who have not been afforded this opportunity will always suffer from the loss of connection to the tangible and intangible benefits of the process. From my way of thinking: “Can you cook” should be a required question on any job application, a precursor to making a business deal with some one, part of the contract for marriage, and certainly a requirement for parenthood.

“Every kid in every school no matter their background, deserves to learn the basics about food – where it comes from, how to cook it, and how it affects their bodies.  These life skills are as important as reading and writing, but they’ve been lost over the past few generations. We need to bring them back and bring up our kids to be streetwise about food.”

-Jamie Oliver

To those of us who cook for a living – what a wonderful gift we have been given. Each day we have an opportunity to make a difference in our own lives and those of others around us. Cooking is a true-life skill.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

www.harvestamericaventures.com

 

 

MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR BEING A CULINARY TRADITIONALIST

09 Monday Jul 2018

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It seems that too often, in conversations with those younger cooks who have some level of serious interest in a kitchen career, that food talk is all about experimentation. I have lost track of the number of culinary students who (and I paraphrase here) state: “When are we going to move on from the basics of cooking and start working with spherification and other forms of molecular gastronomy.” Many of these students view time spent with cooking foundations, the study of tradition and ethnic influences on cuisine, and the importance of knowing what ingredients are indigenously important to building time-tested dishes, as repetitive and uninspiring. Well, I will admit it right now – I am a proud traditionalist and make no apologies for it.

This is not to say that I am, or thousands of other traditionalist chefs are adverse to creativity – in fact, just the opposite is true. Thomas Keller is a traditionalist (and proud of it), David Chang from Momufuko is a traditionalist and so is Eric Ripert of LeBernadin, Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Marcus Samuelsson from Red Rooster, Charlie Palmer of Aureole, Daniel Boulud of Daniel, Charles Phan from the Slanted Door, and Gary Danko from Restaurant Gary Danko, as well as thousand of other very successful chefs across the globe. What do they know? They know what guests respond to and they know that the food they prepare is flavored with history, methodical dedication to solid technique, and refined by master technicians for generations. Each of these dishes, and all of the creative variations of them tells a story, a story that people want to hear. None of these chefs make apologies for being traditionalists.

“Simple food doesn’t mean simplistic. It requires a healthy dose of skill and hard work.”

-Tom Colicchio

I would dare say (without any type of scientific polling) that every certified master chef in the U.S. is a traditionalist at heart and in practice. Foundational cooking and traditional preparations take years to perfect. Talent for these chefs comes in the form of patience and repetition. Read about the ingredients, build your skills, prepare it over and over, build your flavor palate, reflect back on the history of the dish and the culture behind it, compare it to others who have dedicated their lives to preparing it correctly, and know that you may never stop fine tuning that dish until it is right. A perfect Bolognese is a thing of beauty, but most Italian chefs will tell you that their sauce is not right until their grandmother says so. It may seem passé to some new cooks, but a perfectly prepared Veal Picatta will always be a crowd pleaser. Why is it that French onion soup still appears on so many menus? Because if prepared correctly it is truly delicious, and delicious is gratifying, and delicious sells! Don’t ever apologize for being a traditionalist – just make sure you dedicate yourself to doing it correctly.

“You either make the food right or you don’t.”

-Daniel Boulud

Great cooks and accomplished chefs invest the time to understand the food that they prepare. They study a cuisine and what makes it “traditional”. They don’t prepare French, Italian, Korean, African, or Yucatan cuisine – they become one with the food. They know the ingredients and how they are grown; they become familiar with the farmer and the producer; they study the way that vegetables are cut and why this is important; they know the steps that are associated with a cuisine and how the flavors are built; they understand timing, what wines balance the flavors, how seasonality can change a dish, why salt is added during or at the end of cooking and how certain spices change dramatically when heat is applied; they know why it is important to use a certain pot or pan and how failure to do so will likely change the dish; and they take pride in staying true to all of this information and process. Yes, they are traditionalists and they know that it takes time and dedication to get there.

There is great satisfaction in earning the right to make a dish and place it’s name on a chef’s menu. This privilege doesn’t come from following a recipe, but rather from truly knowing the dish and everything about it and then enjoying the process.

“Something magical happens when food is cooking – the rest of the world melts away, and nothing exists except what’s in the skillet in front of you – and it talks, breathes, and lives. The sounds, aromas, textures, flavors, and the heat of the kitchen – even the occasional searing burn – feel good.”

  • Donald Link

There is and will always be value in cutting edge process and anything “new” in a restaurant that defies the established standard. There is always room for the enjoyment of food as entertainment and I fully understand why many cooks find this fascinating and exciting, but as Chef Andre Soltner once said: “We must remember that we are all cooks” and it is important to understand that behind even the most avant garde chef’s desire to push the envelope and express him or herself in ways that make people wonder and applaud creativity, there lies a cook who understands the foundations and has the capacity to always rely on traditionalism.

Take pride in the foundations and in classic dishes and know that they are timeless for a reason. Never lose sight of what it takes to make these dishes correctly and never apologize for your traditionalist roots.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

**Photo by: Kristin Parker

 

COOKING THROUGH THE SENSES – THE CHEF’S UNIQUE SKILL

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

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We are familiar with the human senses and likely understand that they are all connected as individuals try to distinguish flavor and the experience of eating. As cooks we know that there are many more opportunities for people to distinguish smells than tastes, that texture impacts how our mouths separate the experience of one ingredient or dish from another, and fully appreciate that the visual impact of food is paramount to the guest experience. We might even appreciate that certain sounds that encase foods can stimulate the appetite – the crunch of a potato chip, the sizzle sound of a steak or onions on a grill, and even the snap of an apple picked in late September at the peak of its growth cycle. What me might take for granted is how sophisticated a cook’s senses become as they aspire to the position of chef and make their mark on the culinary arts.

If you stop and think about the acuity of a chef’s senses you will discover one of the true distinctions between a cook and a chef. Time and experience will help fine-tune a cook’s senses to the point where they become one of the greatest tools in his or her kitchen arsenal.

[]         A BAKER FEELS FLOUR FOR ITS STRUCTURE POTENTIAL

A baker develops a special relationship with the ingredients at his or her disposal and develops the ability to determine a great deal through the sense of touch. Sifting through a baker’s fingers – flour is evaluated to determine how well it will absorb liquid and what its structure potential might be. Flour is never a product of definitive consistency and it is up to the baker to tap into this sense of touch and adjust how the ingredient is approached. Until this sense is developed over time the end product will likely be plagued with inconsistency. At the end of baking – a light tap on the bottom of a loaf reveals the hollow sound signifying a finish to the baking process.

[]         A CHEF CAN DETERMINE IF A SAUTE ITEM IS ON TRACK BY THE SOUNDS IN           THE PAN

Walking through a busy production kitchen – the chef must be able to assess what is going on, determine how well cooks are approaching methods and techniques, and how products will reach their intended outcome. Each process reveals a great deal through the senses – one in particular is this sense of sound.   When a protein hits a sauté pan the chef will be able to tell, even from a distance away, whether or not the pan is hot enough to produce that essential caramelization enhancing flavor and whether or not this same protein will dance and slide during cooking or stick to the pan leaving it’s real flavor stuck to the metal. A chef’s ears are always tuned-in to these sounds, keeping track of how dedicated each cook is to correct process.

[]         THE SMELL OF CARAMELIZATION

By far, the most acute sense is smell. Over time, we are trained to distinguish certain smells as positive or negative and can, through experience, quickly assess a smell and determine the ingredient and the process being used. A chef will know if those onions are caramelizing or burning, if the oil is too hot for garlic, if the oil in the deep fryer is in need of changing, if those sliced almonds or pignoli are on the verge of burning in the oven, if it is too late to save the bacon, when bread is perfect and even when a coffee pot has been left to dry on a brew burner. The chef’s sense of smell is always on high alert.

[]         THE SNAP OF A GREEN BEAN

How will those vegetables taste once prepared? How can a cook tell if produce is acceptable from a vendor or not? Each vegetable has a story to tell and the chef has read those stories many times. Do those green beans snap signifying their freshness, does the apple crack open with first bite, the sound of a French knife slicing through an onion will talk to it’s power, the resistance of a potato to being cut into pommes frites will signal it’s sugar content, and the firmness of a grape reveals how well it was stored and when it might have been picked. The textures and sounds of produce speak a universal language to a chef pointing those responsible for cooking in the right direction.

[]         THE TOUCH OF A STEAK

One of the most tactile positions in the kitchen is that of the grill cook. Some may say that the only surefire way to determine degree of doneness is with a thermometer – yet a highly experienced grill master can delineate a perfect medium rare from medium with the touch of a finger. At this stage the cook has become one with the meat – he or she understands how the muscle works and the give of that muscle will send a message of doneness through the cooks fingers to the brain. The grill cook knows, through the sense of touch, just how long the steak or chop needs to rest before cooking, understands when to turn the steak to get the perfect grill marks without impacting the continuity of doneness throughout the meat, and can quickly assess how much longer it will take that meat to reach it’s intended outcome. This is mastery of the sense of touch.

[]         THE VISUALS

The visuals of food are important to the chef. From the standpoint of understanding the ingredient – the chef will be able to determine how fresh the ingredient was to begin with, how it was handled, whether or not the cook followed proper technique, and how flavorful the final dish will be without ever sampling the results. When a chef stands at the pass as expeditor – he or she is able to immediately assess all of those factors in a split second, wipe the rim, adjust the fresh herb garnish and transfer the plate to a waiting server knowing full well that the product meets the standards of the operation.

[]         THE SIGHT OF AN EMULSIFICATION WHEN IT HAS REACHED ITS ABSORPTION

Egg yolks will only absorb so much clarified butter, the right amount oil and egg yolks will marry in a perfect mayonnaise, a beurre blanc is sensitive to the right proportions, and egg whites will reach their peak as a meringue, but can quickly fall if the process carries on too long. All of these simple, yet sensitive products rely heavily on not just recipes, but more importantly the cook’s visual interpretation of the right proportions and the timing of incorporation. The longer a person cooks, the more astute this assessment becomes.

[]         WHAT IS THAT FLAVOR – DOES THIS DISH BRING EVERYTHING TOGETHER THROUGH THE SENSE OF TASTE?

I remember talking with a friend who is an accomplished flavorist and owner of a flavor company. I started the conversation with the assumption that his lab would be totally dependent on tools like a gas chromatograph to separate the chemical components of an ingredient or a taste to figure out how to replicate it and computer modeling to build a formula to that end. Yes, he had all of those tools, but he told me that a flavorist relies on his or her palate more than any other tool.

The chef doesn’t have access to the equipment of the flavorist, but he or she does have a palate – the tool developed over many years of tasting and assessing. A seasoned cook (no pun intended) is able to taste a product and define its components and what might be missing in achieving a flavor goal. Like a master sommelier for wine – the chef is able to pull together the senses of smell, touch, sight, sound, and taste to evaluate a dish and establish a protocol of adjustment or evaluate a raw material and determine how it will be addressed in cooking and menu planning.

Some cooks are born with well defined olfactory senses and taste buds, but this gift without multiple experiences with tasting and building flavor benchmarks is somewhat wasted. Cooks need time and exposure to be able to fine-tune the most important tools that a chef relishes – the tools of human senses.

PLAN BETTEER – TRAIN HARDER

Patience and Experience Help to Define the Chef

Restaurant Consulting and Training

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

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THE LINE COOK’S ADRENALINE RUSH

11 Saturday Nov 2017

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What is it about working the line in a busy restaurant that is so attractive to cooks? Why, with all of the challenges that a career in the kitchen brings are people, especially those who are younger, willing to set those challenges aside for the experience of standing in front of a battery of full-throttle ranges? The answer goes beyond the enjoyment of creating, beyond the pleasures derived from cooking, and far beyond the experience of working in a team – the answer is the adrenaline rush.

“A feeling of excitement, stimulation and enhanced physical ability produced when the body secretes large amounts of adrenaline in response to a sudden perceived or induced stress situation.”

-Collins Dictionary

Those who have worked in this environment in the past or who tie on an apron today know exactly what I am referring to, but to those who are scratching their heads – here is a depiction of what it is like for many line cooks.

  1. THE WAKE UP

It would be nice to say that cooks can separate their work from the rest of their lives, but the intensity of line work typically weighs pretty heavy on those who take on the role. Knowing the shear amount of work required to “get ready”, the unpredictability of how the night will go, and anticipation of the pressure that unfolds as tickets start spitting off the POS printer is difficult to push out of your mind. Wake-up brings with it an active mind as well as a few knots in a line cook’s stomach.

  1. PREP AND ANTICIPATION

The adrenaline begins to build on the way to work as a line cook wrestles mentally with what might lay ahead. Walking through the back door and changing into hounds-tooth pants and white jacket a cook begins the quick pace of station prep. Staple items were likely prepped during the early shift: stocks, clarified butter, braised items, roasts in the oven, vegetables peeled, shrimp peeled, steaks cut, etc. What is left is all of the finish and detail work: sauces, mincing herbs, blanching and shocking vegetables, seasoning pans, blanching pommes frites, picking scallops, trimming steaks, setting up station maps – details, details. The line cook likely arrived before the shift began just to stay ahead of the game. The 3-4 hours before service fly by quickly as anxiety builds. The last hour is when the adrenaline kicks in allowing the cook to pick up the pace and feel that high similar to when those endorphins kick in for distance runners.

  1. CLUTCH TIME

Those last few minutes before the dining room opens are filled with a mix of doubt and gratification: “Will I be ready? Yes – I’m loaded for bear and ready to rock out!” That mix of angst and being set is likely similar to what a professional football or baseball player feels just before running out on the field.

  1. PRE-MEAL TENSION

Those last few minutes are taken up with the chef checking stations and tasting sauces to those last minute questions from service staff during pre-meal. Line cooks that are ready can sense a bit of calm come over them while those who still have details to attend to are really on edge.

  1. THE GAME BEGINS

Watching a line at this point is interesting – cooks are on their toes, maybe pacing or bouncing a bit, tongs are clicking together, large amounts of water or Gatorade are being consumed, and side towels are folded and refolded. Everyone is waiting for the sound of the printer tapping out those first orders. A few minutes after the restaurant opens the orders begin to trickle in – the line is ready, on it, locked and loaded, anxious, willing and able. Everyone knows the pace will quicken soon, but that adrenaline friend is waiting just below the surface, ready to kick into full battle mode.

