/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>dat pic
Nostalgia'd hard. Everybody watched Candy Candy in the 80s. Except English-speakers.

Also, your post is entirely nonsensical.

>>6805209
Jokes on you Im americunt. But I am an 80's kid.

>Also, your post is entirely nonsensical.
Sorry I'm a little emotional, but I thought my post made enough sense. I just need something to make my buffet the best buffet on earth.

>>6805222
LSD in the food

Just so you know, /ck/ is not about food or cooking in the sense that you probably think it is. It's about memes, shitposting, trailer trash and fast food.
I don't know what level you are at, have you watched https://www.youtube.com/user/CookinginRussia/videos before?

>>6805222
How do you know Candy Candy, then? It was never released in English, Or do you not know it and you just posted the picture with now knowledge of what it came from?

Do you have any technical ability?
Anyone can make something taste nice, but given you're wanting to work in a restaurant you have to make it presentable

>>6805254
older hipster cousin
>>6805243
I've never seen the videos but just from glancing over the video names I can guess at how each dish is made.

>>6805274
I've always been good with my hands (violinist etc) and have a fair amount of self taught technical ability. I already work in the restaurant. I work back of house prepping and cooking certain things for my buffet and front of house keeping my buffet clean and orderly and managing temps and talking to guests. It's pretty daunting.

My f/b director took some pics of my buffet for a site overhaul a few weeks back and I guess I could post those if it would spice thread up/ be a better frame of reference.

1. Stop working at a buffet. You will never gain any respect managing a fucking buffet, no matter how good it is. Take your experience to a proper restaurant.

2. Find out what cuisine you like to cook. French, Asian, Italian, etc.

3. Come up with ways to make unique dishes using staples from your cuisine. Maybe go the fusion route. You have to stand out. Everyone can make a lasagna, so what makes yours special?

4. Work your fucking ass off.

>>6805339
>france and italy, which share similar languages, cuisines, cultures, expressions and interrelated histories, somehow get separated
>all 4½ billion people in asia from multiple, diverse backgrounds, unrelated histories, unrelated languages and cultures and unrelated cuisines, somehow get lumped together
Because Burmese food is just so similar to Korean cuisine. We all know how much Koreans love chickpeas and how much Burmese love chilli/sweet-rice paste.

>>6805371
buttmad chink detected

>>6805371
Out of the whole post, that's what you focus on? How empty is your life?

>>6805339
1. I know buffet has a stigma but this is a 5(ish) star place. I'm moreso trying to establish myself in posistion to make a decent living in order to fund my other ventures. Also despite my skill, I'm a half minority without a degree what am I supposed to do.

2. Im so autistic about cooking that those regional "cusines" are strikingly similar to me. However this is irrelevant becuase my main focus is southern breakfast and to a somewhat lesser extent lunch

3. Our niche is already pretty established: we're attempting to be a 5 star rustic texas themed southern buffet located in a restaurant of the same theme. This is also a problem because my boss is an angry old swede and I am texas born and raised.

4. Goes witthout saying of course. I break my neck at this job every goddamn day


Some more pics

I hate to say it, but this is the sort of topic I think you'd have way better luck with on Reddit. You aren't going to get the sort of in-depth discussion you need here, I think.

>>6805442
Either I;m getting old or youre a gigantic fag but thanks for the concern nonetheless

>>6805449
Other older guy here. What he said >>6805442

If you're serious anyway. I know we love this shithole, but please do not consider an Ethiopian image board about Taco Bell memes and Jack the Cuck videos to be a legitimate source of information.

>>6805470
I'm serious, but I'm not stupid enough to consider a sri lankan stop image animation school for autistic children to be the absolute claim in this matter.

Merely at my wit's end and hoping that someone out there who shares my disopsistion might provide a helping hand

jeez op how did you become buffet manager if you can't keep your staff under control? have you worked with this people before or did you just land in the middle of them with the shiny manager badge planted on your forehead?

if it's the first, then it's possible they never liked you in the first place and are sure as fuck not going to do what you want just because you're their boss.

if it's the second, then they don't like you because you are new and they probably don't trust your experience, especially the chef.

also, do you even know what being a manager means? you do know that you have a say on the staff, don't you? if there's really a problem with them and they are lazy and insubordinate, then just fire them and hire new ones instead. but if the problem is not with them but just you being unable to fit the managerial shoes, then perhaps you need to reassess your skills.

>>6805254
Here, have some English dubbed Candy Candy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZwTCjz5r6I

WAs really drunk and stupid when I made this thread last night but here goes.

>>6806650
I worked my way up from bussing tables, I doubt they woudlve even given me this opportunity if they didnt like me in the vein you suggest. In the hospitality business, it's a little different:everyone answers to thier own department head. All I can do is threaten them and then talk to their boss, and since I'm techincally coded as just a front of house supevisor/back of house prep, getting people to do shit is hard. The people who cae about the job have started helping me tremendously because of the way I beak my neck.

