Archive for December, 2008
The History and Production of Chocolate
Posted by: | CommentsCocoa powder and the many different types of chocolate are all derived from cocoa beans, the seeds of the fruit of the cacao tree. These small trees are native to the tropical America but are extensively cultivated elsewhere in the tropics.
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The tree begins to bear fruit when it is 4-5 years old. The small pink flowers and succeeding fruit pods grow directly from the trunk and main branches. On average a full grown tree may produce 6000 flowers, only twenty of which will become pods. A pod weighs about 1 pound (450g), and contains 20-40 seeds, or cocoa beans, which resemble plump almonds and are covered with a sweet white pulp. An ordinary bean has a dark brown or purple flesh, with a bitter, astringent and nutty taste.
The Mayas and Aztecs of Central America, or what is known as Mexico, were the first know drinkers of chocolate. In 1519 the Spanish explorer Cortes discovered the beverage and introduced it to the Spanish court, after observing the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma consuming it.
The drinking chocolate was made by drying the cocoa beans and roasting them over a fire. Water was then added and the beans pounded to a paste, often spices, nuts and powdered flowers were added.
The chocolate making process is somewhat long and involved. When the cocoa beans (seeds) have been scooped from the pods, they are piled onto leaves, covered with more leaves and left for several days. The sugary pulp surrounding the beans begins to ferment.
After fermentation the wet beans are dried, on mats, wooden platforms or in drying equipment. After drying, the beans are packed into bags ready for transportation to the next stage.
At the factory the beans are sorted, cleaned and roasted for an hour in rotating drums at 275′F (135′C).
The roasted beans are then “kibbled”, a process in which they pass between rolls of serrated cones placed at such a distance apart that the beans are cracked rather than crushed. The cracked shell is carried away by an air-blast (a process called winnowing).
The broken beans or nibs are then ground between steel rollers. Because the cocoa beans are 50% fat (cocoa butter) and the grinding process generates heat, the crisp nutty cocoa nibs emerge as thick brown liquid. When cooled this solidifies to a hard block of unsweetened chocolate known as a “mass”. This is the basis of all chocolate products.
Cocoa is made by extracting 70-80% of the butter. The hard dry cake which remains is then ground, reground and sieved.
To make plain chocolate, extra cocoa butter and powdered sugar are added to the “mass”.
Milk chocolate has sweetened full cream milk added which has been condensed into a rich creamy liquid At these stages the chocolate has a rough texture. After being ground and mixed the liquid chocolate is further ground (Conched) with heavy rollers to produce a smooth velvety texture.
This article was written by John Jarmola, a Consultant Food Technologist who specializes in the development of new food products. He is currently involved in a reviewing the benefits of the new “Superfood”, Acai Juice, to find out more visit http://acaijuicereview.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Jarmola
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Why Is The T-bone Steak Considered So Special All Over The World?
Posted by: | CommentsOn special occasions such as wedding parties, holidays, the Easter dinner or any personal celebration, a refined dish needs equally refined ingredients. Preparing a T-bone steak at home or serving it at the restaurant will definitely prove what a good meal really means. Why is the T-bone steak considered so special? The answer lies in the tenderness of the beef used to prepare it; the price for such steak cuts is pretty high too, not to mention that they are very peculiar to cook too. The main secret when grilling or broiling T-bone steak is not to leave it cook for too long. Why?
Before ordering a T-bone steak you should definitely know that this type of dish requires that the meat be cooked rare or medium rare. Leaving it too long on the grill reduces the softness of the tissue and makes it harden, whereas this actually means destroying the very property that makes it so special: texture tenderness. When you buy the T-bone steak cuts from the market, carefully look for the marble like lines specific to this beef tissue, such signs clearly indicate that the meat is high quality and you are not tricked into making a bad deal.
T-bone steak makes one of the delicacies of Italian cuisine, and it is truly unique from the type of fire used to grill the meat to the seasonings added to spice it up. Making an Italian T-bone steak on the stove would actually mean ruining it, when one of the secrets of bistecca alla fiorentina lies in the use of a wood fire to grill the meat over. The seasonings used include only olive oil and black pepper, but the taste is so rich that it makes you try it any time you get the chance.
