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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Young Chefs Think Quality All of The Time

If you are a young chef, and you are responsible for the special of the day at your gig, that's one of the most exciting things you can be responsible for. Especially if you went to a culinary school, and the owner of the dig tells you to come up with a lunch special that will kick major ass. You take this opportunity to shine like you've never shined in your life. Hmmm, what to create?


Let's say you are in charge of the kitchen, and you want to make something that will be new to the crowd, the old chef was lame the customers say, "He just didn't have any creative blood in him, and when he had a special, well, it wasn't special at all." Okay now you, my young chef, what are you gonna make?


So you decide the lunch crowd needs something of quality, you decide to run a French Onion soup, a Salad Nicoise, and a Shrimp Scampi. The wait staff is nuts, "Wow chef, about time we got some quality in here." And the owner says it's alright to get the fine stuff to test out, yay that!


So it's time to post that special on the board in bright letters, SOUP French Onion; SALAD: Salad Nicoise; ENTREE: Shrimp Scampi.


So you tell the prep cook and the saute cook what to do, they understand how to make it, they've never done it before, not this simple culinary moves, the previous chef was.... lame. You got all the items prepped, the soup is hot and at the ready, the shrimp is cleaned, the wine is there, everything is ready to go. The lunch crowd comes in and they see the soup, salad, and entree special. But... they're hesitant, they know the dig is good, the standards the owner has is always to standard, but the specials never rocked, hence the dismissal of the other chef.


As a chef you tell your wait staff, to sell the specials, and they do. Why? You took the time to use quality, display quality in appearance and flavors. What really rocked was your Salad Nicoise, because of the lunch crowd foodies that are into light fare, your Nicoise rocked. Instead of canned tuna to top off the veggies, you seared fresh Ahi tuna. Wow, you are a major hit, something so simple as a classic Nicoise makes the day for the lunch crowd.


The scampi was a hit, but the lunch crowd got their fill by just the salad, and guess what chef? Once your name is in the town's culinary circle, your hall of fame tickets are in print for that day you retire from cooking, as long as you keep in the know of what's happening in food and customers. Keeping it simple always works.
Seared Ahi over veggies a higher quality Salad Nicoise

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