  1. THAT IMPOSSIBLE WINDOW

Typically around the 7 p.m. mark restaurants are really humming. This is prime time, the real deal, a time when all hell breaks loose and every cook knows that there is a fine line between a well-orchestrated evening and disaster. Adrenaline is a requirement now – remember – the cook has already put in a good six hours in of non-stop work. Line cooks are sweating, the expeditor is calling out orders at a frantic clip, cooks are responding back with order acknowledgement, flames are leaping from pans and lapping around steaks on the grill, sauté pans bang on the range top, oven doors open and close constantly, and plates are assembled, moved up to the pass and finished by the expeditor always looking for servers to move items out to tables. There it is – Mr. Adrenaline kicks in! Suddenly the fog seems to dissipate, the cook’s focus is pinpoint perfect, all extraneous conversation is blocked out, and the line begins to resemble the efficiency of an assembly line and the grace of an orchestra reaching the pinnacle of a piece of music. Muscles are back to peak performance, heartbeats increase, those aching feet seem to be fine at the moment, and despite the intensity of service a smile comes over the cook’s face. This is what the cook lives for – this is the action that brings a cook back every day.

  1. WINDING DOWN IS IMPOSSIBLE

As the witching hour passes, as the printer seems to kick into slow mode and the expeditor turns over the reins to the other side of the line – every cook feels almost more nervous than when the line was over-extended. This is actually when mistakes are made because the body and mind are still working at 7 p.m. chaos speed not willing to try and slow down. Cook’s start to fill in spare seconds with a little prep for the next day, cleaning, and self-assessment of tonight’s performance. It will likely take a good hour or so after the dining room closes before the line cooks punch, at the same time Mr. Adrenaline keeps whispering in the cook’s ear that he is not ready to pull back on the energy. This is why cooks typically continue the action at a local bar for the next couple hours to try and put the body’s gasoline to rest. They have little choice – the fire is still burning and it will take time to whimper out.

  1. DECOMPRESS AND A CLEAN SLATE

An hour into after work activities every line cook begins to decompress, put water on the fire, and pass the time with stories about the night’s service. For the first time today the line cook is able to stop stressing about what will come and relax just a bit. Mr. Adrenaline can be put to bed for another day. The cook knows that the work was made easier with this assistance and depends that this friend will arrive on time again tomorrow.

  1. REWIND

Finally the cook crashes to bed and maybe a few hours of sleep – tomorrow will be more of the same and with the help of adrenaline another high-energy night will be a success. As tired as the cook might be he or she continues to relish how this energy-laden window of time on the line provides a sense of satisfaction – something to seek out again, and again.

This type of cooking is as much sport as it is art, as much borderline high anxiety as it is discipline – this is the flash of excitement that pulls cooks to the kitchen line.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

Restaurant Consulting and Training

COOKING AND ALL THAT JAZZ

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

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I have often compared serious cooking to the free-form interpretations of jazz musicians. Since at the core of jazz you can always find the foundations of a melody there is a baseline of discipline that allows the improvisation of jazz music to mimic the feelings of the musician. So too there is discipline and improvisation in the kitchen.

 “Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.”

-Paul Simon

I was struck this week by the significance of another great musician who passed away far too early. Walter Becker of Steely Dan was a masterful musician who understood the cadence and the hook necessary to bring a solid song from good to memorable in the same way that an accomplished cook or chef understands how to drive the foundations of solid cooking to another level with cadence and a hook – in this case the cadence is the sequence of steps in cooking and the hook is that splash of unique flavor signature and the sizzle of presentation. Good music becomes great in the hands of a comfortable master, as does a plate of food transition to something that can become a benchmark experience in the hands of an accomplished cook.

Steely Dan created music that was deep and edgy, yet fun and catchy through their dedication to syncopation, tone, perfection and interjection of jazz undertones that gave musicians a chance to contribute in a unique way. Walter Becker with Donald Fagan wrote catchy and edgy lyrics and Walter added those foundations that gave their music longevity. Bringing in a rotating cadre of incredibly accomplished musicians to his team – Walter, just like a chef, was able to create musical experiences and comfortable shuffles that made Steely Dan a musicians band.

So here is the fun part – when you listen to the following sampling of musicians who, like great chefs, have total mastery of their instruments, make sure that you turn up the volume and listen intently for the similarities to a night on the kitchen line when everything is in sync, when everyone plays their station like these musicians play their instruments, and feel what it’s like to be in the zone.

“The rules of improvisation apply beautifully to life. Never say no – you have to be interested to be interesting, and your job is to support your partners.”

-Scott Adsit

First is Bernard Purdie who most people may never have heard of, but real musicians know Bernard to be one of the greatest studio drummers around. He worked with a who’s who list of extraordinary musicians and in this case with Steely Dan on many of their most memorable tunes. He convinced Walter Becker to let him add the Bernard Shuffle to songs on the albums – Gaucho and Aja. Watch and listen how he explains his skill and think of how there are so many connections to the mastery a great line cook displays.

Bernard Purdie – The Bernard Shuffle

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ldtieSEyQM

Next see how Walter Becker and company brings one of their compositions to life in this live performance on the Letterman Show. I am always inspired by how similar the chemistry of a tight band can parallel how a kitchen line works in total symmetry.

Steely Dan – Josie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NdYkxd0U-c

Stanley Clarke is, in my mind, one of the top five bass players of all time. He is a serious, professionally trained musician who is able to meld with his instrument as is evident in this live solo on upright bass. Think of how a cook or chef is able to find this same sense of oneness with his or her knives. Watch a butcher handle a boning knife while breaking down a primal section of an animal or a fish butcher fillet an 80 pound tuna with absolute ease, or marvel at a prep cook slicing a 50 pound bag of onions in the blink of an eye or masterfully flute a mushroom for steak garnish. Mastery is mastery and in all cases, musician or cook, understanding process and foundations first is critical. How the chef or the player bends this process to create that unique signature is pure jazz. Listen to Stanley play from his heart and soul.

Stanley Clarke solo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkktgU4co-w

Finally, just as contemporary cooks and chefs continue to experiment with how food might be viewed, handled, manipulated, and presented, so too are there musicians who use the essence of jazz to take their craft in new directions that go beyond what others may think is possible. Jeff Beck is quite possibly the most prolific guitar player around. He has been able to merge blues, rock, jazz, and even classical influences into his playing and in the process become so unique that others shake their heads in wonder. He has been referred to as a master of tone. I look at Beck as the musical equivalent of Ferran Adria or Grant Achatz. Hang on as you listen to this incredible live performance with Tal Wilkenfeld who is considered the best female bass player around.

Jeff Beck and Tal Wilkenfeld

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXv54DfJ3bI

Regardless of the musical genre or the approach towards interpretive cuisine musicians and chefs all work from a pure understanding and appreciation of the foundations of their craft. Their total understanding of their craft and their tools allows them to adapt the jazz formula of improvisation creating a signature that is truly one of a kind.

Walter Becker was a musician who could inspire anyone, in any profession to dedicate themselves – seeking perfection and the comfort that comes from getting close to that goal. Steely Dan’s music was all of that – perfection and comfort. As cooks and chefs we can find inspiration in many things – art, nature, literature, and music are just a few examples of those components of life that can help a cook find his or her niche and unique expression.

I would encourage any cook to refrain from seeking inspiration only from those within the specific field of cooking, but rather align with the vision and dedication of others outside of the kitchen that have made excellence an integral part of their identity.

Rest in Peace Walter Becker and thanks for the inspiration.

musicians

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

 

 

 

 

A COOK DEEP IN THOUGHT

12 Wednesday Jul 2017

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If you are a restaurant cook – how often have you paused to think: “Why am I doing this”? Every cook understands that there is a balance of good, bad, and ugly with most careers, but at times it does seem like the cook’s job leans a lot more towards the bad and ugly. So, why do we do this? There is a part of every cook that believes that continuing to do what they do is an example of self-inflicted pain. Is it possible that we even enjoy this personal torture – you know – the hours, the social isolation, the physical work, the heat, the cuts and burns, the stress? It is worth a little study to try and figure out what makes a cook tick.

I have suggested in the past that most career cooks don’t necessarily choose this career path – it chooses them. The inference is that certain people are made to cook; it might even be a predetermined genetic abnormality.   Putting aside the bad and the ugly for a moment, the person called cook is quite unique in many regards – a kind of casserole of traits, skills, and aptitudes baked into his or her profile. Think about those unique characteristics for a moment:

CAREER COOKS ARE:

[]         DISCIPLINED (at least in the kitchen)

We show up ready to produce, follow the rules of the game from sanitation to product handling, from how to hold and sharpen a knife to how each product is addressed with the edge, we practice the foundations of cooking that have been handed down from generation to generation, set-up our stations in precisely the same manner every day, speak to each other in the language of the kitchen, and address the kitchen leader with a simple: “Yes chef!” Aside from the military and professional sports, you would be hard put to find a career more disciplined than cooking.

[]         HIGHLY CRITICAL OF THEIR OWN WORK

The chef and the customer may or may not point to flaws in a cook’s preparations and presentations, but if they do they pale in comparison to a cook’s own assessment of the work done. It is this intense self-assessment that drives cooks to always improve, but also remain emotionally impacted by any comment that points to errors or inadequacy.

[]         OBLIVIOUS TO THE EXCESSIVE HOURS REQUIRED OF THE POSITION

Cook’s may complain about excessive hours, but at the same time they accept that it is what is required. Those shifts that have a start time and open-ended finish time driven by how customers order and the start time that always means “show up earlier if you want to get the work done” have become part of the gig. It may be wrong in the eyes of some, but it does go with the turf.

[]         ABLE TO WITHSTAND EXCESSIVE HEAT AND COUNTLESS HOURS ON THEIR FEET

Career cooks can endure the hours associated with the job, but 100 plus degree temperatures, crippling humidity, and those 12-hour shifts standing on the flats of their feet can become an exercise similar to a boxer in the ring. Cooks are able to tough it out and look like they just went 8 rounds with a welterweight champion.

[]         PROBLEM SOLVERS

Seasoned cooks are able to solve dozens of problems every shift without even giving them a second thought. Unlike other problem solvers who might need time to reflect on various approaches to a challenge, cooks don’t have the time for reflection. Cooks simply rely on their experience and instinct to act in a manner that will avert chaos and disaster.

[]         OBSESSIVE ABOUT DETAILS

Once that confidence that defines a cook is realized he or she becomes totally focused on the details of cooking, station set-up, plate presentation, and flavor. It happens at some point – the cook can no longer accept mediocrity no matter how small the detail. This is a gift and a curse, but it is part of a cook’s makeup.

[]         HIGHLY CREATIVE AND HAVE A NEED TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES

As I have expressed many times, one of the most interesting characteristics of serious cooks is their desire and need to be creative. Sometimes this is contrary to their need for discipline, but even discipline can exhibit creativity. Cooks need to experiment, challenge themselves, perfect a dish, and eventually put their signature on a dish that proclaims their work. Like all artists, the cook is never satisfied with what they have created and constantly strives to work on ways to improve.

[]         PROTECTORS OF THE CRAFT

The media enjoys pointing to those cooks and chefs who are pushing the craft in different directions, but even those explorers have a deep commitment to established methods and flavor profiles. Career cooks know that the ability to create will always depend on a respect for what came before. Serious cooks embrace this reality and work every day to protect the standards of a centuries old craft.

pans

[]         PROUD OF THE PROFESSION EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY NOT ALWAYS ADMIT IT

Like any other profession with a strong history, cooks do feel pride in the uniform of the kitchen and what it stands for, they are proud of those cooks and chefs who make a difference, and are very comfortable telling others what they do for a living. As a friend of mine once stated: “There has never been a better time in America to be a cook or a chef.”

[]        HIGHLY COMPETITIVE and GOAL ORIENTED

Career cooks are, by nature, highly competitive people. They compete with numbers (guest meals served, sales, food cost, number of features served, Trip Advisor rating, number of diamonds from AAA), they compete in a friendly manner with their co-workers (how busy their station was compared to others), but most importantly they compete with themselves (how prepared they are, the quality of their prep, the taste of their dishes, the reaction of guests to the appearance of their food). Competition can be very healthy and is usually a trait that helps a restaurant continually grow and improve.

[]         ABLE TO RESPOND TO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN DEMAND

There are some restaurants whose business is very predictable, but most find that swings in business from day to day and hour to hour are anything but predictable. Career cooks have the ability to go from 10 miles an hour to 60 at the drop of a hat. This is an invaluable skill that every restaurant depends on.

[]         MASTERS OF THE SENSES

Finally, career cooks have developed acute sensual perception that allows them to adjust seasoning, embellish on aroma, perfect textures, and stimulate the sense of sight with magnificent food that gives the guest pause as they simply say: “Wow”. This is a skill set that comes with experience, but is built on an innate ability to understand how all of the senses marry into an experience.

Of course the job of a cook is insanely difficult at times, unforgiving of mistakes, somewhat unpredictable, team dependent, poorly compensated for the skill and effort, and even dangerous – but, most career cooks will put those things aside and reflect on the “good” that brings them back day after day. Isn’t it ironic that a career with such polar opposite feelings of love and hate can be a beacon that attracts so many to a life on the range? This gives credibility to the belief that some are genetically predisposed to put on a chef’s coat and apron and say: “Bring it on!”

PLAN BETTER –TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

THE WELL-SEASONED COOK

30 Sunday Apr 2017

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What is it about food that stops people in their tracks? What single characteristic about the food that we consume is literally addictive? What is the most important part of the formula for a successful restaurant that attracts return customers and new customers and builds a reputation that will carry the operation for a long time? The answer is flavor. This does not take away from all of the other important components that must be in place: great service, an ambience that is conducive to exciting or comfortable dining, great food presentations, solid marketing, cost controls, effective training, and so on, but flavor is what drives people to a restaurant and builds the word-of-mouth reputation that will allow a restaurant to thrive.

So, with this understanding in mind, why is it that so many operations fail to invest the energy, time, and resources in understanding, building, and maintaining the type of flavors that set a restaurant apart? Could it be that many restaurateurs and chefs don’t really understand flavor? Could it be that a dependence on recipes without a strong foundation in taste and flavor is problematic? Could it be that cooks resist the most basic methodology for building correct flavors in a dish: “taste-season-taste”?

A cook’s palate is quite variable and very complicated. Just as an exceptional sommelier must not only spend years developing the ability to distinguish the nuances in flavor between regions, vineyards, and grapes; so too must a cook invest the same time and effort in building his or her “buds”. Additionally, a person’s palate can leave a sommelier or a cook at an advantage or disadvantage in this process. Taste and flavor is complicated, but it is extremely important.

Let there be no misunderstanding – if a dish does not taste exceptional it will not inspire, nor will customers support and promote your operation to others. Chefs, cooks, managers, and owners need to be focused on this fact.

So, let’s take a look at some facts about understanding flavor that must be at the forefront of everyone’s thought process:

[]         SEASONALITY AND MATURITY OF INGREDIENTS IS IMPORTANT

Unless you have bitten into an heirloom tomato freshly picked off the vine in the mid-July sun then you have not truly tasted tomato. The difference between a June local strawberry and one shipped from New Mexico in February is dramatic. August corn sweetened by the sun is heads above an ear that somehow appears in April from cold storage. Melons that are prematurely harvested so that they travel better and last longer on grocery store shelves are not even worth serving, and an avocado that is still a week away from maturity pales in comparison to the soft, sweet and savory taste and texture of one that is ready for that perfect guacamole.

