Cohesian

So the kitchen is an organism.  Not always an organisation. It can be organized. We speak of flow and complain when it doesn't happen. Achieving that balance is a strange thing. Micromanage and the balance shifts. Don't supervise or assist and you risk loosing control. I manage the flow and the preparation of raw ingredients to the line cooks. This is where i identified the system most often breaks down.
    Recipes need to followed but can be modified if a technique can increase the speed of service. Procedures are flexible if the result is a better product. I like to think of like ice skating. Balancing on a thin blade and knowing the technique but being creative in the process.

•     I'll let you know how this evolves. The organism that is the crew and ultimately the restaurant.

Intellectual Property

I write recipes as part of my job.  It's not all about pulling something directly out my head. It's a combination of reading three or four recipes and relying on my experience with technique and knowledge of ingredients. So it's not creating it's 'arranging' and experimentation. The question is then who 'owns' the recipe.

I do take care to note where i received the original material. I do make them available on social media. I have never sold a recipe, unless you count the time spent perfecting the technique in my employer's kitchen. As i formulate a cookbook i need to consider intellectual property law.

I'll keep you posted. Every recipe has a story, that story is definately my intellectual property.

water under the bridge and rising

      line cooking is an art and profession. aspiring for a career in the field always begins with 'i want to be a chef like ____'. fill in the blank with any celebrity chef or local hero. people forget the basics when undertaking a career in cooking. line cooking is like a sport, not everyone who plays basketball is gonna be like Micheal Jordan. not that i advocate mediocrity at any level. i just never aspired to be a hero or perhaps along the way deferred that dream in the face of reality.

       i have worked in the industry since i was 17. i'm a good cook, a dishwasher, a basic maintenance man, a kitchen cleaner, an opener, a closer, and  a gracious host when called out the kitchen. i can bring home the bacon, tell you where to get at a decent price and at the best quality, then fry it up in a pan. being a cook means that i am 'the food guy' at cocktail parties. people ask me for recipes and then tell me that they love food too much to choose it as a profession. my job sometimes entails the tedium of paperwork.  i make an inventory list and hand count every item in the kitchen. i write training manuals and recipes with food costs and weights and measurements. i prepare specs for every item on the menu and even photograph the items before i send them on to other cooks. i order food for parties and estimate how many people can be served with a banquet or platter of appetizers. it's a job and it's work.
     i have been known to work until midnight and then be back in the kitchen at seven the next morning. i can spend a week prepping for a event and then work the event for 3 days straight. I have portioned, prepped and cooked 700 lbs of lutefisk over a weekend event at a college. I see the procedures and the flow of the kitchen in my head when the room is bare and equipment hasn't even been purchased to fill the space. it's a mindset and i can function in the middle of room of sweaty angry people and still find peace in my craft. I have worked in 120 degrees and worn moist towels out the freezer for  cooling.

What i haven't done is appear on TV or get my name mentioned in a review.  i am humble when i need to get the work done and make my boss look good. a local chef after i congratulated him for winning an award told me 'they must have been drunk when they gave that to me'. this is cooking and eating and dancing, i couldn't wish for a more vital profession. i hardly ever sit down and when i do i get nervous like a caged animal. i keep moving and thinking and looking for a better way to serve food. i read and look at pictures and hang out with my peers when i can, but they understand when i can't make it because i have a job to do.  Sure, aspire to greatness but let the celebrities do their thing on TV, that's not line cooking.

eggs, a benedict arnold

when you cook an egg you give away all your secrets. cooking an egg properly tells anyone eating the meal how good a cook you are. we have all eaten eggs at sometime in our lives, and i believe a properly cooked egg is not the as easy as you would believe.

for a poached  egg you need perfect timing and a good pot of simmering water; too long and it's hard, not enough vinegar in the water and it 'threads, an unfresh egg will make the cooks life miserable when the yolk breaks and the white runs all over the pot. a fried egg must be cooked slowly or it will stick to the pan or toughen to a noticeable degree. an omelet must be cooked in a properly seasoned pan and manipulated to cook up fluffy and evenly. how well you cook eggs should be the value by which a chef is judged.

the perfect hollandaise sauce  is a whole other matter. a good chef knows when to reveal his secrets. i have read and understood the scientific studies of a complex protein, fat and acid emulsion commonly referred to as hollandaise or bernaise sauce.

bread of life will not be sliced and bagged

this blog has been occupied. the blue collar cook is a member of the 99% and he's not gonna take it anymore. america has been highjacked by a profit before people corporate model and it's killing us. The corporate food suppliers have given us what we wanted and now we are weak and sick and that's just how they like it.

there are many avenues to discuss this crisis, and i may not have all the answers, but the discussion begins here. most food blogs are about recipes and having a singular food experience, i'm not satisfied with that model. in the months since i dedicated a blog to food, i have become more unhappy with the state of the food world. Maybe it was the affectations of a 'foodie' community that pays to much for good food and lives in a bubble. maybe i shouldn't be a critic of a culture that writes the checks and on which i feed. The knowledge of cooking is now in the hands of professionals and a few dedicated 'foodies'. this is not rocket science folks, everyone once knew how to bake and prepare a healthy meal from whole ingredients where i grew up. 

