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If you're serious about culinary school, absolutely do not go to a franchise school like LCB or CIA. J&W is better but it's still culinary school and this kind of a waste. Work in the industry for a few years so you have a knowledge base and then go stage and train in Europe. Better, more meaningful education, you get to travel and make contacts/connections based on whom you worked for. If you think you're going to be some celebrity chef, you're wrong, but also if you read their bios you'll notice how very few of them go "well I really got my start in that culinary school advertised on late-night infomercials..." I never understand the fools that drop the money to do CIA Greystone here to become a Somm... I have the same certification as them for the cost of the exam and some time studying, as well as a BETTER general background in Enology from the four winemaking/viticulture/vineyard management classes I took at the community college. Unless I want to move to Vegas or work for a hotel chain, I make better wages as a Somm than standard FOH but not by much and it's still much less than as a high-end or high-volume bartender.
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Oct 7, 2014 17:47
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There's this lovely chick who works PM room service and occasionally tries to banter with us along the lines of "well I have a degree in Culinary Studies so I can throw down" but she's got a sense of humor about it so whatever. One day I'm in Lime Juice Limbo prepspace and she says "oh hey I have a great trick for that, you put them in boiling water for about thirty seconds and..." and I don't know what she said after that, because I could only give her a *look* shortly before a thin red froth began leaking from the corners of my mouth because in the middle of getting ready to get blitzed for a concert weekend where we need doubles of everything this otherwise great person of many redeeming qualitites said with a totally straight motherfucking face that when squeezing a goddamned lime, step one was to bring water to a boil. This is your "don't go to culinary school" memo for October 7, 2014.
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Oct 7, 2014 18:43
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I mean, yes, you want the fruit warm so it produces more juice but lol wat
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Oct 7, 2014 19:11
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Lime juice for the bar? I would be loving pissed if I found out my barback had boiled my limes. Majorly affect the flavor.
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Oct 7, 2014 19:43
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Lime juice for the bar? I would be loving pissed if I found out my barback had boiled my limes. Majorly affect the flavor. Equally as bad: for sauces, dressings, purees and such. You NEED that acid kickin' for avocado puree, dawg. 
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Oct 7, 2014 19:49
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Vegetable Melange posted:I mean, yes, you want the fruit warm so it produces more juice but lol wat That's all it's for. quote:Limes can also be warmed by placing them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them. Allow them to sit in the hot water for 30 seconds.
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Oct 7, 2014 20:38
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just use sprite you dandies. seriously though, the only thing I know about lime juice is that taste test where they found out 4 hour old juice tastes better than fresh
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Oct 7, 2014 20:46
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ZetsurinPower posted:just use sprite you dandies. And it polishes the gently caress out of a flat top.
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Oct 7, 2014 22:00
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The long-term usefulness of a culinary degree mostly pertains to non-cooking jobs. It's a nice feather in your cap if you want to work as a rep, work FOH someplace fancy, work for a winery or manage FOH or be GM of a smaller place. It can offset the blow (slightly) of not having a Bachelors in a food-related job. None of these are good reasons to get a culinary degree, I'm just pointing out that it's not complete toilet paper, just mostly toilet paper. In my opinion the ONLY good reason to go to culinary school is as follows: You're wealthy or someone else is paying for it. The cost of culinary school is so ridiculous that it's impossible for most people to pay the loans on a cook's salary. IMPOSSIBLE. If you're getting a free ride, go right ahead! Culinary school is FUN. You get to play with all kinds of fun ingredients and learn some old-school techniques that will help you gain a good foundation for future learning. When you graduate, you will be totally unprepared for life in a real-world kitchen, but you will have a skill set that will allow you (if you apply yourself) to progress far more quickly than you would otherwise. Think of it as a pass for the HOV lane. tl;dr: Culinary school owns, it's PAYING for it that sucks, do it if you're loaded but don't expect to come out of it as anything but an overqualified prep cook.
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Oct 7, 2014 23:41
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I really hate working for other people. So, I've been looking to buy a restaurant. I found this place thats a sportsbar near me for $17,000. A-loving-mazing too good to be true price. I call the guy up, his story is that he's had the place but he's only here on a green card and he's can't renew his business license because of it. I make an appointment to go check the place out. He never shows. I call him up, he says sorry, we make another appointment. Again he doesn't show up. I call him twice while I'm there waiting for him. He doesn't even pick up. loving frustrating!!! I want to give you $17000 for something you are trying to sell, why won't you show up?!?!
