So You Want To Own A Restaurant

Earlier this evening I watched online and episode of "Kitchen Nightmares" with Chef Gordon Ramsey. As a former restaurant worker, I enjoy the show. He kind of reminds me of a chef I used to work for in the catering business. I have noticed a common theme in the shows, people start or buy a restaurant who know absolutely nothing about the business. Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but I don't think people usually buy any other kind of  business that they know nothing about....do they?

It is, however, a common theme among restaurant owners. The line goes something like this:
1. I was spending a lot eating out so I thought I may as well buy a restaurant of my own
2. I was walking past this cute place one day and I just had to have it
3. I thought it would be a great way to hang out with my friends

PLEASE DON'T BUY A RESTAURANT FOR THESE REASONS

Seriously, if you're thinking of buying or starting a restaurant of your own go work in one for a minimum of six months. If you are still thinking about it after that time do another six months. Work in the front end (where the customers are) and the back end (kitchen). Find out if you really like:
a) working weekends and holidays when everyone else is generally off
b) working early mornings and late evenings
c) standing long hours on your feet
d) smelling like food and possibly booze when you go home
e) eating on the run because you don't have time to sit down and relax to eat

However, if after all this you love it, really love it, then do it!

A few pics from a Potluck Dinner

Last summer we had a couple of really good dinners with a group of seniors I work with. One of the dinners was a "Bring Your Own Steak or Whatever" and the other one was a good old country pot-luck supper.

Both presented  great evenings filled with good food, conversation and company. One guest brought an amazing array of fresh vegetables from their garden, yellow and green beans, freshly dug new potatoes and tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes. A couple of the ladies had a practiced hand at baking turning out fresh pies and blueberry cake.

Scones/Tea Biscuits

This is one of the simplest recipes for biscuits or scones

Combine:

 3 cups flour

2T Baking Powder

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

Blend in (with pastry cutter, 2 knives or your hands)

1/2 cup margarine, butter or some kind of fat (i've even used bacon grease)

If you want to add some kind of cheese, cooked crumbled bacon, cooked chopped onions or whatever, this is the time to do it. About 1/2 to 1 cup should do it.

Add milk to moisten.  Remember, you can add more but you can't take it out once it's in there.  If you want drop biscuits add more milk. If you are going to lightly knead the dough, a little less. Don't over mix, it will make the biscuits tough. Just make the dry stuff wet.

Either drop large tablespoon fulls onto pan or roll out and cut with a glass or cutter and place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, i think that's about 180 Celsius for about 15 minutes until lightly browned on top and bottom. Remove from pan onto paper towel or cooling rack. Good served with butter or margarine.

Note: T is tablespoon, t is teaspoon
You can use half wholewheat or multi-grain flour. Biscuits will likely be a bit heavier 

Reindeer Round-up, Tuk, N.W.T

One of the first places I cooked for a bunch of people was at the annual reindeer round-up near Tuktoyaktuk, North West Territories. Every June the Nasogaluak family who owned the reindeer herd at that time, would bring in a crew to an old abandoned dew line station on the Beaufort Sea east of Tuktoyaktyuk. The area is Arctic tundra at its finest, no trees but hills and hummocks that could turn an ankle with ease. Later, in June this same barren, muddy tundra would be covered with paintbox coloured flowers with names I did not know.

 For the  2 weeks the crew with the important assistance of helicopter and 3 wheelers would round up about 10,000 reindeer and bring them into a series of corrals to cut off their horns. The horns would be shipped fresh to primarily Asian countries where they were used medicinally.

 My job was to cook for a crew of about 25 to 40 people who pretty much worked around the clock when the reindeer were in the pens. The old dew line base was a primitive facility with  no running water or electricity. I had only a small stove whose oven door would not close properly and a coleman camp cooker.

It was here that I learned to make dried meat, reindeer stew and perfected my bannock making. The crew did not want or expect fancy food, just large quantities of hot, filling fare and endless pots of coffee and tea. What a blast it was!!

There is nothing like the site of several thousand reindeer coming toward you over the tundra.

Brandied Cherries

A couple of weeks ago I made for the first time, Brandied Cherries. Pretty simple really. Cherries, sugar and brandy. The brandy was acquired at duty-free during a hockey trip to the USA and the cherries purchased at a good price at the local town grocery store. I washed the cherries well. Who knows whats on them these days? Then, did the usual things for sterilizing canning jars. Next, put the cherries, sugar and brandy into the jars, wiped and sealed them. Then into the  water bath. I did this even though recipes said that process was unnecessary due to the brandy but I wanted to be certain.
I am very much looking forward to trying them sometime around Christmas although they should be ready before that. I will take some pics of them in the next couple of days and post them here.