Yesterday, I saw a fairly famous Canadian 'chef' on the tube. He was making french toast. He put a real spin on the dish. The maple syrup sauce looked outstanding et. Wonderful stuff. He owns a few 'higher end' restaurants. But to watch him, he looked so incompetent. He had no speed. He wasted movements.
I mean he wasn't incompetent, but he lacked the speed to work in a restaurant kitchen. I worked as a pro for a few years. Then I started an apprenticeship. At a 'higher end' Toronto hotel. What the head chef did to all new recruits was to put them in the coffee shop to see if they'd break or not.. In the coffee shop, you were in the shit every bloody minute. I passed. Then he put me on lunch banquets. Me, and my partner were in the shit every bloody minute. 6 or 7 lunch banquets every day; small banquets, but each of them with different items, and not much time to get it done. All within a few minutes of each other.
Maybe at some very high end hotels/restaurants you can get away with being slow. But not usually. Speed is of the essence. Skill of course counts. You can't get away with wasting your movements.
One of the apprentices at the above mentioned hotel, was put in the downstairs coffee shop. On his own. He drove a truck before starting as an apprentice. It was pathetic. He called up on the intercom for help, but the sous chef basically told him to shove it. He begged for help to no avail. No way that help was coming. I mean the poor guy didn't know much about pro cooking. He got canned eventually.

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:07:03 -0800 (PST), A Moose in Love
> wrote:

> Yesterday, I saw a fairly famous Canadian 'chef' on the tube. He was making french toast. He put a real spin on the dish. The maple syrup sauce looked outstanding et. Wonderful stuff. He owns a few 'higher end' restaurants. But to watch him, he looked so incompetent. He had no speed. He wasted movements.
> I mean he wasn't incompetent, but he lacked the speed to work in a restaurant kitchen.

So, is he a television chef or a restaurant chef? Remember that not
everyone watching TV has worked in a kitchen like you have and he's
slowing down for the sake of the viewers - they are his customers
during the show and he has a certain amount of time he needs to fill
up. He could be wasting motions for two reasons - it's not his
kitchen, so it's not laid out the way he cooks and maybe he's not
comfortable being in front of a camera because he has to supply a
narrative while he's cooking.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 5:29:59 PM UTC-5, sf wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:07:03 -0800 (PST), A Moose in Love
>
> > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Yesterday, I saw a fairly famous Canadian 'chef' on the tube. He was making french toast. He put a real spin on the dish. The maple syrup sauce looked outstanding et. Wonderful stuff. He owns a few 'higher end' restaurants. But to watch him, he looked so incompetent. He had no speed. He wasted movements.
>
> > I mean he wasn't incompetent, but he lacked the speed to work in a restaurant kitchen.
>
>
>
> So, is he a television chef or a restaurant chef? Remember that not
>
> everyone watching TV has worked in a kitchen like you have and he's
>
> slowing down for the sake of the viewers - they are his customers
>
> during the show and he has a certain amount of time he needs to fill
>
> up. He could be wasting motions for two reasons - it's not his
>
> kitchen, so it's not laid out the way he cooks and maybe he's not
>
> comfortable being in front of a camera because he has to supply a
>
> narrative while he's cooking.
>
I'm not saying the guy was incompetent. His french toast really impressed me. It was a cut above. I wish I would have written the recipe down. He just seemed kind of awkward. But then, I tend to over criticize sometimes. But I also admit that he had a great french toast recipe.

"A Moose in Love" > wrote in message
...
Yesterday, I saw a fairly famous Canadian 'chef' on the tube. He was making
french toast. He put a real spin on the dish. The maple syrup sauce looked
outstanding et. Wonderful stuff. He owns a few 'higher end' restaurants.
But to watch him, he looked so incompetent. He had no speed. He wasted
movements.
I mean he wasn't incompetent, but he lacked the speed to work in a
restaurant kitchen. I worked as a pro for a few years. Then I started an
apprenticeship. At a 'higher end' Toronto hotel. What the head chef did to
all new recruits was to put them in the coffee shop to see if they'd break
or not. In the coffee shop, you were in the shit every bloody minute. I
passed. Then he put me on lunch banquets. Me, and my partner were in the
shit every bloody minute. 6 or 7 lunch banquets every day; small banquets,
but each of them with different items, and not much time to get it done.
All within a few minutes of each other.
Maybe at some very high end hotels/restaurants you can get away with being
slow. But not usually. Speed is of the essence. Skill of course counts.
You can't get away with wasting your movements.
One of the apprentices at the above mentioned hotel, was put in the
downstairs coffee shop. On his own. He drove a truck before starting as an
apprentice. It was pathetic. He called up on the intercom for help, but
the sous chef basically told him to shove it. He begged for help to no
avail. No way that help was coming. I mean the poor guy didn't know much
about pro cooking. He got canned eventually.

