Ask a Chef
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Sift the powdered sugar then measure out a cup. Depending on the type and age of the recipe if it was printed or handwritten it could be 1 Cup powdered sugar, sifted, or 1 Cup powdered sugar sifted the comma placement determines whether you measure than sift or sift then measure. Without seeing the entire recipe it is hard for me to tell for sure, but you will be safe to sift first and ask questions later lol. Does it also state to sift all the dry ingredients together or just the powdered sugar?0
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How much do you like the cookies? You can do 2 things, make the batter to the point you add the powdered sugar, split it in half. In one half use sifted measured powdered sugar, in the other use measured sifted powdered sugar and see which is the most like the original recipe. If you want them to be as close as possible, if not you will be fine to sift then measure and bake away.0
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Cooking things: have you ever tried making pie dough with a food processor, or do you stick to a pastry blender? Apart from the obvious (quality knife, scale, food thermometer, etc.) what equipment or gadgets are your biggest assets in the kitchen? Is there a method to plating food so it looks super pretty, or is it purely artistic (and I'm just bad at it lol)?
Restaurant industry things: do you think Yelp is a good thing or a bad thing? Has your part of the world been struggling to find reliable kitchen and wait staff? How long do you tend to stay in one place or with one menu before wanting to try a new concept?0 -
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Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
One thing that has been perplexing me lately is, I would like to make my pie crusts with leaf lard and some butter (I learned to make them with Crisco, which is great for a flaky crust, but I would prefer to use natural fats...and to me regular lard tastes a little too much of the barnyard: great for roux, or quiche, not so great for pie). Stores don't seem to carry it, and what I can find on Amazon is expensive ($20/14 oz from some artisan butcher, and Tenderflake is 10+ per lb). Is that probably the best I can find, considering I won't be ordering it in bulk?
Butter, of course, is the standard, but to me it seems more difficult to handle, but maybe I should just practice and figure it out.
Also, what are your favorite cookbooks, and your favorite books about cooking? (ie, Mastering the Art of French Cooking vs. My Life in France).0 -
Will your share your recipe for Creme Brulee and is there a way to make it "lighter" in calories without losing the taste? Thank you!0
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@chocolate_owl Yes I have used a food processor for pie dough and it works out quite well. The biggest asset in my kitchens and the part of the test I give to every cook who applies for a job is to set up a cutting board. It sounds like a simple thing but I check to see if they put a wet towel or nonskid mat under it to keep it from moving around. Being safe is a huge thing when you work in a place where everything around you can maim, or kill you lol. Another things is a good sharpie marker, non-slip shoes these are valuable tools to have. If you mean equipment you can do most things by hand if you have the determination, but things to make life easier, like immersion blender, robot coupe, high power Vitamix blender, sous vide machine, good heavy bottom skillet, and a thick bottom sauce pan.
Decorating plates is subjective, as is all art. You don't need to be good just make it either look very neat, or slap it on and let the food land where it may. You may not think you did a good job with the finishing touches but we are also our own worst critics. So play around when you have time and practice if you are that worried about it, in the end if the food looks good and tastes good that is what people will remember. But if you are wanting to earn a Michelin Star or work for a high end place, then practice until your hands fall off and strive for perfection lol.
Yelp is good to a point, you will always get those people who are always going to find a negative no matter what you do. People will tear a place to shreds for the smallest reasons, the one rule I have when trying a new place is I go into the bathroom and look there, if it is neat and clean proceed to eat. But if they can not keep a clean bathroom what are the odds they can keep a clean kitchen? Gross I know. Sadly trying to find good staff is like pulling teeth, so I am not sure if it means the economy is turning around and getting better allowing people to stay in their roles longer, or if there is a lull where people are starting culinary school earlier and staying through to a Bachelor's degree. Or if youtube, Food Network, and the cooking channel are making every person with aspirations of being a star filling their heads with a false sense of what it is like to work in a real kitchen. For me it depends on the kitchen, if I like the environment, the management listens to me and respects my ideas, I will stay. I had a place hire me on with promises of a work life balance, and so much money, and time off and all this other stuff and I believed them, went to work for them to find out that they had not fired the person I was replacing and I had to lie to the guy for a month about why I was there. Long story short I bailed on that place as soon as I could.2 -
@leeshults I can share my recipe but it is loaded with egg yolks, heavy cream, and sugar lol, and that is why it tastes so good. Sadly I have not found a way to cut back on the calories with the creme brulee. The custard needs the yolks to set properly, the heavy cream adds body to the dishes and the sugar adds the sweetness plus you then top it with sugar and blowtorch it making a tasty caramel glass on top. The pieces work together to give you a very nice mouth feel. You get smooth, sweet, crunchy, and salty it hits across all the taste buds which is what makes a dessert or dish more pleasing. The best thing I can say is to make smaller portions and try to use self control. Which I did not do as I made 2 8x12 pans of the stuff lol.0
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Thank you
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@mweckler Thanks for the detailed response! And thanks for the points about safety. I'm not slicing and dicing away in my home kitchen the way the pros do, but I should take steps to be more careful.I've heard that the reason most chefs are men is because women have a hard time letting food go out that isn't perfect. In the business, you can't have perfection so you have to be able to "slap it on" and let it go out.
Agree or disagree?