Cooking T-bone steak does not require any form of marinade; some of the ingredients used for the marinade can nevertheless be added to the dressing. Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce are among the first to use in order to add flavor to this dish, together with balsamic vinegar or lime juice. The best wine to be served with T-bone steak is rich red wine, usually dry or semi-dry. French and Spanish wines go very well for the matter, but unless you’re ready to pay for a real treat, don’t order a full bottle. A glass should be enough to increase the aroma of the T-bone steak.
By: Muna wa Wanjiru
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New Marketing Plan Raises Restaurant’s Profitability
Posted by: | CommentsThe Frog and The Peach was established over twenty years ago and is known for its high-quality American cuisine and comfortable atmosphere. “Early on I saw a need to build a database of my frequent customers,” Says Elizabeth Alger, owner of The Frog and The Peach restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
We utilized a custom-made database to gather information and to process our birthday and anniversary mailings. The problem was that we were gathering all sorts of information, contact information including email address as well as dining habits of our guests, but never had a way to truly manage or use the information. By switching to the marketing software and by working closely with my own personal marketing coach, we are now building a database that is easy to use and is a useful tool for implementing and tracking marketing campaigns. ,” adds Alger. “My marketing coach has been a real saint-he is patient and knowledgeable.”
I know my particular market and I have a sense of which of the many marketing strategies is appropriate for my restaurant. My coach respects my perspective; he listens to what I have to say and then takes my ideas and goes from there. We’ve become team. I don’t feel as though he is rubberstamping a packaged approach on my restaurant. It is customized. Alger and her marketing coach visit at least once a week (more often when needed) to discuss her marketing plans. In the last four months Alger has implemented a new birthday and anniversary marketing program. “It is considerably more efficient than my old program and it brings the Guests in much faster.” Alger is tracking her ROI (return on investment) for every marketing campaign she develops. I know with the additional areas that The RestaurantMarketingGroup has suggested that the ROI is going to be even better next month.
RMG is focused on helping me assess the success of my marketing efforts. If the percentages appear to be lower than what they think I could do, my coach takes the time to suggest ways to bring them up. She continues, “knowing exactly what each campaign has cost and how much return we get is really important. I like having that data at my fingertips. We have evaluated all of the marketing programs that I used previously and RMG helped me change many things that have made my marketing more effective.” With a myriad of responsibilities that come with running a busy restaurant, Alger has hired a part-time assistant to help with the data entry needed to build her database and assist with other marketing duties. “I never had the ability to use the power of e-mail. The ability to send out emails is built into the software. We now send out messages to our guests via e-mail, which sometimes includes special offers and other times shares information such as announcing a special holiday menu. We are able to email particular information to those guests who are interested in a particular service or function niche such as monthly wine dinners or corporate dining. The feedback from our customers has been for the most part very positive,” says Alger.
RMG has suggested ways that I could assure that my already Four Star Service was delivered more reliably to each and every guest during each and every visit assuring an outstanding dining experience.
My Coach has coached me on building customer loyalty and increasing the frequency of guest visits.” She continues, “We are currently doing a campaign to develop relationships with the businesses that are within walking distance to the restaurant. One of our employees is visiting those businesses, telling them about our Holiday Gift Certificate program that can benefit their employees and their preferred customers. RMG has developed programs that are directed to dramatically increase the Gift Certificate Sales. In addition, we’ve been networking with our vendors, something I would have never thought of. I sent each one of our vendors a letter offering our Holiday Gift Certificates to their employees and their preferred customers. It’s a brand new marketing campaign and it’s a little too early to assess its success, but it seems to be going very well. I have made a commitment to grow my business to a higher level. I am clear that RMG will provide access to attaining this goal,” says Alger. The RestaurantMarketingGroup has helped me better define my Target Markets and has the flexibility to have special events for different groups of customers.
