How to Master Food Plating: Five Videos to Help You

How to Master Food Plating: Five Videos to Help You

by | Mar 24, 2017 | Career

When world-famous chefs plate their masterpieces on television they make it look easy, so people don’t realize how difficult it actually is to put food on the plate in an attractive, appealing way. It’s somewhat easy to copy a more experienced chef’s style, but most new chefs really want to have their own unique plating style to represent their food.  Just as an artist signs his work of art, so do chefs add a signature to their stunning plates of food through their plating techniques.

Mastering food plating doesn’t come without knowledge and practice and the Institute of Culinary Education has produced some videos that can help. Let’s take a look at what these five videos have to offer.

1. Essential Elements of Plating

In the first video, Essential Elements of Plating, Michael Laiskonis, who is the creative director of the ICE, talks about presenting food as a creative means of expression. He discusses four important presentation elements: composition, balance, shape and texture and gives tips for each of these elements.

Composition tips:

  • use an asymmetrical food arrangement on the plate
  • arrange items in odd numbers
  • use complementary colors

Balance tips:

  • change the focus of the dish, moving away from the expected
  • leave negative space on the plate
  • choose a plate that will creatively showcase the ingredients

Shape tips:

  • create a theme using similar shapes
  • less is more
  • keep it simple and refined

Texture tips:

  • combine different textures: crunchy, creamy, chewy, etc.
  • include contrasting temperatures
  • use a plate that allows elements to intermingle

2. Plating Reimagined

The second video, Plating Reimagined: One Entrée. Three Ways, presented by James Briscione who shows viewers how to present an entrée of duck accompanied by beets, squash, mushrooms, pearl onions and micro-greens in three different ways.

  • The Classic Approach, in which the chef plates the entrée in the center of the plate in a circular fashion
  • The New Nordic Approach which is asymmetrical. In this style, plate the entrée only on one half of the plate, the other half is clean
  • The Linear Approach, or simply, line it up. The chef plates the food across the center of the plate in a line

3. Five Must-Have Plating Tools

Five Must-Have Plating Tools is the third video, also presented by James Briscione who is the Director of Culinary Development at ICE. In the video he shows viewers what his five essential tools are and how to use them to turn simple dishes into visually inspiring and exciting dishes.

  • A large metal spoon for placing large objects on the plate and for dropping sauces and purees as well as creating a spread of puree
  • A small offset spatula for fine placement of smaller things and for spreading purees with the edge of the spatula to create a wider, more dramatic look
  • A squeeze bottle for a more controlled application of thicker sauces and purees
  • A ring mold for either punching out shapes or for stacking food to create height on the plate
  • Tweezers for fine tuning and delicate placement
  • James’ bonus tool is a kitchen towel which is for cleaning the edges of plates from smudges or fingerprints

4. Plating Reimagined: One Dessert. Three Ways.

In the fourth video, Plating Reimagined: One Dessert. Three Ways, Michael Laiskonis uses passion fruit, almonds, cocoa and sugar as his base flavors to create chocolate cake three ways and shows viewers three different plating techniques.

  • The Classic Approach, chocolate-passion Entremet. He assembles the prepared ingredients in a large ring mold, freezes it, covers it with chocolate and places it in the center of a round plate
  • The Contemporary Approach, chocolate-passion Verrine. The chef pours all the prepared ingredients, which are in semi-liquid form, in layers into a glass
  • The Nouveau Approach, chocolate-passion a la mode. The chef places prepared ingredients in a bowl, off-center, in odd-numbered groups

5. Tips for Buying Restaurant Dinnerware

In the final video, Tips for Buying Restaurant Dinnerware, Kate Edwards from ICE, explains how dinnerware acts as a bridge that connects the food, service and ambiance with the guest. She has excellent tips and tricks to follow in order to make the best choices when it comes to buying restaurant dinnerware.

Mastering food plating may seem daunting, but with practice and knowledge it is very possible to learn how to put your personal signature on your amazing plate of food.

