He comes out of his office with a big smile. “He’s got an innate sense of timing for these meals. If a cook overcooks meat, they’re the ones that like well-done.Īnd at West, the accountant has a sixth sense for family meal. “It’s one of the reasons why we cook Asian food.” Dishwashers sometimes gets an extra perk. Quang says chefs spend an average $2 per person on staff meal ingredients. Syme is now co-chef and co-owner of La Quercia and La Ghianda, and - most recently - co-chef at the newly opened La Pentola at Opus Hotel. Cooks have terrible eating patterns but our meals are definitely a highlight.” “He took a head count and cut it up into wedges accordingly. It mostly revolved around the trinity of what cooks want to eat - garlic, butter, cured meat or bacon trimmings and bread.” He remembers, fondly, a sandwich the size of a football. We exploited this for our own gain and coerced him into stopping what he was doing to make snacks for us. “Lucais would look me dead in the eye and tell me his ambition in life was to open a snack bar in Puerto Rico. Symes cooked with Johnson at Parkside restaurant over five years ago but Johnson is still enthralled. Colin Johnson, the corporate chef for La Buca, Pied-a-Terre, and Cafeteria restaurants puts Lucais Syme in that category. Some chefs are the stuff of family meal legend. There are also regular food and wine tastings (usually between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., and especially during seasonal menu changes). The staff favourites are the Bigger Better Burger and the Bronx Burger, she says. “We wouldn’t be able to prepare a group staff meal for them as they start at different times,” says publicist Cate Simpson. Staff who start later and work a partial day get a 50-per-cent discount on menu items. The early kitchen team and management sit down for a family meal with dishes off the menu. Some, like the Earls restaurant chain, mix it up, depending on schedules. Partly, it’s the nature of an industry where there’s no time to run out for a bite and partly, it’s tradition.
#FOOD STAFFS FAVORITE RECIPES FREE#
Most restaurants do provide free meals or give menu discounts to staff. “It’s how most of us start cooking, for friends and family.” “I love to cook and this is how I show I appreciate them,” says Ho. But Ho is no slouch in the staff feeding department - his fried rice and chicken wings makes hearts skip a beat. Says Ho: “We wait for his (Dang’s) Vietnamese food.” His grilled, caramelized Vietnamese pork is a staff favourite. I’ve worked in places where family meals are tossed off to the lowest guy.” “When he goes to the heartland (Dang’s ancestry is Vietnamese), it’s pretty cool. All the cooks here are talented and they shine at improvising with what’s available and we never know what we’re going to get.”ĭang’s Vietnamese pancakes is a favourite. I ask Chris Royal, a server at West, for his thoughts on staff meals: “Oh my God! It’s ridiculous! It’s the best in the city and I’ve worked in a lot of places. “It seems people are surprised to see cooks eating.”
In Vancouver’s alley behind West restaurant, the most common comment from passersby is “Hey, that would make a great picture,” says Dang. The latest staff meal cookbook to hit bookstores is Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants (Running Press). People have taken note of what’s cooking behind the kitchen doors. Another staff meal cookbook published last year, Off The Menu, features 200 family dinner recipes from 150 top American restaurants. “I concern myself with what the staff eats first of all.”Īfter the restaurant closed last year, owner chef Ferran Adria published a cookbook based on the staff meals.
“How else would we convey to a young chef one of the most important principles of our métier? That he must look out for himself in order to look out for others?” he once said. (Granted, many cooks worked without pay for the privilege of being there.) One chef was almost entirely devoted to cooking staff meals and meals were planned out for the entire six months a year the restaurant was open. The famous (now-closed) El Bulli in Spain, once considered the best in the world, was famous for its three-course family meals. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Westcoast Homes & Design Previous Issues.Vancouver Sun Run: Sign up & event info.
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