When restaurants serve items out of season or prior to maturity then the consequence is something that fails on the flavor scale and does little to build a restaurant’s reputation for exceptional food. Allowing Mother Nature to do her good work will always serve a restaurant well.

[]         SEASONING CHANGES WITH THE APPLICATION OF HEAT

Seasoning a dish to the end game before the cooking process is complete will result in a dish that clouds the palate with excess. Many spices, in particular, increase in potency through the cooking process. In particular, peppers and spices such as curries, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice will act differently through the various stages of cooking. To this end, many seasonings are best applied at the end of the cooking process where they can be controlled.

spice 2

[]         DRIED SPICES LOSE THEIR AROMA AND FLAVOR WITH TIME AND HEAT

Proper storage of dried spices and herbs is as important as proper storage of more perishable foods. Heat, light, and time is not a friend of dried herbs and spices, yet in most kitchens these items are stored where all of these factors are present. That gallon container of dried oregano or basil that sits on your shelf for a year or so is not a bargain at any price.

[]         HEAT IS NOT ALWAYS A FAN OF FLAVOR

Currently, diners seem to be infatuated with the “heat” of spice that is derived from peppers. The chain of thought seems to be: “No pain – no gain”. Flavor should not hurt! Some peppers are not appropriate for anyone to consume. Ghost peppers that burn your mouth, esophagus, and stomach are not part of food enjoyment they are really more a part of a game of dares. Other peppers that are more subdued on the Scovil Scale are improperly used and as such focus on the pain of heat rather than the joy of flavor. Roasting those peppers, removing the seeds and pith, will allow the true pepper flavor to come through rather than inflict discomfort.

[]         THE SOURCE AND TERROIR MATTER WITH FOOD AS WELL AS WINE

Just as terroir (soil composition, exposure to sun, rainfall and rain composition, wind and temperature) impacts on the quality and flavor characteristics of grapes and in turn the wine they produce, so too will terroir impact on a tomato, peach, onion, potato, green bean, chicken, steer, pig, or fish. Knowing where a product comes from will allow the cook or chef to understand its flavor characteristics and if necessary, adjust how it is handled to reach a desired outcome.

[]         “NEEDS SALT” IS NOT ALWAYS THE RIGHT ANSWER

Chefs and cooks, just like most customers, suffer from saltshaker’s elbow. There is no question that salt is not only a flavoring addition, but a flavor enhancer – bringing out or accentuating the natural flavor of other ingredients. But, salt, like alcohol, can cloud a person’s tolerance. The more salt you use, the more you will require in the future to achieve the same result. Chefs and cooks with great palates will use salt sparingly as an enhancer rather than a flavor in of itself.

[]         CONSISTENCY IS THE GOAL OF A COOK

Why do guests return to a restaurant? More than likely, a guest had a memorable experience (certainly including flavor) and returns with the expectation of that same experience. Flavor consistency is one of the greatest drivers of return business. Standardized recipes can help, but they fail to account for variances in ingredient quality and taste. Cooks and chefs must build an experienced palate if consistency is to be the foundation of a restaurants flavor reputation.

[]         TASTE AND FLAVOR ARE NOT THE SAME THING

Oftentimes misused interchangeably, taste is really one portion of the flavor experience. Flavor includes aroma, texture, taste, and even the visual aspects of a dish. How food looks will paint a mental picture of flavor perception.

[]         AROMA COUNTS

Never lose sight of the fact that we have 10,000 taste buds, while we have the ability to distinguish more than 1 trillion smells with our 400 types of olfactory receptors. Taste cannot stand alone without the introduction of smell. In fact, our flavor memory is more based on aroma experiences than taste. When asked to visualize foods like fresh bread from the oven, a recently baked apple pie, roast chicken, or a grilled steak, it is the memory of how each item smells that brings a smile to a person’s face.

[]         YOUR PALATE CAN BE TRAINED

Some individuals are certainly born with more acute “buds”, but most of us have the capacity to train our palate to recognize and adjust flavor. It is experience and time that allows a palate to grow and mature. A cook without a well-developed palate will struggle to understand or create positive flavors.

[]         FLAVOR MEMORY REQUIRES EXPERIENCE

Everything that we experience with food is imbedded in our subconscious – this is where our flavor memory is built and stored. In the process of building a palate an individual must learn how to bring those memories to the surface and out of the subconscious. For those without the gift of nature’s taste buds the best way to accomplish this is through repeated experience with a flavor. Cooks and chefs must try all foods – repeatedly. These same cooks must experience how these items change with the application of heat, through the use of different cooking methods, from ingredients of different quality, and with the addition of a variety of seasonings. There is no other way to reach this goal. Recipes with flavor experience equal success.

[]         GREAT COOKS AND CHEFS DO NOT LIMIT THEIR PALATE TO FOOD

All career cooks and chefs must invest the time in not only developing their flavor memory with food, they must also invest the time to understand those items that complement the food – wine, beer, coffee, tea, bitters, fresh herbs, floral introductions, etc.

[]         CONTEXT IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF FLAVOR MEMORY

One of the interesting variables with regards to flavor is the environment and the people associated with eating certain foods. Knowing that this can cloud a guest’s perception of flavor, it is important for cooks to work with the front of the house to create an environment that protects and enhances a flavor experience. Many people do not consider that the service staff can have an impact on food flavor, but in the process of understanding context a server can do a great deal through food description, recommendations based on a guests previous experience, presenting the food with flair, and simply understanding how important it is to capture the best of the food placed in the kitchen pass.

[]         FLAVOR ANTICIPATION IS AS IMPORTANT AS ACTUALLY TASTING

Restaurant food is part of theater. Chefs and Restaurant Managers are trained to build anticipation. The ambience of the room, the menu wordsmithing, the introductions by service staff, the recommendations of the sommelier, and the exciting presentation of the first course are all designed to build flavor anticipation. This anticipation becomes the memory that ends up embedded in a guest’s subconscious. Taste and flavor are important, but the thought of what an item is likely to taste like is equally, if not more important.

Cooking must go beyond the process of applying heat. Cooking is a highly intellectual endeavor that benefits greatly from knowing how ingredients are grown, what environmental factors impact on their quality, how heat works in its various forms, what each seasoning ingredient brings to the pan and how a combination of seasonings work together to change a dish. Additionally, it is even important for a chef or cook to understand the psychology of eating and how environment and people can impact on the perceptions of flavor.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Taste-Season-Taste + Flavor Memory

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

**”Taste-Season-Taste” is a quote from Chef Michel LeBorgne.

THE FOUR TYPES OF COOKS – WHERE DO YOU FIT?

01 Thursday Sep 2016

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We work – this is what people were meant to do, this is what helps to give us purpose, this is what shapes, to a large degree, the person that we are. How we approach this work, the type of work that we choose or that chooses us, and the level of satisfaction that we gain from what we do is very much dependent on how seriously we take the process of making a career choice. Some may say that choosing what we do is the exception to the rule, that to many people work is work – a means to an end, a necessary process that allows us all to survive – to get by. I would respectfully disagree and choose to take the more optimistic approach and say that everyone can make a choice, a choice that will allow an individual to survive financially, but even more importantly – to find a purpose. Is this a bit altruistic? Maybe so, but it is how I choose to look at life. Where there is a will there is a way – every person (I believe) has a role to play, a direction that allows he or she to feel fulfilled and significant.

From my experience, keeping the aforementioned approach to life close at hand, there are four types of cooks working in restaurants today. Everyone fits into one of these categories and I believe that they are there by choice. I would suggest that if you are currently working in a professional kitchen that you ask yourself the question – in which category do I fit? It is an exercise that will help you to answer many questions, set aside some concerns, and build a case for where you go next.

[]         CATEGORY #1:          I SHOW UP

I am not portraying these cooks in a negative way. There is a need and a place for employees who show up physically, do what they are told to do, avoid making decisions on their own, do not question what is needed, arrive at the exact start of their shift and leave physically and mentally the moment their shift is over. The critical distinction here is that they show up. If you are a chef or an owner you know how valuable this trait is.

“Showing up is 80% of life.”

-Woody Allen

[]         CATEGORY #2:          IT’S A LIVING

This category continues to baffle me. I am sure that individuals working to make a living are common in most professions, but I fail to understand how anyone can thrive under these conditions. “Making a living” is hard to swallow for those who are seeking to find purpose and as such fails to set the stage for personal motivation. Those cooks who view their kitchen job as “making a living” typically miss the big picture enthusiasm for food, an appreciation for how food is grown, the joy of preparing a perfectly balanced dish, and the pride in being creative. Certainly making enough money to live comfortably is and should be a goal for anyone, but on its own, this is a shallow approach towards a life of fulfillment.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

-Winston Churchill

Cooks who have found their purpose in kitchen life know that the joy of cooking is the joy of giving through personal expression, the joy of giving to those who consume the products they make, and the joy of participating in kitchen team dynamics in the process of serving the public.

[]         CATEGORY #3:          THIS IS WHAT I ENJOY

Yes, these are the cooks who thoroughly enjoy their time in the kitchen and the type of work that they do. They find real pleasure in working with the intense, and sometimes-borderline crazy people who deliver, prepare, and serve the food that makes a restaurant truly hum. They may or may not be immersed in the culture of food, the need to understand the why of cooking or even the source of ingredients, but they do get pumped up over the adrenaline of working in the kitchen pressure cooker. To these cooks, working is fun and their time in the kitchen goes way beyond making a living – they are anxious to participate in the lifestyle. These are the individuals (sometimes pirates) who are bouncing on their toes in anticipation of the flood of tickets streaming off the kitchen printer, they give high fives when they exceed projected covers on a shift, and carry on their celebration of accomplishment after hours with their friends who share the same intense passion for the heat of the kitchen. The chef knows that these individuals will be there tomorrow and every day afterward – they thrive on the adrenaline.

“You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life!” 
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

[]         CATEGORY #4:          THIS IS MY CALLING

Cooks who have determined that the kitchen is their purpose in life are in a category all to themselves. They are totally immersed in everything about the process of cooking, the ingredients that they work with, the history of the profession, the process of building a sophisticated palate, and the pride of an honored profession. These cooks live to be in the kitchen, spend many extra hours on the job and off the clock, invest their hard earned money in tools, books, and saving for an extraordinary meal at one of those “bucket list” restaurants, refuse to take a real vacation unless it involves spending time in another kitchen, a farm, or a vineyard, and take those extra minutes every day to make sure that their uniform is pristine and representative of the great chefs who came before them. These cooks are serious about what they do and view their jobs as an extension of their personal identity. Every kitchen needs at least one, although too many of them can drive everyone else to drink. These are the cooks who know full well that they will be a chef some day, command an important kitchen, and/or own their personal restaurant with their name on the marquee. We read about them in culinary magazines, purchase their coffee table cookbooks, salivate about one day dining in their restaurant(s), and know their bios by heart.

So, which type of cook are you? Each cook has a place in today’s kitchen; each represents a different mindset and chooses the path they are on. Some will stay in the business while others will always be looking for a way out. A few will inspire others to take the path of a kitchen career while others will inadvertently turn young people away. They are the industry that we are a part of and they make it what it is. Each to his or her own, they are the person that they are either because of or in spite of the kitchen where they punch in and tie on an apron.

**The picture is of my team at the Mirror Lake Inn – Lake Placid, NY –  in 2006.  A great group that I still consider an honor to have worked with.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

LOOKING FOR A FALL BOOK WRITTEN BY A COOK – FOR COOKS? Take a look at the life of Jake and Carla, their lives as cooks, the trials and tribulations of owning a restaurant, and the environmental challenges that Americans face as the integrity of our food supply becomes even more challenged in the future. Order your copy of “The Event That Changed Everything”, by Paul Sorgule through amazon TODAY! Simply click on the link below:

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TASTE and FLAVOR

19 Sunday Jun 2016

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There seems to be an unwritten rule when it comes to eating in America – “If something is good then more of it will be even better.” A classic American hamburger becomes better if it is twice as large as the original, a beverage is somehow improved if it is supersized, an 18 ounce steak is far superior to a 6 ounce steak, and if a beautiful wine from Oregon or California is distinct and delicious then it would only make sense to drink a full bottle rather than a glass or two.

There are ample reasons why this logic backfires, yet more often than not restaurants and home cooks tend to fall into the trap of bigger is better. Excessive portion sizes pack on the calories and subsequent weight gain that plagues far too many American consumers, those supersized drinks contribute to many other health issues, and excessive alcohol only leads to a terrible 18-24 hour hangover. What is just as significant, and the reason for this article, is how “bigger” takes away the joy of taste and flavor intrigue.

In the long run, nothing supersedes the importance of taste and flavor when it comes to a great food experience. Presentation, room ambience, beautiful china and glassware, and certainly excessive portion sizes can never replace the significance of taste and flavor. It is this combination of flavor components that give a diner pause, this combination that excites the sensory touch points in the body and builds unforgettable memories of what it can be like to eat well.

Taste is a portion of the overall sensory experience – it is flavor (a combination of taste and smell) that defines great food. But, flavor can go beyond even these two components. Flavor can, and does, include texture (mouth feel), appearance, and even social interaction. It is the chew of a steak that brings out the nuances of flavor, the chew of a New York bagel that makes it unique, the crunch of a potato chip that creates an experience, and the soft and warm texture of a vine ripened tomato that demonstrates all that a tomato can be. How this food is presented may not have a physical impact on flavor, but it does help to build positive or negative perceptions about what the flavor might be.

“There are about 700 flavors that you can smell, but only five you can taste. A lot of times what you’re perceiving as flavor has nothing to do with palette, but it’s more to do with scents.”

– Grant Achatz

Yes, eating and in particular – dining, is a social event and although it may not be physical – the social environment, the people with whom you dine, will have an impact on the memory of taste and flavor. This is why we are rarely able to replicate the flavor experiences that we have had in restaurants or homes without the same people dynamic in place.

Chefs and cooks are the gatekeepers of flavor in a restaurant and in that role they must have a deep understanding of what it takes to build taste and flavor and know how to manipulate the dining experience to its fullest. The accomplished chef or cook must be able to:

[]         BUILD ANTICIPATION

If you look at the dining experience as theater then you can quickly see how each scene can build as the chef guides a guest to a definitive point of sensory pleasure. This begins with those initial contacts with food in a restaurant. Nothing should be viewed as utilitarian – everything is important in the process of building anticipation of something great and unique. The quality and temperature of the butter, the crusty, chewy artisan bread, the tasting amuse bouche, and the quality of the ice water are all very important. “If the bread and butter is this good – imagine what the entrée will be like.”

