Other Projects

Hi everyone, I've decided to stop posting to this blog. To be honest, I'm not sure anyone really wants to read about my criticisms towards the restaurant industry in Toronto. I've received a few questions from culinary students in the past, and I've been and always will be happy to give my advice to students at school at George Brown. I've spent almost a decade immersed in studying food technique, cookbooks, websites, and continue to work in restaurants today. I believe however, that unless you own your own business, or are simply looking to expand your knowledge of food, working in restaurants is a dead end, with low pay, and usually little to no benefits.

I'm not sure people want to hear things like that. I certainly didn't want to when I was just getting into this business.

But I wouldn't trade my work experiences over the last decade for anything. They have made me who I am. Working 12-14 hour days does build character, but only if you have the drive and the passion from the beginning. I see a lot of cooks do a lot of things wrong, but then I question, does it really matter if there's a good chance this is a road to nowhere? There's still a lot of unanswered questions that I have about this industry, but maybe there are no answers. It just is what it is. An old friend of mine had a favourite quote - "The only wisdom we have left is to quit". Maybe I'll just leave the questions unanswered and settle my soul with something more positive.

I've discovered throughout all this that I still love cooking, reading cookbooks, and baking. I just don't like working for anyone but myself. So I've started an experiment. The plan is to sell food under my own name to create supplemental income to my day job, and hopefully one day, use the skills I'm learning now about entrepreneurship for a business of my own.

There are a lot of roadblocks, but it's something I need to try.

You can follow me on facebook or twitter via my new main website www.thelunchroom.ca.

Thanks for reading.

-Randy

Hospitality Conferences

So I love flipping through Toronto Life's The Dish once a week to see interesting tidbits of Toronto restaurant information. I noticed a listing for Terrior Symposium, an annual hospitality conference to discuss the state of hospitality, present and future.

Okay, so this looks interesting to me right? I have a genuine interest in food. I've been a sous chef at a good restaurant. I'm still in the industry... I should go to this... but wait, tickets are 100 dollars before an early bird sale, and 20% more afterward. Too expensive for me, a person who has dedicated his professional career cooking every day for hungry customers.

One would think that events like these would be more accessible for professional cooks like me. Events like this promote education about the hospitality industry, and I don't know anyone more deserving of this knowledge than cooks. But alas, the entry fee for events like this are not affordable to the people who cook for a living.

I'm tired of these elite symposiums that financially exclude the people who work 13 hour days to make sure that you have a delicious meal. These events never have discussions about those people. They're happy to talk about media friendly things that you see every day on cooking shows on the food network. Never mind the sri lankan dishwasher who just bussed a restaurant table who makes 10 dollars an hour to support his family. Never mind the culinary diploma graduate who makes (more or sometimes less than) minimum wage. We like to discuss things like food sustainability and free trade coffee, so we can feel socially conscious in an industry where a large percentage of the workforce barely makes more than minimum wage. Seafood sustainability? How about an industry that's built on young people that can't afford medical coverage, and spend 50% of their income on rent... after working 60 hours this week.

Is that sustainable?

Forget about these stupid shmoozing parties. Take the money you would have used to buy a ticket and instead donate 50 bucks to anti-hunger programs like The Stop instead. They need it much more than you can ever imagine.

Is Fine Dining Obsolete?

The hospitality industry caters to what people want. Do people really want fine dining anymore? I'm becoming convinced that the answer is no. In Toronto anyway, I find that people are indifferent to the whole fine dining concept. Regular people would rather pay down their mortgages, and eat a sensibly priced home cooked meal. And I'd agree with them. Do people really want to drop around 50 bucks a person to eat out?

Look at the trends in Toronto. There are so many specialty grocery stores popping up. It has never been easier to buy high quality ingredients in this city, at a fraction of the price you would pay at a fine dining establishment. How many new mid-high end restaurants have opened in the last 6 months, compared to how many all-you-can-eat sushi joints and "ali baba" type restaurants. Toronto wants to eat for under 10 dollars when they eat out, and are more than willing to spend much more at a grocery store to take home because of value. As well, people are much more aware of food and cooking. Many people now have knife sets that rival professional ones. Powerful stand mixers are less than 500 dollars. So many easy to read textbooks about cooking technique have their own sections now at any indigo or chapters you walk into, with big pretty pictures and step-by-step instruction.

Am I disappointed by this trend? No. I'd like to think I'm as sensible as the customers that eat at the restaurant I work at. A lot of the time I look at a dish, read how much it costs a consumer, and I am amazed by the price.

However, this is also disheartening as a professional chef. The idea that people do not wish to eat out anymore scares me abit, because it how I make a living. I hope that one day both consumer and chef can find some kind of middle ground. One where a customer doesn't have to feel like he's being cheated by eating out, and one where a chef can do what he's trained to do all his career and be paid a reasonable wage for it.

What Is Good Food?

When I look this term up in google, I get some listings for recipes and restaurant listings. But what makes food good?

Some would say nutrition is the key. Nutrient-dense food logically is better for the body, considering all the empty calories that exist in most modern convenience foods.

