I'm a big fan of cooking for myself and watch the Food Network and Top Chef regularly. One thing that has always bothered me is on Throwdown, where they show Bobby Flay eating off a street cart and describing it like a 5-star meal. Am I way off by calling his bluff here? Also, how do you handle eating out at restaurants (that is, if you do)? Do you eat fast food or think it is garbage?
Or on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives where he says everything he tastes is incredible, amazing or the best he ever had. Since you said you work for The Food Network you might know. Some of that food has to taste shitty.
I've heard profit margins for restaurants are one of the lowest of any industry. In an extremely competitive marketplace with consumers cutting back on frills, how do you seperate yourself from the competition?
1) When cooking at work or home do you ever find yourself going to a cookbook? If so, is there one you would recommend for a novice? 2) Do you have any pet peeves about what others do in the kitchen?
Flay has had a weird career. Don't get me wrong, he's still one of the most skilled chefs in NYC, but nowdays he's become more of salesman then a chef. Doesn't matter what he's selling, if he's on it or eating it, it's got to be great even if it's not. Flay will tell you flat out that the last 4 seasons of "Next Food Network Star" sucked because there aren't that many people with telegenic skills who can cook out there, but if you look on FN now, you'd see him pitching the 7th season of the same show he hates with a huge smile on his face. I've never worked on either show so I couldn't tell you. All I know if that Anne Burrell looks like a shaved down Guy Fieri.
One of the first questions I ever got asked in the business was "what is the first priority of a chef?" The answer is simple, it is to make money. You can be the greatest chef in the world, but if your place keeps going under it won't matter. Having never owned my own restaurant I can only give you a little info, but this is what I feel will help a place separate from the competition. I'll finish it up by listing some examples of restaurants that went a certain route. 1) Have solid financial backing from the start. You could have a great menu, but if that menu depends on you buying more expensive food you'll find yourself cutting corners and buying a lesser product during down times. This happens pretty much all the time. Having financial backing means that during those lean times you don't have to worry about the place making money right away and will let you build up your reputation a little slower. - Union Pacific, Craft 2) You have a up and coming chef with a rockstar resume who is leaving a high profile restaurant that's also the critic's darling. - Stanton Social, Hearth 3) Find a niche in a geographic area where your place will be unique but accessible. - Scarpetta 4) Hire a PR firm that will literally escort A-List celebrities to your door, where you'll get additional press as being an "in" place to eat at due to the elite clientele. - Any restaurant run by Wolfgang Puck.
Since you work at Food Network, you have probably contemplated this many times... We are playing Fuck, Marry, Kill; your choices are: Giada De Laurentiis, Rachel Ray, Paula Dean. GO
One thing that both Anthony Bourdain and my friend who's working as a chef have noted is the prevalence of drugs among people who handle food. What's the deal with that? Is it part of the personality profile? Is this method at all correct?
Black winter truffles to make a risotto and otoro bluefin tuna to make tartare with. I'm getting a boner just thinking about it. I'm a bit overweight, but it's hardly to do with being a chef. I don't eat anything at work unless it's just a quick taste to make sures things are properly done. Most women are indifferent, at least until I've actually cooked for them. I cook for others all the time. Potlucks, dinner parties, BBQs, several of those a week. I go all out for these kinds of things because that's the best part of my career. Nothing beats seeing the looks on their faces when they're presented a meal that astounds nearly all of their senses. I use Zwilling and Henckel Four Stars. I'll post a picture later. I hardly watch reality cooking shows, although Top Chef is alright. I like putting myself in those situations and seeing if I can hack it. I've actually competed in a couple of Iron Chef showdowns and while I haven't been able to win, I held my own against guys who've been doing this shit for 30+ years. Hell's Kitchen makes me physically ill. And yes, I eat just about everything. Cooking for myself is very mundane. It's a crapshoot. Looks and reviews can be deceiving. I try to keep things pretty simple and basic if I'm running a show. Olive oil is a must, along with good ol' salt and pepper of course, but I also tend to have balsamic vinegar, a variety of fresh herbs like basil, thyme and cilantro, a shitload of real butter, and a couple of different wines for cooking. Those are the things that I'm nearly never without. I got into this industry at age 13. I was freakishly large for my age and really wanted to start earning money to get all the nice things in teenage life, so I applied at a Chinese joint under the pretense that I was 14 and worked there for quite a while, making more money than a pre-teen should ever make. The chef there was a hard dude, but even though he rode my ass every night I worked and gave me shit for every little mistake, he always made sure I understood why things were done the way that they were. I never once heard "because that's just the way it's done", which is a red flag in any kitchen. I did a little bit of everything in that kitchen for almost five years, from washing dishes to handling stir-fries, which was something the chef had never let anyone else do prior to me in 23 years of operation. My worst experience is also one of my best and both showcases how fucked up things can get, and how important it is to keep talented and trustworthy friends at close hand. We were setting up for Valentine's day service. We were closed for lunch, set to open at 5pm to do three staggered seatings of 72 people each. We had a set menu of four apps, four salads, four entrees, and four desserts to choose from. It was a menu that I was very proud of and my crew was pumped to get underway and put out some of the finest meals our little bistro had ever done. I arrived at 6am to start prepping and things were going smoothly until 9:30 when the sewers backed up in the kitchen and a thick black ooze began bubbling up all over the place, threatening to leak into my walk-in cooler. I panic for a minute, then get my shit together and call my rep up on his cell. He's an old school chef and still a good friend to this day, and when I ask him what the hell I should so he says to call up my crew, call a plumber, and then pack up the kitchen and move everything to the back door. Seriously? Well, I don't