[]         EXCITE THE PALATE

Every item of food should be well choreographed to stimulate the olfactory senses and taste buds. This is where a cook’s knowledge of flavor comes into play. It is not only important for each dish to be well designed from a flavor perspective, but even more important to ensure that each dish build up to the main character in the meal – the entrée. Each dish should not remain independent, but be part of the entire work.

[]         CREATE A REASON FOR PAUSE

When a guest stops his or her conversation at the table and captures the moment to savor what he or she is tasting- then the chef has been successful. Whether it is taste, aroma, texture, or presentation, the key is to always design each dish to create a reason to pause and take note.

[]         BRING THE FOOD TO CENTER STAGE

The social nature of dining is critical to the experience, but when social interaction turns to discussions about the food or drink that the guest is consuming then eating transitions to dining and the memories will be forged forever. More often than not, the process is really about knowing the food you are working with and understanding how to allow the ingredients to rise to the occasion. Great cooking is all about knowing how to make this happen.

“The simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare it well. You want to truly taste what it is you’re eating. So that goes back to the trend of fine ingredients. It’s very Japanese: Preparing good ingredients very simply, without distractions from the flavor of the ingredient itself.”

– Joel Robuchon

[]         DEFINE A WOW EXPERIENCE

Create the unexpected, exceed expectations, build flavor combinations that are new and unique, and concentrate on melding taste, aroma, beautiful visual combinations of food, and satisfying textures and you will establish the “wow factor” that chef reputations are built on, and lasting guest experiences are made.

[]         LEAVE THE GUEST HUNGRY FOR MORE

Don’t allow yourself to be coaxed into the “bigger is better” trap. The best flavor experiences always leave the guest wanting more. Too much of a good thing quickly loses its value. The amuse bouche should be one bite, the appetizer just a few more, the entrée portion size less than 6 ounces, leaving room for a fresh, unique, small tasting of a dessert. Note that the average person cannot digest more than 1 pound of food at a setting. Anything more is gluttony and in the end will diminish the experience and tarnish the memory. You want the guest to leave with a high level of anticipation for his or her next visit.

[]         BUILD LASTING MEMORIES

Think back to your own experiences with food. It doesn’t matter whether it was a white table cloth restaurant or a bar-b-que shack on a busy highway – if the flavor experience was a wow you will always hold that memory close and likely tell dozens of people about it. There will always be that desire to return and rekindle that experience that has been imbedded in your subconscious. This is what the chef and cook strives to do, this is the sign of success that these individuals seek to achieve, and this is what brings professionals to a life of cooking.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant and Culinary School Consulting and Training

LOOKING FOR A GREAT SUMMER BOOK TO READ? DO YOU WANT TO DIVE INTO MORE STORIES ABOUT THE LIFE OF A CHEF AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE KITCHEN? Then order your copy of “The Event That Changed Everything” TODAY!

This is the latest novel by Chef Paul Sorgule. Order your copy through amazon by clicking on the following link:

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CAN THE FAMILY TABLE SOLVE MANY OF THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS?

19 Friday Feb 2016

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Progress is important and as we all know, sometimes progress cannot be stopped – it has an energy and mind of its own. In my lifetime the amount of change described as “progress” has been and continues to be staggering. I believe that it was Julia Child who stated (and I am paraphrasing): “Every significant change in history has been accompanied by a change in the way we grow, process, cook, and consume food.” Progress over my lifetime has given credibility to this statement. The question is – what have we lost in the process?

Not too long ago, the family table was one of the most sacred parts of the home. This is where family traditions took center stage in the form of cooking methods and recipes passed down from previous generations, protocols of respect, conversation about the day’s activities, family values, current events, and celebrations of large and small accomplishments. The family table was where beliefs were built, traditions were passed on, character was defined, and challenges were addressed. It was this sense of community that defined the core of an American family.

“Breaking bread” is universally used as a phrase to portray the values associated with the family table.

“To break bread is to affirm trust, confidence, and comfort with an individual or group of people. Breaking bread has a notation of friendliness and informality, derived from the original meaning regarding sharing the loaf.”

Wikipedia

Painted in Waterlogue

From this sharing came understanding, acceptance, appreciation, and a sense of unity that today seems to be lacking in so many situations. Could the root of many of our societal problems be linked, at some level, to our drift away from the literal and philosophical meaning of “breaking bread”? Maybe this is a stretch, but think about how so much has changed in the past 100 years and how much as a society we have strayed from the premise of strength in the family table.

Prior to the turn of the 20th century, most Americans lived, worked, and grew up on farms. Subsistence farming allowed families to grow their own food, care for their families first, communicate around the family table, and build on the character of what it meant to be part of a community. With the advent of manufacturing that all changed as families drifted further from their connections with the materials of cooking and began to rely on a growing distribution system that brought those materials to them. This merchant trade of new earned money for product continued through the next few decades, even giving life to neighborhood restaurants where even the process of cooking was turned over to merchants. The family table was beginning to evaporate and would continue to do so at an alarming rate through two World Wars and into that respite of time known as the 50’s. Prosperity meant that cooking was being replaced by convenience – frozen ingredients, TV dinners, pre-prepared items, and Wonder bread, made it possible for the average homeowner to relinquish the responsibility for cooking to the processing plant. Planted in front of the living room television, Americans stopped conversing, lost the intoxicating aromas of fresh food from every kitchen, and began a decade long drift away from the importance of sharing and moving towards the space of the individual.

In subsequent years we fell under the spell of microwave ovens that allowed every person in the family to determine what and when they would eat, restaurants of every type and price point from coast to coast where “being served” was preferred to serving yourself, and a rapidly changing definition of what it meant to be part of a family emerged. We plug into our MP3 players, are engrossed in becoming more and more connected in the digital world and less and less in the real world with family, friends and associates, and look to restaurants to fill in the gaps.

So, where are we now? What is missing and what, as a result, are the consequences? We don’t talk, we rely on others, outside of the family to help build our moral compass and our philosophical approach towards life, and we turn our health over to manufacturers who produce foods that, in many cases, are almost unfit for consumption. We talk about our love of food in America while the majority of individuals no longer know how to cook even the most basic foods. Traditions are no longer passed down from generation to generation and that recipe that your great grandmother proudly prepared from memory has long been lost. The family table is no longer an opportunity to sit and enjoy the food prepared by caring individuals, discussing our lives, turning to others for guidance and advice, and working through challenges and disappointments together. Getting a family to spend more than 15 minutes together at the table is a truly remarkable event.

Is it possible to point the finger at this societal change and say that it may be one of the causes of the problems we currently face? When else would we find the time to sit together and discuss education, relationships, careers, beliefs, history, faith, and yes – politics? How much do we miss that family table?

I suppose that this is a topic, one that I have ranted about many times before, worthy of more scientific study, but I am going out on a limb to say “Bring back the family table, it will make a difference.” Teach your children about your family history, research your family tree and relish what you learn, pass on this knowledge and do it while you are breaking bread. Celebrate the small wins, toast to your health, listen to everyone’s challenges and problems and help them to come to some resolution, enjoy each other’s company and do so while breaking bread. Don’t stop going to restaurants – they are important, but when you go make sure that it becomes more than simply a place to fill your stomachs – make it another chance to create a family or friend table. Food is more than fuel, it is a catalyst for sharing, caring, and celebrating what makes us the same and what makes us different. Food is that universal communicator that allows us all to set aside those things that make us sad, angry, jealous, and seemingly opposed to each others beliefs, and simply smile and enjoy the flavor, tradition, and grace that comes from satisfying the palate.

Is the family table an answer to some of the world’s problems – maybe not, but maybe so? While you are trying to figure that out, think about trying this:

  • Have designated meal times in your home and stick to it.
  • Make sure that everyone is at that table – make it sacred time.
  • Plan menus and take the opportunity to introduce new flavors and traditional ones in a format that everyone appreciates.
  • Get rid of that microwave oven! Cut the strings of dependence and start cooking.
  • Invest in cooking – spend time in the kitchen and invite others in.
  • Buy fresh ingredients and open up those cookbooks – take a stab at it – cooking is fun and therapeutic.
  • Engage everyone in lively discussions around the dinner table and make sure that it is not rushed. Dinner takes time to produce, take the time to enjoy what is made.
  • Require everyone to take part in setting the stage for the meal and cleaning up afterward.
  • Make sure that your family history is an occasional topic around the dinner table. Talk about the real diverse heritage that is the core of every American family.
  • When you go out to a restaurant – pick one that allows you to re-create that forum for sharing, truly enjoying well-prepared food, talking about the experience of eating and dining, and relishing the opportunity to be together.
  • Turn off the cell phones during dinner. Make this digital free time.
  • Make sure, most importantly, that you pass on a love of cooking and a love of the family table to the next generation.

Maybe it won’t help to put the world back in alignment, but I guarantee that it will make you feel like you are doing your part.

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes (rediscover old ones), learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun.”

Julia Child

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

COOKING FOR THE SAKE OF COOKING

16 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Many years ago, at an ACF Conference in Phoenix, Andre Soltner (in my mind one of the greatest chefs in recent history) spoke to an audience of enthusiastic members. He began by trying to downplay the hype that was building around the term “chef” by removing his glasses and looking at the audience directly and very seriously. I will always remember his significant words: “Ladies and gentlemen, we must never lose sight of the fact that we are all cooks.” His point was well taken by most who were present – let’s put aside the rumblings of prestige, slightly ill-founded celebrity status, and self-importance and remember that our jobs, and the enjoyment of our craft, evolves around cooking for others.

We all know how hard this work can be – many in and out of the industry including myself have portrayed this fact. The importance of what we do lay in the fulfillment that comes from creating beautiful, delicious food for others to enjoy. This is the whole enchilada, our reason for walking through those kitchen doors and investing considerable time and effort every day at our work. We are cooks, those individuals who have invested the time to nurture the skills necessary to convert raw materials into food worthy of praise.

I think that we can all appreciate that all of the interest in and praise of chefs has helped our careers in significant ways, but when all is said and done, if we do not enter the kitchen every day with a strong desire to cook well, respect the ingredients that we are privilege to handle, and make delicious food, then the praise and interest mean very little. After all, if we don’t love the process of cooking then there are certainly many other, less consuming career paths to seek.

If we don’t relish the opportunity to work with other serious cooks who do what they do for the feeling of accomplishment that comes from executing established cooking methods, building flavors to match those imbedded flavor memories that come from experience, and placing those creations on plates like an artist paints a canvas, then we are on a treadmill that will wear any person down at some point.

“I love hospitality, and I love cooking. The kitchen is where I feel most at ease and where I feel most like myself.”

Geoffrey Zakarian

As you aspire to move through the ranks of prep cook, line cook, sous chef, and eventually chef – the responsibilities may change significantly. We become business managers, trainers, negotiators, marketers, and the center of attention (when things go well or when they don’t), it should remain that the craft of cooking is what makes it all worthwhile. Here are a few things that may help every cook to understand why staying true to the craft is so important:

[] Cooks are able to convert the simplest of ingredients into a dish that turns heads and brings a smile to the face of even the most critical of people.

“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”

Wolfgang Puck

[]         Good cooking allows an individual to appeal to every human sense. No other art form can do this.

[]         At the end of the day, a professional cook like a carpenter, construction worker, electrician, fisherman, or plumber is physically exhausted, but gratified at having worked hard and able to show tangible accomplishment.

“Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesn’t mean you can cook. It means you can make that dish. When you can cook is when you can go to a farmers market, buy a bunch of stuff, then go home and make something without looking at a recipe. Now you’re cooking.”

Tom Colicchio

[]         Cooking is part of the ecosystem of life that pays respect to farming, rewards those who consume the product for the work that they do, and eventually replenish the soil to start the cycle all over again.

[]         Cooking and the resulting finished food is the catalyst for bringing people together and creating a forum for conversation, recognizing each person’s similarities and differences, and allowing everyone to find common ground. Everyone can find commonality in tasting exceptional food.

We are all cooks – first and foremost. Cook for the love of cooking – this is what makes the work worthwhile.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

STILL TIME TO PICK UP THAT LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY GIFT FOR A COOK, CHEF, RESTAURATEUR, CULINARY STUDENT OR FOOD LOVER – Order your copy of “The Event That Changed Everything”, a novel by Chef Paul Sorgule, author of Harvest America Cues.

Click on this link to order your copy from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Event-That-Changed-Everything-Relationships/dp/1491755105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450274628&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Event+That+Changed+Everything

 

 

 

WHEN COOKING TRANSFORMS FROM A JOB TO A CALLING

13 Friday Nov 2015

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The average worker spends 40 hours per week on the job, that’s 90,000 hours over a 45-year career.   A professional cook who becomes a chef may spend 50-75% more time than that. In some cases that’s more time than a cook will spend with family and friends and sleep combined. This type of dedication seems illogical if the end result is just a job and a paycheck.

Why is it that some gush about how much they love their time in the kitchen and more often than not, look forward to those 10-12 hour days of painstaking work, hours and hours on their feet, intense heat, and incredible pressure from every angle, while others dread another day in Hell’s Kitchen? Is it simply that some people are made for this work and others are not? Could it be that some refuse to look at the downside to working in restaurants? Is it the theoretical difference between Type “A’s” and Type “B’s”? Or, could it be that certain individuals have or go after those epiphany’s that set a different course for their lives and connection to what others call “work”?

Most of my friends are cooks, chefs, restaurateurs, winemakers, or are someway or another connected to the food business. If you were to ask me why this is so, I might say because I spent so many hours working in the field that these were the only people I had a chance to meet, or more than likely I would state that these are the people who inspire me, make me want to be better at what I do, make me laugh, and provide the benchmarks for “what could be”. I suppose there were those epiphany moments for me, those transition events or experiences that allowed me to think that what I did was (is) important, but if I were to try and tell what those moments were, I would be lost. Lost, not because I couldn’t think of any moments but rather lost because there were and continue to be – so many. After the first few such moments, people tend to seek out more, more opportunities that will allow them to reflect and push forward with even greater enthusiasm.

I have always enjoyed taking cooks on those journeys and watching the light bulb go off. When they occur it becomes nearly impossible to keep any cook from connecting, self-assessing, and glowing with possibilities. It might be that first local chefs meeting where a cook gets a chance to network with others who have the passion, or it could be dinner at a cutting edge restaurant where the chef is breaking new ground, yet again it could be a trade show or culinary competition that opens a cooks eyes to where the business is moving.

Sometimes, and I find this one the most rewarding, it is going back to the source of cooking and visiting a farmer or a cheese maker, or an artisan bread baker tucked away in a farmhouse bakery in the middle of Vermont. It could be a short experience working in the vineyards with a winemaker who views the grapes as his or her children – due the same respect as a member of the family. When a cook witnesses the limitless commitment that these artisans have for their craft, the product, and the importance of what they do, he or she begins the transition from job to calling.

