All posts by Jennifer Welsh

A key requirement for food preparation, in general, and restaurants in particular, is to adhere to food-handling procedures that ensure that food is safe to eat. Proper food hygiene prevents germs, which can cause food-borne illnesses, from contaminating food. Whereas health inspectors will visit your restaurant from time to time to inspect it for compliance with legal health and safety requirements, it is up to you to provide the proper food safety products and training to help your staff promote food safety in your restaurant.

Cookware is essential equipment in every commercial kitchen. Whether you’re making soup or a stew, pan-searing chicken or stir frying noodles, choosing the right cookware will make a significant difference in the quality of your food and the efficiency of your kitchen. There are a multitude of options available to the executive chef and head cook, and we’re here to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each type of cookware to help you move forward with your purchases.

When you’re opening a new restaurant, every element matters. The food, the décor, the furnishings, and the staff all tell the story of your brand and your mission. Included in these all-important elements is the dinnerware, which will showcase your food and present your chef’s culinary skills in the best light.

In a restaurant, where the price of every item can make a difference to the bottom line, weighing food can provide accuracy when measuring ingredients for recipes. A restaurant food scale can also help in maintaining consistent portion sizes to control costs, and it can let a restaurant owner know how much to charge a customer when selling items by weight.

One of the niftiest features on Facebook – an oldie but goodie that was introduced back in 2010 – is Facebook Places, which allows people to use the GPS on their mobile phones to let their friends know where they are located. Using Facebook’s Check-In button users can announce their location to friends and followers, including the name of the business they are currently frequenting.

Much has been written about how competitive the restaurant business is and how hard it is to get to the top of the heap – and to stay there. Even more than your chef’s signature dish or the investment you made in décor and ambiance, the way you market your restaurant will have a huge impact on whether your business will succeed or fail.

Although the restaurant industry in the United States is struggling, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that Americans eat and drink about one-third of their calories away from home. Other surveys show that more than half of the money spent on food goes to restaurants and convenient on-the-go meals — rather than to groceries cooked at home.

If your dream is to open a restaurant, chances are that the dream includes having the money to do so in style. Few people fantasize about starting a business on a shoestring budget or with limited funds; on the other hand, even fewer people are independently wealthy and able to fund a restaurant venture without financial assistance.

Sous vide (pronounced soo–veed) is a French term, meaning under vacuum. Somehow, way under the radar, the sous vide culinary technique, which entails vacuum-sealed food that is immersed in a water bath and cooked at an exact and consistent temperature, has exploded and become the food of the hour. If you don’t prepare sous vide meat, for instance, you’re just not keeping up with the times.
