TigerChef

Having looked at the challenges involved in being a woman chef, we can now explore with greater appreciation the achievements of those who have surmounted the obstacles and opened the doors for what is becoming a golden age of female chefs. With an arsenal of restaurant equipment, talent, and above all, perseverance, outstanding women can succeed in the restaurant business. From Julia Child to Traci Des Jardins, these top-notch industry professionals have cleared the path for unprecedented numbers of female culinary arts school students.

Heroines of the Commercial Kitchen

A little-known but important fact is that the Culinary Institute of America was founded in the 1940’s by two women, Frances Roth and Katharine Angell. Their school continues to flourish and its website proudly quotes Iron Chef’s Cat Cora as saying that Julia Child referred to the CIA as “the Harvard of culinary schools.” Perhaps the first woman chef to become a true household name, Julia Child’s reputation has stood the test of time. By introducing genuine French cooking to homes across the country and around the world, she helped to gain normalcy for the idea of a female chef specializing in fine cuisine. Alice Waters, a veteran restaurant owner, became in 1992 the first woman to receive the James Beard award for Outstanding Chef. In France, Anne-Sophie Pic was the first woman in fifty years to achieve a rating of three Michelin stars. Traci DesJardins continues to inspire female industry professionals with her rare ability to balance both motherhood and multiple highly successful ...continue reading

The food service industry is a cutthroat environment. The intense competitiveness of this business requires toughness and savvy from any professional chef. Female chefs need to be especially well-prepared for these challenges since, although relegated to the home kitchen for centuries, women remain greatly underrepresented in the commercial kitchen. A woman chef should come into the industry with more than just a women’s chef uniform. She also should possess an awareness that success involves gender-specific issues. Whether the main factors contributing to this situation consist of innate gender differences or societal bias is subject to debate. The bottom line is that women chefs face unique obstacles and those who succeed in overcoming them deserve recognition.

Societal and Cultural Bias

Since many female chefs delay starting a family in order to first establish themselves in the industry, the question remains as to why such a significant gender gap appears. One of the keys to answering this question lies in understanding societal and cultural bias in the food service industry.

The high-energy, loud atmosphere of a hot line during dinner rush has become a male-dominated place. Investors may be hesitant to support a restaurant headed by a woman not because she is less capable but because of the fact that since for so long women have not made up a large percentage of professional chefs, people have are unused to the idea. Charlotte Druckman explores a telling concept in “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?” in the Winter 2010 issue of Gastronomica: When ...continue reading

Restaurant customer service is the easiest aspect of this business to use for bringing customers back for another visit. You have invested time, restaurant equipment and other business expenses, and a great deal of energy into your business. Make your investments worthwhile by turning your restaurant into a place where every customer feels special and valued. These timeless customer service tips will pay off for years to come.

Getting Personal

The secret to great customer service for restaurants lies in one basic fact: everyone wants to feel that someone cares enough to get to know them. Whether you know a client’s name through past visits or a reservation or simply ask if you don’t know, greet customers by name and instruct your staff to do so whenever possible as well. Stay friendly but professional – use titles like Mr., Ms., or Dr. until directed to do otherwise or unless you know that this particular customer is decidedly more comfortable on a first-name basis. Be aware of special occasions. If you have an email list or customer loyalty program, you can be prepared for birthdays or anniversaries. Notice when even customers you haven’t seen before come in especially dressed up. Strike up a short conversation and see if they are celebrating something. In any of these cases, clients appreciate extras. Send a free dessert or drink from the bar. Gestures like this entice customers to come back and to recommend your restaurant to their friends. ...continue reading

Pull out your pastry tools, cake pans, dessert dishes, and other bakery supplies: the top ten desserts for 2012 are here. Every year the world seems to get smaller, and multiculturalism becomes trendier and trendier. With that in mind, professional bakeries and chefs everywhere are incorporating dessert recipes from all over the world into their menus. Take a glimpse at some of the freshest twists on classic favorites and best-sellers from around the globe.

Mouthwatering Cakes, Pies, and Pastries

1. Mille Feuilles

This year, serve this delightful French pastry a little bit differently. Instead of the classic cream-filled Napoleon, fill your layers with various flavors of jam. Cut the pastries into more memorable shapes than the same old rectangle with a pastry cutter such as Dexter Russell’s Dough Cutter/Scraper. Coax out the delicate beauty of this dessert with a tasteful presentation, complete with light icing and berries in a variety of colors, which you should choose to complement the particular flavors of filling that you use. ...continue reading

HEY CHEFS- LAST DAY TO BE SEEN & WIN BIG. Your Chance to Win $1000 Plus Free Social Exposure. Click here for details.