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Oct 8, 2014 02:58
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Why do you want to buy a restaurant? You're not going to make any money.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:14
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brick cow posted:I really hate working for other people. So, I've been looking to buy a restaurant. I found this place thats a sportsbar near me for $17,000. A-loving-mazing too good to be true price. I call the guy up, his story is that he's had the place but he's only here on a green card and he's can't renew his business license because of it. I make an appointment to go check the place out. He never shows. Do not, under any circumstances, buy a restaurant, especially not when it's the price of a new KIA.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:24
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brick cow posted:I really hate working for other people. So, I've been looking to buy a restaurant. I found this place thats a sportsbar near me for $17,000. A-loving-mazing too good to be true price. I call the guy up, his story is that he's had the place but he's only here on a green card and he's can't renew his business license because of it. I make an appointment to go check the place out. He never shows. This is my new favourite post of the thread.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:28
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brick cow posted:I really hate working for other people. So, I've been looking to buy a restaurant. I found this place thats a sportsbar near me for $17,000. A-loving-mazing too good to be true price. I call the guy up, his story is that he's had the place but he's only here on a green card and he's can't renew his business license because of it. I make an appointment to go check the place out. He never shows. scam e: seriously he's gonna tell you he had to leave the country urgently or something and needs to close on the business and could you maybe wire the 17k through western union?
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Oct 8, 2014 03:38
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Radio Help posted:Do not, under any circumstances, buy a restaurant, especially not when it's the price of a new KIA. If he has all the equipment he claims, that alone would be worth it just to gut and resell everything. That's a big "if" considering I've only seen the outside. Skinny King Pimp posted:Why do you want to buy a restaurant? You're not going to make any money. If I made enough to take home 1000 a month that would be enough for now. It's not about the money. The happiest I've ever been was running restaurants but I've always been doing it for other people.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:41
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brick cow posted:If he has all the equipment he claims, that alone would be worth it just to gut and resell everything. That's a big "if" considering I've only seen the outside. Doesn't matter the reasons for selling, a restaurant that will pay you out 1k a month is not selling for 17k including equipment and building/property. Never. Not ever.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:57
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brick cow posted:If I made enough to take home 1000 a month that would be enough for now. It's not about the money. The happiest I've ever been was running restaurants but I've always been doing it for other people. Fair enough, but there is something very obviously fishy about that setup. $17k barely gets you a functional food cart. Edit: just texted my buddy who is a very successful restaurateur in Portland and asked him if he's ever heard of someone selling a restaurant for $17k (just the IP, the equipment, and the lease takeover, not the building itself), and his exact reply was "hahahaha are you loving kidding." take from that what you will. Good luck man Radio Help fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2014 04:00
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Naelyan posted:Doesn't matter the reasons for selling, a restaurant that will pay you out 1k a month is not selling for 17k including equipment and building/property. Never. Not ever. It'd be taking over a lease. Radio Help posted:Fair enough, but there is something very obviously fishy about that setup. $17k barely gets you a functional food cart. That was pretty much my thought but I was hoping I landed in a once in a lifetime situation.
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Oct 8, 2014 04:18
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brick cow posted:That was pretty much my thought but I was hoping I landed in a once in a lifetime situation. Totally understandable. I dunno man, it's entirely possible that you did, but even if everything is on the up and up and you manage to get the bones of a business for $17k, owning a restaurant is still incredibly difficult and financial suicide. I've worked closely with owners opening new restaurants on two separate occasions, and unless you have huge tons of venture capital it's endless streams of suck. Hell, it's endless streams of suck even if you do have lots of VC.
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Oct 8, 2014 04:27
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brick cow posted:It'd be taking over a lease. I worded my post poorly. I should have said "Doesn't matter the reasons for selling, a restaurant that will pay you out 1k a month is not selling for 17k including equipment, with or without the building/property. Never. Not ever." A close friend and occasional-coworker of mine opened up his restaurant a year and a bit ago for around 25k and that is the cheapest I have ever heard of a restaurant opening, ever.
