cali primitive gives cooking and baking primitives Hell

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x87608

Oh my.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Tue May-31-11 06:55 PM
Original message
 
Some thoughts on food and cooking and recipes

I love cookbooks, but I generally don't follow recipes. Even for most baking. Recipes give me ideas. I like to play with them.

Ever summer I cook professionally. I start in May and end in September. I work 6 days a week in a friend's funky seasonal restaurant/tea garden. The kitchen is the old summer kitchen in an annex of a rambling 1840's brick house. It's Pretty small and when we 50 or 60 folks a day, everything overflows into Jude's kitchen. We have no professional restaurant equipment- unless you count Bertie our English Water-for-tea-boiler who holds aroung 15 gallons of boiling water and merrily issues large plumes of steam into a room with an already jacked up temperature from the oven blasting. We do have an extra refrigerator in the barn storeroom.

OK, so there's one thing I do follow a recipe for- the scones I bake every morning. But I make scores of flourless bittersweet chocolate tortes over the summer and I never measure chocolate, and our hens eggs come in varying sizes so sometimes I use more eggs or less eggs. Sometimes I flavor the cake with coffee or vanilla or mint.

I make up soups daily. We've had a lot of Sorrel so I've been making a sorrel, leek, white wine and potato soup. I make hundreds of savory tarts each year. Most of them have cheese and caramelized onions and beyond that it's whatever I like in the market or from the kitchen garden. (hey, the restaurant/cafe/tea garden-whatever it is, is located within a nursery and display gardens).

I just make stuff up. And that's what I love most about cooking. One hit last summer was the earl grey and white chocolate pot de creme with raspberries.

This is my 4th summer doing it. I'd never cooked professionally before, and 50+ hours a week is kind of insane and it is exhausting, but I really love doing it. We have incredibly loyal customers who routinely drive hours to come and it's a kick that they love the whole experience. And it's not just summer people. We make sure we're local friendly and have items on the menu that are modestly priced. You can get a scone, cream, homemade jam, a cuke sandwich and a pot of tea for 10 bucks.

and here's where I work:

http://perennialpleasures.net/tea-garden-cafe

xxxxxx xxx xxxxx  (1000+ posts)        Tue May-31-11 07:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. If you have no professional equipment, I assume you do not meet NSF standards

If that's the case, you're likely breaking the law.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jun-01-11 03:13 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. I have no idea, but we've never failed a state health inspection and we have a thorough one every year.

canetoad  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jun-01-11 03:23 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
3. This is definitely a case xxxxxx of keeping quiet when you knoweth not of which you speak.

Ok, admittedly I'm in another country and food regulations may not be exactly the same as yours, but we are semi-civilized here in Oz. We like food not to be infested with germs and our primitive regulations seem to take care of that. For a barely literate society, with no modern things like thermometers or disinfectants, we do ok for ourselves.

I should tell you a little about myself; I trained as a cook, did the required college courses and worked my apprenticeship back in the 70s. I also did a fine arts degree - Canetoad: BA Fine Art (Printmaking)in the 80s. My credentials are not in question.

Lack of so-called professional equipment is not something that would preclude one from offering food for sale. Certainly, there are standards that apply to the premises in which food for public consumption is prepared. These standards cover general sanitation, water temperature, refrigerator temperature and cleanliness, methods of storage, oven and bain-marie temps and so on.

There are no laws that say I must have a commercial steamer/mixer/coolroom/freezer/wooden spoon/whisk. Only idiocy would go so far.

But what would I know. I'm only one retired chef who made a second career as an artist.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Wed Jun-01-11 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
5. well.....don't be too hasty

xxxxxx is a culinary school grad and a long-time businessman in restaurant consulting. His credential are also in order. Many of us defer to his superior knowledge about equipment.

I don't mean to get in the middle of this, and xxxxxx can certainly speak for himself. I just think you have dismissed him without hearing more of what he has to say, and being snarky isn't the best way of continuing the conversation.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jun-01-11 04:45 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
7. so what? Is he in Vermont? No.

Does he know Vermont health law? I doubt it. We get inspected and we pass. Year after year. That should settle. Unless of course, this isn't about that at all. Maybe it's that xxxxxx doesn't like me. And you aren't exactly a fan of mine either, are you?

You go, girl.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Wed Jun-01-11 05:01 PM
Response to Reply #7
 
8. huh????

I have no idea what you are talking about.

I like the reports you send about your tea shop. I always enjoy them. I like tea rooms and I like scones. And I am also interested in how your processes work.

I just don't like someone jumping on xxxxxx in such a snarky way. Not used to snark in this forum.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jun-01-11 05:13 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
9. seems to me like he jumped on me.

[JohnnyReb]

Ain't but one thing that would make that any more hazzardous to your health, she cooks in the nude.

[franksolich]

Ain't but one thing that would make that any more hazzardous to your health, she cooks in the nude.

You know, getting away from the heroine of this piece, and concentrating upon the bad guys, I'm wondering about something.  Since when does turning over the french fries at McDonald's classify one as a "chef"?

Of course, I'm only jesting here, because as we all know, whatshisname is a caporegime in the d'Alessandro crime family, not a chef, although he may be posing as one for purposes of deception.

Maybe he picked up the idea from ladling soup and hash in the Navy; I dunno.

[GOBUCKS]

cali  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jun-01-11 03:13 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. I have no idea, but we've never failed a state health inspection and we have a thorough one every year.

This is just another thread where DUmmies notice each other and begin to snarl and snap and show their teeth, except for this one post.
If poor, stupid Beth were just poor Beth, and not so boundlessly stupid, this could be a priceless lesson from DUmmy cali.

