As cooks and chefs we strive to be someone people look up to, someone who holds true to the honour of being called a chef. As a chef in training you are constantly coming up with ideas always putting them on the table without consequence. You have no idea how to make your dream a reality and you later find out it becomes a disaster more times than not, but all of this common to your development. From a much welcomed phone call from an old friend from college and a few pints at the local mico brew we spent hours on this topic.
"If only we could honestly do the food we really want to do!"
Frazer Dempster is probably one of the most passionate cooks to the traditional way that I have ever met. We got along well in culinary school because honestly we both border on passionately insane. We love food, we love the fact that we cook for all people not just the ones with a fat cheque book.
Frazer himself started his career off in design as more and more cooks are where I have been strictly in culinary and wine. His vision, imagination and passion never falter but he tells me one truth that reminded me of when I started. "I'm just not a numbers guy". Fact is I wasn't really either until I started Artisanal Palate. Sure I had been a part of a lot of menus and costing them out but there are costs that you just don't think of unless you see them glaring at you from the page as an owner.
The fact becomes you may have this great idea or want to make everything from scratch but there only is 24 hrs in a day and your staff cant work all of them. I love making my own beautifully cured sausages or smoked bacon, stocks and sauces. All of the staples in the kitchens of old that have been thrown on the back burner to make way for the powderized demis and watery bacon. The quality ingredients relegated only to the fine dining restaurant charcuterie platter that gives you a tiny amount for $45. We live in a time and area of uneducated diners, that have lost touch with what good food really is, but worst of all the cooks as well (that will be a later discussion). We are impatient consumers that prefer quantity over substance. Good food does not have to be expensive it needs passion it needs time and it needs a lot of hard work. So is the reality more about making a dollar or giving our guests great food?
Frazer himself started his career off in design as more and more cooks are where I have been strictly in culinary and wine. His vision, imagination and passion never falter but he tells me one truth that reminded me of when I started. "I'm just not a numbers guy". Fact is I wasn't really either until I started Artisanal Palate. Sure I had been a part of a lot of menus and costing them out but there are costs that you just don't think of unless you see them glaring at you from the page as an owner.
The fact becomes you may have this great idea or want to make everything from scratch but there only is 24 hrs in a day and your staff cant work all of them. I love making my own beautifully cured sausages or smoked bacon, stocks and sauces. All of the staples in the kitchens of old that have been thrown on the back burner to make way for the powderized demis and watery bacon. The quality ingredients relegated only to the fine dining restaurant charcuterie platter that gives you a tiny amount for $45. We live in a time and area of uneducated diners, that have lost touch with what good food really is, but worst of all the cooks as well (that will be a later discussion). We are impatient consumers that prefer quantity over substance. Good food does not have to be expensive it needs passion it needs time and it needs a lot of hard work. So is the reality more about making a dollar or giving our guests great food?
Yep...read this on an empty stomach once again. Great read....although, one day, literally 'eating' your words would be nicer.
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