punkbass2000
Des An artiste
You're quite certain they weren't herbs of any kind? It seems unlikely that he put weeds from a ditch on your food.
Ask a Cook
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Swedishguy
Deity
OK, maybe not from a ditch, but really not herbs of any kind. They were 'maskrosblad' (AL_DA_GREAT, help me out!)
Mathilda
Queen
Excellent thread, I have some questions.
What I need is a translation of all the lingo.
What's a line cook, saute station, bus boy and all the other terms that don't mean anything to a foreigner?
Other good terminology that separates those in the know from the outsiders?
Drewcifer - any chance we could have a link to your restaurant's menu.
Punkbass, if I asked you to make me a Bouillabaisse, would you need a recipe?
Doesn't it get boring cooking the same food over and over day in day out?
What I need is a translation of all the lingo.
What's a line cook, saute station, bus boy and all the other terms that don't mean anything to a foreigner?
Other good terminology that separates those in the know from the outsiders?
Drewcifer - any chance we could have a link to your restaurant's menu.
Punkbass, if I asked you to make me a Bouillabaisse, would you need a recipe?
Doesn't it get boring cooking the same food over and over day in day out?
Mathilda
Queen
Dandelion?
Slightly unusual, but not out and out weird imo.
Actually, my mum would have been well impressed.
Drewcifer
Agent of Karma
The line is where the final preperation of the food is done: the stove is the saute station, the grill is the grill station, cold items are pantry. It is the American version of Escoffier's "brigade system" that evolved in France in the late 19th century. Saute cook (saucier), grill cook and pantry cook (garde manger) are all subvarities of line cook. Prep cooks do all of the basic stuff like washing lettuce, choping vegetables and making simple sauces and such, usually someone is a prep cook before they are a line cook. A prep cook is sort of like a comis in France.
The bus boy (or busser to be pc) clears the dirty dishes from the table and brings them to the dish area, they also refil waters and assist the servers in general.
The website of the restaurant I am the chef of sucks, it was designed about 10 years ago, a lot of the information is out of date and it has pictures of people who haven't worked there since the 90s.
But anyway, here is last summer's dinner menu:
www.frenchmeadow.com/cafe_dinner_menu2.htm
And here is last year's breakfast and lunch menu:
www.frenchmeadow.com/CafeMenu.htm
I should add as a disclaimer that there are some old items on the menu that I would remove if I could, the chef doesn't always have the final say.
Our restaurant is popular with vegans and vegetarians so we have a lot of meat free dishes. Vegan cooking is the most challenging cuisine I've worked with because so much of what I know can't be used in it. When I come up with a vegan dish I really like it feels like a major victory.
A lot of the stuff we do isn't on the website. We have a very talented pastry chef who keeps our dessert and pastry case full of good things that she creates on the spur of the moment, right now she is working on comming up with as many kinds of chocolate truffles as she can. Our dinner specials are our top selling items in dollar terms, we always have a vegan, a fish and a pasta (we make our pasta from scratch daily). I don't know what tonight's specials are because I am off and my Sous Chef is writing them but last night we had:
Entree $23
Pan seared free range goose breast with raisin-pine nut glace de viande (Sauce Romaine), hand harvested wild rice pilaf and haricot verts.
Pasta $13
House made fettucine with calamari, sausage, roasted red peppers, red onion, roasted tomato sauce and cilantro.
Vegan $11
Rice noodle pasta with marinated tofu, sugar snap peas, red peppers, and oyster mushrooms; served in a roasted butternut squash-coconut milk broth (garnished with scallions).
Fish $21
Pan seared walleye with a lingonberry beurre blanc sauce, turnip mashed potatoes and braised broccolini.
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
Tons, I suspect, though a fair bit I imagine is esoteric even within the industry. There's nothing that strikes me. A guy just started last week, I'll try to kepp an eye out for terms that seem to confuse him.
No.
A bit, yeah, though I work different sections from night to night. We're not a very high-class restaurant and most of us aren't very highly skilled so there's no real need for indepth specialization and there's value in the flexibility. There's a bit of hierarchy (I never do pantry anymore and I rarely call board and plate during the dinner rush, for example), but no one other than Chef really works the same section every shift. I've only been at this restaurant for eight months and I don't intend to stay a whole lot longer.
