Time for me to get on my soap box

I haven't been posting much but I think it's important. I friend sent it to me in an e-mail and I decide to post it.

Nationalized food? Say goodbye to the small town American farmer. No more tomato stands on the side of the road. Forget the fresh chickens from the coup. All your food will have to come from the grocery store. All your food will have to be checked through the government. Don't dare to grow corn in your own back yard or they just might come after you. This legislation is so broad based that someone with a backyard garden could have their property siezed. On the table before Congress is HR 875 which was introduced by Democrat Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut whose hubby Stanley Greenburg WORKS FOR MONSANTO. Does something smell fishy? Oh, watch out you salmon farmers. Remember Monsanto is the world's biggest producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seeds and wouldn't they love to throw the small farmers out of business. H.R. 875 is called the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 and if you want to talk about Socialism, here it is. This horrific bill would establish a "Food Safety Administration" within the Department of Health and Human Services. The mandate of this new department would be "to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes." Section 3 of HR 875 defines what type of establishments would be subject to the regulations in this legislation. It that section, a "food production facility" is defined this way: The term 'food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation. Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply? Stalin used the food to control the people? HR 875 gives the government the power to regulate what is "safe" farming. and therefore farmers are not using enough herbicide on their plants to be "safe" or they aren't following the same "quality control" procedures as the big guys they could be instantly put out of business. So if you want to go to the local farm stand and buy some fresh strawberries just picked by farmer Jed who uses no pesticides, you won't be able to. And what about meat? You won't be able to go to a local farm and pick your cow. You won't be able to buy fresh farmed milk. And the only fresh egg you will see is in a carton. What will America be without the roadside farm stand? What will happen to our families if the freshest blueberries they get to eat are from Chili? How will our children know the fresh taste of watermelon if the only one they taste has been shipped from Mexico? We cannot allow this bill to pass. Please forward this to every person on your email list Call your representative and demand that HR 875 NOT PASS http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt full text of the bill http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 We need to be free to feed our own people! Darla Shine www.housewifearmy.com Call Nancy Pelosi and say NO to HR 875 (202) 225-0100

What Happened?????

I'm sure by now most people that enjoy good food have heard that the Fat Duck has temporarily closed due to a possible food poisoning outbreak.

I'm sure if you want you can find many blog posts that speak of the over reaction by the public and possibly Heston Blumenthal himself. But I won't link to them whether I agree with the blogger or not.

I'm more interested in someone that does not know the whole story, but I don't want to try to make you think I do. 

Everyday when you go out to eat, you trust that the restaurant you choose, and their staff is safe and responsible with the work they do.  But in this day and age, where you get your news from, the tv, internet, or your next door neighbor is more interested in shocking you then giving you all the information.  If that 'breaking news' happens to be wrong or skewed, where you got the information will never come racing back to you and say we were wrong. They'll bury it on page 12, not put it on your news home page, and they won't call you to tell you all is okay. Your favorite restaurant is run by people that work on the spur of the moment all the time. But people make mistakes. As much as I tell everyone that I don't, and I don't, people make mistakes. 

Now we try everyday to adhere to every health code there is and I'm positive that the Fat Duck adheres to standards that a lot of medical research labs would be proud of but something happened and the Fat Duck staff will learn from it and move on. I just hope that the public will give them the respect that they deserve and the time they need to figure this out.

Modern Cuisine

Anyone who knows me, knows I take a long time to make a large purchase. Well I've been talking about buying an immersion circulator for over a year now and I finally jumped. I found a Fisher scientific 73 on EBay for a $175 and could not resist.

So I did like I always do, I wrote a menu using new techniques or food or recipes that I don't know and now have to figure out. It forces me to learn-- sounds dumb but it works for me.

Although I tried something different this time I actually tried to cook something before it was needed and had to be perfect.

The Experiment-- 130 grams Rib Eye Steak and 1 clove of roasted garlic cryovaced and cooked sous vide for 10 hrs at 54' C.

I seared the meat in a hot pan with a little 10% olive oil blend.

I've been reading about sous vide cooking on every blog I can find and books that I can't afford for over a year now and today I got my first taste---

Wow. The meat was a perfect medium-rare, tender as it gets.

All this did is really get my juices going. I can't wait to get i to work tomorrow and try lamb, pork, different cuts of beef. This is going to be interesting.

