Creating Priceless Moments

Many times a representative from a company will call us and request a cooking team building just to get the “troops” out of the office or out of their multi-day conference meeting, just to get together and do something different.

Of course I’ll continue to ask them is there anything else I can help them with, say, project planning, communication skills or strategic planning, but they usually decline and say, “just an opportunity to get together and do something different will be fine.”

Because of our preparedness in making the Corporate Culinary Challenge a training program that uses cooking and food preparation as a metaphor in teaching , sometimes a simple request of just an opportunity to get together stops us in our tracks.

Its not until we actually do the program with the group do we really understand the value of what we give the group. We provide the opportunity for these groups to recharge their collective batteries. Much like sleep is to exercise, where the real growth in the muscles is in the sleep/rest cycle and not just in the exercise/active cycle. We are the cooking team experience cycle to work/production cycle. We are the “ying” to the work/production “yang” of life.

When I would hear that from our culinary participants, I got it! Even though they would appreciate the fact that we still set up the culinary team experience as a challenging team building opportunity, the act of simply cooking and sharing a meal together heals the most rigorous workday or conference schedule, re-igniting everyone to continue on.

So that “just to get together to do something different”, means so much more than face value and creating those team moments are priceless!

“Here is something you can do to take a moment and do something different, put together a batch of these biscotti cookies and take a few collegues out for coffee or better yet, have them make the biscotti with you then you can really begin to create a priceless moment!”

“Priceless” Almond Biscotti

5 ounces sweet butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 whole eggs

½ teaspoons almond extract

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

pinch salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 ounces whole almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 350° F

2. In a mixer bowl, cream together the sweet butter and sugar on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the almond and vanilla extracts.

3. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Turn the mixer speed down to low and add the dry ingredients approximately ½ cup at a time until the dough is just formed. Be careful not to over mix and create a tough dough. Add the whole almond to the mixture and work the almonds in by hand mixing.

4. Divide the dough into two equal balls. With your hands lightly floured, roll the dough into a loaf shape approximately 14 inches long. Place on a cookie sheet pan lined with parchment paper and press the dough down on the edges leaving a hump along the back of the cylinder of the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes until the loaf is brown and firm. Remove from the oven and cut the loaf on a diagonal approximately ½ inches thick. Place them back onto the baking sheet pans and toast them until they golden brown on one side, then turn the individual slices over and toast them on the other side until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Serve on the side of a foamy double espresso and get wired!

5 Minutes to Greatness!

As we were putting up newly platted dishes for a special “soigné” order, one of my cooks asked, “What makes this dish so special, what makes it so great?”

Of course in the middle of the dinner rush, it’s hard to give a complete answer, so I quickly responded with the phrase, “I already gave it the soigné 5 minute treatment!”, “I’ll explain later”.

So after the dinner rush was complete and the kitchen crew was finalizing their clean-up efforts and end of the night tasks, when I heard from the entry to my office door, “so what’s the 5 minute treatment?”

I had almost forgotten the mid-dinner rush question from my service-line cook. So I turned to him and explained,”The 5 minute treatment is what we do when we want to take an item from good to great. When we plan a new dish as a chef special of the night, it has not gone through the scrutiny that our standard menu items have gone through the test of time. After we have chosen the chef’s special ingredients, matched the flavors decidedly and sketched out the plate presentation to balance out the look, only then, when the new item seems ready to be offered to a customer, that we apply the 5 minute treatment and ask ourselves the hard questions that our most distinguished customers might ask.”

“What questions do we ask?”

First question is, “what makes this chef’s special so special?” and “are all of the ingredients on the plate there to support the dish or take away from it” and the final question, “what one thing can we add that takes this chef’s special to the next level either with it’s presentation or flavors or texture contrasts?”

Once we have taken 5 minutes to answer those questions, only then can we deem the chef’s special as “great!” and ready to present to the waiters.

“Have we always had this 5 minute treatment?”

“No, as a matter of fact, it came about by necessity when one night, a dessert special did not sell, even one measly order. We were trying out new desserts as tests to put onto our new dessert menu that we were creating. This one particular dessert was a ultra light, double chocolate mousse. It was so light that it was able to be scooped from the pan it set up in, and shaped the mousse into a whole egg look and placed on a chilled dessert plate. It was flanked by a drizzle of creme anglaise (an egg-cream dessert sauce), a brilliant red color strawberry attractively fanned on the plate, a cigarette type cookie, lightly resting on the egg shaped chocolate mousse and lastly, a sprig of mint”

“How come you didn’t sell out of that dessert special, it sounded like a winner?”

“Well that’s the same question I asked myself at the end of the night when I tallied zero orders sold. I was even more confused because all of our waiters, after tasting the chocolate mousse, all proclaimed it was the best dessert they had ever tasted! Well that’s when I knew that I needed to examine more closely why this fabulous dessert hadn’t sold.”

“Is this where you came up with the 5 minutes treatment?”

“Well yes, but it wasn’t called that at that time because I was so focused on why the dessert didn’t sell as opposed to how we can get this to sell.” That’s when we asked the question, “what makes this dessert so special (our first question of the 5 minute treatment)?” then “what can we do to make this taste better, look better or add contrast” and that’s when I compared it to our #1 selling dessert, the Grand Marnier Souffle! The flavor of the chocolate mousse was superior in flavor to the souffle, but this #1 selling dessert had presentation as it’s ace card. So without wasting much time, I pulled out a few dessert reference books that focused on sweet presentations and quickly came up with a simple decorating solution of placing a silhouette of a coffee spoon made of cocoa on the chocolate mousse plate. It didn’t take away the from the flavor of the chocolate mousse and it really added a zip to the presentation. But the test came the next day when our waiters were given another chance to redeem themselves and they did, they sold out of the daily chef’s special dessert half way through the night!

