So you cannot serve beef tartar in the US?

To refrase my question. At what core temp should I pull my Beef Wellington out of the oven?

I think it has to be under 40deg. now...im not sure on that actually.

i dont know what they call it over there but the food "danger zone" for us is now 40-140F

Then it is probaby same same here, we have super strict rules AFAIK.

And ty on the beef thing.

I had a whole Beef wellington left from yesterday. 1.5 kg tenderloin was a bit much for 4 guys when we snacked a lot of fries and spicy mayo while cooking.

Re making pizza using store-bought dough, if you have a bread machine, you don't have to. I realize most people don't, but it's great having the rising etc all timed for you automatically, and it's certainly an incredible easy way to get it done. And it's very cheap if you make it yourself. Plus you won't get all the weird gums and preservatives and whatnot you get in prepackaged stuff.

tbh i dont know why people think making pizza dough is hard. Do it a couple times, make a few mistakes and you'll never need another dry, plastic wrapped circle thing or a can with a little white gremlin on it ever again

Beef Wellington version 2 laughs at my attempts yesterday:

yeah thats pretty badass cookie.

Post #1244 is my favorite of most favoritest posts ever.

Yep that is absolutely perfect.

We do this all the time as well. It really works well. Fishette makes some kind of Garlic/Parmesan dough that is really good. Bread makers are awesome.

Thanks guys. I do think I need to cook a bit more water out of the mushrooms though, to make the dough stick better.

I know this isnt finished food, but I like the picture:



(6 kg)

.

brush on egg whites. Its like glue on puff pastry.
dont dry out your duxelle (sp?)

duxelle?

the chopped and sauteed mushrooms are technically called a mushroom duxelle. old nitty french culinary terms

Btw, werent we supposed to have a Iron Chef cook off?

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Im currently deciding wether I want to do the apprenticeship thing, or blow x amount of dollars trying to open my own place right away, not really knowing what Im getting into, but Ill get to be my own boss. . .

Im still game if you are!

Have you ran a kitchen before? managed front of house? Obviously i dont know all the red tape behind opening a restaurant where you're at but unless you have some real experience running a restaurant i wouldnt suggest buying one. You might be the exception to the rule of course... but its the little things that'll kill you

equipment failure
employee liabilities
sanitation
local ordinances
property regulations

im in a restaurant management class at school right now and for our last project we made a 300 point checklist if what you need to do before starting a restaurant. The teacher said this wasnt even close to being everything you'd need to plan for and hes right... that list could have seasily been 5000 differnet points or more.

If you want PM me your email address and i'll send you the finished project our group did... it was defiantly an eye opening experience with me and quite honestly if someone offered me the startup cash right this second to open my own place i wouldnt do it. I'm far from ready.

No offense intended at all of course but unless youve got a hell of a lot more experience than I do I dont think you're ready either.

again no offesne man...just trying to save you a couple hundred grand in debt.

Nah, you are probably right, like going pro after ones first 5K month isnt the best idea

Maybe I should just take half a year or so somewhere. 3+ years before I can start my own just seems like so so long.

Ill PM you email.

I can rent a place at about 17K/year + about 50K in inventory and goodwill.

Do the Mario Batali thing and go spend a year in a small town in Italy learning from some old lady who owns a small place.

**** that go work as a manager at a decent sized restaurant, learn everything you can about food costs and managing people. imo its not your cooking chops you need to work on....i can tell just from pictures you make good food.

After dropping out of London's Cordon Bleu because the pace was too slow and then working for some of that city's top chefs, I believe Batalli actually invested more like three years in Italy studying his heritage's rustic cooking.
Before C.B. I believe he had earned a language degree from Rutgers.

meh.....

Great chefs go abroad to study food sure, and im sure they learn a lot about products they rarely see back home. ......but what exactly are they learning about running a restaurant there? 3 years is a pretty big investment to study only the smallest aspect of running a successful restaurant. I would rather spend those 3 years getting practical experience in an area that i planned on opening my business in, working for my future competition, and letting them pay me for the learning curve.

In the book Heat, a writer for the New Yorker decides to take a year off to follow a passion for cooking. As part of it, he spends some months with a lady Batali stayed with for, I think, a year. I could be wrong. Or maybe he apprenticed under several different people. At any rate, she told the author that Batali left before he learned to make good pasta.

The chasm between a person's ability to do something and that same person owning a business that does that thing is a WIDE, WIIIIDE chasm.

If one were intent on doing this without the aid of experience in business, one should spend the extra money and get a great GM, and just do the cooking and collecting of monies.

After some while, you will learn more about the business end of things, and you can either make the GM a partner or keep him where he is (assuming a solid relationship) or just go separate directions.

There's no way to overemphasize the importance of business, but then again, if you are a great businessman who is only an indifferent or uninspired cook, you may not know how to set standards for your cooks, or come up with enough interesting and well executed dishes on your own to make your restaurant distinguishable from every other one out there. I don't think you can overemphasize the importance of a point of view, either.

Of course, it depends on how you think of cooking and business, too. Like you, I'd probably go for a fast food franchise first and just eat good food on my own in my private life.