Some would say price. Expensive food is good food. What's better than tucking into a spiny lobster from the carribean? Kobe beef from Japan. Toro. Truffles.

People have different ideas about what "good food" really is. It's all subjective, depending on what decade it is. American prisoners at the beginning of the century used to show outrage because they were being force fed lobsters. At the time, they were considered barely edible sea bugs. Today, they are a sign of prestige.

I think good food is food that is local, seasonal, and sustainable. Local because I think it's important to support local farmers. Why buy blueberries from half way around the world when a guy in Cookstown is producing the same product? This also brings in the seasonal aspect. If farmers in Ontario aren't growing it, why should I be eating it? Food is best when it is in season - tastewise and pricewise. Food also must be sustainable. I feel a good cook not only has to apply what he's learned, but must also be aware about where his ingredients have come from, and question if they are harming the earth it came from.

This being said, good food for me includes a lot of things. Then there's that whole issue about processed foods, but then again, I don't really count that as food. I like
to call it "joke food". Like eating a waxed banana. Don't get me wrong, I love eating that stuff - it's designed to taste good - but I treat it like it really is, as a
sideshow that attempts to mimic real food.

So yeah, my two cents yo.

If

If I had the money, and the means, I would totally move to Chicago, work at The Publican, and party at smartbar at least 3 times a week.

These are the things I think about when I'm at work making the endless stream of creme brulees.

George Brown Chef School Smallwares Kit

It has come to my attention that readers have questions pertaining to the "George Brown Chef School Smallwares Kit". That can be found here at the college website. It basically says this...

Smallwares kit – Pocket Digital Thermometer, S.S. Container 135
ml, Pastry Bag, Polyurethane 18”, Pastry Bagm Canvas 18”, Star
Tips - #3,5,7, Plain Tip - #3,5,7, Pastry Brush – Wood Handle, Boar
Bristles, BLUE coded, Spatula 14”, Heat Resistant to 500F,
Lemon/Fruit Reamer, Tongs, Locking, 9”, Serving Spoon –
Perforated – 13”, Serving Spoon – Solid – 13”, 15” Wooden
Spoon, Oval Soup Spoon, Teaspoon Windsor, One Piece Ladle, 14”
Piano Wire Whip, 2.5” Pizza Cutter, Dough Scraper – Plastic,
Strainer – Fine, Underpad, For Non Slip, Baker’s Pad, Microplane
grater - $170

I guess it's an okay deal if you don't have any of this stuff already, especially since it's restaurant quality. However, I urge new culinary students to go to Tap Phong and check if you can get these for a better price. Everyone in the restaurant business in Toronto shops at Tap Phong. They may not buy everything there, but everyone goes there to pick up few key, no-frills, functional, professional cooking equipment. Keep in mind, no where does it say it is mandatory to buy the smallwares kit, and also keep in mind the chef school doesn't really care about you getting the best deal, they just want to make money. Save your money where you can and put it towards a chef knife that you like. It's amazing that they force you to buy their knife kits now. Instead of educating you on what kind of knives you should be looking for, they sell their little sets. Yes, I know, they all match, and they're all shiny and pretty in their new roll, but eventually you will mix and match your knives. Every cook does this. I bought the synthetic handled knives from GBC when I was in school too. 5 years later, I don't use any of those knives anymore. They all suck in comparison to what I use now.

In case your interested, my roll generally looks like this.

10" Shun french chef knife
6" Wusthof Non-flexable boning knife
7" F Dick offset serrated knife
3.5" Henkel paring knife (kitchenstuffplus 5 bucks, buy an expensive one only when you need it)
swissmar harp peeler
electronic timer
bic lighter
red sharpie
2 bandaids
oyster shucker
mini offset spatula
fish pinbone tweezers
5 pc synthetic roll with a vinyl pencil case for small wares
(I carry the smallest roll possible, it gets old carrying knives you don't use back and forth to work every day)

Anyways, when I think back, there are a few things that you'll probably want in your smallwares kit that they don't mention. One is a digital scale. Usually there's only 1 or 2 scales for the entire class during labs, which blows when your scaling a lot of ingredients. You can get a functional one at The Source. It costs 20 bucks. You can get a nice lithium powered one too, those are about 50 bucks. You'll also want small stainless steel bowls of varying sizes for holding things like salt, pepper, chopped shallots, chopped garlic, etc. I'd say about 6 small containers for seasonings, and 4 medium/large stainless steel bowls for holding bigger things. I remember that those bowls are a scarce commodity and I suspect things are still the same 5 years later. Ring molds. Instructors love ring molds, and they're kinda versatile when your cooking at home and you want to make it look fancy. Try to find a pack of rings, I know they exist. Try Nikolaou on Queen. Dinetz is okay, I would only buy specialty things from there, or if I needed something immediately. Measuring cups and spoons if your kit doesn't have them.

