Celebrity Chefs

Christmas Dinner in a Foreign Land

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Here we are. There are only a few days until Christmas. Many of us have dinner preparations already bought and defrosting. Here in the good old U. S. of A., a traditional Christmas dinner is bound to include a turkey or ham, dressing, potatoes, green vegetable, and desserts as far as the eye can see.

However, we are not the only country to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a pretty global thing for the most part, but there are variations in the celebration in almost every country. One of the largest ways we differ is through what we choose to decorate our tables with at dinner time. Below are three countries with very different Christmas dinners. [Read more…]

4 Places To Find Inspiration For Food Creation

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Are you tired of your same old boring recipes? What you need is a source of inspiration! If you’ve already tried going through all of your old cookbooks to find some way to make your next meals more enjoyable, but can’t find anything, there are a ton of other free resources for you to take on to get that injection of passion back into your culinary warpath.

A few key places to find some inspiration would include online galleries, recipe apps, bookstores, and food delivery service websites. Each of these is free to browse typically, though if you’re going to buy a recipe out or a cookbook, that needs to fit within your projected budget. [Read more…]

Finding Food When You Want To Try Something Different

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Even if you are the type of person that always orders the same meal when you go to your favorite restaurant or the type of person that often dreads trying a new place, you probably still sometimes think about trying a new meal when you go out to eat. Even if it’s just to be able to recommend it to someone else.

Or, maybe you’re the type that likes to work toward trying everything on the menu. That can be fun too, but what happens when you get bored with your usual restaurant options? Here are some ideas for trying something a little different than your normal sit-down restaurant. [Read more…]

3 Steps to Take If Your Restaurant Business Isn’t Getting Enough Traction

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awesome-restaurant-design

When you have a dream, it’s the only thing you can think about. That dream emanates from your cells, and if there is ever a time you’re not actively pursuing the fulfilment of that dream, you feel lost. Dreams are beautiful things, and everybody should spend their lives in an active pursuit of that dream-never wavering, never backing down, and always doing what needs to be done to see that dream come to light.

The path isn’t easy, and if you’re in the restaurant business, the path becomes even harder to navigate. As is true with any business, the possibility of failure and the looming questions about  bankruptcy will come up, but you’ve got to do everything to push through. Restaurants are a dime a dozen and not only is it your job to make amazing food that people want to eat, you also have to figure out how to get people in the doors and keep them coming back.

Here are 3 steps to take if your restaurant business isn’t getting enough traction:

Evaluate Your Menu

If you own your own restaurant, the reason is probably because you have such a passion for cooking and creating new and amazing delicacies for people to indulge upon. However, if your restaurant just isn’t popular, the reason might link back to your menu. It’s the reason people come to your restaurant in the first place.

It might be hard to stomach the idea that your menu needs work, but if you swallow your pride, ask questions, and make adjustments to the menu, you might find that people start raving about your food and keep coming back for more. When the menu is beyond compare, people will want to share that with their friends.

Host Parties

In business, you often have to do things that might make you lose money on the front end, but will bring in money and business on the back end. If you’re not getting a lot of traction, try hosting parties, and opening up your place for events and catering gigs. Offer up free or discounted appetizers or offer up packages that get people dinner and a drink, coupled with a live show or a free dessert. It’s all about giving the illusion that you’re giving customers something they can’t pass up.

Bring in Entertainment
In the end, it’s about the entire package. If you have great food but your building sucks, people will not come over as often. If you want a restaurant that people rave about, try adding entertainment every now and again. People love live music and love enjoying themselves in multiple regards when they go out to eat. Give the customers a bite, they’ll take the line.

Chefs On Coffee: Energy Source Or Super Ingredient?

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Chefs and coffee are a funny pair – most of them, as a result of their long days and late hours, are totally addicted to their caffeine fix. For example, Manresa’s David Kinch needs three cups to get through the day – and that’s after years of much greater consumption. But don’t be fooled by this love affair with coffee; like most chefs, Kinch doesn’t make his own. Brewing coffee is best left to the professionals.

Why don’t chefs who can whip up a delicious dish from offal or olives make their own coffee? Reasons abound. But here’s what some of the best palates around have to say.

More From Manresa

Not only does Chef Kinch not make his own coffee, the renowned chef has caused a stir among connoisseurs by saying that he isn’t that focused on his coffee’s flavor – he’s in it for the caffeine. Shocked, one outlet compared this statement to saying that you don’t care what you drink, you just focus on the alcohol. While plenty of chefs have alcohol troubles, you wouldn’t catch any of them saying they just drink to be drunk.

A Simple Schedule

Season one Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle also keeps his coffee practices simple; his daily consumption fuels him for service, when he’ll switch to water in the kitchen. Like many at home coffee drinkers, Dieterle’s habits are perfectly aligned with modern single-cup culture. These single serving machines make high quality coffee quickly, for a no fuss buzz.

An Ideal Ingredient

Rather than fuss about making a great cup of coffee, most chefs would far rather cook with this incredible ingredient, and they’ll put it to use in both savory and sweet dishes. One of the most popular ways to use coffee is as a crust on meats, where the bitter flavor acts as a perfect complement to sugar, garlic, and other spices. Chefs typically use such a crust on beef or pork tenderloins.

Of course, the obvious choice when cooking with coffee are desserts and pastries. There are the classics, like creamy, espresso infused tiramisu, as well as more innovative coffee-based desserts such as coffee flavored mousse. Skip the traditional chocolate mousse or heavy pot de cremes, and test out a smooth, coffee mousse for your next dinner party. You’ll be emulating some of the culinary greats, who are infusing coffee into a wide array of desserts over the last few years.

Coffee is a perfect ingredient, but when you spend your every working (and waking) hour thinking about food, brewing your coffee at the perfect temperature and getting the right concentration and acidity can seem excessively labor intensive. That’s what sends chefs to the coffee shop for their morning – and afternoon – pick me up, restricting their work with coffee to more culinary approaches.