But honestly all I really wanted from you /ck/ was ideas on how to really take a buffet to the next level. Quick "fancy" buffet style dishes, tastes, add ons, decorations, things of that nature.

>>6805442
GET OUT

>>6805153
Whatever you make, make it well. You said southern-style, right? Your gravy needs to be out of this world.

Do you use enough cayenne pepper? Nutmeg?

Do you bake your own bread? You don't have to be fancy, I would just focus on making what you offer really, really good. And it sounds like your staff is more of an issue than your food.

It would also probably help if you gave us an idea of what your menu is now, along with what seems to work and what doesn't. Since it's texas I hope that you do your meat well. Filet mignon sliders with some kind of onion aoli.

Sorry I'm all over the place. I hope this reply helps even marginally.

What does your day to day job actually involve OP? What sort of shit are you dealing with from people? It seems like it'll be pretty hard to instil workers with much investment in the quality of the place without the authority to bust balls or offer incentives.

Maybe get them involved in coming up with weekly specials? If it's "their" dish out there they might give more of a shit. Have their name on the thing even.

Baking bread is a good idea. You could also come up with a "house" version of a popular commercial sauce, find some local produce that you can highlight, or have an item that you wander around and serve at the table like that brazilian rodizio thing.

A complimentary glass of champagne is a nice start to a brunch buffet, but you might not be serving booze.

>>6808225
Baking my own bread sounds like a great idea tbh. I make very few things for the buffet personally, most of the time it's only when someone else in the kitchen falls behind or I'm dealing with a new person. The slider option sounds good too. Thanks.

>>6808319
I come in, fix the shit from the night before, make sure I have everything for my breakfast/lunch buffet and set it up. After that I have to manage whoever I'm working with and keep the buffet stocked, clean and orderly while also trying to beautify it/add to it.

The lunch changes daily based on what chef wants but most of my buffet dishes are prepared by the same back of house cooks. Putting their name on things sounds like a great idea tbh.

Breakfast is the same everyday and is my main focus. We already have a house spice, making a sauce out of it sounds like an great idea as well. The wander around with tasters idea is something I wanted to do but I cant think of anything that I'd actually have time to prepare consistently that fits with the theme of the restaurant.

Don't have enough pull yet to offer complimentary champagne all the time (servers will complain about me lowering their average ticket) but I am friendly enough with the bartenders to do it occasionally. I'll start offering complimentary champagne to vips or those who seem like they'd really appreciate the effort. Thanks.

>>6805371

Literally nobody outside of Burmese knows what Burmese is I thought it was the middle East

>>6808432
It's called Burma you retard. I'm not from there and even I knew.

>>6808465
Except Burma isn't a place anymore. The country is Myanmar. Burmese is the dominant ethnicity and language in Myanmar.
I read his post as

>Literally nobody outside of Burmese [people] knows what Burmese [cuisine] is[.] I thought it was the [M]iddle East[.]

Corrections in brackets.

I'm just more hopeful than you are, I guess.

>>6808432
You've had or at least heard of at least one Burmese dish: cold sesame noodles. It's not Chinese but, rather, was introduced to the west during and directly after British Burma. It's a noodle salad with a dressing made from Burmese-style tahini, tamarind sauce, Burmese sesame oil and Burmese-style soy sauce.
It's found in a lot of Chinese restaurants in the English-speaking world though the recipe is changed a little.
Sometimes, it's peanut butter instead of tahini (wherein it'll be called "cold peanut noodle" instead, though some places just call it "cold noodle" and you won't know which they use to make it), but the most common changes are the use of Chinese-style soy sauce, swapping in vinegar for tamarind sauce, the addition of copious amounts of sugar and the omission of sesame oil of any sort.
Even the chinowesternised version isn't bad, though.

If you do start making bread, rolls are probably one of the easier things, and "bread fresh from the oven" would be a cool to walk around and offer.

Do you do pancakes or waffles at all? If it wouldn't royally piss off the omelette station they might be able to take that on.

I don't really know what things are included in Texan breakfasts though. Have you asked your staff what they'd add or change if they were in charge of the menu?

>>6805512
OP, I'm not in the industry, but what gives with the brown stuff on all your orange flat serving dishes? From the pics they look dirty, or at least dilapidated, and not what I'd expect at a nice hotel, but maybe it's an intentional "antiquing" look.

Sounds like you're really in a bind with people you depend on but have no control over. I'd think just applying elsewhere, probably outside the hospitality industry if it's all like that, is your best bet. You've come a long way, so don't be discouraged; it just sounds like you've progressed about as much as you can at that place. Maybe start a separate thread on how to leverage your experience to be hired elsewhere.

>>6808432
>what's a ghana? a dog?

vet your team. if you have the authority to hire and fire people then get rid of the people who are incompetent and lazy. get passionate hard working people. know when to make bitches scatter. be helpful and knowlegable but dont take shit from anybody. you are at the top because youre the best and dont let anyone question that

>>6808713
>Everybody I don't like is American