Long Week

Just got done a long week, we had a party on Saturday for 210 people. Time to get back to the restaurant work and get ready for Restaurant Week. Restaurant Week is 3 weeks away but I just wrote the menu and it's time to start practicing. 

What is my Direction

If you read from the beginning you might have said that this blog would be a marketing arm of my restaurants website. 

Then it it became my personnel complaint center...

Then it turned into my personnel soapbox.

It will be all of those things, but most importantly it will be my scatter brained view on life.

 

So where is it going? 

Forward.... 

Why you don't bring food to a restaurant

In case you didn't know this restaurants sell food, it's what we do. The idea of asking to bring snacks for your party or a cake is just plain rude. 

There are so many business reasons that I could go into but I shouldn't have to.

~ the restaurant makes money by selling food... duh

~ the wait staff makes money by selling food... duh

~ it costs the restaurant money when you take longer to finish eating especially if you're not eating our food

~ the restaurant does not want to be associated with other business or your friends food.. it doesn't meet our standards that's why we don't sell aunt Cathy's cakes

~ it costs the restaurant money to serve the food, wash plates, and clean up the extra mess from the food you didn't buy from us.  

Restaurants provide a service, a place to dine and visit with friends. We make money by SELLING food and drinks while you are here. If you don't want to buy our cakes or hors d'oeuvres why did you choose to come here?

Lisa is Back!

If you've been dining at Elements for a while I'm sure you remember Lisa. 

Well, we are very fortunate that she got some time off this winter and chose to spend it at home. 

She worked all last week including Valentine's Day(made my job so easy) and will continue through the end of the month.

If we're lucky she'll do a guest chef dinner in the beginning of March before she goes back for her senior year at the world famous(my alma mater) Greenbrier Resort.

Some come on out and say hello.

A Valentine's Day Thank You

Just wanted to say thanks to all the brave souls that came to dinner saturday evening. It's was our best Valentine's in six years, the staff, the customers it all came to together great.

Common Courtesy

This weeks has to be one of my least favorite times of the year. Everyone in this business works long hours but we enjoy it, but the week before Valentine's Day is especially difficult when the dining public has no respect for anyone. Not their dining companion, not the server, and least of all the person waiting for the table when your done eating.

We know that your going out for that special meal at a place you can't always afford....

We know that you want everything to be perfect.....

We know that you know better then we do how to do our job.....

But just once, just once, if you decide to come to our little slice of the world known as Elements Cafe please assume we know what we're doing. The young ladies that work in the dining room will move as fast as they can, they will give you the table that we have available and they know this night is special and will treat it that way.

 I'm in the kitchen with my entire staff and I'm cooking the best I can to make this night perfect for you. But know this, in the past you've been rude, condescending, and down right mean, and if you do it again I'm coming out of the kitchen and I'm going to embarrass the shit out of you and treat you like the child you are!

So come out enjoy yourself, but be nice because I'm not!

Saturday Night

Well I'm finally starting to get my feet under me. The staff did a nice job while I was less then ready to go. So I thought a better get back to updating folks.

Here's tonight specials:

Soup du Jour-- Potato and Corn Chowder-- vegetarian with a little cream

Salad Special-- Salad Italiano-- Roasted Baby Eggplant Pearl Onions and Roma Tomatoes with a Red Wine Vinaigrette

Fish Special-- Pan Roasted Golden Tile Fish-- Very similar to sea bass, thick white mild flaky fish
in a fish chowder style stew

Meat Special-- Short Rib Wellington
Slow cooked Boneless Beef Short Rib topped with mushroom duxelle, onions and arugula all wrapped in puff pastry

Hope to see you tonight

Sundays--My Day Off

Today is my regular day off. You know the day I usually reserve for cleaning, ordering, and paper work. But I'm not writing this to get sympathy.

This is actually the second day in a row that I've been off. On a regular Saturday I stomp, growl, scream, push and pull everyone around me through what I hope is the busiest day of the week. But on this day I barely had the energy to come to work let alone lead my team. My staff saw this early in the morning and all pitched in to carry their load plus mine. 

So on a day when we had a very important party of 15 in the afternoon and 40 on the books for dinner. I wasn't there!