I didn't see the show but it's possible that he intentionally slowed down
what he was doing so the viewers could get a better blow by blow lest they
want to recreate what he was doing. I put some maple extract in my French
toast casserole to amp up the flavor.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:07:03 -0800 (PST), A Moose in Love
> > wrote:
>
>> Yesterday, I saw a fairly famous Canadian 'chef' on the tube. He was
>> making french toast. He put a real spin on the dish. The maple syrup
>> sauce looked outstanding et. Wonderful stuff. He owns a few 'higher
>> end' restaurants. But to watch him, he looked so incompetent. He had no
>> speed. He wasted movements.
>> I mean he wasn't incompetent, but he lacked the speed to work in a
>> restaurant kitchen.
>
> So, is he a television chef or a restaurant chef? Remember that not
> everyone watching TV has worked in a kitchen like you have and he's
> slowing down for the sake of the viewers - they are his customers
> during the show and he has a certain amount of time he needs to fill
> up. He could be wasting motions for two reasons - it's not his
> kitchen, so it's not laid out the way he cooks and maybe he's not
> comfortable being in front of a camera because he has to supply a
> narrative while he's cooking.

Oh yes, the old cooking in a different kitchen! This is what I went through
when my MIL first became ill. The kitchen in that house was terribly small.
Most of the little counter there was, was taken up by a coffee pot, basket
o'baked goods and a dish rack. There was no dishwasher. The kitchen table
was actually a glass topped patio table (came with the house) that was kept
covered with a plastic tablecloth. So it wasn't an ideal surface for all
kitchen tasks but could be used for some.

One day I decided to make ravioli. Lots of ravioli, because extended family
was coming over plus I always made extra of whatever it was for the freezer.
Got the dough all ready to roll out and... Where was the rolling pin? MIL
told me where *she* kept it. The problem? She could no longer cook. She
had assorted relatives using the kitchen as well as caregivers and they
would put things back in a different spot each time.

I looked and looked and reached a level of panic as dinner time grew near.
I do know how to use other things as a rolling pin, but could find nothing
suitable in the kitchen. No bottle or even a glass that would work. In
fact they had only one glass that was made of glass. Very thin glass. It
was etched and held perhaps 4 oz. The other drinking glasses were textured
plastic and tapered. So no good for rolling stuff. And going out to buy
another wasn't an option with the closest store being K Mart (and not a lot
else in the area) and my knowing that the chances of them having any rolling
pin were slim, much less a good one. Plus I had no vehicle at that moment.

Eventually I found the blasted thing. Part of my problem was at that point
in time I had never seen a pin such as she had. But I have since seen them
on TV. They are the skinny, wooden kind with no handles. The kind Italian
chefs often use. My mom had a big wooden one and I have an even bigger
marble one. Ours have handles. Although for some reason my mom's only had
one handle and she never bothered to get a new one. I think I even gifted
her with one at some point because the missing handle bugged me. But she
must have gotten rid of the one I gave her because I never saw it after she
opened the package.

Things got worse after MIL moved to the new house. By then people seemed to
feel free to steal from her. Seemed each time I visited, I had to go buy a
sharp knife, tape, seasonings, bag clips, plastic bags, foil and the like.
And they couldn't have been merely being used up because we were there every
three weeks at least. Someone was taking these things home. I even saw
people do this. Would say, "She doesn't need this!" And then take it! She
never stopped them so as I could see. Or maybe at some point she tried and
realized it was futile because they would just do it anyway. Or maybe,
being the kind soul that she is, she felt that they must need it more than
she did and just let them take it.

I even tried to stop them. Would say, "I bought that and *I* need it."
They would then reply, "Oh, but you're leaving tomorrow.", shrug and still
try to take it. Then I would persist, "Yes, but chances are, I will need it
next time I come back and I don't want to have to buy another." Then they
would put it back in front of me. But it would still be gone when I came
back. Sometimes I think they waited till I went into the bathroom or to the
store or something and just took it.

In retrospect, I should have just made up a kit of things to pack with me
each time I went. Like I did when I had to cook at my mom's house, knowing
that her seasonings (if she had them) were not fresh or the knives were
often not sharp enough to suit me. I guess I got this idea from watching
some of the cooking shows where chefs traveled with such things. Didn't
cross my mind to do so before.

"A Moose in Love" > wrote in message
...

I'm not saying the guy was incompetent. His french toast really impressed
me. It was a cut above. I wish I would have written the recipe down. He
just seemed kind of awkward. But then, I tend to over criticize sometimes.
But I also admit that he had a great french toast recipe.

---

Could be that he was uncomfortable demonstrating to others or the food being
made wasn't his idea. I don't usually have problems with public speaking.
But as a high school Decca student, I was required to go to a community
college and give a speech to a class about giving a speech. I was not
allowed to write the speech but had to read word for word from something
someone else had written out onto some transparencies that I had to present
on an overhead projector.

The whole thing was very dry and boring and exactly the opposite of what
you'd want to do to give a good speech. I hated doing it and the teacher
even commented that I came across as awkward. My normal style would have
been to put in some smart assed comments in there here and there, giving my
opinion of what I thought of what I was reading but I was not allowed to say
even one extra word. Only what was written there.

To this day I am uncertain as to why I had to do this. It was a group
project. But the group determined that I had to do the speaking because I
don't get nervous speaking like that.