so how did we get here? the biggest culprit is something that was supposed to make our lives easier.  what is the common cliche`, 'the best thing to come along since sliced bread'. i don't like sliced bread, i don't like soft bread, i don't even like bread that tastes the same tomorrow as it does today. give me a crusty loaf of bread with character that needs to torn and stales if you don't eat it today. so enter that great stuff, a loaf of bread that's as good tomorrow as it is today and is pre-sliced and comes in a nice bag stocked like a can of beans on your grocers shelves.  a whole generation or two has grown up without mama baking bread twice a week or a scratch bakery down the street. so they replace what is truly good tasting and nutritious with what is easy and is 'good enough'. once you got that past the consumer the industrialization of food production was easy. we forgot what good food tasted and felt like, so we didn't know what we were missing. yep, that's how we got here, we decided to make our lives easier in the kitchen and we lost a grip on good food. 

so how do we get back what we once had? or is it even possible. that's the next installment, i haven't got all night to write about this and hell, your attention span is about 2 minutes anyway, so good night.

Il est interdit d’interdire.

there is class warfare and it's not going away. tonight i am breaking all the rules and posting a political statement on what i consider a largely professional/non-political blog.

there are protests going on in the streets of all the major cities in America, 1000+ i heard was the last count. there will be many opinions formed and my voice will be heard. i am the blue collar cook and it is my duty to provide an analysis.

 people are pissed off at the state of the world and others are telling them this is the status quo and that maybe protesting is a bad idea. i can't pretend something is not happening and the news blackout has gone on long enough. people are getting run over  by gangs of cops on motorcycle in NYC for god's sakes. this will be a another long winter of our discontent.

where do we go from here? who the hell knows, i am not a news analyst or a prophet. i do know and can discern that the polarization is the worst i have seen in my lifetime. maybe i haven't paid attention the rest of the time. i will not keep my head down and do my job and sit idly by watching the world implode and say that i did nothing. I may not be on the front lines everyday, but i will do my part.

i am remembering a line from 'it's a wonderful life'....'while harry fought the war in europe, george fought the war at home'... i can say i will engage everyone i have contact with everyday, if they seem like they have an opinion or an interest. the outcome of the battles in the class warfare will be decided around the kitchen tables and the water coolers not by screaming crowds or radio pundits. i support every-mans right to an opinion but i cannot condone an ill informed public that has soaked up the lies meant to provide 'consumer confidence'. it's bad out there and there is nothing being done to make it better.

it's time for well meaning and informed people to take to the streets and let their voices be heard, thank god it's happening finally. In it's early stages there will be confusion, but don't let that discourage you or say 'this is not my protest'. it is everybody's protest,  who is feeling the pinch of a bad economy? do you feel that washington has turned a deaf ear towards the will of the people? then get out there. there is nothing that the jobless or the working poor have done wrong. people are not out there because they want a hand-out or want to play out their own revolutionary fantasy. people are out there because they got a raw deal and they are pissed. somebody has broken the economy and nobody is doing shit to fix it or actively telling lies to protect their own self interests. you are not a failed potential rich person, your american dream has been stolen. now get out there and do what it takes to get it back

the coming revolution

 

 Just gonna see where this gets me, you know the old rule of civility, no politics, religion or other controversial subjects in mixed company. but what has happened in the Wisconsin legislature over the last month has me 'kinda radicalized',

I have kept up with news from Wisconsin, I was born there and spent 25 years of my life there. last night the state senate pushed through a bill that strips collective bargaining rights from public employees, the method and the intent of this is purely political statement by a rogue  republican governor(and his rubber stamp assembly and senate) is shameful. this is not how governance works, i don't care if Scott Walker was elected and campaigned on these values. the people of the state have spoken, in numerous polls the policies of the current governor have been repudiated. maybe the polls are wrong and the people of Wisconsin do want their friends and neighbors thrown out a job so the budget can be 'balanced'. people speak of the 'redistribution of wealth' and socialist policies that are at work in state and national budgets. guess what folks, that's what government by the people and for the people means. the current trend among conservatives is for an upward redistribution, in trying to create a better business environment they are dragging down the working class.

I'm not gonna to claim to be an expert at government or a social policy. i know what is right and proper, and i know what works for most the population. the current policies and actions in Wisconsin do not work for most of the population. pulling us out of a recession(actually a depression) will not occur because one state has lax environmental laws and a low labor costs. prosperity will not happen by preventing outsourcing. America will never be a great industrial engine like it was 60 years ago. If current politicians try to tell that they are balancing the budget by cutting the wasted dollars in education and environmental protection they are living in a short term business model that will not benefit most of the inhabitants of nation.