Her artsy, pretentious, overpriced coffee shop in Vermont is, behind the scenes, a seething, crawling mass of possibly deadly microbes. But the kitchen, caked in filth and undoubtedly crawling with roaches and rodents, has never failed an inspection.

Poor, stupid Beth has an army of illegal Mexicans pushing her Mastercard closer to its credit limit, filling ruts in her mother's access road. It's a big project that could almost certainly have been prevented by Benjamin Franklin even now, over two hundred years after his death. Clearly, Ben has helped DUmmy cali's employer, and he could have helped poor, stupid Beth, too.

[BlueStateSaint]

This is just another thread where DUmmies notice each other and begin to snarl and snap and show their teeth, except for this one post.
If poor, stupid Beth were just poor Beth, and not so boundlessly stupid, this could be a priceless lesson from DUmmy cali.

Her artsy, pretentious, overpriced coffee shop in Vermont is, behind the scenes, a seething, crawling mass of possibly deadly microbes. But the kitchen, caked in filth and undoubtedly crawling with roaches and rodents, has never failed an inspection.

Poor, stupid Beth has an army of illegal Mexicans pushing her Mastercard closer to its credit limit, filling ruts in her mother's access road. It's a big project that could almost certainly have been prevented by Benjamin Franklin even now, over two hundred years after his death. Clearly, Ben has helped DUmmy cali's employer, and he could have helped poor, stupid Beth, too.

I'd say that the chances of ol' Ben helping out cali's State of Vermont Health inspections are a triple-digit number.

[tanstaafl]

I'd say that the chances of ol' Ben helping out cali's State of Vermont Health inspections are a triple-digit number.

I noticed that the extra fridge is out in the barn. Not being associated with any high falluting fancy tea house, or gourmet kitchen, I never would have known to do this. But, having been closely associated with old barns, active and inactive, it wouldn't be my first choice of where to keep the extra food.

[franksolich]

I noticed that the extra fridge is out in the barn. Not being associated with any high falluting fancy tea house, or gourmet kitchen, I never would have known to do this. But, having been closely associated with old barns, active and inactive, it wouldn't be my first choice of where to keep the extra food.

It's in Vermont.

It probably hasn't been used as a barn since 1837 or something.

[Ballygrl]

grasswire  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-01-11 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. well.....don't be too hasty
   
Stinky is a culinary school grad and a long-time businessman in restaurant consulting. His credential are also in order. Many of us defer to his superior knowledge about equipment.

I don't mean to get in the middle of this, and Stinky can certainly speak for himself. I just think you have dismissed him without hearing more of what he has to say, and being snarky isn't the best way of continuing the conversation.

Is he really? I wonder if he can make vodka sauce and pasta fagioli?

[Ballygrl]

cali  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-01-11 04:45 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. so what? Is he in Vermont? No.
   
Does he know Vermont health law? I doubt it. We get inspected and we pass. Year after year. That should settle. Unless of course, this isn't about that at all. Maybe it's that Stinky doesn't like me. And you aren't exactly a fan of mine either, are you?

Oh my, they're dissing my paisan!

[Skul]

grasswire  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-01-11 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. well.....don't be too hasty
   
Stinky is a culinary school grad and a long-time businessman in restaurant consulting. His credential are also in order. Many of us defer to his superior knowledge about equipment.

Time to translate.

Stinky is a culinary school grad

Flipped burgers for a few months.

long-time businessman in restaurant consulting

Told somebody he flipped burgers.

His credential are also in order

Showed them a pay stub to prove it.

Many of us defer to his superior knowledge about equipment.

Attended the same school as another well known donk congresscritter.

Grassfire went up in a blaze of glory.

[franksolich]

Oh my, they're dissing my paisan!

You know, madam, whatshisname is making these nostrils not only whiff, but rattle.

Of course whatshisname has always been a fancier of fine foods, or what he thinks are fine foods; he's of Italianate derivation, after all.

But to insist the source of his lucrative income--he lives modestly, but the mafiosi all does; it's easier to keep their stash of cash out of the public eye--is from the "restaurant consulting" business is just plain nuts.

Restaurant consultants are a dime a dozen; we even have them out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska.

Nobody makes money in the restaurant consulting business; they all have to take a second job to pay the bills.  Many are short-order cooks in diners, or cook in a hospital or nursing home, or  if female (i.e., the husband already has money coming in from his job) do catering on the side.  One of them I know, is a small-town police officer.  Another uses the backhoe at the cemetery.

There's no way whatshisname is making a bundle in the restaurant consulting business.

In the restaurant protection racket, however, that's another story.

[Karin]

You can get a scone, cream, homemade jam, a cuke sandwich and a pot of tea for 10 bucks.

And from me you can get a Philly with fries and a soda for $6.50, $6 if you're a friend of mine, with a brownie thrown in.  You can also sit at a tablecloth-covered picnic table under a lovely umbrella and admire all my gardens as well.  And I'm NSF certified, being in NY and all.   

BTW, I thought this teashop was owned by her and her mother.  Didn't she say that once? 

[Boudicca]

Ain't but one thing that would make that any more hazzardous to your health, she cooks in the nude.

It could be worse-CalPeg could write one of her poems about the entire experience.

[GOBUCKS]

And from me you can get a Philly with fries and a soda for $6.50, $6 if you're a friend of mine, with a brownie thrown in.  You can also sit at a tablecloth-covered picnic table under a lovely umbrella and admire all my gardens as well.  And I'm NSF certified, being in NY and all. 

God, I'm starving. How about a Reuben and a Rock?