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Category Archives: Techniques and Tips
My Favorite Kitchen Tool
At home, where I cook, I have a drawer full of all of my go-to ‘favorite things.’ Whether you’re an at-home baker extraordinaire, or a chef leading his own 5-star restaurant kitchen, these time-saving, basic, and game-changing gadgets are highly … Continue reading
Posted in Techniques and Tips
Tagged culinary tools, kitchen utensils
The Bar, an Integral Part of the Culinary Experience
Restaurant trends are not limited to what the kitchen produces. Two of the leading trends, culinary cocktails and liquor/food pairings, originate from the bar. Culinary cocktails have taken their cue from chefs sourcing and using the freshest local ingredients to … Continue reading
Posted in Culinary Trends, Techniques and Tips
Avoiding the Mixology Mix-up: What’s in that drink?
If you’ve been a bartender or a server for an extended period of time, you probably know the ingredients to classic cocktails: Martini, Margarita, Mojito, Manhattan. But with the upsurge in “signature spirits” and the mixology craze, drink orders can … Continue reading
Posted in Certification, Culinary Trends, Techniques and Tips
Cupcakes: The Star of the Party!
Once a novelty dessert, the cupcake is now a necessity to any bakery or home kitchen. Over the past five years, cupcakes have become the norm and navigated their way into mainstream desserts. Trends of these petite packages of sugary … Continue reading
Posted in Culinary Trends, Techniques and Tips
Tagged culinary, cupcakes
Check Yourself
Is your check-handling routine up to par? First impressions are key, but a server’s last impression is the icing on the cake. When it comes to providing excellent service, it’s important to recognize verbal, nonverbal and visual queues given by … Continue reading
Posted in Certification, Management Secrets, Techniques and Tips
Tagged check handling
Hospitality is a 3-part Art
Knowledge—Skills—Attitude™ Can you trust your dining room staff with selecting an item from your menu to accommodate a gluten-free or macrobiotic diet? Is your dining room staff skilled in the ways of smooth, efficient service and have a positive attitude … Continue reading
Posted in Management Secrets, Techniques and Tips
Restaurant Romances. . . a good idea?
Of the various restaurants I’ve worked in throughout my career, there have been a number of couples who have either worked alongside one another in the dining room or crossed the bridge between front and back of the house. And … Continue reading
Posted in Techniques and Tips
Underage Drink Sevice
Waiter Fines? Jail Time!? Ignorance Is No Excuse… I recently had the opportunity to accompany a friend to a court hearing for a misdemeanor traffic violation to serve as witness on his behalf. Overall, it was an interesting experience and … Continue reading
Posted in Techniques and Tips
What Big Deal?
What big deal? A common sense rule that is outlined in FDRP’s service standards states “In a dining room, very few things ARE a big deal if you react to them well. The big deal is HOW you react to … Continue reading
Posted in Management Secrets, Techniques and Tips
The Left and Right of Service
Is it wrong to serve ‘by the right’? Such controversy and confusion! From Paris to Singapore and even our neighbors Canada perform service by the right. So why the unnecessarily-heated debate in the US? We believe has its roots in … Continue reading
Posted in Techniques and Tips