Howdy Fellow Chef’s and Culinary Minded Folks,

How have you been? How has your start to 2012 been? Keeping well I trust Please do drop me a line or two and let me know what is going on in your part of the culinary world. Alternatively, feel free to leave a comment right at very bottom of this blog post.

Pro Chef 360

I wanted to fill you in on what I have been up to in recent times. You are probably wondering why the Pro Chef 360 Blog has not been that active recently.

The Stewarding Department and Chef Blog Digest

In a nutshell, I got side tracked and have been spending time with 2 of my other sites.

Namely; the Stewarding Department and the Chef Blog Digest AKA “CBD”.

If you are not signed up for the weekly eZine for the “CBD” you will find an archive of recent eZines right here.

As far as the stewarding side of life goes you will find all there is to know about stewarding on that very site. You can also sign up to the site to ensure that you are kept up to date with all things stewarding. You can do that by filling in the contact details on the top right hand side of the sites home page.

CBD is currently being featured as the “Site of Week” on the Cook Eat Share site. We are so proud of our recognition by our peers.

You can expect to be bombarded with a steady flow of industry related data from this point forward. I will keep you posted. See you on the flip side.

Happy cooking!!!

Matthew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helpful Links:

Chef Blog Digest FB Fan Page

Stewarding Department FB Fan Page

Pro Chef 360 FB Fan Page

Topic : The Chef, The CBD eZine and the Stewarding Department

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PS: Many sexy and smart people have realized that clicking the Facebook like button and/ or the twitter retweet button on this page gets them free promotion

When it comes to social media; I am guessing facebook is number 1 in the chef world. Am I correct in my assumption?

Or is it twitter?

Oh by the way are you a Nokia, Blackberry or iPhone Chef?

Tastefuly yours,

Matthew

 

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In the restaurant industry, it is a big no-no to just dispose of used cooking oil down the drains.  Not only will this clog the drains and the pipes, but this will also be a health risk.  There is an appropriate way on how to dispose of used cooking oil, and this should be followed.  Remember, cooking oil may be in the liquid form when you dispose of it, but it will soon turn into the solid form in time and when the temperature is cold enough.

So, what can you do with used cooking oil?

Recycling and Reusing Cooking Oil

Recycling and reusing cooking oil is best done to high-quality grease, an example of which is rendered duck fat or bacon grease.  Now, to recycle and store it, all you will need are airtight jars and a strainer.  First, you need to let the grease cool down.  Once cool enough, place the strainer on the jar and pour the fat duck or the bacon grease over it to drain any solids.  Once done, you can simply pop it into the refrigerator and reheat when needed.  You can use them for roasting potatoes or for frying bacons.

You can do the same for large quantities of cooking oil.  Of course, you have to let the used cooking oil cool down a bit before straining them and pouring into the container.  There is one thing that you should know though when it comes to reusing cooking oil, and that is to know the food used with it.  For this reason, it is very important that you label the jar with the type of food you have fried in the cooking oil.  Remember, flavors do linger in used cooking oil, and you would definitely not want to commit the mistake of frying French fries in the cooking oil you used to fry fish.

Disposing of Used Cooking Oil

As stated above, do not pour used cooking oil or any type of oil down the drains as it can easily clog up the pipes and cause more damage.  Now, the best way to dispose of them is to pour it into a non-recyclable container and then throw it into the garbage bin or dumpster for collection.

On the other hand, if you do not want to recycle and reuse used cooking oil in your restaurant, then you can simply send them to recycling facilities.  You can look for them in the Internet; just make sure though that they accept used cooking oil before you send them the product.  The used cooking oil will then be recycled into other types of consumer products such as soaps.  Some recycling facilities also turn them into biodiesel fuel.

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For pastry chefs, there is a new trend worth trying out, and this is the community-supported pie.  But what is a community-supported pie and what are the benefits that it could give pastry chefs and consumer members?  Lastly, how could they take advantage of community-supported pie and boost not only their popularity but their revenues as well.

The Community-Supported Pie in a Nutshell

The community-supported pie, simply put, is just like the community-supported agriculture, which is a sort of food network that is becoming very popular right now.  The farmers offer a certain percentage and number of shares to the community or public, which the interested consumers will purchase.  By purchasing a share, the consumers automatically become a member of the community-supported agriculture as this is their form of payment for the subscription.  Once a member, they then receive a basket or maybe even a box of seasonal food products once a week from the farmer members, and this will last all throughout the farming and harvesting seasons.

Now, with community-supported pie, instead of receiving agricultural products, the consumers get to receive pies.  Some community-supported pie groups accept membership fees for as little as sixty dollars a month, and the consumer member will get to receive one large pie weekly or three small pies, depending upon the pastry chef and the types of pie made, of course.

Benefits of Community-Supported Pies

There are so many benefits that community-supported pie give to the pastry chefs and bakers.

Community-supported pie is proving to be an excellent solution for small business and bakeries that are just starting out.  This gives them the opportunity to introduce themselves and their company’s name to their target market.  Community-supported pie is also perfect for new pastry chefs and bakers to get their names out there.  As for those bakeries, pastry chefs, and bakers who are already in the market, community-supported pie gives them the opportunity to widen their customer base.

With a guaranteed number of subscribers, the pastry chefs and bakers can easily experiment with new kinds of pie flavors, reducing the risk of suffering from huge financial losses and reducing the amount of time that it will take for their popularity to grow.  In a way, the subscriptions they get give them the boost that their cash flow needs to be more creative in trying out new flavors and ingredients for their pies.

Lastly, community-supported pie gives the pastry chefs and bakers the opportunity to meet their consumers.

Now, the consumer members also get to receive a lot of benefits from community-supported pie.

The weekly pie alone is a huge benefit.  Consumers can easily pick the pies up at a designated place, or the pies can be delivered right to their doorsteps.

Another benefit that consumer members get is the opportunity to get the first taste of the new pie flavors before they will be introduced to the public.  They will also get the benefit of sampling special pies, like off-menu pies, that are not commonly found in the bakery or bakeshop.

The consumer member can also give the pies away as gifts to their loved ones.  Not only can this brighten up someone’s day, but this can also help the company a great deal as their pies reach more people.

Taking Advantage of Community-Supported Pie

Now, if you are a pasty chef or a baker new to the market, then you can certainly take advantage of community-supported pie groups.  You can simply look for local community-supported pie groups in your neighborhood, fill out their form, submit the necessary requirements, and you are good to go.

However, if there are none in your area, then why not start your own pilot program for the community-supported pie?  You can simply post an ad in your local newspaper, providing details on how the interested consumers can become a member.  If it becomes a success, then you can add more members.

Before you do this though, learn more about community-supported pie programs and study your target market very well.

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