Posts from — July 2009

Hi,

I am sitting here writing a menu for a client in August. For the starter I want something more than a starter but not as much as an appetizer. So what do I call “this inbetween”.  I am thinking about this and “POP”! it comes to me. I am inventing a new type of course called “Soft Starter” it is the inbetween stage. Feel free to use it and together we will start a new culinary trend.

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

Decided to take the majority of the day off.  It is a hot southern summer day so I went over to my brother’s house to use the pool.  Good thing I did as Bruce’s 6 year old reminded me that his birthday is tomorrow. I didn’t forget but I yet I did. Probably because I have been traveling a bit and I am leaving on Monday again that I was focused on getting some rest on Sunday and now I need to change those plans to wanting to do something on Sunday night for my brother’s birthday. I did take quite a few pictures of Emily who was in the mood to pose.

I had a nice swim with the girls. The water was on the cooler side – perfect for a 97 degree day.  Bruce’s 2 dogs were outside and I was able to get decent pictures of them as well.

Presley is a rescue dog who never gets enough lovin.

Then Reggie is their black lab they had since a pup.

Reggie they call him a block head lab as his head is in a block shape not a pointed shape.

For dinner I met my friend a Paul’s new restaurant in Vinings.  Very underwhelmed. If you are going to put a menu on line then it needs to be the same menu that is in the restaurant.  The menu on line was much better than the one we were handed.  The physical plant is very cold and way too big for the vibe. He did have an excellent jazz band playing though.  The crab slider was so bad I didn’t even eat it…and I was pissed at myself. I should have known better.  The sweet potatoe fries were excellent. The potstickers had too much overdone cabbage in them not enough veggies and the rest was just not memoriable.  But he is a good chef and will survive.

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

What I learned yesterday actually happened at the Atlanta airport.  I was walking through the food court when a party of 4 people caught my eye.  They were all dressed in “boy scout” clothes. It was obvious a father and 2 sons which I thought was lovely and then a 4th person caught my eye.  It was obviously their mother. Who looked to be “into scouting” just as much as the father. I thought ok, that’s very kool.  Mom was an older gal definitely in shape.  It is when she stood up that I realized uuugghh there is a reason why scouting is for boys.  Those uniforms are not meant in any way to be worn be a female. I am a traditionalist scouting is a boy thing and so are the uniforms. Mom’s have no right to be seen wearing a scouting uniform. Granted I think the activity is amazing and I write this ditty very tongue and cheek.

Attended a trade show for exhibitors in Chicago yesterday. Got a couple of good ideas and what I liked most about exhibits is they are very “comforting” with their environment and lighting elements. There were some very pretty exhibits on display that give you that look of “home” and business all in one shot.

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

Claire

I was working in Dallas last week when a vendor partner took me to one of his favorite places for dinner. One of the things this restaurant is known for is their desserts/bakery. When you walk into the door they are all very nicely displayed in a bakery case for anyone who would like to take one of these goodies “home”. They also had a very unusual display of “cupcakes”. I have to tell you from a banqueting standpoint I am tired of cupcakes but when see them beautifully displayed or when I see anyone who does them properly I am automatically drawn to them. I sat there and thought to myself “why do I hate doing them for banquets” anymore but all’s I want to do right now is bypass dinner and eat a couple different cupcakes for dinner with a glass of milk. I even wrote an article about how much I don’t like cupcakes for banquets a couple of months back. Then the reason came to me – because for some reason hotel’s don’t do a good job making them. Plus let’s face it they are a touch awkward to eat. Hotel’s don’t make the icing all nice and fluffy and usually the icing doesn’t have enough flavor. Then they can never get the cake part correct of the icing. I think it is a combination of all of these that takes away from the cupcake experience in a hotel but yet makes it so appetizing in a bakery experience.

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

Claire

Leaving Czech

As I am getting ready to do one of my least favorite things – packing – to leave Europe to head back to the US a couple of things comes to mind as I think back of my week.  That the Czech people aren’t very friendly as a culture.  At least the folks we came across in Prague.  Many of them are still raised with the Communist mentality of not trusting, not smiling and definitely not friendly. What I can make of it is that the Czech people aren’t as enamored with Western culture as the rest of the previous Communist countries. Russia and Chinese want to learn and know about many American things – but not the Czech people. I think under the communist regime it just didn’t occur to them to think past the day to day of survival. They mentally this culture isn’t made up of dreamers or wonderer’s like the other communist countries.  So as a result in their  post communist world they still carry many of the traits as the communist days.  Try to get some money refunded from a posted invoice is like pulling teeth. In dealing with our catering manager in pre-planning anything unusual off the menu “was not possible” until I asked to speak to his boss.   If you as a tourist try to strike a conversation or get directions with a local you aren’t going to get much out of them. Nor are they interested in asking you questions about life in America or American culture. Very odd for a city who makes a HUGE chunk of change off of tourists.  Shopping here for me wasn’t great. I have been to about 15 countries in Europe and this has been by far the worst. This was the place to go shopping years ago because the country was so cheap. Not so much anymore they have caught up with the times and everywhere you go there are many stores that sell a lot of the.  It must be the same glass shop owner who owns about 10 shops throughout old town.  When I shop for something unique from a city that is exactly what I want it to be unique. As a result I didn’t end up bringing much home – which was ok for my pocketbook.