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How To Make Your Menu More Healthful

How To Make Your Menu More Healthful

by | Mar 22, 2017 | Management

People want to eat healthfully. That’s not a ‘craze’ or a fad; it’s a part of the human condition. We may change what we call healthful, and we may stop focusing on our health sometimes, but we want to eat healthfully. Any restaurant that accommodates that wish will reap the rewards. The question is how do you make a menu that caters to that desire without putting undue stress on your chef. New menu items can mean extra work for everyone and still not make anything more likely to promote health. There are a couple easy ways to revamp your menu so that it provides consumers with what they want.

1. Identify The Healthful Choices That You Are Already Serving

Ordering healthful meals can sometimes come down to information. If you are already serving some dishes that are pretty good for people’s health, identify them on the menu. You can give them their own section, or you can make a symbol to identify them, and add a key at the bottom of the menu explaining what you mean. This has the benefit of not adding anything to your workload or requiring you to buy anything new. You are only out the expense of reprinting your menu, and you will recoup that easily from all the people who will buy meals they previously wouldn’t have considered.

2. Offer Smaller Servings As An Option

“Everything in moderation” is a great motto when it comes to people’s health, and most folks know it. Again, you don’t have to radically alter anything. Merely state somewhere that if customers would like a smaller portion of something -say, ice cream- you could accommodate that. Think how many more people on a diet would order dessert if they could be certain that the item in question would be reasonably sized. This also stretches the food dollar a little bit further.

3. Offer A More Healthful Version Of A Traditional Dish

Say you have a traditional dish involving fried chicken. Offering a version of this dish with grilled chicken instead lets customers that are watching what they eat enjoy something they know they like without guilt. Most dishes need only a little tweak to make them a better option, and it will help people make that choice if they recognize the dish.

4. Add One Or Two Simple And Explicitly Healthful Options

Having a dish of fresh fruit and a little side salad as options costs you little, and they will meet just about everyone’s dietary needs. They quickly pay for themselves as replacements for less healthful options as you can add a surcharge for making the switch. Using them as side dishes is a good way to get diet-conscious diners to order something extra.

5. Get Creative With Your Ingredients

Sooner or later you have to fiddle with your menu, and you can take that opportunity to make some good-for-you dishes. If you already have some food items on hand that you could make into something healthful, why add to the food inventory? You have fruit and a grill already? Why not make a fruit kabob for dessert? You have tomatoes and cheese already? Why not make some stuffed tomatoes? Your customers will appreciate the variety and the health benefits.

6. Allow At Least One Mix-and-Match Type Item

Meeting everyone’s dietary needs is hard. Everyone has different requirements. Allowing at least one dish to be customized lets people meet those needs without putting a strain on your back-of-house people. Soups, sandwiches and wraps are pretty easy to make custom ordered: have all the pieces pre-made and customers can pick the pieces they want from a list. This way, you have something for customers no matter what diet they follow.

7. Offer At Least One Vegetarian Option

People can decide to try a vegetarian dish for many reasons, but one of these is that they feel it is better for their health. Giving them at least one option that is meat-less lets them at least try it for one meal.

These small changes can make your menu very appealing to anyone who cares about healthful food choices. So go ahead and review your menu: you may find it doesn’t need much work at all.

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How To Hire Restaurant Staff Who Will Stay

How To Hire Restaurant Staff Who Will Stay

by | Mar 20, 2017 | Business Toolkit, Management

Creating a successful restaurant business depends on many considerations. These include your location, marketing efforts, quality of food, specialness of your recipes and, more than anything else, the work of a qualified staff. Your leadership of employees means the difference between struggling and excelling. The first key component to retaining a great staff is to hire the “right” people in the first place. Learn how to improve your hiring practices to recruit a successful work team.

Don’t rely on one simple advertisement to find candidates. You will find the best people when you place ads in a variety of places. For example, take advantage of social media to advertise your available jobs. Also, reach out to the lower economic regions of your communities to attract job applicants ready to work and achieve. You want your talent pool filled with a diverse population representing both genders and a variety of ages, races, nationalities and cultures. According to the Center for American Progress, hiring persons from a diverse set of candidates creates a more qualified workforce.