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Oct 8, 2014 05:00
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Naelyan posted:I worded my post poorly. I should have said "Doesn't matter the reasons for selling, a restaurant that will pay you out 1k a month is not selling for 17k including equipment, with or without the building/property. Never. Not ever." Yeah, I wouldn't open without another at least 10k on hand (preferably 25k) but 17k for 25-30k worth of equipment, a liquor license and not having the hassle of installing walk-ins or too much remodeling would have been a dream come true. Should I call him back and ask him what his deal was or just accept that he blew me off twice?
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Oct 8, 2014 05:21
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brick cow posted:Yeah, I wouldn't open without another at least 10k on hand (preferably 25k) but 17k for 25-30k worth of equipment, a liquor license and not having the hassle of installing walk-ins or too much remodeling would have been a dream come true. Just accept that you got saved from being scammed by the scammer's incompetence. The liquor license alone is probably worth twice the price you quoted, never mind everything else.
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Oct 8, 2014 05:31
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:If you're serious about culinary school, absolutely do not go to a franchise school like LCB or CIA. J&W is better but it's still culinary school and this kind of a waste. Work in the industry for a few years so you have a knowledge base and then go stage and train in Europe. Better, more meaningful education, you get to travel and make contacts/connections based on whom you worked for. I got a drat fine culinary arts education from the Seattle Central Community College for about six grand. Only complaint was some of the courses they make you take as part of the program struck me as extraneous, including courses on ecopsychology and one class I can't even remember the point of other than the instructor really, really didn't like GMOs. During summer quarter we did get to go up to Skagit Valley every other week to do some farming, though. That was neat.
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Oct 8, 2014 05:52
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Hey me too, when'd you graduate, just out of curiosity?
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Oct 8, 2014 07:38
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I switched from cooking to teaching at the start of this year I still occasionally miss working in a kitchen. The biggest moment of that I've had was looking at this job add yesterday. Stolen verbatim from the ad: We are looking for a human chef to join our fellow humans in the North Sydney CBD. Our restaurant/wine bar is located there. We are looking for someone who is fast like Usain Bolt, reliable like a Swiss watch and creative like a cheap hooker (what?). You need to have a minimum of four years experience grooming Himalayan goats. But cooking is also a valuable skillset to have. As a human chef in the 21st Century you will no longer possess the ridiculous bullshit antics of meglamaniacs roaming the kitchens left over from the 80's and 90's. However, you shall possess an awesome set of something. Perhaps its a sense of humour or stylish swagger, maybe some knives not from K-Mart. We would need you to be motivated, punctual and maintain a high standard of consistency in your sex life. We therefore sincerely ask for a mere 10% of that commitment in your job with us. I think we can all agree that this is fair on everyone. You will, however need to have a passion for food and eating, Otherwise...what's the whole point???? You must be able to work on your own when there is no one else there, be passionate about giraffes, flexible in your aerobics class and want to grow radishes in our business. Your roster would include weekends as well as Saturdays and Sundays. If you have two hands and half a brain then you should use both those awesome assets and apply for this non-missionary postion. As much as we love all that is Swahli, we have decided that English is your first language. Witch meens ewe Will haev a strong grasp off the wroten word, gramamatacitcly speaking. Qualified chefs via the antiquated apprenticship system need only apply. For those of you who have only completed certificate courses and honeslty believe you are an industry ready chef....PLEASE, GOD! do not respond....no, seriously...stop!! We are just not ready for you.... it's not you...it's me. We pay money and with that money you can buy things. We also pay superannuation, which is money you can use to buy things when you are almost dead. If you have read and understood all the above, then you should definately apply. If you have read this and ticked all the boxes. Then do not apply, because there are no boxes! TL:DR job add is long but makes sense if you know whats going on
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Oct 8, 2014 12:05
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Hey - I'm the OP, you might remember me from such posts as "gently caress my life," "I'm so alone," "I can't decide between binge eating and hitting myself in the face with a wrench tonight," and "another 15 hour day"! If you want to go to culinary school, don't do it yet. To that guy in NYC, there's so many stages and programs you can do. If you can hang in NYC for a year or two you could work anywhere else in the country pretty much. Save the money you WOULD HAVE spent on tuition and use that to scrape by while you work different stages and part-time low man jobs at great restaurants. Nine months of getting your rear end kicked at good places is going to be much more useful than getting jerked off for nine months and THEN realizing you don't know a loving thing. OR you can spend all that time learning Excel or something instead, then coming to work for a wine distributor. My life is strangely easy these days, it's pretty ridiculous how hard I worked then given how easy I have it now. We're hiring like another 30-40 people here in NYC.. sales and support isn't easy, sure. But selling wine has to be a better gig that moldy limes and all that. T-Bone out.