A cook may not envision dedicating most of his or her energy and time to the craft like Thomas Keller or Grant Achatz. The cook may never fully understand how a small vineyard in central France can be cared for and nurtured for four or five generations, each individual dedicating his or her entire being to growing superb grapes and watching as nature helps to turn the grape juice into a spectacular wine, but I know that the experience of being with these individuals makes every cook self-assess and consider either making the commitment or looking toward a different career.

I watched an extraordinary documentary film the other night and experienced yet another one of those epiphany moments. The film: “A Year in Burgundy”, follows the lives of a few multi-generational wine makers in Burgundy, France while very naturally demonstrating the passion and joy that each draws from their calling. I have had a few opportunities to spend time with wine makers in France, California, Oregon, and New York and have always felt incredible respect for their commitment, but this movie went so much further in defining what “the calling” means.

I know so many extraordinary chefs who feel a sense of purpose in what they do, are consumed by a drive to always get better, and have developed a talent for constantly reinventing themselves in the kitchen. Whenever I am around them, I feel inspired. Whenever I spend time with them I find myself wishing that I could add another 20 years to my career, learn from them, and push myself in a new exciting direction.

Certainly, at one point, working in a kitchen for me was a means to an end. A paycheck that allowed me to have a reasonable life. At some point that paycheck became a calling and I have not regretted that transition for one moment (well maybe a moment now and then).

Whether you work 40 hours a week or 70, what you do is an important snapshot of who you are as a person. Those hours can be dedicated to the paycheck (certainly important) or to the pursuit of something much more significant. When your job becomes a calling, the doors open to so many possibilities. I encourage you to seek out those epiphany moments, push yourself to be inspired and act upon that inspiration. Enjoying what you do for a living is a very important part of life – make it count.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

BLOG: www.harvestamericacues.com

**The Watercolor photo is of Master Chef Anton Flory who was my original mentor and inspiration.  RIP chef.

****ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT A HOLIDAY GIFT FOR A COOK, CHEF, OR FOOD ENTHUSIAST?   If you enjoy the articles in Harvest America Cues, you will certainly enjoy my second novel: The Event That Changed Everything, available from amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Event-That-Changed-Everything-Relationships/dp/1491755105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447437309&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Event+That+Changed+Everything

AN OPEN LETTER TO LINE COOKS

19 Friday Jun 2015

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There are certainly some negative aspects to life in the kitchen; however, those who have enlisted in the cause of great cooking will typically demonstrate a true passion for their choice of careers. Some may reflect on the physical demands, the required emotional conditioning, the military approach towards organization, the fickle restaurant guest, the social isolation and the long hours, but what is often overlooked is the pearl within the oyster shell. The opportunities that are present for every line cook lie within the grasp of the individual. The only question is how hungry is the cook for more.

This open letter is simply put – recognition of opportunities, definition of the prize, and a few recommendations on how to grab hold of them.

[]         WHAT YOU DO IS IMPORTANT:

If we begin with an understanding that everything about food is important to those who consume it, then we can wrap our arms around how significant the role of cook is. We help to nourish our guests, provide a reward system for them that may be lacking in the workplace or even at home, create a stage for people to have fun and network with friends, make important connections between farmers and consumers, and contribute to the establishment of culture both in the neighborhood and the home. To be a cook is one of the oldest and noblest professions known to mankind. Every cook should take pride in this realization.

[]         THE SKILLS YOU DEVELOP IN THE KITCHEN ARE TRANSFERRABLE:

Think about the real skills and habits that are built in a professional kitchen and how applicable they are to life and career: be on time, be prepared, organization is critical to success, work well with others, respect the role that everyone plays in process of accomplishing goals, cleanliness is very important, don’t accept mediocrity, be consistent, stay focused, and the list goes on and on.

Whether you stay working in the food business or choose to move on to some other discipline, what you learn in a kitchen is a life lesson, a life lesson that will define how you work and how others perceive you.

[]         LINE COOKS MAY NEVER FIND A BETTER ENVIRONMENT FOR COLLABORATION AND TEAM:

“There’s a bond among kitchen staff, I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.”

            Gordon Ramsey

If I had to pick one aspect of working in a kitchen that is most rewarding (when it works) is the charge that cooks get from working together on a busy night. When everything clicks, the line is a thing of beauty. The orchestration of and symmetry that exists in timing, tasting and plating is always exciting to watch and experience. There are very few jobs that require this level of collaboration and provide such an opportunity every minute of every day.

[]         THE KITCHEN IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER:

The kitchen allows and requires that everyone take a supportive role knowing that everything is everyone’s job. It never matters how old you are, what size you are, what gender, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, or religion you might support, the only thing that matters is that you do your job as designed, to the best of your ability. Everyone must, due to the nature of the work and the demands placed on the team, accept their individual role and jump in to help others whenever needed. Everyone in the kitchen is equal.

[]         THE LINE CAN BE A STEPPING STONE:

“If you go around the kitchen and ask my employees what they want to be doing in three to five years, most of them, if they’re being honest, will tell you that they don’t want to be working for me. They want to have their own place. And I think that’s great.”

            Charlie Trotter

Every line cook can aspire to a larger role: sous chef, executive chef, food and beverage director, owner, restaurant manager, etc. All that is required is a commitment to grow. The challenge is that those positions do not simply come your way because you are close at hand. Line cooks with a vision need to invest the time and seek out opportunities to learn and grow. You want to move to a sous chef role – then ask the chef to show you how the schedule is determined, how prep sheets are developed, how to determine the amount of product to order, how to check for quality, and which purveyors are selected and why. Volunteer to take inventory with the chef, ask if you can participate in the menu planning process, and offer to rework the recipe file. The hungry get fed, the hardest worker receives the reward, and the knowledge worker is next in line for more responsibility. This attitude and commitment will be noticed and will always set the stage for the next position in a line cooks career plan.

[]         THE BEST NEVER ACCEPT MEDIOCRITY:

“As a young cook, especially in France, they’re very tough in the kitchen. The idea is to make you humble and learn fast.”

            Eric Ripert

There is never any excuse for mediocrity. The restaurant’s reputation is based on not just quality product, but even more importantly – CONSISTENT quality product. Cutting corners at the expense of this informal guarantee to your guest is the kiss of death for the restaurant, for the cook, and for the chef. Don’t cross that line.

[]         FEED YOUR BODY TO BECOME BETTER AT WHAT YOU DO:

Physically, the job is relentless.   You cannot afford to, “Make a promise that your body can’t fill” (Little Feat). It is extremely important, if a line cook is to extend his or her useful life in a kitchen and set the stage for growth to other positions, to take care of the most important tool in your toolbox: your body. Eat well, eat appropriately, hydrate, exercise frequently, buy the right shoes, bend when you lift, use dry side towels when grabbing a hot pan or tray, and see a doctor on a regular basis. Just like an athlete – physical preparedness is just as important as knowledge of the sport. In this case, the sport is cooking (just as demanding as many athletic sports).

“The kitchen is tough. It’s one of the last bastions in civilized culture that sets out to crush the spirit.”

            Yotam Ottolenghi

[]         FEED YOUR MIND TO BE BETTER AT WHAT YOU DO:

“I think a lot of people have a misconception of what the kitchen is about, but you know the grueling part of it is also the pleasure of it. That’s why I think you have to have a certain mentality to understand what that is and be able to handle it.”
Todd English

Cooks who have a desire for more, for that opportunity at a chef’s position or maybe ownership, need to constantly work at expanding their base of knowledge. First, the kitchen is a mental game; you need to be focused at all times. Secondly, as you grow professionally, so too must your understanding of business, human resource issues, marketing, accounting, menu analysis, customer relations, communication, and technology. Remember, that next position will not come to you simply because you are present, you will need to prepare for it. If school is not an option, then you must work on how to become self-taught, or again, volunteer to work with the chef on building those skills over time.

[]         IMPROVE EVERY DAY:

There should never be a day that goes by that you say: “I didn’t learn anything new.” No matter how small, build knowledge and skill improvement into your daily schedule. This is how the line cook becomes the sous chef, and eventually becomes the executive chef.

[]         DON’T EVER FORGET THE SUPPORT TEAM – STAY HUMBLE YOURSELF:

“I call all chefs’ cooks’. They’re all cooks – that’s what we do, we cook. You’re a chef when you’re running a kitchen.”

            Tom Colicchio

When you reach that next role in a professional career track, don’t ever forget that your success will depend on those who continue to serve in the capacity of dishwasher, prep cook, line cook, server, bartender, and so on.

[]         BE AN ADVOCATE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE:

“Even in the busiest kitchen, there’s always a point at the end of the day when you go home.”

            Yotam Ottolenghi

We often hear about the negative aspects of working in kitchens: long hours, working holidays, lack of time with family, low pay and minimal benefits, etc. The need for some level of change is always there. It is up to this generation of cooks to help determine how these factors can be improved so that working in the kitchen can survive as a life-long career choice. Be the answer.

[]         IF YOU ARE FOCUSED AND GOOD AT LINE WORK YOUR VALUE TO OTHERS INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY:

If you want to move ahead then be totally committed to excellence. Become the most efficient, conscientious, fast, knowledgeable line cook with spot on flavor memory and impeccable plate presentations. This will be noticed inside and outside of your current place of employment. Remember – build your personal brand.

[]         ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR PRIMARY JOB:

Your primary job is to please the guest with consistently outstanding food and service. If this is done then the secondary task of helping to ensure restaurant financial success will be the byproduct.

[]         BUILD ON YOUR PERSONAL BRAND EVERY DAY:

“If you see someone in the kitchen that has good hands and a quick brain,then you need that person to be in the front of everything.”

            Rene Redzepi

[]         SUPPORT THE CHEF, SUPPORT YOUR PEERS:

Help everyone in the organization reach his or her personal and collective goals and your value will increase exponentially.

[]         SUCCESS AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS IS A HOLLOW VICTORY:

Build your peers up and avoid dragging them down. We all have strengths and weaknesses – recognize their strengths and help them through their areas of weakness. Those who win by walking over others in the process will be haunted throughout their careers.

[]         RESPECT TRADITION, BUT DON’T BE AFRAID TO QUESTION – JUST PICK THE RIGHT TIME TO DO SO:

Some facets of kitchen life are built from strong traditions that came from chefs such as Careme, Escoffier, and Point. There is a real value in protecting these traditions and honoring the efforts of great chefs and restaurateurs. However, things change, technology improves, customer tastes evolve, and as cooks we must also be willing to question and change. Offering suggestions to the chef that you work for will generally be well-received if you do the research, demonstrate the benefits, and pick a time for questioning that does not interrupt the crazy flow of business through your current system.

[]         IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A GREAT COOK OR CHEF, THEN THE KEY IS TO WORK WITH GREAT COOKS AND CHEFS. PICK YOUR EMPLOYER WISELY:

If at all possible – avoid selecting a position in a house that does not live by the mantra of excellence, team, service, and support. Find out which restaurant has the most admired chef in town and the most cohesive team and work hard to join their effort. Resumes are built by making selective decisions that will help you to build skills, and support your brand building efforts.

“I love hospitality and I love cooking. The kitchen is where I feel most at ease and where I feel most like myself.”
Geoffrey Zakarian

[]         AGAIN, THINK “BRAND” EVERY DAY:

This can be a wonderful business with limitless opportunities to grow professionally. Your commitment and effort is the key to success. Today is always a stepping-stone for tomorrow.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

Thank you to all of the chefs mentioned in this article for their spot on, inspiring quotes.

Pictures:  The Tailor and the Cook Restaurant in Utica, New York:  Tim Hardiman & Tim McQuinn on the line.

The Mirror Lake Inn – Plating for the Adirondack Food and Wine Festival.

BEING A COOK IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT JOB

10 Sunday May 2015

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I often times give thought to the significance of cooking. Although I may invest the majority of time on a portrayal of professional cooks and the kitchen environment of restaurants, cooking is far more important than simply referencing the dining out experience. More than likely, many of those who now consider cooking their life profession owe their decision to cooking experiences in their home or in the homes of friends and family. Cooking is, after all, one of the most foundational tasks, the core of the family experience, the building block of a culture, and an integral part of our evolution as people of the earth.

When ever a person puts on the cooks apron, he or she is paying homage to a rich and long history of those who learned how to take what nature provides and perform a magical process of building flavors, imparting textures and aromas, and building on societal history. Some may claim that there is very little that is new in cooking, but actually, every time that a cook picks up a knife or a pan, he or she is putting a new signature on a dish; something that makes it just a bit more unique than before.

In any family, it is that file of unique recipes, handed down from generation to generation that helps to keep personal history alive. That special way that a grandmother made pasta, or roasted a chicken, memories of a loaf of crusty bread right from the oven, or a flaky crust apple pie that only a distant relative could make just so, is the foundation of the family.

Everything we do in restaurant kitchens reflects, at some level, back to those preparations that were defined early on in family homes. The methods of cooking evolved out of necessity based on the type and quality of ingredients that were available or were affordable, seasonings came initially from a need to compensate for a lack of formal means of preservation, and food combinations were reflective of what the family planted and what the earth provided. All foods that we find in restaurants are reflective of traditions. It is these food traditions that create joyful experiences; these traditions tempt people and satisfy their hunger for more than sustenance. This is the way that we remember, the way that we feel comfort, the way that we enjoy the experience of food.

What we do as cooks in restaurants goes way beyond the enjoyment of cranking out 150 dinners without a flaw, way beyond mastering those skills that will allow for consistently great tasting and looking food, and way beyond helping to build a successful business. What we do is to perpetuate traditions, pay respect to our history, and rebuild memories for every guest who passes through the dining room.

Why would a chef/owner insist that a thin crusted, wood-fired pizza be made with specific flour from Northern Italy and water that has the same mineral content as a mountain lake on the edge of Tuscany? The desire is to re-create an experience with pizza made in a small family trattoria in a village along the outer edge of Piedmont.

Why did Lionel Poilane insist on using authentic tools from prior generations of bakers, in hundred year-old style ovens, in a production bakery built in the middle of a wheat field outside of Paris? Because the nuances of the Poilane Bread Experience demand sticking to tradition so that he could create “recall” with every chewy bite.

How many restaurants grow from a desire to re-create an experience that the chef or diner relishes from the past – a tradition that left an indelible mark on his or her subconscious?

It would be hard to improve upon Escoffier’s Peche Melba (still used extensively around the world as a timeless dessert), Chef Marc Meneau’s Foie Gras and Truffle Cromesquis, Mario Batali’s Veal Cheek Ravioli, Jasper Hill’s Bayley Hazen Bleu Cheese, Vermont Creamery’s Cultured Butter, Poilane’s Bread, or Jean George’s Poached Asparagus. At the same time, your grandmother’s Indian Pudding, scratch made Sauce Bolognese, and Chicken and Dumplings will always be benchmarks for any restaurant to try and replicate.