Mathilda
Queen
Isn't the website important?
This might be cultural, but I wouldn't go to a restaurant if the website had out of date information.
Thanks
Some good stuff there.
Yes, completely agree. And in my experience they are some of the most challenging customers as well, just from the sheer variety of ideas of what their food should be like.
So
for that.I bet the dinner specials are what keeps the job interesting.
At least I would get very bored with a menu that only changes, say three times a year.
Drewcifer
Agent of Karma
It is important, and it bothers me that we don't do it right, but we will fix it soon.
When I started this was the most screwed up restaurant I had ever seen. Everything was done wrong on every level. It was also incredibly busy. It had been open for 14 years but had never been organized properly. One of the owners is crazy and she tended to scare away talented people. The first year I worked there we had three general managers and then 6 months without a general manager, the one we have now has been here for about 18 months. We have fixed most of what is wrong, the website is one of the last things left and will probably get done in the next couple of months. In the beginning we put most of our energy into making the food better and the service more professional, now that we have done that we can focus on the secondary things
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
The only one that really jumped out at me was reference to "the spag". I can't speak for how universal this term is, but it refers to a machine called "Spaghetti Magic". It has a dozen little compartments which you can dump pasta (or other things you may want boiled) in. You punch in the time and it lowers them into the water and raises them out when the time expires.
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
Congrats PB. The Charcoal Group looks like they have a pretty successful group of restaurants. What will your role be for chef Michael?
btw what he considers comfort food is different than the Chicago version of comfort food.
btw what he considers comfort food is different than the Chicago version of comfort food.
RedWolf
Deity
If I cook a filet of Salmon how long should I bake it for?
I tend to like Fish more well done because I dislike the texture when it's less done. My girlfriend however always tells me I overcook it. I sometimes worry that the way she likes it is "dangerous".
Any rule of thumb? I'm pretty good getting beef and pork just right but fish is difficult.
I tend to like Fish more well done because I dislike the texture when it's less done. My girlfriend however always tells me I overcook it. I sometimes worry that the way she likes it is "dangerous".
Any rule of thumb? I'm pretty good getting beef and pork just right but fish is difficult.
Sophie 378
Avvie by ybbor
How do you stop fried noodles from sticking to the pan? They just absorb fats 
and go all 
Higher heat? Water? Teflon?
and go all Higher heat? Water? Teflon?
Bartleby
Remembers laughter
Anyone know how to get stains off a carbon steel knife blade? (they're not bloodstains, honest)
The Fjonis
Prince
Sometimes I make some "roll-up pizza"-things. I just roll up some ham, cheese and fried mushrooms into small rolls of dough and place them in the oven for 15 minutes or so. Very good I think. I usually use oregano for spicing, but do you have another spice that would fit nicely in this setting? (With cheese, ham and mushroom) I'm no good with spices..
CartesianFart
Deity
How good is your palette?
Swedishguy
Deity
Your favorite pizza?
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
I'll be starting on garde manger, which is the normal entry-level position. One of the reasons I look forward to working there is that it only opened a month ago, so there should be plenty of room for advancement.
It's a vague term.
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
I would typically bake a salmon fillet wrapped in tinfoil for around 10 minutes at 350 or 400 or so. I would just check it, though; I don't have a very specific time/temperature. Keeping an eye on food is one of the most important things that people tend to not do at home, I think.
I wouldn't worry too much about salmon, generally. Even when it's not sushi-grade it shouldn't take too much heat to kill off the exterior bacteria.
Not really, no. Just like good steak, how cooked you like it determines what "just right" is.
Drewcifer can better answer these sorts of questions if he comes 'round, I'm sure.
punkbass2000
Des An artiste
How do you stop fried noodles from sticking to the pan? They just absorb fats
I would usually add an appropriate stock to any pan (deglazing). Not only does this prevent sticking of the food, it gets the flavour that's stuck to the pan back in the food. Water is fine if you don't have any stock. Teflon will work, of course, but it's not necessary.