I hang around with people in the industry, so I have (poorly researched) opinions on this: like anything where men have dominated for decades, it takes women time to achieve success and top spots. They're starting to break through; in the past 5 years, a lot more women have opened restaurants where I am doing interesting, innovate things. More women are being nominated for James Beard awards. Many women are being shown on competitive cooking shows, which is a weird metric, but it's proof they exist and are good at what they do.
Also, as with any other career, if a woman has a child, she has to make decisions about how to manage her career and care for her child. One of my friends went to culinary school and worked in restaurants for several years. She met a fellow chef, they started dating. She accidentally got pregnant. Any dreams she had of being an executive chef had to be postponed because she now had to care for a child. Since then she's done catering and worked as a private chef for super-rich people, but she hasn't jumped back into the restaurant world. The hours are too crazy when you're raising kids by yourself, and at most levels the pay is too low to afford childcare and babysitters all the time.
I do think the element of perfection can play into it a little bit, and that's why a lot of women end up as pastry chefs. Baking is a science. It either turns out or it doesn't.0 -
So I think I answered most all the questions asked, there is still one I am looking into for the leaf fat for the pie crust. But any other questions?2
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So I think I answered most all the questions asked, there is still one I am looking into for the leaf fat for the pie crust. But any other questions?
Aw...Don't spend too much time researching!
It is a perplexing question though. I was also interested in your favorite cookbooks and cooking books. Oh, and maybe any magazines. I get Saveur, which I adore, and Food and Wine, which I don't find as interesting or well written, but I get them more for reading about food than for actual recipes. 0 -
@French_Peasant we used to use Sweetex High Ratio shortening for our pie crusts and what not when I was training in pastries. It make a very nice pie crust and you can use it for many other things in making pastries as well. I know you were looking for a natural product that was a more reasonable cost. But like you said if you work with the butter more it will help your confidence with it and I think that may be the best option.
As for cookbooks, I really don't have a favorite, I look online at allrecipes.com to get inspiration then I start to tweak and create my own end result. I do not read many magazines as my children occupy all my free time when I am not at work. I used to read books like Kitchen Confidential, and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain but come to think of it those were a long time ago. Sorry I could not be more help with these.1 -
What the weirdest substitution you've been asked to make?0
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@French_Peasant we used to use Sweetex High Ratio shortening for our pie crusts and what not when I was training in pastries. It make a very nice pie crust and you can use it for many other things in making pastries as well. I know you were looking for a natural product that was a more reasonable cost. But like you said if you work with the butter more it will help your confidence with it and I think that may be the best option.
As for cookbooks, I really don't have a favorite, I look online at allrecipes.com to get inspiration then I start to tweak and create my own end result. I do not read many magazines as my children occupy all my free time when I am not at work. I used to read books like Kitchen Confidential, and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain but come to think of it those were a long time ago. Sorry I could not be more help with these.
I hear you on the magazines...I have a huge back-log of 20 or so that I am trying to work my way through, LOL! I pore over every page of Saveur, however. Also, interestingly enough, Southern Living, even though I am a Hoosier--I have a big stack of cake and cookie recipes ripped out that I need to get crackin' on.
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to me and all the other inquiries on here.0 -
Have you ever tried out for a cooking show? I'd love to see you on Beat Bobby Flay or Chopped!0
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@yayamom3 I thought about trying out for the Great American Food Truck Race a few years ago but my wife was not too keen on my being away from home for 3 months lol. But now that the kids are older I have considered trying out for Chopped, or the Next Food Network Star or one of those shows.3
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@yayamom3 I thought about trying out for the Great American Food Truck Race a few years ago but my wife was not too keen on my being away from home for 3 months lol. But now that the kids are older I have considered trying out for Chopped, or the Next Food Network Star or one of those shows.
Oh I forgot about both of those! Love those shows, too! Especially NFNS!1 -
You should audition for Master Chef!! If you won you'd get your cookbook!!!0
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When giving out recipes do you leave ingredients out? Or not say how much to use? One of my best friends is in the business and she will not under any circumstance give everything away when giving a recipe to someone. Nothing drastic, but maybe she won't say she uses onion powder or something along those lines.0
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@Taylor076097 if I am giving a recipe to a friend or someone I know I give them all the ingredients. Sadly most Chef's leave out an ingredient or two when they submit articles in food magazines, or give a recipe. They want you to be able to make it but not as perfectly as they do. Which if you want people coming back to eat your dishes is a good thing, but a little shady in my opinion. The only time I leave an ingredient out is if I am trying to write down a recipe I have not made in a while from the top of my head and forget something.2
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@Joanna2012B I think they claim that Masterchef is for "at home" Chef's which I do not think I qualify for any longer. Plus I really feel like most of that stuff that makes it to air is staged. Especially when it comes to baking, how do these people who have never made an eclair or macaron before, magically know the exact steps to prepare them? I have made both and if I do not have the recipe glued to my face I forget steps and ingredients and have to start over. I would one day like to have my own cookbook or cooking show, or even a cooking segment on a local tv station, my mom tells me I have a good sense of humor... (cricket cricket). I have learned my sense of humor does not transition to a written thing such as a posting, but take my word I am the funniest person in my office, which currently I am the only person in my office right now. HA!!!3
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@mweckler you're right they are home cooks! I always thought that too about the recipes...I mean how do they know how to make some of these things if they have never made it before.
I wish you luck with your endeavors!! Thank you for this post...I am keeping it close to ask questions when needed!!!
BTW your sense of humour does transition in writing...LOL!!1 -
Do you ALWAYS wash your hands?0
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