Menus

The menu is a tough piece of paper for me. It puts you out there. It says "this is me and my palate, this is what I know and what I think you would like to eat" and it scares me.
It can be ever evolving (or stagnant in the case of most local eateries) and hopefully as close to perfection before the guest ever takes a bite.

The menu for the restaurant only runs from May to September and for the most part the core of the menu hasn't changed much since 5 years ago, but it has been tweaked and twisted as the seasons have gone by. Reflecting new items that are available here in Alaska with influences from traveling and what Matt and I have felt is just good solid food.
Items have come and gone. Some good and some not so good. Those awkward and goofy dishes that when you look back at the old menus you whisper under your breath "Good god, what was I thinking?". Its the same feeling you get looking at your old yearbooks.
Wondering whether a new item will be as popular as you think it will can be exciting and just as disappointing.

With the short work season, once a menu has been printed its pretty much set in stone until next year with of course the few exceptions : Costs for one and quality for two.
Lets say the caribou tenderloin quality is just horrible and the purveyor is unwilling to do anything about it but shrug their shoulders and say "whatever" (yeah that's you Indian Valley Meats).It must be pulled from the menu because it has not met the standards in quality you have set (which did happened last July, mid season).
This was really a crusher too me because we had a unique product and you were eating caribou tenderloin and it could come with king crab and look there are giant brown bears in the river outside as you ate this ultimate Alaskan meal and you peed your pants. It was the perfect AK dish.
Side note: last summer a downtown "bistro" started running the exact same menu item. A "bistro" that is notorious for bottom feeding off other restaurants in town. Which was another reason I dropped the item from the menu. They say copying is a form of flattery, well I say bollucks. Not in a small 3,500 person town. That's straight up stealing kids and if you are going to steal from me than do the dish better. Don't be a hack.
I wrote a letter last summer to the owner and never sent it. However I will post it here for all to read.

I start working on next years menu in October. Right when the season ends so that things are fresh in my mind, specials that sold out and the quality of the staff (what they were able to handle).Then I put it away until February.
I read some books, eat out as I travel, experiment at home and check out the food trends.
When I come back to the menu in February with all these new ideas, I write it out again.
I put it away until late March when the 3rd and final draft must be evaluated and new items tested before print in May. Luckily I work with an opinionated and hungry management team and the kitchen is set from Feb-May just for menu experiments. I will go into more of this in the coming months.

So how does mac and cheese pizza with pesto and pancetta sound? Or Aglio e Olio rigatoni with truffles and basil?
Some new ideas which most likely will end up dumped, as specials or pipe dreams for my own place one day.

Who gets 4 months every year to think about a menu? seriously............


Next up: The Hiring Process

in the beginning

OK here we go..............
This is my first attempt to write about food, cooking and the restaurant industry. I am
coming up on the 2009 tourist season and I thought it would be interesting if not at least entertaining, to share some of my challenges, ideas, thoughts and some if the wild things that can happen during a busy Alaskan tourist season.

I am going to start off posting a response I wrote on the restaurant report web site here:

http://www.restaurantreport.com/Greatdebates/independents_p3.html

which I think sums up on how I feel about the restaurant industry.....

"I am an Executive Chef at a hotel in Alaska. Although I work for an Alaskan corporation with multiple sites, I have complete control over my menu, staff and restaurant. So in that regard it is like running an independent restaurant with corporate backing. I have worked in every aspect and in every job in the restaurant from chain to independent. My point of view comes from 20 years of experience.

I find most of these folks who are defending their chain restaurants have one sided views of the industry and have not worked outside the "chained" area of the business. I bet most of you went to a college and learned about restaurant management from corporate sponsored programs (which I bet at the time you did not know that it was funded by them). Or you took that 6 week crash course in culinary school so you can learn those culinary "terms" and "sayings" to move on up the ladder. Or you just worked your way up the chain right out of high school going from Applebees to Red Lobster to TGIF.

Anyone who has worked for a small café or a Mom and Pop place or even big locally owned restaurant has experienced the soul that possesses the atmosphere, people and most important, the food. What you lack in your "dining" establishments is the most important thing of all, soul. It is the thing you mimic by decorating your walls with old signs and funky hip things, Foo Foo drinks and waiters with trucker hats and flare on there suspenders.

Sure you may make your own sauces from scratch, big deal, someone in a test kitchen in a lab wrote the recipe, its bullet proof, idiot proof and monkey proof. At that point its no different than a Big Mac in Jersey. There is no soul in it.

You may work hard at your jobs and may care a great deal about what you do. That’s great! No one denies that, but do you honestly think that you set the standards that others follow? What independent restaurant is jumping on the Fried Mac and Cheese Appetizer? We are the ones who set the standards that you follow. We put the soul and heart into our food and service. It is you who take it and bastardize it by putting three different "fun dippers" or adding your "south of the border" sauce to it. Telling us what is cool and in the now.

Do you honestly believe that the chain restaurants are a valuable, viable part of our industry? Come on. They are an eye sore on the roadways and they poison the palate with bland and over sauced food.

They may keep the employment rate up, but they do nothing to teach young cooks to become talented Chefs or educate Joe Public about food. I will hire someone first with no experience before someone with fast food or chain restaurant experience. You teach them absolutely nothing!

All of you who defend the products you serve in chain restaurants, and how you train your staff, should be ashamed and embarrassed for what you contribute to the restaurant industry. We need to be making the industry a better place by educating and training professionals. Not making it a place where an out of work actor can get a job until his big break or the social studies teacher can make some extra money because he thinks that its an easy job. I have never once thought that I could get a job teaching school to supplement my income or drive a train on the weekends to make extra cash.

I am so tired of this being the industry where anyone can come and get a job and suck at it and that's OK.

You do nothing good for this industry.

During the great rise of chain restaurants in the early 90's, a great Chef once told me that there is no more art left in culinary arts.

I have found that not to be true. With all great art that becomes commercialized, watered down and processed for the masses, there have always been the true artisans, at the end of the road, in the back alley, anywhere off the beaten path, keeping the heart and soul alive and truly making my world a better place."

Erik Slater
Executive Chef
Seward, Alaska