Every professional baker has plenty of recipes. What you do with those recipes is what keeps your cakes and cookies bakery-quality. Professional cookies should be perfectly moist on the inside and crispy on the outside no matter how large the batch. Bakery cakes need not only to meet those specifications but to hold icing firmly. When your baked goods taste as good as they look, word spreads. With the aid of these hints and state of the art bakery equipment, your sales will soar.

Creating Cakes That Sell

One of the simplest – and easiest to forget – tricks of the trade when baking large numbers of cakes in one oven at the same time is to leave approximately 2 inches between each pan and between the pans and the walls of the oven. Add moisture to particularly heavy cakes by placing a pan of water in the oven and keeping it there throughout the baking time. Prevent unsightly cracks by adding plain gelatin to your batter. Beating the egg yolks with the butter and sugar results in a sweeter cake without the need for a great deal of sugar. Go on to beat the whites well before adding them to achieve a lighter effect. ...continue reading

HEY CHEFS- LAST WEEK TO BE SEEN & WIN BIG. Your Chance to Win $1000 Plus Free Social Exposure. Click here for details.

Restaurant marketing is more than smart advertising. Perhaps the greatest factor in potential customers’ decision whether or not to walk in the door of your establishment is your restaurant design. Restaurant themes, colors, and artwork need to appeal to clients and make them comfortable eating there. Every detail, from the paintings on the walls to the style of your restaurant equipment, should play up the individual strengths and personality of your business.

Restaurant Theme and Colors

The size and style of your eatery determines the most effective way in which to decorate it. Emphasize coziness and comfort if your establishment exists in a relatively small space. Employ warm, inviting colors that remind people of food. Think rich eggplants, creams with golden undertones, and deep tomato reds. Chairs with soft cushions and a few strategically places couches or loveseats enhance the attractiveness of a petite area. On the other hand, if you occupy a large room or building, ...continue reading

HEY CHEFS- BE SEEN & WIN BIG. Your Chance to Win $1000 Plus Free Social Exposure. Click here for details.

An eternal favorite among clients, the classic chocolate truffles recipe can be adapted to many different tastes. Since these high-class desserts actually cost very little to make and can be created rather quickly, it is to your advantage to present your customers with a broad range of varieties. Most chefs already know how to make chocolate truffles, so if you delegate the task to a staff member, a quick review and some fresh ideas are probably all that you need. The key to booming sales is ensuring that you use the best quality ingredients, especially the chocolate, and top rated professional restaurant equipment.

A Symphony of Flavors

If one of the reasons you chose a profession that requires such dedication of your time and energy was to exercise your creativity, chocolate truffles are the project for you. Once you start brainstorming, it will become evident that you can fill an entire section of your menu just with different flavors of truffles if you wish. Strawberry, raspberry, orange, and chocolates of various intensities ...continue reading

HEY CHEFS- BE SEEN & WIN BIG. Your Chance to Win $1000 Plus Free Social Exposure. Click here for details.

It’s no secret that the French take their food seriously, and nowhere is this more evident than with the French baguette. The French government has codified the baguette recipe, meaning that it is actually illegal to call any variation a baguette. The bread must contain no preservatives or other additives and, until fairly recently, French bakeries were not allowed to charge over a certain amount for a baguette. Forget everyday bread recipes: making a genuine French baguette can be complicated even for professionals, but adhering to the following techniques and using high quality restaurant equipment will produce such excellent results that your customers will think they have stepped into a Parisian café.

How to Make Poolish – Perfectly

The first step to a baguette of the perfect consistency is a fine poolish, or pre-ferment. It is essential to weigh your ingredients on a professional chef’s scale for exact proportions. If possible, use Type 55 flour, a kind of French flour with very specific ash content. As this variety of flour can be hard to obtain, you may want to speak with your flour supplier about which artisan flour comes closest to Type 55. You will need just over 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of flour and an equal amount of water. First, mix a teaspoon of dry yeast into the water. Add the flour and leave the mixture, which should be quite liquid, for 24 – 48 hours. ...continue reading

Whether you open a restaurant, bar, bakery, or catering business, the business plan is the foundation on which you build your new enterprise. Writing a business plan that is strong greatly increases your chances of success. A solid restaurant business plan will show you the strengths of your strategy as well as any areas in which you can improve. In short, the first advantage of a business plan, before you begin the physical process of starting your restaurant, is that it gives you the information you need to discover whether your idea is viable long-term. Research the market and calculate all costs, including restaurant equipment, staff, and advertising to make a business plan that offers you a true picture of your restaurant’s potential.

Research the Food Service Industry

One major key to the success of any new business is being in tune with local trends. Look at what already exists on the market. How many restaurants, bars, or bakeries already exist? Of what quality are they? Examine your future competition’s prices and clientele. ...continue reading