Brenda Carlos has been publisher & managing editor for Hospitality News & the International Education Guide. She has authored articles focusing on all aspects of foodservice. She is the co-author of “Event Management for Tourism, Cultural, Business & Sporting Events,” (Prentice Hall). She is a regular contributor to the National Culinary Review and Sizzle magazines. Ms. Carlos is an enthusiastic speaker. She is a graduate of Brigham Young University.
Culinary School Basic Facts
Posted by: | CommentsCooking is a set of an art, this fact has been established a long time ago. There are many people who claim that they can cook as well as, presumably, they probably can. A lot people learn to cook as they grow up when it plays a part in their family kitchen. There are many different kinds of cooks, when it plays a part in diners, short order cooks and the list goes on. If you want to be called a chef, you will have to go through years of training at a culinary institute.
When talking about a culinary institute, it is a college that gives its students the blessing of learning how to prepare culinary masterpieces and luscious deserts. It is more than just cooking, it is an art formulate. There are different levels of training as well as the student chooses the area that they would like to study.
The necessary training and the skills a student learns when it plays a part in culinary school will define the area when you are thinking about which they will ideal their art. There are several various areas of expertise that a student can choose. Several of the choices would be a pastry chef or a bread chef. Read More→
Japanese Cuisine
Posted by: | CommentsTempura, sukiyaki, sashimi, sushi – even the words used to describe the most basic of Japanese dishes are exotic and beautiful. Japanese cuisine is easily one of the healthiest in the world, with its concentration on fresh fish, seafood, rice and vegetables. The pungent sauces and delicate flavors of fresh foods complement each other beautifully, and the methods of presentation turn even simple meals into beautiful events.
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The Japanese have easily a dozen different names for rice, depending on how it is prepared and what it is served with. The most common meal is a rice bowl, a bowl of white rice served with various toppings or ingredients mixed in. So popular is it that the Rice Bowl has even made its way into the world of Western convenience foods alongside ramen noodles. Domburi is a bowl of rice topped with another food: domburi tendon, for instance, is rice topped with tempura and domburi gyudon is rice topped with beef. The Japanese adopted fried rice from the Chinese, and a century ago, when curry was first introduced, developed Kare Raisu, curry rice. It is now such a popular dish that there are many fast-food restaurants that serve several versions of it in take-away bowls.
Besides white rice served as a side dish, Japanese cuisine also features onigiri – rice balls wrapped in seaweed, often with a ‘surprise’ in the middle, and kayu, a thin gruel made of rice that resembles oatmeal.
As an island nation, it’s not surprising that seafood is featured in Japanese cuisine. Sushi and sashimi both are raw fish and seafood with various spices. Impeccably fresh fish is the secret to wonderful sashimi and sushi, served with wasabi and soya sauce The Japanese love of beauty and simplicity turns slices and chunks of raw fish into miniature works of art. Fish sliced so thin that it’s transparent may be arranged on a platter in a delicate fan that alternates pink-fleshed salmon with paler slices of fish. Sushi is typically arranged to best display the colors and textures to their best advantage, turning the platter and plate into palettes for the artistry of the chef.
Traditionally, meat plays a minor role in the Japanese diet, though it has been taking a larger and larger role over the past fifty years as Japan becomes more westernized. Beef, chicken and pork may be served with several meals a week now. One of the more popular meat dishes is ‘yakitori’ – chicken grilled on a skewer and served with sauce. A typical quick lunch might include a skewer of yakitori and a rice bowl with sushi sauce.
In an interesting twist, Japan has imported dishes from other cuisines and ‘Japanized’ them, adopting them as part of their own cuisines. Korokke, for instance, are croquettes adopted from those introduced by the English last century. In Japan, the most common filling is a mixture of mashed potatoes and minced meat. Other Soshoyu – western dishes that have made their way into Japanese everyday cuisine include ‘omuraisu’, a rice omelet, and hambagau, the Japanized version of an American hamburger.
About the Author: Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.
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