Good session today. We covered Cooking for Vegetarian Diets, Salads Dressing and Salads and Menus, Recipes, and Cost Management. The latter is very important if you are an Executive Chef, Head Chef (in a smaller establishment) or planning to open your own business in the food services industry.
There are five types of vegan diets. The Vegan diet is the most restrictive. Vegans eat plant products only. All animal products including dairy and egg are off limits. Some products that you may think are vegan such as the following are off limits to the strictest vegan: honey because it comes from bees, and cane sugar which may be refined with animal products. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products and plant products but will not eat other animal products. Ovo-vegetarians eat eggs in addition to plant products. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat dairy and egg products in addition to plant products. Pesco-vegetarians eat fish and plant products but not meat or poultry. They may or may not eat egg or dairy products.
Menus for vegetarian diets may include the following types of ingredients: dried legumes, grains, nuts and seed, soy products, dairy and egg. Recipes will need to be altered to accommodate food product changes. No animal product of any kind may be used as an ingredient intended for vegans. Dairy products may be included as ingredients for lacto-ovo-vegetarians. These need to be labelled for vegetarians as they will not be eaten by vegans.
Service staff must be knowledgeable to answer patron questions about the menu. Sometimes soups or a side dish that consists primarily of a plant product may have one or more animal product in it. These must be removed and substituted with an equivalent plant ingredient. This is especially true of recipes like soups that will be substituted with water or vegetable stock. The same goes for sauces that are based on meat, poultry or fish stocks. For vegans, oil will need to be substituted for butter. Soy milk or soy products will also need to be substituted for dairy products. Beet sugar or unbleached sugar will need to be used in the place of refined sugars.
We breezed through Salad Dressings and Salads. Chef said it is better to demonstrate in the kitchen for us to learn and do. Chef said we will make an upscale potato salad, making our own mayonnaise.
Food costing was covered. As a chef we may be called upon to do some food costing. I think the hardest part of food costing is making sure that you include all ingredients used in a recipe. This is very important when you are working with a budget and/or running your own business. The point is to make a profit. If you plan on opening your own business Chef said that the first couple of years you likely will be breaking even. That it is also a good idea to have money in the bank. Opening a restaurant is no small feat and requires cash and long hours. I know what Chef means. My parents ran a restaurant and I know that they worked very long hours and didn't take what most people call a vacation. The only vacation they had may have been the occasional statutory holiday.
I've given some thought to opening my own business. I've also given some thought to working for someone. There are a few directions that I'm thinking about taking. But I'm still in the early stages of learning and from there I'll soon figure out how long it will take me to get me to where I want to be.
Presentations continued with Russia and Greece. We were treated to a traditional Greek salad and pita served with an olive walnut dip and with red wine. I learned a few new things about each country and its food.
Homework: Finish resume and cover letter. Project #2 Food Establishment Business Plan.
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