What is our job as cooks and how important is that job? We hold in our hands the ability to keep history and food culture alive. We are caretakers of tradition and ambassadors for the process of cooking well and trying to replicate the integrity of great food. Our job is important, it goes way beyond attacking those tickets that are relentlessly shot from the POS. Every dish that we produce has the ability to bring great memories to the surface and build an experience that is lasting. Cooking is an honor, a privilege and a significant responsibility. As professionals, we must hone our skills, learn our craft, understand what came before and who brought about those important experiences, relish traditions, and try like hell to do them all justice.

Ask yourself a simple question when you stand at the ready behind the line with your mise en place in order: “Am I about to create memorable experiences for guests? Am I proud of what I am doing and how I am representing all the traditions that have been built before?” This is our commission, our responsibility, and our gift as cooks.

Be a proud advocate for the importance of cooking, for the value of tradition, and for the impact that we have on the lives of everyone.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

CHEFS KNOW – IT SUCKS TO BE IN CHARGE

11 Sunday Jan 2015

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To a serious cook, the prize is to reach the pinnacle of his or her career – reaching for the position of chef in a property. Becoming the person with the embroidered jacket, the office with a nameplate, the business card that proclaims “executive chef”, the one who claims ownership for the menu, is the goal, the crystal skull that Indiana Jones sought for his entire life.

Of course, with the position come many benefits: better compensation, the feeling of kitchen ownership, the respect of peers, the signature on the menu and the restaurant for all to see, and the chance to make the decisions. It all sounds great, certainly what one would expect as the culmination of a career in food, well deserved. So why would I say that becoming this person sucks?

Believe me when I begin by admitting that as much as this statement is true, there are ample moments when the position offers a feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment, however, if one were to chart the pros and cons of being the one with the pen, it would be time for another dose of extra strength Excedrin.

Here are some of the realities associated with the position of chef (by the way, you could pick any career and apply these same or similar realities to the position of authority):

[] OTHERS EXPECT YOU TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR MORALE: “You’re the boss – motivate me.” Or even worse – “I have a bad attitude at work because of the chef.” The truth is that the only person who can take charge of your morale, the only one who might stand a chance of motivating you, is YOU.   Motivation is an interesting topic, one that will chew up a significant portion of a chef or managers day. The only thing that the person in charge might do is to create an environment for self-motivation. In these work environments the chef takes on the role of communicator, teacher, and facilitator. The chef’s task is to focus on providing the tangible and intangible tools necessary for staff members to do their job, but if an employee is not inclined to exhibit positive attitude, there is very little that a chef can do except help them to find another place to work.

[] YOU MIGHT THINK THAT THE MENU IS YOURS, BUT…if it doesn’t sell it doesn’t stay. There are two ways to develop a restaurant menu: design a menu based on what you want to prepare, or build a menu based on what customers are willing to buy.   If you choose the prior, there is a good chance that the menu will eventually evolve to the later.

[] I CAN BE IN CHARGE OF MY OWN SCHEDULE: Hmmm… I guess you could say this is true. Simply put yourself on the schedule as “On” for six days a week and be prepared to work the seventh anyway. At the very least, the chef should be present for most of every meal period served. Oh, and if one of your cooks calls out, you might very well be working a station tonight.

[] YOU ARE THE DECIDER: Just as President Bush proclaimed during his administration, the buck does stop with you. As the chef, everyone will expect you to be the problem solver, the person with the answers, the knight in shining armor who will save the day. Look to your left, look to your right, there are very few others to turn to, and no one left to pass on the decision-making responsibilities to. The ball is in your court – be ready!

[] TEAM BUILDING IS SUCH A JOY: The single most important task that you will take on as the chef, is to build your team. This means determining what you need, seeking out and hiring the individuals with the “right stuff”, training them effectively, and figuring out ways to keep them. The best chefs also take on the role of mentor and as such should always take pride in those situations when a great cook says, “Thanks for everything you have done for me chef, but I have accepted a position with more responsibility at another restaurant.” Part of your role is to develop others, and if you do, they will eventually leave. This means that team building will become an ongoing, every day project. You will always be in a position to train new members.

[] YOU CAN’T RULE WITH AN IRON FIST ANYMORE: There was a time when fear and intimidation were the methods of operation adopted by most chefs. The only way to get the job done through others was to yell, demean, and pound your fist. This is NOT possible today. Today’s DEMANDING attitude equals tomorrows HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT claim. Treating your employees with respect is the rule of thumb today, and PATIENCE is a virtue that all chefs must exhibit.

[] IT’S LONELY AT THE TOP: In an effort to create an environment of perceived fairness and not cloud a chefs decision about staffing issues, chefs and managers can be friendly with employees, but cannot afford to be their friends. This, for younger, first-time chefs, is very difficult.

[] EXPECT LESS TIME ACTUALLY COOKING: Once you reach the position of chef, you can expect that the majority of your time will be spent with the business side of operations. Ordering and negotiating with vendors, processing invoices, taking inventories, reviewing sales abstracts, scheduling and monitoring labor cost, planning menus for the restaurant and special events, training and sometimes disciplining employees, building and managing budgets, establishing item selling prices, and involvement in public relations and other forms of marketing will take up 85% of your day. Cooking, when it happens, becomes your release from stress, not your job anymore.

[] SO YOU THINK THAT IT IS YOUR RESTAURANT AND YOUR REPUTATION: Everything that leaves the kitchen carries your signature, yet, for the most part, you will have very little to do with the preparation. To this end, your signature is in the hands of every cook and server who works for the restaurant. Your reputation is in their hands. If the food isn’t right, it will always be your fault. If it is great, you will take the honors even though you know that your staff members made it happen. It will become critical for you to create an environment where everyone shares the vision, is well trained, and recognized for their part in the process. Your brand as well as that of the restaurant is at stake.

Not every cook who works in a restaurant has the desire or even the ability to become the chef. On any given day, they may feel that they could do parts of your job better than you, and they are probably right. You will be admired for success and demonized for failure, accept it. Those who know they could do parts of your job with greater success are free to work their way up to the position. Just as it is important for chefs to never forget how important the prep cooks, line cooks, sous chef, pastry cooks and bakers, servers, bartenders and dishwashers are to success, all of those important players must understand what it is like to walk a mile in the chefs shoes.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

www.harvestamericaventures.com

Restaurant and Culinary School Consulting and Training

CELEBRATE CHEFS TODAY AND EVERY DAY

16 Saturday Aug 2014

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Today, August 16, is National Chef Appreciation Day, a perfect time to reflect on the importance of cooks and chefs to everyone. If you are a chef or cook, then hug your coworkers today, if you are not, then find a cook or chef to hug or at least thank. Here is why we are in their debt:

“We may live without poetry, music and art;

We may live without conscience, and live without heart;

We may live without friends; we may live without books;

But civilized man cannot live without cooks.”

by: Edward Robert Bulwer

Although, I would not relish a world without music, poetry, art. conscience, heart, friends, or books, you get the feeling of how important well-prepared food is to our existence. Julia Child even went on to state that every significant step in human progress was always accompanied by a positive change in how we grew, processed, prepared, served and consumed food. Since the first mastodon steak was seared over an open flame, men and women have yearned for and appreciated the process of cooking and those who have a knack for it.

Today, chefs are significant players in the evolution of a culture and the protectors of the traditions that make a society unique. It is, after all, that indigenous food and traditional preparation that helps to give a group of people their unique identity.

I have often said that cooking attracts unique spirits, and through my experience, people don’t typically choose to become cooks and chefs, the profession chooses them. There is a destiny factor that seems to universally apply to all who make a decision to spend their life on their feet, bent over a pit of fire, sweat rolling off their brow, blisters and cuts from the tip of their fingers to the edge of their elbows, and smelling of today’s catch or yesterdays garlic. These warriors of the kitchen are focused and passionate about what they do. They sacrifice a “normal” life for one dedicated to creating wonderful tasting dishes for each of us to savor and enjoy. It is this commitment to creativity and service that makes today an important time to pause and give them thanks.

Here are some of the unique traits of chefs and cooks that are worth noting:

  1. Chefs and cooks are very generous people who will give freely, over and above their job requirements, to those in need. Cooks and chefs are involved in fundraising dinners, spending a day off at a local soup kitchen, cooking for appreciative friends, tipping way over the norm when they get a chance to go out for a meal, and helping others to understand the importance of handling food in the proper way.
  2. Chefs and cooks take their work so seriously that operators need to demand that they take the day off if they are not feeling up to par. They would work through anything because they know they are needed.
  3. Professional chefs and cooks take the health and wellbeing of the guest very seriously.
  4. Chefs and cooks get excited over coworkers achievements and show their support of each other.
  5. Professional chefs and cooks respect hard work and dependability above all else and show no interest in what color, race, gender, sexual preference, size, age or beliefs accompany a person. If they are there when they need to be and work hard, then nothing else matters.
  6. Professional chefs and cooks respect the ingredients they work with and the work that went into getting those ingredients in their hands.

Here are a few chefs and cooks who I am grateful for:

Escoffier, Careme, Point, Bocuse, Boulud, Ducasse, Meneau, Waters, Bastianich, Batali, Ripert, Folse, Shire, Child, Beard, Verge, Kaysen, Metz, Carroll (all three), Keating, Russ, Hardiman, McQuinn, O’Donnell, Swaney, Hemm, Parsons, Bivins, Mahe, Soulia, Schempp, Hugelier, Schimoler, Pecoraro, Beriau (both), Allen, Faria, Higgins, Flory, Czekelius,Connolly, Zuromski, McBride, Hoffman, Wright, Prouten, Langan, McCully (both), Steffan (both), Franklin, Pantone, Dunbar, Leonard, Costantino, Beach, James, Winfield, Virkler, Masi, Gerard, Duhamel, Barton, Michaud, Porter, Borden, Johansson, Samuelsson, Barber, Lynch, Danko, Burnier, LeBorgne, Lee, Leigh, Alford, Kruse, Koetke, Sonnenschmidt, Roche, Rosenweig, Silverton, and hundreds of other cooks and chefs who I have admired, worked with or worked for.

A tip of the chef’s toque on National Chef Appreciation Day. Who do you appreciate?

PLAN BETTER-TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC
www.harvestamericaventures.com

COOKING IS THE ULTIMATE SENSUAL EXPERIENCE

10 Sunday Aug 2014

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It’s 7 a.m. as the chef walks into the kitchen. He grabs a cup of freshly brewed coffee even before opening the door to the office. Nodding to the breakfast cook who has been there since 5, the chef enters the office and pulls a crisp, starched chef coat from the closet, buttons the front, folds up the sleeves, inserts a thermometer and black sharpie in the breast pocket, adjusts his hat and grabs the coffee mug on his first walk-around of the day. The aroma of the coffee is quickly replaced with the smell of bacon being pulled from the oven, breakfast pastries drawn from the decks in the bakeshop and a mirepoix caramelizing on the back stove for today’s stocks. The day has begun.

Reviewing the banquet orders for the day, the chef notes that there are two small luncheons and a recognition dinner for 175 that evening. In two days, the restaurant will present a semi-annual wine dinner for 100 foodaholics; seven courses, each with a complementary wine. It will be a heavy prep day on top of normal a ‘la carte business. The time the chef had hoped to work on next season’s restaurant menus would need to wait, he will need to give the prep crew a hand.

The chef continues to touch base with cooks in each department, refills his coffee mug, washes his hands and sets up a cutting board for the work ahead. He grabs his knife kit from the office and proceeds to draw the blades of his French knife, boning knife, and bird’s beak tourne over a wet stone. He always enjoys the feeling and the sound of carbon steel as it makes contact with the stone. There is a spiritual connection between the stone and the steel that can be sensed. The two belong together. Once the chef is confident that the edge is honed, a few draws down his steel to remove any burrs, a quick wash and sanitize of the blade, and he is ready.

Over the next three hours, the kitchen is filled with a cacophony of sound: the chopping sound of blades on the cutting boards, the clanging of pots and pans, sizzle of meats being seared in a hot pan, constant hum of the exhaust fans and the roar of the conveyor dish machine have become the music the chef and his cooks seem to enjoy.

Throughout the shift, the chef responds to clues that are passed his way through the smells, sounds, sights, textures and tastes of the kitchen. His highly acute, educated senses can tell if a piece of chicken or beef is being properly seared by the sounds of a pan, hot enough to create that Maillard reaction resulting in a beautiful caramel color and the browning of sugars to enhance flavor. “Your pan is not hot enough. Wait before you place the meat in the pan and do NOT overcrowd the pan. Sear it, don’t steam it!” His nose can identify that pan of sliced almonds on the verge of burning, the fish that is too far passed it’s useful life or the bread that is ready to come out of the oven without even seeing or touching it. A tap on the bottom of the loaf to catch that hollow sound is the final signal of a loaf ready for the cooling shelf. Every cook, as the day goes on, will bring samples of their work to the chef for final adjustments or approval of the taste profile expected. They may all have great “buds”, but it is the chef’s palate that has earned the right of final approval.

Working in a kitchen is so incredibly unique. There is no other profession that not only allows, but; requires employees to turn on and tune in all of their senses, every minute. Those who are most successful in the kitchen are cooks with well-defined olfactory senses and firmly developed taste buds. What is even more important is the “flavor memory” that each cook owns. This memory is a database of sensual experiences that over time, allows the cook to know; this is what the product should look, sound, smell, feel and taste like.

From the moment the chef or cook arrives, there are opportunities to charge up the senses. Smelling those cantaloupes when they arrive from the vendor to determine if they are ripe enough for refrigeration or if they need a day or two in dry storage to mature; or snapping the green beans allowing the cook to establish if they are from a fresh harvest or cold storage. A bakers gentle touch of a dough during bowl proof will define whether it is time to punch down the dough and form it into individual loaves. A simple press of the fingers on a steak being grilled will send a message to a line cooks memory as to the degree of doneness. All of these, and so many more sensual opportunities exist in a kitchen, every day.

By the end of a shift, cooks all suffer from sensual overload. Yes, the job is very physical, stressful and even emotional, but what many do not realize (unless you live the life of a cook) is that cooking can leave your senses in a state of shock. Each day, cooks need to wake those senses up again and exercise them like an athlete in training.

The color of a beautiful glass of Pinot Noir can help an educated chef determine the quality of the drinking experience. That perfect caramelization of a diver scallop in clarified butter will awaken the memory of how it should taste. The smell of a rustic loaf of sour dough bread pulled from the oven or the enticing aroma of the garlic, onions and tomatoes in a well-prepared marinara are triggers that allow good cooks to become great chefs.