Don’t rely on one simple advertisement to find candidates.

Set up interviews with applicants that show promise. Look at resumes to find which candidates have experience in the restaurant field and have recent references. Consider internships and education as well as job backgrounds. Don’t let a lack of experience stop you from interviewing applicants who express genuine interest in learning as you can start these individuals in various positions such as bussing tables and dish washing. Everyone needs a place to start.

Create interview questions designed to discover if applicants are suitable for restaurant work. Ask them to give you three reasons why they want to work in your establishment. You can learn much from this simple question as it will likely tell you whether a person is sincerely excited by the prospect of working at your restaurant. For instance, if she says she likes to work with people in social settings, enjoys a fast paced environment and is a fan of your food, she has given an answer that makes sense for working with you.

Pose scenarios during interviews regarding how applicants would handle certain events and to determine what they know.

Pose scenarios during interviews regarding how applicants would handle certain events and to determine what they know. For example, ask them to tell you what they would do when a customer wants a refund after eating, asks you to take food back or complains about wait time. If the applicant is looking for a cook position, you can ask about his prior training, query him about various cooking methods and ask him how he handles the pressure of rush time and what specific techniques he uses to get orders out in a timely manner. The applicants with the best answers will probably be your best choices.

Take time to lead candidates on a tour of your restaurant. Introduce them to members of your staff. Allow them time to look over the establishment and get a sense of how your shifts run. Observe the behavior of the applicants during this time. Do they seem overwhelmed? Excited? Are they anxious to talk to other employees and act interested in the various aspects of the business? If their attitude and behavior in the actual workplace does not match that displayed during the interview, it is a red flag that something is amiss.

Resist the urge to hire candidates immediately following an interview.

Be honest and transparent with all candidates. Invite them to ask you questions. You can often learn much from what they ask. Always, always check their references and run background checks and perform drug tests. Remember you must get the candidates’ permissions to do these screenings. Resist the urge to hire candidates immediately following an interview. You might be excited about a potential worker, but you time to reflect and to do appropriate checks before you hire the applicant.

Remember, you want to hire a person who wants to be part of a team, shows a desire to learn and believes in exceptional customer service. These are the people likely to stay with you.

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Why You Should Never Hesitate To Cut Guests Off

Why You Should Never Hesitate To Cut Guests Off

by | Mar 17, 2017 | Career

If your establishment serves alcohol, you have experienced at least one drunk customer. He or she ordered drink after drink, getting louder and sloppier with each one, and you were faced with a dilemma. You wanted to keep the customer happy, and clearly you are there to provide what the customer asks for. However, the drunk customer quickly became a problem. When you are faced with this situation, you should never hesitate to cut a guest off, and here is why:

1. The Other Customers

In a seated restaurant, there are few things worse than sitting near a drunk and belligerent diner, unless it is sitting next to a drunk and over-friendly diner. They are loud and intrusive. Your other guests want to relax and not worry about the person next to them stumbling into them or getting into a shouting match. If your other guests are uncomfortable, they leave early, possibly not ordering things they normally would have.

They aren’t wrong to do this, either. Drunk guests present a danger to other people, knocking into them and starting fights. They also get into car accidents. Sober customers that drive will want to get out of the parking lot before the drunk guest gets in a car and drives into someone.

Your other guests want to relax and not worry about the person next to them stumbling into them or getting into a shouting match.

2. Your Waitstaff

Drunk guests are hard to serve, and the waitstaff’s job is hard enough. No one gets paid enough to clean up after someone who got sick from too much alcohol, fend off someone who is drunkenly hitting on them, or trying to help customers stumble out the door. There just isn’t enough money in the world to make up for dealing with that sort of thing all the time, and it can contribute to employees quitting.

3. Your Reputation

It never takes long for the locals to figure out where they can sit and imbibe all day. This attracts the type of guests who monopolize bar stools and scare away other paying customers.

