Food

Does this say something about Chicago

Posted by John Reed on Jan 20, 2012 in Food, News | 0 comments

Five of the top 10 most expensive restaurants are here in Chicago. Has the perception of our city changed to a center of fine dining? What do you think?

http://www.bundle.com/article/25-most-expensive-restaurants-america/slide/1/?fromMSN=true#comments

A Catering Christmas Story

Posted by J Reed on Jan 6, 2012 in Consulting, Food | 0 comments

As a culinary consultant I spend many days a week in a variety of kitchens discussing ways to improve kitchen operations. Impromtu demos, menu and recipe design and coaching are always are always happening. Stepping in and out of kitchens you don’t always see immediate impact or maybe I just witness a quick fix. As we are in the height of the holiday season I visted several kitchens these past few days and was given a great gift without even unwrapping something.  It was calmness, professionalism and focus. Owners, operation managers and chef’s always know this time of year is coming. They can react in several ways, lets buy everything so we don’t get overwhelmed, hire extra staff who might not be properly trained to prepare what is sold or even stop taking events as they have oversold their true capabilities.

My present was none of this. I have worked over the last year with kitchens to focus on the process of effieciencies, standardizing menus, defining roles for cooks etc and the work paid off. It is exciting to walk into a kitchen and see things being made from scratch. Trays of hand formed hors d’oeuvres not boxes being opened, The care of preparing things like this are important not only to the confidence and pride of the kitchen but the guest who can actually taste an original hand made morsel. I have nothing wrong with the companies who help the catering companies and food service operations by mass producing frozen items for the convienence. However the variety becomes limited and one is exposed to the fact that all of the companies using them start tasting the same. Where is the competitve advantage in that?

Walking in and seeing trays of hand decorated cookies made me feel warm inside and feel excited of seeing the cooks who made them smile with pride. The days that followed her where no dought going to be long, her feet will be sore from standing all day but there is honesty and truth in the 100′s of dessert trays and countless gift bags she was going to make.

This is a bust time for many catering compaines but they are doing great.  Why? Because they saw the need to start looking at their opeations earlier in the year and look at the needs of the future. They needed support and guidence not someone to do the work. They wanted to take ownership of their buisness and work with a coach and mentor. I loved going into these kitchens and spedning time with all of the cooks teaching them new things. They may have looked disinterested at times as they went through a demo, cooler conversation or a random sanitation inspection of their work station. However it”s paying off now even if they don’t relize it at the start of a midnight shift

Thankyou all for making my holdiays special.

Planning a New Year’s Eve Menu

Posted by John Reed on Jan 1, 2012 in Consulting, Food, Menu Development | 0 comments

I write and develop a lot of menus over the course of a year. From small little snacks to elaborate menus for a fundraising gala based on a specific theme.  After all these years some of the questions I ask  myself when thinking about what to serve are instinctive and come very natural to me. I want to stop for a minute and take some time to write down the process I go through when putting together a menu. In this case it was putting together a menu for new year’s eve for my family and best friends. 

I break down the menu writing process into several steps:

• Inspiration or Directive
• Research and Experience
• Selection of Ingredients
• Adaptation and Natural Flow
• Execution

The process started with a vision of a 10-year-old girl who would be there for the evening. She said “can we make home-made pizza?” Great, that starts the process. A direction, a request or need.  Immediately I start thinking about homemade dough. Next I consider the fact that there will be a diverse group of ages at the party and it’s also New Year’s Eve.

Organic farming may be outgrowing its ideals

Posted by John Reed on Dec 31, 2011 in Consulting, Food | 0 comments

I started my working career on a organic farm at the age of 11. I undertsand how hard it is to maintain a stocked shelf of ripe and ready produce even during the growing season. I worked on a small 1 acre farm that was completley organic for its time in the mid 70′s. Natural fertilzers made from animal manure and cut nettles were part of our watering supply once a week to help restore the soil. Hand harvesting and pest control by walking the fields with a small can where we would deposit the the bugs we picked of the leaves. However we only sold what we where able to pick that day. If we couldn’t dig carrots then we didin’t sell them and if the tomatoes were still green then no tomatoes. Things were as they should be.  We picked local and seaonal products when they were supposed to be served. It tasted better and it was nourishing to the soul.