Those who wonder what it is like to work in a professional kitchen, day in and day out, must know that it truly is a sensual experience. Beyond the intensity of the work, beyond the barking of chefs and servers, way past the demands of the guest and owner, cooking is sensual. This is really what brings us back time and again. It all starts each day with the smell of rich coffee, bacon, onions and pastries hot from the oven. You have to love it. Cooking is the best job on the planet.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC
www.harvestamericaventures.com

Follow our blog at: www.culinarycuesblog.wordpress.com

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LINE COOKS ARE THE ENGINE THAT DRIVE A RESTAURANT

11 Sunday May 2014

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LINE COOKS ARE THE ENGINE THAT DRIVE A RESTAURANT

It takes many years for a good cook to become a great cook, to become a chef. There is an enormous amount of experience that leads to the ability to lead a kitchen, to create a vision and set the tone for consistently excellent performance. Aside from a strong understanding of foundational cooking technique, the chef must have accumulated an understanding of purchasing, menu planning, human resource management, inventory management, cost control, artistic presentations of food, sanitation and safety, public relations, wine, as well as communication and brand building. Yes, this position is a culmination of a lifetime of skill and aptitude development, however, chefs must never lose sight of the role that line cooks play in the daily successful operation of a kitchen.

Line cooks are the lifeblood of any professional kitchen operation. It is, after all, the line cook who has the responsibility to prepare, develop flavors and consistently execute the menu under what outsiders would consider – inhumane conditions. The chef may be in the driver’s seat, but the line cook is the engine. A driver without a well running engine would not get too far.

I am currently finishing another terrific, accurate book on “a day in the life of a kitchen” that truly depicts the intensity, challenges and incredible skill that a line cook must possess. In this portrayal (Sous Chef, by: Michael Gibney); the author, while living the role of the second in command pays true homage to the line cooks who make his success possible. From experience there are a few realities that drive me to acknowledge the significance of the young, upwardly mobile and sometimes satisfied to stay where they are, pirates of the line.

1. Let’s face it being a line cook is more often than not a younger person’s sport. The physical demands of working the line are only surpassed by the mental acuity that is required as line cooks attempt to keep track of multiple a’ la minute preparations, timings, plating’s and interconnections with other cooks on the line. In my last position as a chef I knew that I could work as hard and longer than most of the cooks in the restaurant (I paid for it with aches and pains that rarely went away), but the older I got the harder it was to process the rapid fire mental activity that is the routine of a line cook. Bending over hundreds of times, 120 degree heat, burns, cuts, clanging of pans, and the speed with which a line cook must act and react is way too challenging for most over the age of 40.
2. Each station on the line is a private entrepreneurship. The set-up, calculated mise en place, position of each ingredient from sliced garlic to clarified butter, from minced shallots to pour bottles of white wine and olive oil and from tongs (a line cooks most important tool) to neatly folded side towels is uniquely that cooks. True, the chef may initially train a cook how to set-up a station, but once they have grown into the position they will inevitably treat that area as if it were their own business. This “seasoning” as a line cook is absolutely critical for the efficient operation of a kitchen and once it is set, it needs to be that way – always.
3. Although a good portion of the pre-work for the line may be done by an earlier prep shift (stocks, mother sauces [where they are still relevant], peeled shallots and garlic, braised meats, fabrication of steaks and chops, filleting of fish, trimming and blanching of vegetables, etc.), it is the line cook who must know how to cook as completely as he or she knows how to breathe. He or she must know how to cook a perfect steak, when to turn a fish on the plancha, the right time to add a splash of wine, how to season items in a pan by holding that salt and pepper above the dish and allowing it to evenly forecast, how much time is left in the cooking process so that the plating of a table’s order can be orchestrated and most importantly; how to taste (a great line cook MUST have a well define palate). The line cook needs to have an eye for plate presentation even though the layout may have originated from the chef and must know how important it is to take a few extra seconds to show the finesse to place each item at its perfect spot on the plate. Maintaining the discipline for all of this to take place is hard to imagine.
4. The chef will undoubtedly know how all of this is done and he or she probably taught the cook early on how to manage these steps, but most chefs, once they reach that position would find it very difficult to step in and do the job as well as a line cook.
5. Finally, the line cook, as I pointed out in a previous article (Life Lessons from a Line Cook) https://harvestamericacues.com/2014/04/11/life-lessons-from-a-line-cook/ must be a consummate communicator and in most cases “listener”. The chef, on a busy night sets the cadence for the line and is the sole voice in the kitchen. Service staff will use the chef/expeditor as the portal for communication with cooks, but line personnel know that it is that voice that they must tune into. When a directive or question is posed, the line cook must zero in on the command, acknowledge it and then network with other stations as they execute the directive. Sometimes this networking is handled with simple eye contact and a nod, other times it will be succinct words like “fire, plate, garnish, sauce, hot, pick-up, hold, etc.”. All of this takes time to develop, but once it is there, the line can hum on all cylinders like each station entrepreneur is electrically connected to each other station and the chef/expeditor. This invaluable relationship is magical and goes way beyond the importance of the chef as an individual.

The dining room may be full of people who have heard of, know about, met or would like to meet – the chef. They may, in fact, have come to the restaurant to try the “chef’s food”, but rarely do they truly understand that the chef was probably never involved in the actual cooking of the dish. The chef is in the limelight and he or she has earned that position through many years of extremely hard work, but the chef could never function without the efforts of the team of line cooks who stay behind those swinging doors. The chef knows this all too well and although he or she may not thank the line enough until there is a gap in staffing, this knowledge that they are where they are because of the dedication and seasoned entrepreneurial spirit of the hourly paid line cook is always present in a chef’s subconscious.

It may seem that I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about cooks, even more than chefs, it is because having experienced a return to a great and reasonably busy chefs position in the later part of my career I learned very quickly how much I depended on these crucial members of the team.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC
http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

follow our blog at: http://www.culinarycuesblog.wordpress.com

READ THIS EXCELLENT PORTRAYAL OF KITCHEN LIFE:

Sous Chef
by: Michael Gibney

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ENOUGH WITH INACCURATE TV FOOD SHOWS

06 Sunday Apr 2014

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ENOUGH WITH INACCURATE TV FOOD SHOWS

Nearly everyone in the restaurant business that I know cringes when anyone mentions one of the “reality food shows” on various networks. Inaccurate would not go far enough to describe the environment that is portrayed. Some may clarify and say, well this is really entertainment, but to a professional chef or cook, this “entertainment” does insurmountable harm to a great profession and paints a picture far from reality.

Way too many young people choose to attend culinary school as a result of over-exposure to shows that infer that cooks can wear what they want, chefs can say what they want, everything they prepare is judged by a panel of critics, that whatever piece of equipment they would like to see in a kitchen is available, cost is no object, and everything evolves around the spontaneity of developing a menu on the fly with obscure ingredients. This is not the kitchen of today, nor is it the kitchen that most professionals are used to or would accept. So let’s take a minute to define what it is really like.

The kitchens of Gordon Ramsey with red vs. blue teams, constant screaming (in full view of the guest), belittling of cooks by the chef and everyone looking out for themselves is so far from real that I am not sure where to begin. This is not to say that tempers never rise or that chefs never raise their voice, but the environment portrayed on TV would easily fall under the heading of: hostile work environment, a situation that can bring the department of labor or even lawsuits hovering at the back door of a restaurant. It just cannot happen like this any more. Most of the cooks that I know, if they were attacked in the way that Chef Ramsey is portrayed would either walk out the back door or pin him up against a cooler wall. Professional kitchens today stress the importance of team work, define success in terms of how everyone carries themselves on the job, how the chef attempts to manage calm in the kitchen that could easily melt due to the physical nature of the tasks involved and the pressure surrounding the timing and complexity of preparation.

As much as every chef and cook would love to have $100,000 Bonnet ranges in their operation, beautiful copper pots or Cuisinart cookware, that is rarely the case. Typically we work on ranges that have survived past their useful life and are kept alive through magical maintenance repair work and aluminum pans that are seasoned through heat and salt polishing and are bowed from constant exposure to open flames. The only copper is sitting in the chef’s office and brought out for decoration on dining room buffets. Cooks have been known to hide pots and pans in their lockers to ensure that they have something to work with on their shift (especially breakfast cooks who claim their egg pans are private property never to be touched by any other food except eggs).

Although cooks and chefs today may have a heavy dose of body tattoos, their uniforms are likely to be conservative white jackets, houndstooth pants, skull caps, side towels, white or blue aprons and supportive black shoes. Professional kitchens take pride in the tradition around the uniform and enforce the need for cooks to respect this.

It is very rare that a chef or cook is required to make a spontaneous menu out of silly ingredients that have no business in the same dish. Menus and recipes are developed painstakingly over a period of time with input from cooks, dining room staff and management. Recipes are tested, plate presentations are wrestled with and what appears on a menu is well thought out, researched and executed. Some restaurants are able to offer menus that change daily, but even in those cases – items are drawn from a chefs repertoire or expanded from dishes and techniques previously developed. Chefs take menu development very seriously, even daily features that might be drawn from available ingredient inventory or an occasional item that is driven by an unusual seasonal ingredient.

Iron Chef and Top Chef are sometimes fun to watch, but you may note that basic business acumen rarely comes into play. No one ever worries about the cost of ingredients, the limitless availability of equipment, or what a restaurant would need to charge for the items produced. I have seen dishes with excessive amounts of shaved truffle (probably $25-30 worth of cost on a plate which would equate to $75 or so in additional selling price), foie gras used as if it were the same price as chicken liver, items sautéed in expensive extra virgin olive oil and 25 year old balsamic vinegar drizzled on tomatoes at 10 times the price of a more standard balsamic product. Chefs are responsible for operating a restaurant as a financially successful business and to portray the position as being oblivious to this is terribly misleading.

If the networks want to portray accurate life in the kitchen, then they could find thousands of examples that are exciting, realistic and focused on painting a picture that could be easily digested by those in the industry, those who love to dine out and young people contemplating a career in a professional kitchen. Demonstrate the total commitment to cleanliness, sanitation and food safety. Show a typical day in a chef’s life from menu building, to working with purveyors, training cooks and ensuring that standards are followed, setting up the line for service, pre-meal with the service staff, keeping dishwashers happy, taking the time to build great plate presentations, keeping the rhythm of the line such that cooks don’t crash and burn half way though a busy night, and the challenges of adjusting to food allergies and unique food preferences. Show how a chef sweats the details of cost control: portioning, price shopping with various vendors, waste management, cross-utilization of ingredients, and inventory management. This is a daily challenge that consumes much of a chef’s day.

The restaurant business is very difficult and those who can adapt to the kitchen, understand their role, work well as a member of the team, remain focused on the foundations of cooking and be consistent in their approach to food preparation are a unique, proud breed who needs to be portrayed accurately: MY two cents.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER
Harvest America Ventures, LLC
Restaurant Consulting, Training and Coaching
http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

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DEEPER STILL: LINE COOKS AFTER HOURS

28 Monday Oct 2013

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DEEPER STILL: LINE COOKS AFTER HOURS

Everything seemed to be in order at the end of service. Jake’s station was spotless, his knives were cared for and locked up, his dirty uniform replaced by jeans and a sweatshirt, and his prep list for tomorrow was on his clipboard. Time to unwind.

Jake was never attracted to the drug culture that some of his fellow cooks subscribed to, but he had, over the years, acquired a taste for really good wines and craft beer. He always seemed to wind up at his favorite late-night café after work to enjoy a drink or two (or sometimes more). As Jake was leaving the restaurant, his fellow cook on apps (her name was Sara) asked if she could tag along. “Sure” was his immediate response. He would always wind up mingling with cooks from other restaurants so one more from his shop would be just fine. The Café was his social outlet, his only social outlet.

While walking the five blocks to his favorite after hours establishment Jake thought to himself: “Why did Sara want to tag along? His experience was never positive when it came to relationships built on co-workers. Is this what was starting to happen?” Sara was pleasant, high energy, attractive and really competent as a cook. In the 10 minutes it took to walk to the Café he discovered that she was 27 (Jake was 31), had dropped out of college as a history major because it was just too boring, had grown up in a restaurant family so knew kitchens from the age of 10, and had been cooking again for the past three years. She loved the intensity of line work more than anything and shared Jake’s love of great wine.

In the Café, Jake was immediately welcomed by cooks from a handful of other local restaurants, all sharing stories of the night’s drama behind the line. Sara immediately fit in with her outgoing personality and mastery of the conversation subject matter. One cook turned to her and asked: “so what do you think of Jake’s art?” She had no idea what he was talking about, but quickly learned as he pointed out the three paintings of Jake’s hanging on the Café walls. “Wow, this must be Jake’s great secret, no one at PLATE knows that he paints”! The work, in her opinion was quite good and colorful depicting scenes of nature (the absence of people in the work was very noticeable). She was impressed and smiled when she looked Jake’s way.

Jake passively admitted that he had enjoyed painting, but no longer had the time. The only canvas that he had touched in the past eight years was a plate in whatever restaurant he was working. Food, after all, is the ultimate art form that appeals to every human sense.

While Sara was joking with other cooks in the bar Jake surveyed the room and made a mental note of the artistic sub-culture of kitchen workers. There were musicians, writers, other painters, a goldsmith, world traveler vagabonds, intellectual college dropouts and even a poet. He wondered, as he did most nights, why these folks wound up in the kitchen and if the trade tends to attract frustrated artists.

Everyone in the room shared a passion for quiet self-expression. In a mix of their own kind, these culinary pirates were extremely outgoing and full of self-confidence. In the presence of people from outside this sub-culture, they would shut down and become the social introverts that seemed to have no interest in interaction. These folks were strange for sure.

Jake was on his third glass of David Bruce Pinot Noir (every time he turned around someone had bought him another) and was now carrying on a pleasant discussion with Sara (drinking Sangiovese) about the complexities of social media as an art form. Jake had put aside the polenta issue for the time being, but it would no doubt return to his conscious mind in the morning. Tomorrow was another day, busier than Friday and full of challenges just as unique as the ones he experienced today. He made a mental note to go home soon and get a good night’s sleep. He would once again make every attempt to exercise in the morning and build up his stamina for a night on the line.

In between conversations with Sara and his friends Jake wondered if he could make a go of a real relationship with her. He instantly liked Sara but feared the consequences of a relationship at work. Maybe he was just destined to be single like most of his colleagues. Relationships and the job of line cook seemed to be something that was unrealistic.

Two more glasses of wine and Jake hailed a cab for Sara and paid the driver to get her home safe. He walked the additional seven blocks to his apartment and crashed at around 3 a.m. The 11 a.m. alarm came as a shock. Jake reached for another cigarette, clicked a K-cup in his Keurig coffee maker, stared at Robin Meade on HLN News and realized that exercise was again out of the question. First things first – he needed to shower, shave and get to work by 12:30 to get ready for the Saturday rush. The cycle of life for a line cook continues.