One thing that I thought was very sweet – was we gave our convention services manager a tip – he immediately said this was very unusual and that he would give it to the banqueting staff. We told him we wanted him to have it as he did a great job with us.

The other thing I was hoping to do more here was youtubing – but I couldn’t get anything worth filming out of the culinary team so that went by the wayside as well..  Food turned out to be much better than I thought. We had some very surprisingly nice meals.  The key is TO NOT EAT in Old Town.  Irene and I found a lovely restaurant about a 20 minute walk from the hotel which we went to twice. The atmosphere was the nicest and most modern of any of the restaurants we had been too and the food very good with a huge variety.  The owners 4 young guys are not from Czech so they were very friendly.  They had a huge variety of food on their menu which surprised me.  They really understood proper seasoning of food.  The other surprise for me – was how many pizza and pasta restaurants there were here. I thinking probably because it was cheap. The pizza is good – very thin crust none of this thick crust garbage you get back in the US. Of course their ice cream is so much better as well.

Time to start packing for a very long day back home.

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

Not bad – is my general comment.  Since the majority of the staff was raised in Communist Czech or their parents are – you don’t see a lot of smiling.  The chef is roughly in his late50’s early 60’s so he is very militant in his point of view.  I made the very bad mistake in asking him to make some changes. Actually I exaggerate a bit he was ok after a bit of barking.  But once you tease with him as much as you can in a foreign language and eventually all is good.  I went around to the staff and thanked them for their help and laughing told them to smile. They aren’t used to the client acknowledging their efforts so by the time we were done with the first meal I was starting to see the first glimpse of a smile.  Today was our last banqueting meal and several of them were coming  up trying to give me extra food – that I don’t need; extra drinks – that I really don’t need and giving extra service because I took an interest in them.  My funnest moment was with the militant chef.  I was cleaning out the garage before I left and found an apron from an event that I did at Kevin Rathburn’s restaurant.  I bought it over and gave it to the chef. I explained to him that Kevin was a very famous chef in Atlanta where I am from and that he wanted him to have this apron. Which knowing Kevin he would.  Chef burst into a big smile and immediately put it on and walked around to show it to his staff with pride.  It was so kool and he kept thanking me.  So if I want job satisfaction I think back to this moment and there I will have it.

Regarding banqueting in general – in Prague the bread isn’t nearly as good as you get in other parts of Europe and definitely not even close to comparision to France where one can live on bread.  Sodas here are all served in individual bottles which everyone loves getting a small bottle. 

Other than that nothing much happened as we were well into meeting mode.

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

Claire

 Yesterday Irene and I got to spend time with a couple of the hotel staff doing our meeting room set ups.  We had some “down time” and talked to the staff about what life was like under the communist regime.  Our CSM was 9 years old and the banquet manager was 10 years old when the iron curtain came down. 

Mikal and George - our CSM and Banquet Manager

 I asked Mikal and George what was the first thing that was the biggest difference – they immediately said they could travel out of country.  Unless you were a government official you couldn’t leave the republic with the exception of going to another communist country such as Poland.  Ok now let’s take a minute and REALLY THINK ABOUT THIS – for example imagine being born in the state of Georgia and living 20 years of your life only being able to go to South Carolina because that too is a communist state – but you can’t ever go to Florida.  Matter of fact you barely even know Florida exists other than every now and again hearing rumors of what the beautiful sandy beaches are like; the food etc but other than that you would know nothing more about it.  That was their first comment was how weird it was especially for their parents as they were born into communist times about all the sudden having this incredible freedom to go anywhere they wanted with out government restrictions.

Second – they did talk about the availability of different types of food.  They couldn’t import foods from free countries.  They only heard about bananas and citrus fruits here and didn’t actually see one until they became a free.  Speaking of food – my favorite subject – coupons.  Mikal and George was telling us how their food coupons would  come in the mail and they would have to go to the government grocery store to get their food rations. Many times they were out of the things they needed. The government didn’t supply the food to the stores.  So having availability to lots and the variety of  food has been a real treat once they become a democratic nation.  Going to school – everyone had to take Russian it was required. Under no circumstances could anyone take English let along teach it.  George told us both of his parents speak Russian very well.  

Speaking of Russian – the general session room of the hotel was the gymnasium when the Russian’s used the hotel as a training facility.  All the light fixtures from the hotels are originals and are more than 50+ years old. I don’t know why but I find them lovely.

Light fixture from hallway

Other misc. items – is that it is cherry season here in Czech Republic.  Cherry’s for me are a treat but they are grown here and many people have cherry tree’s in their  home gardens.  Irene and I went to the fruit market.  Right now in season here are cherry, apples and tomatoes.

Irene eating cherry's at the fruit market

Yesterday – Irene and I had a couple of meetings and then headed back into Old Town for lunch. It was pleasant and then we walked around the city some more. We stopped at an ice cream stand and got youghurt flavored gelato. This flavor is very popular here and is very good.  Other than that we spent a chunk of the day working.

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