That is when we adopted the 5 minute treatment to anything new going out to the customer. We realized the signficance to the 5 minute rule that we even added it to all of our business processes, sales, marketing, copy writing, you name it, 5 minutes of close examination on anything new before it was accepted and was deemed not just good, but great!

I love my job

Hi, readers! Carol here.

I love being a CEO Chef trainer. It’s so much fun watching people transform from “What have I gotten myself into?” to “I’m lovin’ this!!” What has been even more interesting is watching the transformation in me.

As the lead trainer for some of our larger programs, I’ve had to coordinate the efforts of almost 200 people to enable them to create their own gourmet buffet banquet in under 2 hours. It’s truly a privilege to have had the opportunity to experience the personal growth this role has provided.

What have I learned from the front?

• Rely on the power of the team. You can’t do it all. By subdividing a task and trusting in the leadership of others around you, a impossible challenge turns into an amazing success.
• Give people the opportunity to find their own answers. You might have a vision for the desired result, but others have valuable input to give and may even have an end in mind which exceeds your own high standards.
• Relax. Trust in your own inner wisdom. Decisions made when stressed usually are not very good ones.
• Whistle while you work. Have fun – dance a bit, sing a bit, make a few friends along the way. If your work becomes your play, you’ll live a blessed life.

I’ve even learned a thing or two about cooking!

A Soup Pot of Diversity

Employee engagement is the cornerstone of higher output in the workplace. Employee engagement begins with building relationships in a diverse arena. Diversity in the modern workplace is more prevalent than anytime in history. It’s not just about ethnic origins, cultural background growing up or gender differences; it’s also about generational diversity from the Y generation to baby boomers! From my experience in working with many companies, I’ve noticed the wide variety of backgrounds coming together, cooking together and ultimately with us, eating together. And I’ve noticed one thing, that all of that diversity, really added to the overall groups identity,personality and created a new culture of cooperation and connection.

If you were to relate the modern workplace to a well made, delicious pot of soup stock. And a great pot of stock is made from the following ingredients; aromatic vegetables, herbs & spices, meat and/or bones and clear, clean cool water. Well then, the aromatic vegetables would represent the wide variety of flavors that contribute to the underlying flavor and complexity of the stock or metaphorically they would represent the wide diversity of people in the workplace. I guess you could make a stock out of one type of vegetable but it’s the many vegetable mixtures that really gives the soup stock a well rounded flavor.

It’s interesting to note that the French culinary term for stock is fond, which coincidentally is the root term in French meaning base or foundation. So by expanding upon the metaphor, a good flavored, healthy soup stock is the foundation of great classic cuisine which is made from diverse ingredients, married together through simmering; just like great relationships in the workplace are made from the diversity of people, engaged and working well together that make up great relationships that create a great business foundation.

You could round the whole example out further by comparing the base flavor coming from the meat and bones as the values of a company, and the water as the business environment and of course the herbs and spices as the passion that brings it all together. But none of it would complete the deep, rich complexity of the soup stock without the rich diversity of flavors or people that tie it all together and make it complete.

So diversity in the workplace is key to building relationships. And those relationships encourage employee engagement that contribute to the overall well being of an organization. So by bringing together more complex and varied flavors and people can you begin to reap the benefits of a diverse workplace.

Wow, talking business makes me hungry! Enjoy the following recipe.

Seafood Stock

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 lbs shellfish shells (shrimp shells, crab shells, lobster shells)

1 medium onion, rough chopped

2 stalks of celery, rough chopped

1 carrot, rough chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

1 cup white wine

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dry)

2 sprigs parsley stems

pinch of saffron (optional)

cool fresh water to cover

Procedure:

Drain your shellfish shells in a colander until drip dry (20 minutes approximately). Meanwhile, heat your heavy bottomed soup pot over high heat. Add your olive oil, heat until just barely smoking then add your well drained shellfish shells. Cook over high heat until the shells turn a crimson color and continue stirring the pot.

Add the rough chopped vegetables and crushed garlic to the pot. Cook until the the vegetables get shiny and start to release their moisture. Then add the tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring all the while.

Add the white wine, herbs and spices and cook for 3 minutes to reduce the wine. Add enough clean, cool water to cover the shells and vegetables.

Bring slowly to a boil. Remove any scum that may rise to the surface and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Strain the stock and cool by separating into smaller storage containers. Refrigerate as soon as the steam subsides. Be sure to first store the stock in the refrigerator uncovered until it is well chilled. Then place a tight fitting cover on top.

If you are not using the stock within the next 3-4 days, pour the stock into containers that match your typical usage amount and freeze. Some people like to freeze stock into ice cube trays and pop the frozen stock out the ice cube trays when solid. Then your store them into zip lock freezer bags until needed.

Note:

This is a great stock to use when sauteing seafood, making soups like chowder and bisque or seafood stews. Shellfish shells are thin, so it does not take as long to pull out the flavor of the shellfish as apposed to making stock with thick bones, like chicken, beef and lamb bones, which would take much longer to simmer to develop thier flavors.