People do not take their kids or parents to a restaurant where they think they will have to watch somebody drink themselves sick. They don’t want to take their dates places where they would be subjected to somebody tottering around drunkenly. It only takes a few bad apples to drive away people, and cutting off guests early keeps those bad apples in check.

It only takes a few bad apples to drive away people, and cutting off guests early keeps those bad apples in check.

4. The Customer’s Safety

With each drink, customers become more prone to accidents. They become more vulnerable to robbery and more prone to bad judgment. All this means that it isn’t just the other customers who are in danger when one customer gets drunk. The drinker could decide to drive home and get in an accident, they could drop glasses and cut themselves, or any number of bad scenarios.

5. Liability

Many states hold responsible the last person to serve alcohol to someone if that person gets into a car accident. The local law enforcement officers will track the driver’s movements until they reach the last establishment they were at and charge the restaurant or bar with overserving that person. That puts you in a world of legal hurt that you just don’t need.

Even if such rules were not on the books, a restaurant or bar is open to legal trouble when drunk guests act out. If the police are constantly showing up to deal with misbehaving guests, you are going to have some trouble renewing your liquor license. At the very least, the neighboring businesses and residents will give you grief. Your guests would be scaring away other business’s customers, after all, and we all rely on our neighbors sometimes.

These factors hurt your bottom line, hurt your community, and hurt your guests. Servers can avoid all of this by cutting a guest off before they drink themselves sick. It may be hard to stop filling a drunk customer’s order, but it is always the right thing to do.

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Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar Comes to Denver Spring 2017

Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar Comes to Denver Spring 2017

by | Mar 15, 2017 | Sirvo Stories

Gracious food with southern roots arrives in Denver this Spring. Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar will be bringing its long-awaited Southern Revival scratch-made menu to the Platform near Denver Union Station in May.

Hailing from the beer mecca of Asheville, N.C., Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar has found rapid success by focusing on their mission to stay committed to responsibly sourced products, working with local vendors and enhancing their employee’s experience.

View Tupelo Honey Open Jobs →

The Asheville location first opened back in 2000 and was known as a late-night favorite for the local crowd. The original Tupelo Honey was one of the first farm-to-table establishments in Asheville and the cafe quickly found success. It’s now spread to 13 locations in 5 southeast states.

The Denver location will be the first to open outside of the south with CEO Stephen Frabitore planning more westward ventures for the future.

Tupelo Honey 1

Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar is known for a locally sourced, seasonal menu which changes from region to region, keeping with their commitment to seasonal quality products and vendors. The menu also offers 50 craft beers (also emphasizing local breweries), cocktails highlighting Southern craft spirits, and responsibly sourced sustainable wines.

 

With plans to also promote Denver artists on their walls and to support local charities, Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar plans to quickly establish themselves as a pillar of the city’s community.

Along with their dedication to quality and community, Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar also puts emphasis on ensuring their employees are always satisfied and well taken care of. Plans are to open with a full-time restaurant staff who are immediately eligible for the company’s amazing benefits package.

Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar also puts emphasis on ensuring their employees are always satisfied and well taken care of.

This package will include basic health care costs, as well as other benefits specifically added to ease employee’s lives. Besides health care, employees will find tuition reimbursement, child care reimbursement, and paid volunteer hours, encouraging employees to give back to their local community.

 

The restaurant company has a genuine interest in developing their employees instead of simply hiring for the moment. The tuition reimbursement benefit is also available for culinary programs and employees are even encouraged to submit their own recipes at each location. Additionally, the staff can participate in beer, wine, and cocktail appreciation courses to further their knowledge and experience.

The tuition reimbursement benefit is also available for culinary programs and employees are even encouraged to submit their own recipes at each location.

With plans to open near Dallas, Texas (in the Cowboy’s training facility, The Star) and looking at other possible locations, working for Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar may be the start of a long and successful career!

For more information on joining the Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen and Bar team, click here to view their open positions and apply today!

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