Some thoughts on food and cooking and recipes

[cali]

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

[Stinky The Clown]

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]

2. I have no idea, but we've never failed a state health inspection

and we have a thorough one every year.

[canetoad]

3. This is definitely a case Stinky

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]

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.

[cali]

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?

[grasswire]

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 Stinky in such a snarky way. Not used to snark in this forum.

[cali]

9. seems to me like he jumped on me.

[canetoad]

13. Defer to Stinky all you like

He's sent me his CV, to prove exactly how credentialed he is. BFD as your glorious VP would say.

Edit: for typo and health reasons.

[canetoad]

4. The mention of soup gets me all excited

As we know, the best commercial returns are on soups and sweets. I've never been much of a sweets person, but soup....

To me, soup is an elemental sort of food, one for which I've been well known. I've tended to serve mainly old classics but prepared beautifully, with the odd noveau or experimental variation.

You can look at a bunch of fresh ingredients and the soup materializes before your eyes. In a restaurant setting, you don't want the soup to take the place of a main course. In a cafe it's different. Margins can be set higher so a hearty, filling soup does not subtract from the bottom line.

At about age 40, I wound down my cooking career; you dont want to be an old age pensioner dragging your tired carcass about a commercial kitchen. My last couple of years were spent in a funky little cafe where I could do pretty much as I liked - which meant introducing a lot of old favourites, tizzed up to meet modern demand.

Enjoy it while you can!

[Denninmi]

6. Too cool.

This is how it should be -- local ingredients, mom and pop operation. Not the 10,000 th Applebees on the exit ramp of the freeway serving entrees that were cooked in some giant factory in Nebraska, frozen, and shipped in to be reheated.

[yellerpup]

10. What a beautiful setting!

Love the menu, too. I'm sure the locals count the days until you open each year and you're the first place people on vacation wish to return. Very romantic. :thumbsup:

[trud]

11. that looks lovely

What are those sandwiches?

[cali]

12. cucumber sandwiches

of course it's too early for the cukes from our kitchen garden, but in another month or so....

[KC]

14. What a beautiful

garden and setting to sit and enjoy some tea and scones.

[Lucinda]

15. What a great way to spend your summers Cali!

The place is beautiful too. I wish I was close enough to visit!