Weeks 19 & 20: Menu planning & more nutrition

Two blogs for the price of one again, as we have had two, 2 day theory weeks following our fun in the restaurant and kitchen service.

Looking at, talking about and working on menus - what could be better, other than eating the food?  Along with menu planning and development we also look at kitchen design.  So what are the key points you need to know?  Everything that makes good business sense, but as always, good sense is not always shown in business!

It should come as no surprise that when planning the menu it is not just what the chef wants to cook, but what customers want to eat. Really? Tell Heston Blumenthal that.  Snail porridge anyone?

For the rest of us mortals, start with some analyses: size and type of establishment, kitchen capability in terms of equipment and size, the customer profile, staff capability, availability of supplies, seasonality, and so it goes on.  It makes you think of all the times you walk down a street full of cafes, bars and restaurants and one is full to overflowing and right next door there's one that's empty.  Why?  Probably several things, for as you start to work through the variables the range of of what can be "got wrong'  becomes quite broad.  Too much of what the owner/chef wants and not what the customer wants is likely to be high on the list.  Unless you are Heston.  Then maybe it's because one of your experiments blew up the kitchen and it's closed for repairs.....

 

I don't know about you but I love reading menus - especially if I am about to order from one.  A well written menu piques your appetite by describing the dish in such a way that  you know what is in the dish, how it's cooked and how it is served.  Yes I know that seems obvious, but if you read a description that raises more questions than it answers you become annoyed.  Your annoyance is exacerbated when you ask the waitstaff and they don't know either.

There are a myriad of culinary terms that just do not form part of the lexicon of most diners.  

Little test for you.  How many of the following menu terms are you familiar with?

• tomato concasse
• fondant potato
• darne of salmon
• chicken veloute
• onion brunoise

Actually it is a test of how much you have remembered from reading this blog as at one time of another I have mentioned all of these!

It is also fun designing the kitchen. If you go to http://www.gliffy.com/ you can get a 30 day free trial of design software. It is very cool and really useful if you are planning on building or remodelling - which I am not.  However I use it for my kitchen design and have a play with making unsuitable icons suitable. For example, turning a table and 4 chairs into a fire extinguisher - it's like magic! Just shrink to an unrecognisable size and add a label and anything is possible.

I have spent an INORDINATE amount of time on my two assignments over the last week because they have been such fun.

Our two days of nutrition are partly recap from the last sessions a few weeks ago, and partly covering food labelling, additives, E numbers and other not-very-exciting but important information.  We complete a breakdown analysis of what constitutes an Uncle Ben's meat pie (a whole 18% meat in case you're wondering, along with a small truckload of fat - saturated of course - and a great many more ingredients that you do not really want in your diet). I think our tutor was hoping to get some cut through into the eating habits of my classmates - vain hope.  When we break for morning tea, how many choose a piece of fruit or other healthy option?  None, but the fries and pies taking a beating.  So folks, if the message doesn't get through to those who are the chefs of the future, what hope for the general population.

Eat this!

Week 18: We are now Diploma students

Last week was the final week of the Certificate in Food Preparation and this week heralds the commencement of the Diploma of Culinary Art.  Not that anyone really notices the transition.  The main exams are at the end of the overall programme, however I sit my Certificate exam on Monday as I am likely to be overseas next June when the exams are held - it's complicated - the course finishes in April but English timetable, English rules.  Anyway, the exam is 100 multi choice questions, most of which are as straightforward as you'd expect.  Two and a half hours are permitted (!) and I finish in 30 mins, but no-one is allowed to leave the room until an hour has passed. Rules, rules, rules.

While I am sitting my exam my Novotel buddies are being instructed in the fine art of service, or perhaps that should be Service. Two half days of instruction and practising polishing cutlery, setting the table, serving and clearing, taking orders and pouring wine.  The exam doesn't mean I escape Monday's lesson, and I spend the afternoon with the Ibis group and then Tuesday back with my homies.
 

Questions / comments of classmates over this time:

• Why are there so many knives and forks?
• How will they (customers) know which ones to use?
• I'd rather be in the kitchen.
• I'm not covering my tats.
• Why do we have to do this?



Our settings are like this but also have an entree knife, no name plate,  and two fewer glasses  (and we fold our napkins in a fancier way) 



So that is the first two days of the week. Wednesday, half of us cook dinner service and the other half serve in the restaurant - on Thursday we switch.  I cook Wednesday and serve Thursday.  The hunter gatherer books a table for six and is accompanied by the doctor, the civil servant and the mammographer, and the banker and the accountant.  Ponytail guy's partner, the station mistress, comes alone so joins the table which Ponytail serves.  We have a fairly full restaurant and although down one in the kitchen and two in the restaurant, there are no disasters so consider the night a success. My friends are fulsome in their praise of the food and service - it is nice they are so supportive.

 

Thursday, the restaurant is at capacity (40) plus a few and the kitchen is down two - more on that later. The kitchen crew do an amazing job and our Thursday tutor (who also does our assessments) runs things smoothly and sends out gorgeous looking food. We are so busy both nights I fail to take photos.  

 

So where were the missing persons?  Dumber didn't turn up all week.  Jiggly came Monday and hasn't been seen since.  When I spoke to him that day he said he was "in a power of shit" and was likely to be up on an assault charge from the weekend's activities.  There has been a bit of a backward slide for a few weeks now and old "friends" have been visiting from out of town.  I think he finds it hard to stay on track when faced with these sorts of people and it looks like evil has triumphed over efforts to reform - pretty sure he is back on hard core drugs.  It will be interesting to see if he turns up this next week.  I have another revelatory moment this week when chatting to one of the Ibis guys. I ask what kept him this morning as he'd arrived a bit late. He tells me he had to get his jewellery adjusted - this turns out to be an ankle bracelet and it looks like this                              

 not this                

He has a curfew between 10pm and 7am to allow him to come to class.  I tell you, I am living in another world.

After last week's posting I was soundly told off for what was deemed to be a denigration of the Prawn Cocktail as "fuddy duddy".   I am reliably informed they have been given a modern twist in some dining establishments. I am prepared to wax lyrical on the new style Prawn Cocktail as soon as I see and eat one, as I do love prawns.  Google has LOTS of images, but I like this one the best!  I would hazard a guess that it is from an American menu.

Was this what you had in mind, gentle reader?

 

Menu planning coming up.