Thanks for reading this mini series on the life of a line cook. I would assume that many who took the time to read these passages have experienced the life cycle of a line cook first hand. To you, I tip my hat. Line cooks are the backbone of the kitchen, but they oftentimes live a life that is consumed by the craft and the energy it takes to make it all work. For those who read the series and have not had the pleasure of working in a professional kitchen I hope that you have a better understanding of what it takes to present that plate of beautiful, well-prepared, flavorful food in your local restaurant.

My intent is to use this theme (including Jake) as the basis for my next book – publishing date to be determined. ☺ In the meantime, you may find my first piece of partial fiction to be amusing. In the Shadow of Cooks is available through amazon.com. A nice gift for a food friend this Christmas.

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Cooks-Chicken-Getting-Brown/dp/0595436951/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382967718&sr=1-5&keywords=In+the+Shadow+of+Cooks

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IS YOUR RESTAURANT STRUGGLING TO MAKE A PROFIT? LET’S LOOK AT THE MENU.

23 Monday Sep 2013

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IS YOUR RESTAURANT STRUGGLING TO MAKE A PROFIT? LET'S LOOK AT THE MENU.

The restaurant business is built on very narrow margins. We are constantly faced with decisions that nip away at the pennies that operators try to make on every dollar in sales. Let’s look at some basic facts that have placed us in this position:
* We deal with highly perishable raw materials
* Many restaurants have succumbed to the feeling that bigger is always better
* If we are concerned with quality, then labor cost will be looming very large
* Many restaurants have also fallen victim to the belief that in order to satisfy customers they must adhere to a list of menu items that are extremely costly to the operation
* With rare exception, there is a ceiling to what we can charge for the items we produce
* Waste, theft and spoilage are curve balls that seem to always cross the plate (no pun intended)
* Even with a plethora of culinary school graduates on the market, the majority of restaurant cooks are technicians trained to follow steps rather than express themselves through cooking. This requires the operation to plan menu items that are easy for technicians to execute consistently.

So, all of this being said, even the noblest restaurateur must realize that they are in business and will only remain in business if they are profitable. I have been around so many chefs and restaurant owners who work incredibly hard, producing very good food, keeping customers happy, only to lose money. This is so discouraging to those involved and ultimately results in closure. How can restaurants make money?

The formula is not easy and the guarantees are never very solid, however, it would make sense to look at the menu first. The menu is the center of the business operation. Everything else: staffing, equipment, facilities, advertising, vendor selection, table top appointments and decor, marketing and advertising, and operational image are all based on the product design and delivery. How many restaurant menus are flush with items such as: Angus Filet Mignon, Foie Gras, Morels and Fresh Chanterelles, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Lobster, Crab, Pacific Halibut, Rack of Lamb, Fresh Berries in February, Asparagus out of season and Twenty-year old Balsamic Vinegar? Now, don’t get me wrong – I love all of these items and thoroughly enjoy eating them with reckless abandon. The fact is, they make it very difficult to make money. How many restaurants, after all, can charge the $45 they should for the 8 oz. Angus Filet or $30 for that Lump Crab Cake appetizer? There is a ceiling in pricing (with rare exception) and most restaurants are unable to price those items for profitability – yet they continue to put them on their menus, fill their dining rooms with eager guests who have come to expect that Fillet for $19.95 and would raise hell if the restaurant charged what they should.

As an aside, these items are built for technicians who can be trained to produce an item as expected, time and time again, but who more often than not are not trained to really cook. Please don’t take offense, I have great respect for that seasoned broiler cook who can grill steaks perfectly throughout the night, or the saute’ cook pan frying that beautiful crab cake to a crisp, golden brown and artistically placing it on a plate with remoulade and frisee. The problem is that neither item is destined to make a healthy profit unless you are buying sides, hanging them in your temperature/humidity controlled meat lockers, cutting your own steaks and grinding the beef, making gallons of stock every day, buying your shellfish dockside, picking the meat from shells and reducing the stock from shells for beautiful fumet.

Think about the restaurants that are consistently profitable (and delicious) and look at their menus: homemade pasta (flour and egg), braised meats (shoulder and shanks), artisan pizza (flour, water, salt and yeast), roast whole chicken (still a very reasonably priced product), sustainable, regional flat and round fish restaurants (haddock, cod, smelt, anchovies, bluefish, catfish, trout, flounder, etc.) that offer delicious fish broiled, sauteed, pan fried, and baked en papliotte. All of these restaurants plan menus that are driven by great raw materials that are seasonal, reasonably priced, and that beckon the talents of a person trained to cook and make in-expensive items taste expensive.

Look at your menu. Is it designed to use all of the ingredients that you buy (Chef Marc Meneau once told me that restaurants don’t make money on onions, they make money on the onion skins)? Are the items on your menu seasonal and only used when they are at their peak of freshness and lowest in price? Are your listed items driven from recipes that challenge cooks to draw flavors out from an understanding of proper cooking techniques? Is your staff trained to properly promote these exceptional items to guests who are typically focused on the high cost items that you cannot afford to sell? Are your plates balanced with a variety of vegetables, flavor accompaniments, and proteins that can stay within the 4-6 ounce range rather than 12 ounces or more? If the answer is no – then begin there. Profitability in restaurants is a science and an art, but it is most importantly a reflection on your understanding of the product and how to make flavor sell above familiarity and portion size.

More than 2/3 of the restaurants that open today will be closed in a year and the vast majority that survive year one will likely close in the next five years. Don’t be a statistic – start with a plan for profitability, select and train staff to nurture flavors, buy right and educate the guest through their palate.

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SOUP’S ON!

20 Friday Sep 2013

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SOUP'S ON!

The air is crisp, fog sits on the lake every morning, leaves are turning to vibrant colors, sweaters come out of hiding, the sun burns off the fog but still leaves a chill in the air, and cooks are busy combining a variety of ingredients for the soup of the day. This is my favorite season on the year. Working in professional kitchens becomes a bit more tolerable since the humidity has dropped and temperatures are manageable and menus have transitioned from lighter preparations of grilling and chilling to most cooks favorite preparations of braises and roasts. Most important is the soup.

Soup is a real test of a professional cooks skills. Yes, many restaurants have standardized recipes, but the “soup du jour” provides an opportunity for cooks to demonstrate their ability to work from a blank slate and build on their palate.

Michael Minor of Minor Foods once told me that when he enters a restaurant for the first time he always orders the soup of the day before he even looks at the menu. If the soup is good then he knows that the kitchen has skill. If the soup is a disappointment, he pays the bill and moves on. It is soup, after all, that provides the opportunity to demonstrate knife skills, understanding of ingredients and how they marry, how well tuned a cooks taste buds are, and an understanding of stocks and broth. These are the foundations of every proper kitchen.

There are very few foods that are more satisfying than flavorful, interesting, hot soups on those crisp fall days. We all have our own soup memories, but few who grew up in America would deny the nostalgia surrounding the greatest comfort meal: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese. This constitutes one of the first “a ha” food memories that most of us have. We did, after all, grow up as part of the Campbell’s generation. What was unfortunate was the creation of a generation that was less inclined to cook and enjoy the opportunity to test basic skills in the kitchen. Today, that has begun to change as more and more people are finding the process of preparing soup an integral part of life at home.

Soup, through history, was at first a basic source of sustenance. A food product that came from broth and bread and helped the poor survive. Today, the symbolism is not lost on the unfortunate who find it difficult to provide a meal and lean on soup kitchens for foundational nutrition. To others of varying socio-economic groups, soup is a reflection of ethnicity and interest in a cultural food experience. Most regions of the world have their benchmark soup that defines their cuisine: French Onion, Italian Minestrone, Chinese Won Ton, Gazpacho in Spain, Gumbo in New Orleans, Chowder in New England and Borscht in Russia to name a few.

Soup has even become part of our entertainment culture. Even the show Seinfeld is likely most remembered for the “Soup Nazi” who held customers captive with his antagonistic rule: “you-no soup, one year!”

One of my favorite soups is a version of Tuscan Bean and Kale. This recipe takes a little time, but provides tremendous flavor memory and if you have the freezer space, can be a backup dinner when your schedules become too complicated to cook every night.

Enjoy!

SORGULE’S TUSCAN BEAN SOUP

Ingredients
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Dried Navy Beans 2 cups
Water 2 quarts
Salt 1 tsp.
Onions 1 large (medium dice)
Carrots 2 large (medium dice)
Celery 4 stalks (medium dice)
Garlic 6 cloves (sliced)
Ham 8 oz. (medium dice)
Tomatoes (plum) 5 each (remove seeds- julienne)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chicken Stock 3 quarts
Kale 4 cups (chopped)
Italian Parsley 1/2 cup (coarse chop)

Soak the beans in water and salt overnight.
Strain the beans and combine all ingredients except kale, tomatoes, parsley and salt and pepper.
Simmer until the beans are tender (about 60 minutes).
Add the kale and tomatoes and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning and add the parsley.
Serve with grated parmesan cheese and your favorite hard crusted bread.
This makes enough for 6-8 servings.

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SHORT ORDER COOKS WERE MY HEROS

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

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I can still remember that day in my hometown of Buffalo, New York. I was 10 years old and on a shopping trip downtown with my mother as we came upon that restaurant with a full picture window framing in the vision of a short order cook preparing lunch for a growing crowd. His movements were synchronized as he easily moved from the remaining breakfast items on the grill to sandwiches, fries, blue plate specials, and appropriate side dishes. No movement was wasted as he pivoted, grabbed plates, flipped burgers and rolled omelets in pans. Waitresses were lined up and did not seem to marvel at the poetic motion of a man in control of the situation – I guess they were simply accustomed to this daily routine. I was mesmerized.

Five years later I had my first job (working papers in hand) as a dishwasher in a busy restaurant in the Central Park section of the city. It was the summer, so without the pressures of school I was free to work and rub elbows with the cook. She was about the same age as my mother, maybe a few years older, and had recently lost her husband who was a real chef. When it became busy she would ask me to help by buttering danish to be grilled, toasting bread, cracking eggs and setting up burger garnishes. I watched as construction workers came in early to order coffee and danish or grilled hard rolls (apparently a big thing in Buffalo at the time). I marveled at how the cook was able to keep track of everything, still smile and carry on conversations with those sitting at the counter. Servers would call out: “2 scrambled, eggs over easy, 3 cakes with syrup, another grilled danish,1 western omelet, and as it approached lunch time – various sandwiches including the house burger”. This was the original “fast food” restaurant concept and my hero was at the helm. By the end of the summer she let me take over the grill during slower times so that she could prep for the next day.

I wanted to be a rock drummer (didn’t everyone), but my parents were smarter than me and strongly urged me to go to college. What should I do? My only other love was that job working the grill, so when I heard about colleges that taught hotel management and cooking, I knew that this would be choice #2.

Fast forward a few years and I found myself working in kitchens that were a bit more sophisticated than my first experiences at the short-order grill, yet it was that early training that allowed me to apply organizational skills and personality to working on the line. My responsibilities were to prepare items from the dinner menu in a 1,200 room hotel for an audience willing to wait a little longer and spend quite a bit more. This was invigorating, yet I still would marvel at watching our breakfast cook prepare food at the same speed and with the same grace as that first cook in the window of a downtown Buffalo storefront. I always had respect for the breakfast cook.

Throughout my career as a chef, a sign of stability in the kitchen was finding a breakfast cook who had the same passion, speed, grace and organizational skills as that guy in the window. Whenever I found myself without that stable force in the kitchen, things just didn’t seem to work well. First of all, I might need to arrive before 5 a.m. to cook breakfast which unless your body is in that cycle can be torture; and second, as you age it becomes much more difficult to wrap your head around the speed with which breakfast orders come in and fly into the “window” for pick-up. Still, there is nothing more rewarding than smelling bacon come out of the oven at 6 a.m., home fries on the grill, fresh brewed coffee long before most reasonable people are awake, and the crack of egg shells with one eye still closed. This is the time of day when even the restaurant kitchen is struggling to wake up.

After four decades of a food service career, I still remember that cook in the window and marvel at his skill. I don’t know his name but would love to thank him, if he is still with us, for introducing me to a business and starting the wheels in motion for a 10 year old without a clue what he wanted to do with his life.

Short order cooks rock!

The picture in this article was taken by Harold Feinstein, a professional photographer able to capture the spirit of people on film.

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Onions – The Most Important Ingredient

05 Monday Aug 2013

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Two things occurred in the same week a few years back when I was the Executive Chef at a four-diamond resort. A server approached me when I was expediting and stated that a guest was allergic to onions and wanted to know what items on the menu he could eat. I thought for a few moments and had to respond “nothing”. I, of course, prepared something special for the guest, but up to that point I had not realized how important onions, and those ingredients in the onion family were to my cooking. That same week I was interviewed on a regional radio show as the host asked me what ingredient I liked to cook with more than any other. Without hesitation I said “onions”. He was a bit taken back until I explained how essential these ingredients were.

Onions are part of the Allium species of vegetables and include: brown skin onions, white onions, Spanish onions, purple onions, scallions (immature onions that have yet to form a bulb), Vidalia (sweet onions), cipollini, leeks, shallots, pearl onions, ramps, garlic and chives (there are numerous varieties of most items listed) .

I use brown skin onions in mirepoix for my stocks, soups and sauces; purple or Spanish onions for pickling and an accent in salads; Vidalia for those Bistro Burgers that everyone craves; scallions in stir fry and marinades; garlic in dressings, pesto, various saute dishes and bruschetta; cipollini in stews and with various braised items; ramps as an accompaniment to organic chicken in the Spring; shallots in just about everything that I can think of; and chives in numerous salads and maitre’d butter for steaks. The thought of cooking without Allium vegetables would be very difficult.

What is ironic is that members of the onion family are rarely thought of as a primary ingredient. We too often place all of the emphasis on the protein and rarely give credit to those ingredients that give the protein a unique flavor profile.

Onions and garlic define the most vivid aroma memories of life in the kitchen. The smell of caramelized onions can make you salivate. I recall working in a food operation once that was part of an office complex. The manager always made us throw onions on the grill just before lunch to fill the cafe with that sweet, intoxicating aroma. He was convinced that this smell increased sales.

The rich flavor of a perfectly made onion soup granitee’ can best be described as rich and full of umami (the taste of savory). Onions rings on a steak, lightly sauteed garlic in Pasta Vongole, Cipollini caramelized and served with a perfectly grilled veal chop, creamy shallots blended with the rich flavor of Osso Buco, and sweet ramps with roasted organic chicken change a dish from good to spectacular.

I suppose the reason that onions make us cry is a reflection of the onions disappointment in how they are treated in comparison to the more expensive proteins that take center stage. Treat those onions with care for they are the ingredients that define all of us as cooks.

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