You ask the questions, and I give the answers as I know them. As always, you can ask me any questions by checking out my Ask the Chef! page.
Tamdoankc asks:
What affect does freezing dough have on the end product?
Opinions vary on this subject. The best that I can tell you is that the yeast is retarded by the deep freeze, and that if you intend to freeze the dough before baking it, you need to increase your yeast amount slightly to account for some of the yeast loss.
For the final product, I believe that as long as it is correctly frozen, the end product should be okay. I prefer not to freeze and bake right away, but there are times when that is just not possible.
LeChefette asks:
I made a salad tonight that had cucumber, tomatoes, avocado and fresh mint. The dressing was: yogurt, fresh mint, cucumber and honey all pureed together. It looked beautiful -the green and red and specs of mint…but it was bland and lacking in flavor.
So what would you have done to make it more delicious is my first question. My next question is, Ive got a lot of the dressing left over, is there anything I can add to give it more flavor? What about mustard?
The combination you describe sound like it is money. The problem with most mixed salads is that we tend to forget to season the ingredients individually. There are three ways we can make up for this:
- We can season the individual components as we go. This is especially inportant in your case, as cucumber and tomato are out of season. What I would do is when you have them combined, season to taste BEFORE you add your dressing.
- Over season the dressing. This move is risky because you are compensating for the an unkown. (The blandness of your ingredients.) If your ingredients are okay as is, your dressing will be too powerful.
- Adjust the seasoning of the salad after you dress it. This is my preferred option. Season your salad ingredients before you add the dressing, then taste and adjust seasoning after. This method will provide you with the best of both worlds.
DaPeoplesChef asks:
Several years ago food allergies were rather rare. Now you have from peanuts to gluten to strawberries. STRAWBERRIES!!! To know someone can’t enjoy strawberries that is disheartening. Daycares and schools nowadays take precaution as to food allergies that a child has. I’m curious to know at your specific restaurant how does your restaurant go about handling food allergies. Are your waiters/servers knowledgeable as to what ingredients are in or isn’t in a specific dish? Does your restaurant have a supply of epipens? Are you satisfied with your restaurant’s approach to combating the rising amount of food allergies people have? Thanks in advance.
This is an increasingly important question. Allergies are not to be taken lightly. My policy is that EVERYONE is trained to direct the allergy questions to a manager that has been trained to deal with them. I do this because I think that having someone who is at the top level of responsibility is the best person to take care of the issue. That person can check with the chef/manager to ensure that there is no issue with the items being sold.
An allergy to any food is cause for concern. If you are asked about an allergy to something you feel is weird, I find that erring on the side of caution is the best way. After all, the point of the restaurant is to cater to the client.
AnyPeoplesChef asks:
I’m talking about picking not in the gardening sense but in the sense of getting the little usable herb part of the thyme separated from the woody stalk part. This task takes me forever. Somebody must have come up with a trick to exfoliate the thyme with little effort. Tell.
Thyme can be a major pain in the butt. Here is what I do:
Grab each sprig of thyme and turn it upside down. Use your fingers to scrape off the leaves into a pile. Turning it upside down makes the leave fall off a lot easier.
Fryguy asks:
so this has been driving me crazy. I’ve been sous here for 15 years and i’m on my third chef. Well, the deal is we will do parties with this or that sauce, this or that dish, whatever it may be, thai peanut sauce, mojo verde, asian dipping sauce, gumbo ect., ect., he goes to the computer punches in the dish or sauce and then prints it out and hands it to the cook and say’s “here you go”. I can’t believe we operate this way, has it been tested, no, will it work, who knows until it’s done and maybe to late, is it any good, maybe, maybe not…….my feeling is you can take a look at a recipe to get the ideas and then give it your own spin. Here we are the second oldest country club and we’re serving EZ French dressing from the womens club in Podunk Idaho…..no offence to Idaho……i’ts diving me crazy but i do relize it is his kitchen and he can run it the way he wants but it hurts my pride to know were really not doing it the way we should done…..just had to vent …..any thoughts
I understand how this may make you crazy. I just ask you to hold that over for a second and look at it from another perspective:
The Internet has exploded over the last 15 years, and now replaces the medium of research from before. It is easier than ever to get the answer you need. Of course, there are thousands of good recipes out there, and millions more. Before you judge your chef, remember one thing. Is it any different that he looks online for his answers than if he consults Le Repertoire de la Cuisine?
Recipes are meant to be a guideline. If your chef finds something from, WDC for example, he should make it his own. You would not fault him for finding it here though, would you?
In the end, where he got the recipe does not matter. Execution does.
