chopped parsley:
put picked parsley into bucket of water.
blitz up using a hand blender.
tip out into a tea towel lined chinois.
once most of the water has run away roll the tea towel up and squeeze the rest of the water out.
there you go the shittest chopped parsley you will ever have. two diffrent chef in diffrent places showed me this.

restless chef - 19 January 2010 03:16 PM

chopped parsley:
put picked parsley into bucket of water.
blitz up using a hand blender.
tip out into a tea towel lined chinois.
once most of the water has run away roll the tea towel up and squeeze the rest of the water out.
there you go the shittest chopped parsley you will ever have. two diffrent chef in diffrent places showed me this.

Sounds like hard work to me

benchef - 19 January 2010 06:16 PM

restless chef - 19 January 2010 03:16 PM

chopped parsley:
put picked parsley into bucket of water.
blitz up using a hand blender.
tip out into a tea towel lined chinois.
once most of the water has run away roll the tea towel up and squeeze the rest of the water out.
there you go the shittest chopped parsley you will ever have. two diffrent chef in diffrent places showed me this.

Sounds like hard work to me

Exact! Seems longer with more washing up than knife-and-board.

I used to have to prep parsley that way, spreading it on a gastro to dry it out. At best you get pale, tasteless visual garnish. Worse than that was my head chef’s habit of placing the gastro on top of the dishwasher to dry it more quickly. Certainly gave it some flavour - unfortunately a flavour that strangely resembled tea leaves.

webchord - 01 February 2010 03:19 PM

I used to have to prep parsley that way, spreading it on a gastro to dry it out. At best you get pale, tasteless visual garnish. Worse than that was my head chef’s habit of placing the gastro on top of the dishwasher to dry it more quickly. Certainly gave it some flavour - unfortunately a flavour that strangely resembled tea leaves.

Dollop of gravy made with Maggi powder + a splash of sherry = Brown Windsor

I’ve seen a breakfast chef pan fry a portion of scrambled egg and call it an omelette. The mayo + tumeric = hollandaise is an old favourite, especially as you can glaze it!!!
I briefly worked in a restaurant where the chef would take the butt end of a striploin and trim it into the shape of a fillet. Then slice it for fillet medallions. In the same place they re-used untouched salad garnishes from plates coming back into the kitchen. And all things scraped off plates went into a container to be boiled up and pureed for soup. I didn’t last very long…

Once saw a guy clarify 20 litres of chicken boullion and call it consomme

I know someone that uses packet brullee mix as creme anglaise and it’s crap and tasteless and that’s putting it politely

And the same packet mix is also used to make brullee’s that are that so firm you could bounce off them ...

ha ha some of these storys are great

why do chefs feel they have to cowboy things?
work harder and get your job done correctly

oldnoobie - 09 March 2009 11:43 PM

Ginger ice cream. No, infusing the ginger in the cream and milk or adding grated ginger three times boiled into the mix before churning. No no no, the best way is to chuck some vanilla ice cream in the robout coupe and add some ginger syrup. YEE HA! The same ‘executive chef’ deep fries paxo, buys in chocolate pencils for garnishes in a 2 rosette restaurant and cooks green beans in tepid water. Inspirational, really inspirational…...

I remeber someone did that before in a place I used to work before ....

the cowboy’d icecream

sammuir - 16 March 2010 08:49 PM

ha ha some of these storys are great

why do chefs feel they have to cowboy things?
work harder and get your job done correctly

It’s all about the pennies..  some put profit before anything else .  still most of the joe public ain’t all that wise and nor does all those cooking programmes will ever touch the surface of this subject because it would open a can of worms that will forever remain opened and most places wouldn’t dare risk to lose it’s rep/customer base of such stories ever became known ..

From one person telling another by the time you are told your more likely to have and totally different version of events ..

And also

Look at the GR’s Kitchen Nightmares .. most places think it’s great to have tv exposure then the crowds start to appear but there is a negative side as well it can affect the person in the programme who’s under the spotlight to such an extent it will more likely harm his/her chances of getting another Job ..

Reality tv ain’t the way to advertise yourself ... podcasts are the safest form of advertising ..

Had one french pastry chef who one evening couldn’t be bothered to make any anglaise for service.

he simply melted a litre of bought in vanilla ice cream and thought he could get away with it.

might have done if he could have been bothered to make the damn ice cream the day before and not buy some in.

this ice cream thing is bad i also have a story about that

i started a job around 3 years ago, i was making anglaise when the owner came in , whats that he said ? so i explained to him.

oh the last chef used to melt vanilla ice cream for that!!!!

Everyones biggest cowboy tricks they’ve seen and or done and or heard about a “friend” doing?

Its a safe place.. you can say… Cowboy.