Community Discussions
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is it legal to cook food a customer brings in?
Main Post: is it legal to cook food a customer brings in?
Top Comment: It depends on the food code where you’re located. According to my food code, everything has to be from “approved sources” and there is no guarantee that what a customer brings in is from an approved source. There is also legal liability to worry about if the food the customer brings in injures them or makes them sick.
Restaurant cook at home dinner kits
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I absolutely love going out for restaurant meals in NI and love supporting local. I've seen quite a few restaurants advertising cook at home dinner kits like hadskis, french village and cypress avenue.
There's plenty of lists for these kits available in the south and over in England but haven't found a handy one for NI other than one behind the Belfast telegraph's paywall.
It would be good to get one going for here so drop your suggestions below!
Top Comment: £60 for a box of groceries that you have to cook yourself. Just go to the chinese like a normal person.
How do chinese restaurants cook so quickly? : NoStupidQuestions
Main Post: How do chinese restaurants cook so quickly? : NoStupidQuestions
A restaurant that will cook any food you want if you bring the ingredients
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Alternatively, it could be attached to a grocery/ethnic food store and charge you for the ingredients. The longer a good will take to make , the more expensive it is.
As long as they keep a huge recipe directory and have a large kitchen (or waiting list), I can't see why this wouldn't work. It would almost be like having a personal chef, but open to the public
Top Comment: Dude, this is not as crazy as you think. These already exist all over Asia, especially around seafood markets. You go into the market, pick out some fish, crabs, clams, whatever... then you walk across the street to one of several restaurants that will cook the seafood for you. Most of them just charge a standard rate per plate... if your meal produces 4 plates of food then you pay PRICE X 4. I've done this in China, Thailand and the Philippines. It's awesome because it's super fresh and the chefs are pros at cooking great seafood.
The US based "Melting Pot" restaurant is a joke. Cook my own food and then I pay you? I think not.
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I recently went to The Melting Pot in Orlando FL and was literately in shock when after my rather lengthy wait my waiter brings me a set of completely raw food and asks me too cook them. Are you serious?
The idea is you step into a restaurant for not only the ambience, the atmosphere, but to be served, or have someone cook for you; this is fundamental to the capitalist trade off because you're trading goods (your money) for a service (a chef and server).
But to have someone bring me raw food, expect me to cook it, then pay you is absolutely insulting. Not to mention the raw food that they give you isn't even good and WAY overpriced. I basically came out of my house with my money spent well over $150 for two people and am expected to tip the server 20% of the total? Absolute joke of a restaurant.
Top Comment:
I’m not saying you’re wrong about the idea of this restaurant being shitty, but I’m gonna blame you for this one for not researching them first.
Clearly this is their thing, this is what they do, this is their gimmick. That’s on you for not knowing that going into it.
Club chef vs Restaurant chef
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Hi all,
I wanted to see how feel felt about working as a chef in a restaurant vs a country club/private club setting. I’m 30 year old chef that has been cooking for 15 years. I currently have a great job at as the executive chef of a fast growing restaurant group. We have many different concepts and I write menus, recipes, implement systems and train staff. I have a great team, but also pull a lot of hours. We are constantly opening new restaurants, which is a good problem to have. I’ve been approached by a prestigious club in the city about an executive chef opening. I have an interview this week and just wanted to get a feel from chefs that have worked in clubs and restaurants. I have never worked for a country/private club. Let me know what you all think! Thanks
Top Comment:
I've been a professional chef for 11 years, both in country clubs and restaurants. Country clubs as an identity get shit on in the view of restaurants that strive towards innovation and displaying their craft with their dishes. Those same restaurants, however, are pulling 60-80 hr work weeks most times for not much pay, and certainly no real benefits or paid time off.
Country club kitchens are best summed up like this: You make what the membership wants, period.
Unless the majority of membership wants to try new and exciting dish ideas, the menu will predominately consist of a steakhouse menu from the 90s. Crab Cake, Filet, Lemon Sole/Salmon/Grouper exclusively. I currently work at a club that does have seasonal wine dinners that do scratch the itch of creating new, fun, and trial techniques and ingredients. The real reason people predominately work at clubs are the benefits. 40 hour work week (50 tops during holiday season), Medical, dental, vision benefits, 401k, paid time off, sick pay, holiday bonuses, etc. There is a hefty list of the perks and benefits for working at a club. Not to mention the pay scale (going from Executive Chef at a restaurant to Sous Chef now at the club, I make 40% more an hour than when I was at the restaurant.) The caliber of food on a consistent basis is not exciting or innovative. Yes, the quality of product coming in is great, and we can order practically any item to mess around with, but the regular dining room menu is absolutely boring.
The broccoli from my local Chinese restaurant tastes incredible. What sauce / flavor are they adding to it?
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My local Chinese restaurant includes steamed broccoli with certain meals gratis, and it tastes so good.
I know it's steamed, but it also has a flavor that I don't know how to describe. The broccoli looks regular and green, so it's not a sauce that would cause it to look different or change color.
Do they maybe dip it in Sesame oil before or after steaming it? Or soy sauce? Or maybe it's steamed in a sauce?
What flavor could it be? Any ideas?
Top Comment: Have you tried MSG? For example, beef with broccoli generally has some added MSG (along with the ginger, garlic, soy, brown sugar, and sesame oil). Lots of asian-american places do this, e.g. Pho, Ramen, Thai, Chinese. It'll get less and less with nicer restaurants, but if you're trying to recreate that hole in the wall chinese taste - it's probably MSG.
How'd you get interested in cooking?
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My mom went to college and majored in culinary arts and nutrition because she loved cooking. Growing up I knew my mom was good at cooking but I didn't know how good. When I'd eat at my friends houses I felt bad because I always thought their parents didn't know how to cook. Now that I'm older I realize they just had parents that were normal cooks and my mom was phenomenal. Then at 18 my uncle who was an anesthesiologist took me to a 1 Mechlin star restaurant. It was pretty wasteful because they just threw away what you couldn't eat of the courses and there were so many courses. I remember thinking I preferred my mom's cooking and the only thing really different was the ingredients were more expensive at the restaurant.
Since then I've gotten really into cooking. I really enjoy it and I've realized as I cook I can pick up on a lot of things from being around my mom and watching her cook growing up. It's the only way to get food that feel up to par for me.
Top Comment:
It began with my interest in eating.