 

I say thank you to everyone that works for me everyday when they go home, I know it's small but I don't remember my various bosses saying thank you and I want to be different.

But after awhile I'm sure it just sounds like words, so today I wanted to say thank you to my staff for giving me my first Saturday off in 3 years with the restaurant open (and did very well from what I've been told) when I really needed it.

The Kitchen -- Adam, Lauren, and Kevin

The Servers -- Dana, Alexa, Madison, Julie, and Kate

Thank You

 

My Complaints

Every once in a while I'm going to let everyone know what bothers me. People let me know all the time so this blog will also serve as my sounding board.

We are in the middle of our Haddon Heights Taste of the Town and thanks to you we're quite busy. Some might not know, we are a small restaurant only seating about 40, so when guests don't show or are late, or don't show with number of people they left a reservation for it's hard on the staff and me.

Well tonight we had a classic that I must tell you about. We had a reservation for 2 people at 5:30pm-- a great reservation for a restaurant(if the people show). Well needless to say, but I will, they didn't show. It gets to be a little after six so--
I call-- "Yes is Mrs. So and So in"-- "yes this is she"---"Hi this is Fred from Elements, you have a reservation at 5:30"--"NO I didn't!" she said--" Oh I'm sorry, it must be the other Mrs So and So at the same number as yours."

For gods sake people it's bad enough that she didn't keep her reservation. didn't call to cancel it, but then blatantly lied about it. Come on grow up, have a little class.

This is the crap that small business owners have to deal with everyday.

Well, it's time to check in with the specials for the evening. We're thinking take the chill off today so think warm and come have a nice meal.

Soup du Jour-- Caramelized Onion, Sweet Potato and Chicken-- its broth based and no cream?

House-made Potato Gnocchi tossed with Smoked Trout and Asparagus in a Herb Butter Sauce

Elements Cassoulet-- Duck Sausage, Chicken Confit, and Apple Smoked Bacon served stew style with white beans and vegetables

Pan Roasted Halibut in a roasted portobello mushroom veloute with wilted arugula

Short Rib, Roasted Pearl Onion, and Crimini Stew with fresh herb au jus

There you have it, give us a call and make your resevation.

I've got an idea

Did you have an idea and not write it down? Well I'm going start writing things down. Here's the first one.

Fred's Fancy-- a five course tasting menu for $40 presented upon request after 8pm on Fridays. Fred will cook impromptu dishes that might be a future menu item or a spontaneous creation. It'll never be the same meal twice, so don't ask.

Well there you have it, this will be developed and promoted through our newsletter and website. If your one of the first to read this let your server know you read it on this blog and you'll get $5 off per person of Fred's Fancy.

We'll I thought our first post should be about our next upcoming event--Haddon Heights Taste of the Town. This is second year presenting this event with Anthony's and Kunkel's. With it being such a huge success last year we thought we had to do it again. Here is a copy of our menu and for a printable version go to www.elementscafe.com


Elements
Haddon Heights Taste of the Town 2009

Dinner Tasting Menu--- 4 courses for $25 Jan 27th to 30th

First Course (choose one)

Shrimp studded Risotto Balls
tomato horseradish aioli

Garlic sautéed Spinach and White Bean Ravioli
red wine pesto

Cheesesteak Eggroll
mustard soy dipping sauce

Second Course

Manhattan Clam Chowder
or
Roasted Corn Bisque

Third Course (choose one)

Baby Arugula and Grilled Apple Salad
sun-dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, blue cheese, and orange juice vinaigrette

Hearts of Romaine Salad
creamy black pepper dressing and asiago cheese

Main Course (choose one)

Home-Made Cavatelli
roasted cherry tomatoes, broccoli rabe, and parmesan cream sauce

Herb crusted Scottish Salmon Filet
white bean and carrot stew

Southern Fried Chicken
buttermilk waffles and side of bacon braised greens

Osso Bucco
crispy polenta cake, green beans, and wild mushrooms

Beef Tenderloin Noodle Bowl
shiitake mushrooms and soba noodles


Sorry, no substitutions can be made to this menu

Hopefully this will be a regular posting of our specials, new menus, and pictures. This will be another place for our followers to find specials, coupons, and my own special view of life, food, and you the customer. Wish me luck, I'm adding one more thing for me to do each day.