argue. This man knows his shit, inside and out, and I trust him implicitly. So in thirty minutes my entire crew is assembled, a pair of plumbers are doing their thing, and we have moved all our supplies, ingredients and even our two prep tables to the back door. Lo and behold, the rep is there with a fucking refrigerated truck and tells us to get everything inside, quickly. He's dressed in his old whites, helps us haul everything in, and then starts working alongside us to get everything prepped and ready for the evening. With his help we get everything ready with enough time left to bleach and square away our kitchen and get the stink out of the dining room, and when the hostess greeted the first couple at 5pm sharp, we were ready and raring to go. The service was incredible and flawless in every way, and had it not been for Mr. Thomas Branage, we would've had to cancel the service and piss away a LOT of business. I was so stressed that day that I puked a half dozen times. I will try any restaurant, fast food or otherwise, at least once, and sometimes twice just to make sure it wasn't a complete bust. Sometimes the most greasy, outdated, mess of an establishment can shock and awe you. That being said, most fast food is pretty shitty unless your fucked in half drunk and flat broke. Actually, I used to work at a place that would feature recipes out of new celebrity cookbooks. It was actually a hell of a money-maker and we usually got free copies of the books in return for the free advertising. My personal favorite is Dolce Vita by David Rocco. It's a very loose, but surprisingly well put together cookbook that encourages you to tweak it's recipes and play around a bit, which goes a long way in developing confidence in your skills. I abhor drinking while on shift, and staff who wander through the place after their shift. If you're on the clock, you're sober. If you're off the clock, get the fuck out and come back tomorrow. It's all a distraction and takes away from what's supposed to be your customer's experience. I haven't made one in years. I'll dig out my "recipe book" tomorrow and type out a good one for you. They can vary quite a bit from chef to chef. For me, it was working evening shifts and getting off so late that I felt like I needed to make up for lost time and party harder than I would've normally. Later on, when I was working nearly full days, I always wanted to "treat" myself because I wanted to get away from work and get fucked sideways to forget about it for a couple hours before the next shift. The finger test is a pretty good method. It's not perfect since everyone's got different hands, mine resembling badly burnt leather, but it's a good place to start when you're learning. Yes.
What's the process of creating a new recipe and incorporating it in your menu? Do you do some improv when you cook for yourself at home? Do you have dedicated creative time?
What's your take on Alton Brown? I've heard some chefs slam him as a 2-bit hack, and others commend him for effectively teaching some basic cooking science/techniques (with Good Eats).
For each of you: What is the best restaurant you've eaten in and what makes it so? As for training/education, does a degree from the CIA or J&W (or other university programs) stand out over the shorter, non-degree cooking schools (the "DeVry" equivalents for cooking) for someone entering the field? In other words, if a high school kid was about to graduate and wants to be a chef, what route would you recommend? And lastly, what are some of the bigger food myths out there? (e.g., "You have to eat apple sauce with pork to negate potential trychinosis (sp).")
Are Anthony Bourdain and myself the only two people who would really get satisfaction from punching Rachel Ray in her smug grill? Seriously, does it bother professional chefs to see people like Rachel Ray who has no training whatsoever get her own show and become popular for making stupid abbreviations for things like Olive Oil?
My extent of inside restaurant life basically comes from Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, but I find it amazing how just about every restaurant he goes into is to simplify the menu. It seems restaurants get stretched too thin trying to cater to everyone instead of just doing certain things very well. How true have you guys found that to be either through where you've worked or restaurants you've gone to? Should I stay away from Italian joints that have an America menu for instance?
Crafting a new menu item is a surprisingly long process with several factors to consider. First of all, does it fit the style of cooking your restaurant offers? Some places don't have to worry about this since their "theme" is to be eclectic. Second, is the product you need available consistently? Third, Can you keep the new item within the price range of the rest of the menu without losing money on cost? Fourth, can you incorporate the cooking method into your current line service setup without threatening to crash the kitchen? Fifth, is there any demand for this kind of thing in your restaurant? A big mistake I've seen a lot of chefs make is to craft a menu that they would eat, instead of trying to work for your customers. Sixth, can you cross-use any of the ingredients from the new item? Makes ordering and waste control much easier if you can. You also have to take into account the cost of printing and re-printing menus when you make changes. That being said, some chefs can add an item in five minutes flat and have it work out perfectly. I'm not quite at that level yet. I screw around a bit at home, especially with my deep-fryers. I once beer-battered and deep-fried a whole banana. It was glorious! I don't really have any dedicated time to cook, but when there's a potluck to be had or something like that I always give myself a couple of hours to prepare and experiment a bit. I like fucking around with paninis and throwing all kinds of shit onto one. I don't know much about him. From what little of Good Eats I've watched, he comes of as an annoying pinprick, but he seems to be on the level fact wise, and some of his material is very obscure and in the same vein, interesting.
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One of the things that always amazes me with shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef, etc. is their ability to figure out an entire meal down to minute details within seconds when hearing a single ingredient (ex. the special ingredient on Iron Chef). What kind of cooking styles make this a possibility? Is it just that the training and experience they've had makes things instantly click or should I be as impressed as I am when watching these shows?
HUGE IRON CHEF SPOILER: Spoiler The chefs on Iron Chef are told what the "mystery ingredient" is months in advance. This is how they have exactly what they need in the kitchen to make the meals they want to make with the exact staff they need to pull it off. Sorry to burst your bubble.