ChefTalk.com Community Forums

newbie goof up

leeniek — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:31:48 GMT

We have a couple of newbies in our kitchen and one did a classic eff up today...

He was on the schedule to start at 9am today and well it was getting close to 10 when the KM asked the owner to give this guy a call and see if he was planning on turning up at all today. So.. owner calls the guy and the guy starts giving our owner attitude as "he was not on for today all week, why has it changed" and the owner handed the phone to the KM and he said.. um.. the schedule has not changed since it was printed and posted last week and you are almost an hour late... to which the guy answered... I have plans and I am not in. We were less than pleased being one man down on the weekend but come what may and we gotta do what we gotta do. A couple of hours later the new guy calls and I guess asked if we wanted him in.. the KM shook his head as we had gotten through the crunch and were kind of coasting smoothly.

Someone is getting a warning tomorrow... and the KM and I were chatting about it and if they had not been full of attitude on phonecall #1 there would not be disciplinary action involved. Yeah the call to come in kind of redeemed them but wouldn't it have been prudent for them to admit the mistake and say they'll be in asap???

ACK!

I hate being SLOW.....

fryguy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:30:56 GMT

Man is it slow around here.....so i need you all to post alot more stuff so i can be on the computer and still have it work related......LOL

Howdy

deplemisher — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:48:36 GMT

Hello,

Now a weekend warrior, I grew up in the New Orleans area cooking for fun since I was 6. I worked at a few New American restaurants in Louisiana including The Dakota in Covington including work for Cuvee in New Orleans. Staying in the lineage, I served at Juban's in Baton Rouge and eventually took a cash cow job at Sullivan's Steakhouse in Baton Rouge.

Throughout those 7 years, I played around and picked up as much as possible from some amazing chefs. Now, my wife and I live in the bay area and love nothing more than an elaborate meal, especially when cooking for groups of 10-20 friends.

Aside from cooking, I have traveled through over 30 countries and look forward to potentially living in Paris over the next 12 months! This forum looks like a great network and I look forward to contributing.

Cheers,

Joe

Question Proofing bread in the winter

Sch — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:40:12 GMT

I am having a problem with my breads in the winter:cool:. They are taking much too long to proof and throwing off my whole schedule. Any ideas??

Now I'm worried about getting carbon steel...

JWK1 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:33:28 GMT

I'm poised to buy at least one Masamoto virgin steel 270cm chef. Then I stumble across the link on eG Forums regarding Knife Maintenance and Sharpening (I can't provide a link because I haven't made five posts yet).

The author's take is that good stainless outshines carbon in the kitchen because of food acids attacking the edge, making it unable to hold an edge as well as stainless. I cut a lot of lemons and tomatoes. From what I understand, the UG-10 knives are no slouches.

I don't mind taking care of carbon steel, but I wonder how fanatical I'm going to have to be to keep the edge. To all of you carbon steel users and lovers: Do you use a stainless knife to cut really acidic foods, or do you just rinse your carbon right after cutting the lemon? If you still use your carbon on lemons and tomatoes, do you find your edge holding better than good stainless, same, or worse?

I want to get carbon. Please talk me down. And yes, I almost always obsess and agonize when I'm making any type of equipment choice, especially when the piece of equipment will be long term.

Thanks.

Oh, Goodie!

MikeLM — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:22:56 GMT

:thumb:HARVARD

crushes :peace: :peace:

YALE

14-10 WITH TWO TOUCHDOWNS IN THE LAST SIX MIUNTES :thumb:

Did anybody notice?

Hope the Stillers do as well

Mike :p :p

Gravadlax

bughut — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:19:58 GMT

I've always wanted to try making gravadlax and with our local Morrisons selling a side of salmon at 1/2 price, for �5/ $6.50ish I'm champing at the bit to show off at christmas.

I know how to make it ?? recipes are welcome tho. My main question is keepability. Does one hope the curing with keep it fresh that long, or is it freezable. ( It hasnt been previously frozen ) Also, how soon can it be eaten. If within a few days, I'll make one for next weekend as a trial run and buy more for christmas.

I suspect it may not be the best quality at that price. But maybe its simply a supermarket loss leader.

Question The Professional Chef VS On Cooking

bidul — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:01:52 GMT

Hi Everybody,

I'm looking for a book to learn about cooking skills. I cook at home, but I'd like to learn the way chefs learn, even though I might take a little more time... ;)

After searching, I ended up with 2 books:
The Professional Chef, from The Culinary Institute of America
and
On Cooking, A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals

I didn't find anything about them on the forum...

Does anybody know something about them, and could maybe compare them?..

Thanks a lot! :)

Viking Cookware

missyjean — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:38:25 GMT

Can anyone give me their review of this line?

I am considering Mauviel but there are no stores which sell the SS and it is hard to make a decision based on internet images.