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Oct 8, 2014 12:36
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Yeah, I got about two or three more years of line cooking left in me till I make the switch over to the supply-side. Won't be as "fun" or "interesting" or whatever, but I know I can do it and it's an actual career.
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Oct 8, 2014 12:59
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I also advocate a switch. I switched to flying planes. Similar stress, better pay, and you get to fly planes.
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Oct 8, 2014 13:19
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Radio Help posted:Fair enough, but there is something very obviously fishy about that setup. $17k barely gets you a functional food cart. Depending on where he is it isn't completely unreasonable. Taco houses here in San Antonio can go for as little as 25k, but they are already failing. I opened my place for 10k, but I had the lucky break of having a buddy own a bar with a fully built kitchen inside he didn't want to mess with and basically gave me the spot to work out of. Now I'm working on getting enough cash together to buy a food truck and expand the business.
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Oct 8, 2014 16:22
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Depending on where he is it isn't completely unreasonable. Taco houses here in San Antonio can go for as little as 25k, but they are already failing. The diner I work at now was a month or two from failing when the current owners bought it for 50k. They then proceeded to go 100k further into debt over the first year fixing everything up, buying new equipment, and building the customer base back up. I'm sure that there are restaurants that sell for 17k, but they're places with lovely locations, bad equipment, and no business, not bars with liquor licenses, good equipment and a decent customer base.
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Oct 8, 2014 18:17
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I think you're all overlooking several hilarious possibilities, like perhaps the building is condemned and filled to the windows with sewage, or a rental location whose landlord is in foreclosure/deported/dead.
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Oct 8, 2014 19:09
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Thoht posted:Hey me too, when'd you graduate, just out of curiosity? Winter 2008 Republicans fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2014 20:06
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Splizwarf posted:I think you're all overlooking several hilarious possibilities, like perhaps the building is condemned and filled to the windows with sewage, or a rental location whose landlord is in foreclosure/deported/dead. I was thinking maybe the dude doesn't own the restaurant at all.
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Oct 8, 2014 21:53
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Yeah, the fact he was told that there was some issue with renewing license of ownership or whatever because of green card issue... Why's it an issue now and wasn't before? That to me (aside from the crazy low price) is the fishy thing. But maybe that's normal there?
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Oct 8, 2014 22:00
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Why would you ever want to buy and run a restaurant. Ever. Why. Here's an idea -- shatter your own knees; I mean loving PULP them with a claw hammer, while fully awake and sober and without anesthesia. Do it very slowly and deliberately. Don't stop until you could bottle it and sell it as a fine jelly. Then spend $17,000 on new replacement knees. There. That was a faster and better investment than buying a restaurant and trying to run it.
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Oct 9, 2014 00:33
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My boss legitimately wanted me to take over the restaurant and pay him $2,000/month for the privilege. That was probably the most firm "no" I've ever given something in my entire life.
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Oct 9, 2014 01:23
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I refuse to do what is good for me. "You have a great attitude, come work on the line" "ok" To the person asking about culinary school, if you're still here: run. do not look behind you. Also first day on the line, had the guy tell me "calamari NEVER uses butter", that's weird, which culinary style is that typical in? I've only really worked at diners where they come breaded, or french places where they come cutely sliced up and butter is definitely used. Weird thing to hear!
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Oct 9, 2014 01:49
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Simoom posted:I refuse to do what is good for me. Pan frying panko-crusted calamari in ghee is loving delicious. Take people who use definitive terms like "never" or "always" with a grain of salt.
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Oct 9, 2014 02:08
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Radio Help posted:Pan frying panko-crusted calamari in ghee is loving delicious. Take people who use definitive terms like "never" or "always" with a grain of salt. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't ghee clarfied butter essentially?
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Oct 9, 2014 02:11
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bunnyofdoom posted:Correct me if I am wrong but isn't ghee clarfied butter essentially? Ghee is typically cooked a bit longer so the milk solids caramelize before straining. It's in-between clarified and brown butter.
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Oct 9, 2014 02:18
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