Prog Chefs Unite!!!

Well, not exactly cooking, but having watched a program where this wondrous Italian delicacy was touted, naturally I had to buy some.  From Perugia with love...



We shall if the Italians are as good at chocolate as they are prog. 


Edited by Finnforest - March 27 2010 at 15:04

well I guess a "salad" was, initially, anything with salt.. maybe this place is rekindling that fine artery-shrinking tradition

When it comes to salt and peppering salads I season the dressing, not the salad that way you bet better distribution.... unless it's a simple tomato and mozzarella salad - that needs plenty of cracked black pepper, though no salt because the cheese is salty - if you leave out the cheese and make a tomato and basil salad then some salt is a necessity.

Vibrationbaby wrote: Can any of you prog sous chefs settle this argument? I hate going out to restaurants because you don't know what the chef has done with the food before it arrives on your plate at your table. For example, how do you know that the dishwashers didn't have a soccer match with your NY steak before the chef threw it on the grill. I've heard stories of urinating in soup of the day. Giving dog steak instead of real steak etc. Anyway, I got dragged out to this restaurant on the weekend and I said to my wife just order anything for me because there 's got to be something wrong with it. So the food comes and she starts putting salt and pepper on whatever she was having. So I say wait a sec. You haven't even tasted the chef's creation. You don't even know, if, for some sort of joke he put too much salt on it and is looking out in the dining room for your reaction laughing. She says it's OK to put a bit of salt and pepper on your food before tasting it. Now I know you do this at home because you have prepared the food yourself. I felt like asking the waiter for a bottle of ketchup to douse my food in. Needless to say with the exception of the salt & pepper incident  it was a very lovely dining experience even though I didn't know whether my halibut was a real halibut. I just want to know should you put salt & pepper on your food BEFORE you even taste it. That's all.

I've been in the business for twenty plus years, and have seen an incident of this once.  Like someone else said, chefs are way too busy do be dicking around like this, and also, who wants to do something twice?

My Wife surprised me for dinner today with orange cauliflower.  She says there is purple out there, too. 

So I know what to make for you if you ever get to visit us here!

Could not be more in agreement, David - it is one thing to avoid the really bad stuff (i.e. high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, foods that have more sodium in them than anything else), another to deprive yourself of good things. If I was told to give up bread, I'd probably decide it's time for me to leave this world, especially now that I've started baking my own bread. The key is choosing good-quality ingredients.

Tonight we had a delicious steak salad - baby arugula mix, grape tomatoes, cucumber, grilled peppers and red onion with rare sirloin slices, a mustard-lemon juice-olive oil dressing with a splash of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco, and blue cheese crumbles on top (just a few, in order not to overwhelm the other tastes) - served with homemade cheese-onion bread. A really satisfying meal!

This is no urban legend. It was FRONT PAGE NEWS! IN BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH BLOODY PAPERS! The guy was caught with a whole bunch of cats in the basement of the bloody restaurant. Some had been slaughtered and some were in cages waiting their turn. Ask any old timer about this one.

Anyway that's not the reason I came back. I'm still on this salting and peppering food before you taste it. I was in the food court in The Montréal Stock Exchange having lunch with a friend who works there and it's the only time I can see him because his wife has him on a leish. I went for a slice of pizza because I saw them bring it out and put it under the hot window figuring that maybe 5 minutes out of the oven max. Not much can happen in transit. Safe bet. My friend goes into the salad line in this other place called Le Jardin ( the garden in English ). As the people are proceeding through the line selecting their salads. Then the girl mixes each individual salad and THEN puts salt and bloody pepper on each salad before puting it up on the counter so the people can put them on their trays. Nobody bats an eye or says " I'm sorry miss I would prefer not to have salt & pepper on my salad." We sat at a good vantage point and this goes on for the better part of an hour! So I can't take it anymore so after the lunch rush was over I went and asked the girl why she was doing this. She didn't know. So I said would there be anyone who would know because I'm a Montréal Gazette food critic and we're thinking of doing a piece on your little food kiosk and before we make a decision there are just a few things that we have to establish. She's very polite and goes in the back and gets the manager. I explain the issue with the manager and the manager doesn't even know why. She just says that we've been doing it since we opened 5 years ago. Very politely I thank her and go back to my office 5 blocks away.

Now can anyone tell me why they do this? I mean pepper ain't cheap niether is salt. Wouldn't they be cutting their food cost if they cut out this salt & pepper thing?

That's all I want to know for now.

Well, if you're going to add freshly ground pepper to your food, by all means grind it fresh, crick crick crick crick...

Edited by Slartibartfast - March 22 2010 at 12:54

Vibrationbaby wrote: Can any of you prog sous chefs settle this argument? I hate going out to restaurants because you don't know what the chef has done with the food before it arrives on your plate at your table. For example, how do you know that the dishwashers didn't have a soccer match with your NY steak before the chef threw it on the grill. I've heard stories of urinating in soup of the day. Giving dog steak instead of real steak etc. Anyway, I got dragged out to this restaurant on the weekend and I said to my wife just order anything for me because there 's got to be something wrong with it. So the food comes and she starts putting salt and pepper on whatever she was having. So I say wait a sec. You haven't even tasted the chef's creation. You don't even know, if, for some sort of joke he put too much salt on it and is looking out in the dining room for your reaction laughing. She says it's OK to put a bit of salt and pepper on your food before tasting it. Now I know you do this at home because you have prepared the food yourself. I felt like asking the waiter for a bottle of ketchup to douse my food in. Needless to say with the exception of the salt & pepper incident  it was a very lovely dining experience even though I didn't know whether my halibut was a real halibut. I just want to know should you put salt & pepper on your food BEFORE you even taste it. That's all.

Chefs tend to over-salt (In My Opinion) so I would never put salt on anything in a resturant. Pepper is a question of personal preference and I love lots, so I have no compunction in adding more, even without tasting.

Edited by Dean - March 22 2010 at 11:34