I am also considering the All Clad but am a little discouraged at the bad reviews their customer service is getting

Alton Brown recommends AC but said Viking is a little better

My husband and I want to give each other a set, our last set, so I have to make a wise choice

BTW, I am still using my Farberware all-clad SS from 1970 (from my first marriage) and it looks as new as my 1 Emerilware saucepan I bought last year

Thanks to everyone who replies :o

preparing for chef school?

Oscar — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:51:42 GMT

Hello all,
I am enrolled in a one year chef training program starting in January. I am very excited, but also incredibly nervous! I have never had any experience in a professional kitchen. So my question is, what can I do between now and then to start preparing myself for life in culinary school!? Someone recently suggested that I try to apprentice at a butcher shop, which I thought would be very useful. Are there any books out there that could help me? I love to cook at home, but have never had any training and I am feeling like I might be in over my head!
thanks for the help!

Phyllo Cups

KirstenS — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:32:06 GMT

Does anyone have any easy recipes with some sort of savory filling for a phyllo cup? When I search the web a lot recipes show up with spinach and tomatoes. I personally love both these ingredients but there are a couple of people who would pass. I'm looking for this as an appetizer for Thanksgiving with the fam.

Glaze for doughnuts

American_Suisse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:01:13 GMT

I made some doughnuts the other day. When I made the glaze for them something went wrong. Granted I was trying to do it from memory but still! I ended up with something more like frosting. The glaze never hardened like it would when my mom made it. I used 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 TBSP softened butter, 1/2 tsp of vanilla, and just enough milk to wet the mixture. It looked right but after coating about half of the doughnuts, I finally gave up and threw some cocoa in with the glaze mixture and frosted the rest of the doughnuts with it.
Any ideas on what went wrong?

Question What are you smoking?

gonefishin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:41:41 GMT

Hi all :)

I thought it could be inspirational to post what your currently smoking. This doesn't have to be anything formal, just post what you smoked and/or get some ideas for new recipes.

The other day I smoked a couple of things...

On the top rack I Cured/Rubbed/Smoked some tasso ham. I got the cure recipe and the inspiration from CapeChef's Hot & Cold smoking thread.

After doing a little research on tasso ham I found that it is traditionally made from raw pork shoulder, not the ham portion. So I cut the pork butt into 1 1/2lb pieces and applied Cape Chef's cure recipe. After 3 1/2 hours I rinsed, dried and rubbed for a rest overnight. Because this was cured raw pork I did cook it to an internal temperature of 180f.

The tasso ham was absolutely wonderful. Great hammy flavor, nice spice, plenty of fat...YUM! This is great by itself, with breakfast, in rice dishes, or sliced thin on a sandwich. ...I wonder if I'll ever by sliced ham from the deli again???

Below the tasso ham I had a brisket cooking, using BDL's brisket recipe. I followed the recipe with the exception of the truffles. I really wanted to give it a try with the truffle oil injected into the brisket, but I was making this for alot of people...and truffles are just one of those things that people seem to find heavenly, or down right objectionable.

My only complaint about the brisket recipe was that there were NO leftovers!

Under the brisket and tasso ham I had some raw kielbasa sausage smoking. I like to make some of these guys and throw them in the freezer. It turns out great for rice dishes, gumbo, etc. The trick is trying to find the raw kielbasa. It's just not out every time I want to smoke.

At the bottom I had a large foil pan of baked beans that I was smoking. I took the quick route (I had enough things on my plate for that day) and used canned beans. I used drained/rinsed baked beans, black beans and white beans. I cut up some onion, garlic and red pepper. I added some molasses, some bourbon, dry mustard, salt and pepper and then lined the top with bacon. All the juices and spices from everything the tasso ham, the brisket and the kielbasa all dripped right into the beans. They were wonderful!

Dan

An Easy Way You Can Help ChefTalk

Nicko — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:44:01 GMT

To All Community Members,

Just a reminder that there are two easy ways you can help support ChefTalk.com this year.

1.)When you shop through Amazon.com use the ChefTalk link to amazon and every time you make a purchase ChefTalk gets a small percentage of the sale. This is a great way to help keep us up and running when you are buying cookbooks (or actually anything you buy from Amazon).

Link to Amazon

2.) Consider purchasing a premium membership for $12.00 and remove all of the ads you see when you surf the forums. In addition to not seeing anymore ads you will also get a larger allowance of private messages, a larger size allowance profile picture and a larger size allowance for your avatar. So for a a buck a month you can few the forums with no ads.

If you would like to do this simply click here "Support ChefTalk".

Switching from AP to Bread Flour

kokopuffs — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:50:21 GMT

For the past two years of breadmaking I've used, for my 6 cup recipe, KA AP flour with 2 C water, plus salt and yeast.

Today I've begun making my std 6 C loaf using KA Unbleached Bread Flour; therefore I've gone from using a flour at 11.7% protein to 12.7%. There water volume has increased from 2 C to 2 1/4 C. Although the dough feels a bit more hydrated, I'm wondering about the rise, crumb's texture and flavor.

Any comments appreciated. BTW the loaf goes into the oven in about 90 minutes! :peace: