Posts from — January 2009

Just got back from dinner tonigth with my brother and he spent the big bucks on a restaurant meal that wasn’t that great. Part of the problem is they write a menu description then the chef prepared whatever the heck he wanted. This ended up costing the restaurant some money because by my last app – I got soup/salad and crabcake appetizer I was so “done” with this lack of menu description nonesense that I sent back the crabcake and he had to refund me the $16.00 that this expensive dish cost. There was no lump in that crabcake it was a “mush” cake if you know what I mean. Then the chopped salad wasn’t chopped. Weird and sad topped with I wouldn’t recommend going back there.

The real treat came on the drive home. Dad told me my cousin called and was asked to take a pay cut. She obviously doesn’t want to do that. He said look in these economic times you can play in the parade or watch it go by your choice. Watching it go by isn’t going to do anyone any good as right now it will be hard to get into another parade so march to the beat of the world’s drum. I couldn’t agree with him more.

That is both of our stories for now and we are sticking to it.

People always want to know about trends – well here was a good one that Top Chef touched about last night – instead of doing an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert – how about doing salad, entree, and 2 desserts – this is unusual and fun. The first dessert could be an amuse dessert – and I wouldn’t do a sorbet -I would do something light and on the healthy side and then the last dessert I would go for something a bit richer and one that has texture and crunch as well.

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

Read the entire 4th Quarter 2008 Diaries »

Inside this edition…
First and foremost I HAVE to start with the Olympics. I have to tell you it was one of the best work experiences I have ever had. Being in a semi communist country, working the top athletic event in the world, for one of the best companies was such an incredible experience. You want to talk about challenges – let me tell you there were lots of them which Coke handled with class, grace and elegance. I teased and said the weather in Florida and the atmosphere of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee had a lot in common. You didn’t like something just wait 10 minutes and it will change.

Read the entire 4th Quarter 2008 Diaries »

January’s Monthly Morsel

Top of the New Year to everyone! Since we are all going to be challenged with cost-saving measures this year, why don’t I dedicate my first morsel of the year to that? Before I begin, though, I do want to clarify one talking point: Let’s not confuse cost savings with cost cutting. To me, cost savings is doing what you would normally do, just finding more creative ways to squeeze it all in. Cost cutting is eliminating a portion of what you would normally do in order to save money. Today I am going to talk about cost savings because being able to save money while preserving the overall experience is more important than ever. Here are some of my favorite tried and true methods…

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