Recommended Culinary Books

Here are a few books I used along the way and in my career. These books will give you insight into the culinary life from Kitchen Confidential to the history of our cuisine and the rest will teach the techniques of professional cooking and baking.

Restaurant Industry Economy and Down Sizing

The economy is still trying to recover. Family restaurants, carry outs, and fast food are all doing well because people still have to eat.  Some food service companies are downsizing and changing their operations.  Contract food service operations downsize their operations to meet the clients needs in this economy by cutting service,  changing menus to lower or raise prices and downsizing staff.  Restaurants downsize and change their menus to get rid of high food cost items.  They also change operations to to reduce labor intensive things so that they need less staff to run their operations.
       Higher end restaurants and food service operations may have to downsize to or restructure.  Most people can't afford to eat fine dining in this economy but people still have special occasions to celebrate or occasionally want to treat themselves to a nice meal.  This keeps the higher end food service operations in business.
        The cost of everything is on the rise.  The rising cost of gas costs consumers more to get to and from work. It costs more to ship a truck load of food to a restaurant thus the rising cost of food.  That cost is then transferred to the consumer.  Another factor is natural disaster which destroys crops thus driving up costs which is then passed along to the consumer so that these restaurants and food service companies can turn a profit.
        The economy greatly impacts everything not just food service and as with everything you have to change with the times.  Those restaurant and food service operations that can't make the changes will most likely go out of business or struggle to stay in business.

       

        

Deciding to Go to Culinary School

Deciding to go to culinary school or not is a big decision. A lot of people decide to go to culinary school for the wrong reasons. They think it will be easy, they like to watch cooking shows, eat and cook. They really don't have any direction but know they need a degree in something to make it.
It is not all glitz and glamor as seen on TV. When deciding to go to culinary school make sure it is something you really want to do or you will end up with a culinary degree that you won't use because when you see the real culinary world you will probably work in the industry for a few years then get out when you decide its not what its all cracked up to be.
This just makes it hard for those who really love the food service industry to get the positions they want because the industry is flooded. The restaurant/ food service industry is flooded with people who have degrees who only stay in industry for a few years get tired and get out. Or those people who just work in industry because it pays the bills but really have no drive or determination.
It is hard for employers to weed out these types of people so the people who really have the drive and determination to work in the restaurant/ food service industry have trouble getting their desired position..
When selecting a culinary school be sure to look at the programs offered because some schools may be cheaper but only offer 2year associates degree programs when you may want the 4 year bachelors degree program or masters program.
Also look at the classes offered can you do duel majors like cooking/ baking or is it limited to just one or the other. Are the business classes offered because you can be the best chef but if you can't work the numbers you won't go very far.
Another thing to consider is studying in another country offered. I believe the culinary school I went to Baltimore International College is the only culinary school in the U.S that offers this but I could be wrong.
These are just a few of what I believe to be the major factors in deciding to go to culinary school.

Restaurant Food

What happened to restaurant food? Everything is owned by big corporations and turned in to restaurant chains. They are killing off independent restaurants where real food is created. I almost hate eating out, I'd rather cook myself. Everywhere you go u see the same things on the menus just slightly different no creativity. Why is this you might ask. Well this is because the big corporate chefs have to design menus that are easy enough that a average cook can prepare. They basically have to dumb things down. They have to make the products come out the same in hundreds of restaurants across the country. They have to make it so a $10 an hour cook is able to successfully prepare the food on the menu. You might say well just find a good independent restaurant with a real chef and eat there. Well they are few and far between with these corporate giants and their millions of dollars. The corporations are squashing small restaurants because the independent doesn't have the resources to run ads on TV every day or pay the high rent for good locations. Also quiet often independent restaurants biggest problem is the cost per meal. By this I mean to have chefs creating the menu and selling very nice food costs a lot so you will pay more. Unless it is a independent restaurant that is selling basic food prepared in a skillful manner. But I guess it is easy for these big corporate chains to fool the vast majority when it comes to food.

Burn't out restaurant workers

The restaurant industry is a fast paced non stop industry that is always changing. It never stops. Not even for holidays or weekends, but we all know this. It is those of us who work in the restaurant industry any where from 40 to 80 hours a week who know all to well how easy it is to get burn't out. The long hours in front of hot stoves or on the floor dealing with customers can sometimes be grueling, but we love it. It is very hard to get weekends off or holidays for that matter unless u work in contract foodservice. Sometimes the daily grind in this business can beat us down to the point where we want to just throw our hands up. Thats when you have to take that extra day off when u can to get a breather and take some of that pressure off. Exspecially for restaurant managers. Sometimes we wait to long to get that breather in trying to make it to our vaccation time when we can get refreshed. It never stops and new problems arise everyday in the restaurant industry so we have to get those extra days off when we can so we can keep doing what we love.