And throw away those horrid cofra steel toed shoes when you're done school. Buy some real clogs. I wear danskos. Mephisto has them for $250. Ebay has them for $70. Buy the "professional" version, matte finish. Other cooks swear by berkinstocks too. Don't wait till you get leg pains to buy proper footwear. Hit the nail on the head early. Most restaurants will have white jackets for you to use, usually you have to bring your own pants. I wear black hospital scrubs. They're half the price of kitchen pants, they're airy so they keep you cool, and they have a lot of cool pockets. $17 dollars, across the street from St. Michael's hospital near Eaton's Centre, south side of Queen. Don't wear them at school, wear them at work. They don't protect you from things like hot oil, but you shouldn't be spilling oil on yourself anyway right?

I'm always up for answering questions about chef school via e-mail. The link is on the left sidebar there. I graduated in '05, but I'm pretty sure the system is basically the same. I'd be happy to reply to questions you might have.

Project #1 - Calves' Liver Pate

Attempt #1

Calves' Liver Pate

1800 g calves' liver, silverskins removed

225 g butter

50 g onion, chopped fine

4 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp black pepper

200 mL sherry, manzanilla

250 mL 35% cream,

5 cloves garlic, minced

Method

Set still oven to 325 degrees F. Sweat the livers in half the butter to medium (warm pink throughout). Sweat off onions and garlic. Cook off sherry. Scald the cream, add remaining butter to melt. Using a food processor, blitz livers, aromatics, and liquids in small batches. Place in a terrine mold (mine is 1.3L Le Creuset Terrine Mold), and bake for 1.5h in a bain marie until terrine firms up and is still slightly pink on the interior. Cool, and set in fridge for at least 12 hours. Unmold, slice, serve with gerkins and dijon.

Analysis

Waaaaay too livery. The flavour of the terrine intensified in your mouth over time, and just ended up tasting like iron. After asking around, I was told that people don't really use calves livers for terrines, and I'm starting to see why. The addition of another type of animal fat, like duck fat could have helped alot. Butter is not adequate. It almost acted like a neutral fat, and contributed not much to the flavour of the terrine. Sherry probably was not the correct choice to make, I think a stronger fortified wine would fare better, such as a brandy or cognac. It also was super dense, not light and delicious. If I were to use calves liver again, I definitely would soak them overnight in milk to kill some of the livery taste. I initially thought that you wanted as much liver flavour as you could get for a pate, but I was wrong. I have tasted too much liver my friends, and it is not welcoming on the taste buds. It was also slightly overcooked. I think once I get a working recipe, I'll start using a probe thermometer instead of continually jabbing it with a butter knife to gauge doneness.

Modifications

Will avoid calves liver if I can, it's way too intense. Or if I do use them, I will cut them into a pork or chicken liver mixture. The problem is, it's relatively easy to find calves liver, hence easily accessible for me to make without running across the city to Little Portugal for 10 dollars worth of chicken livers. More fat is needed, especially animal fats. Either foie gras or duck fat I think. Foie might be a problem retail since its pretty expensive when bought at the overpriced gourmet grocery store. Needs a better alcohol to give it more depth. The sherry I used almost had no effect I could taste.

Site Updates!

I'm updating the site piece by piece. Blogger has come a long way in 8 years! I've added a little slideshow on the left. I originally was going to just put food project pictures there, but after thinking about it long and hard, I want this blog to be more personal. Food is more than just a magazine picture book to me. It's my life, and I want those people in my life to be a part of this website. So there it is.

I wish you all a happy new year, and I'll see you soon.

Why Do I Cook For A Living?

It's a messed up job. I don't know if I can suggest to anyone that they start a career in culinary. It's quite possibly a dead end for 99% of people who want to be cooks. A lot of people don't understand that. A lot of cooks try to get out of the business because you can never get ahead financially. It's great to cook with ingredients that most people will never taste in their lifetime, and its a lot of fun. A lot of sex, alcohol, late nights, really funny jokes, and it gives you a great sense of belonging. But then you grow up and realize that you're probably in the same position you were 5 years ago, but with a bit more work experience. And then you do the same thing overagain, with a very low possibility of advancement, unless you own your own business/project, or have a parter with a lot of cash, but that has issues of it's own. Right now, I feel like I'm not living life, just hoping for a better tomorrow. I've been working towards a better tomorrow for the last 8 years, and I haven't much to show for it.

Yet I do it anyway.

With all the bad things associated with the restaurant business, I still love cooking.

I think it's important to know how to cook. Good food makes everything in life better. It brings people together during the holidays. It restores your humanity. A simple taste of an old favourite can bring back a flood of memories from your childhood, when everything was wondrous and fun.

I love cooking for friends and family. I wish that I had more time to do so. I really love it when my friends take me along to a cottage and I get to cook something they've never tried before. I love cooking for a dinner date, guessing what that person likes to eat by their mannerisms and behaviour. Understanding where people came from and how they grew up, and where, can give you great clues on what "comfort food" is to them. A good cook will always stress about if people will like their food. It's part of that inner critic that never shuts off. Every dish can be done better.

I cook as a career because I feel like there is no other route. When I drop dead, I want to have no regrets about the personal decisions I've made in my life. I want to know I went as far as I could go, given the circumstances of my situation. Had I not gone to culinary school, I would have regretted it for my entire life. Sitting in store for me. I knew the realities, and now I'm hitting them. I really hope that there's more just around the bend, not just the sad reality. I'm hopeful, and I'm not turning back.