Chef on Fire or Understanding Foodservice Cost Control

Chef on Fire: The Five Techniques for Using Heat

Author: Joseph Carey

By demonstrating that all cooking breaks down to five simple procedures, Chef on Fire enables you to look at any recipe and instantly grasp the technique involved in it's cooking, the time it will take to prepare, and all the equipment needed. Each chapter includes an overview of a technique, which foods are appropriate for a technique, and approximately 25 recipes applying the technique. By juxtaposing various ethnic and regional recipes in each chapter, Carey demonstrates that applying the same five techniques consistently makes good food in every culture.

Publishers Weekly

Carey (Creole Nouvelle), founder of the Memphis Culinary Academy, offers a far-reaching look at the craft of cooking. Although he provides a wealth of varied recipes from Thai Chicken Satay to Arroz con Pollo to Blanquette de Veau, he is careful to point out that this is not a recipe book. Instead, it's a handbook focusing on the five distinct cooking techniques: cooking with dry heat, boiling, cooking with fat, cooking with fat and liquid combined, and extraction. Carey contends that mastering these five techniques allows the cook to produce any savory dish perfectly. He provides step-by-step instructions on everything home cooks need to know to produce professional-quality dishes, from the classic mother sauces to clarifying consomm to grilling fish. Recipes range from the complex (Coquilles St. Jacques a la Parisienne) to the easy (Mashed Potatoes), and even include instructions for a three-hour Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, dressing, cornbread, cranberry sauce, pie, gravy, stock and haricots verts. Instructive illustrations and helpful tips are provided throughout. This book is an excellent addition to any cook's library. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

See also: Breast Cancer Prevention Plan or Exercise Physiology

Understanding Foodservice Cost Control: An Operational Text for Food, Beverage, and Labor Costs

Author: Edward Sanders

This book is the guide to how to maximize revenues, control expenses, and optimize financial objectives. Its practical “hands-on” approach facilitates immediate application to all types of foodservice operations. Used for illustrative purposes, the included forms can be reproduced and implemented. Chapter topics cover the control process; food cost/food cost percentage; inventory management; requisitions and transfers; purchasing functions; receiving merchandise and processing invoices; quality standards, specifications, yield analysis, and plate cost; food production control; menu sales analysis; beverage cost/beverage cost percentage; bar and inventory control; beverage production control and service; controlling payroll costs and the cost of employee turnover; measuring staff performance and productivity; control practices applied to human resources issues, gratuities, wage laws, and working conditions; monitoring the sales process; pricing and sales forecasts; and self-inspections, customer feedback and nonfood inventories. For management personnel in the foodservice industry.