My other website

If you like this site then please visit my other site
computer-cleaners . This site has nothing to do with the restaurant industry but it may help you if you are having computer issues dealing with adware, spyware and viruses.

Managing staff in the restaurant industry

Ah the biggest head ache of all managing people. I've only been at the management level for about two years now and I've gained a good bit of hands on experience to go along with my bachlors degree in culinary management. I've learned that managers who do not utilize the bigest tool we have to control our staff are the managers who have the most problems managing their staff. The tool I'm refering to is documentation. From the very begining of my management training I was always told if they don't want to listen document them and then the word will get out among staff. Then everyone will start to fall in place. Another tool we have to control staff is to take money away from them. We do this by sending them home a few times until they correct the behavior. The idea behind this is that when they see their shrinking pay check and aren't making any money they will do what is necessary so they don't get send home.
One of the biggest problems I have found when managing staff is when upper management dosn't back you up. This is when you try to take corrective action against a employee and the upper management over turns your action. This can cause trouble if it happends a lot because then the employee will not listen to you and will always go over your head to get the decision they want or think they will get. Now don't get me wrong if you make a wrong management decision then upper management should step in and over turn it. All in all upper management should back you most of the time so the employee will see you do have authority.
To sum it all up though I beleave managing people is pretty much the same across the board wether you work in the restaurant industry or any other industry.

Contract Food Service

It has been a year since my last post and I've decided to start posting again. Since then I've gotten out of the restaurant seen and moved on to contract food service which is a little different then working in a restaurant. The company I work for which I'm not going to mention has contracts for various establishments. Everything from government facilities to resorts and law firms. I am now a night chef/manager for the cafeteria I work in at a law firm.
In the restaurant world as a manager you are drilled about labor and food cost to no end but in the contract food service world depending on how the contract is set up things like food cost are not worried about to the extreme as they would be in a restaurant. It is still important but food cost will be generaly higher. For instance where I work we are subsidized and the client pays for all the food and we handle it for them so while we watch food cost it is not a priority unless the client wants to focus on it.
As for everything else we just have to answer to the client much the way a restaurant would answer to corporate. Labor is always a big focus exspecially in these times. As for the rest of the head aches in managing staff it is pretty much the same across the board. Other differences is that the customers are the same people everyday when accounts are not public like the law firm. Things that effect a restaurants business don't effect a private contract food service account. For instance schools being closed could mean a busy day in a restaurant where as at the law firm it could mean nothing or that we would do less business because people have to get their kids.
All in all contract food service is a different world compared to the restaurant world. A restaurant goes under when it dosn't do any business and in contract food service you go under when you lose contracts. Either way you go it is still a tough job and the stresses are about the same so you gotta love it. In my experience both sides of the coin are fun wether you work in a restaurant or in contract food service.

Restaurants Fighting to keep Managers

The restaurant business is flooded with opportunity and it is hard to keep managers as well as staff. The turn over rate is probably higher than any other type of business. I have been with my current restaurant company for almost two years and I have been transfered to five different restaurants all because of managers quiting or getting fired.
I find that most low end restaurants can not compete in terms of pay scale with the higher end restaurants. So most people like myself get hired into low end restaurants just for management experience for a year or two then move on.
I just got hired for $9,000 more on the year then what I make now at my curent position so of course I will be moving on. There are tons of restaurants all over so this increases the amount of opportunity and makes it that much harder to keep managers.
This is why most of the time when you hear someone say "when they first opened they were good now they are terrible." is true because there probably were three or four sets of different managers to come through which makes it harder to be consistent.

The slowest time of the year

Its after the holidays and everything is slowing down. The restaurant industry slows to a crawl. This dosn't mean we don't have to work as hard. In fact being in a management position we have to work harder.
Now we have to cut labor and run with a skeleton crew so if we get busy we get screwed in a sense. This means we have to run around and make the restaurant run with the least amount of staff as possible.
If tables don't get cleaned quick enough I have to clean tables. If the food isn't getting cooked fast enough I have to cook and if tables aren't getting waited on fast enough I have to assist the servers.
Everyone has to work a little bit harder when we get busy due to labor cuts but the busy periods only last a couple hours this time of year and we mostly remain slow.