Some tips for garde manger cooks out there tasked with making family meal salad every day. Learn to think outside of recipes for vinaigrettes and creamy salad dressings. 

Mastering Salad Dressings

Making an aïoli is something every cook should be able to do without a recipe. I’d even go so far as to argue that aïoli is a mother sauce of the modern restaurant kitchen. 

There’s no recipe required for Mayonnaise

Culinary school can teach you so much about cooking, but it's a mighty questionable value proposition. Is it worth it? 

Should I go to Culinary School?

Michael Cecchi-Azzolina’s Your Table Is Ready, Tales of a New York City Maître D’ is here.

The Next Big Industry Read Has Arrived

The very essence of cooking lies in learning to make use of the mealy bits - the bones, the vegetable trim, the parsley stems. The good news is that making stock is way less complicated than the culinary Gods want you to believe.

Stock is a necessary touchpoint on the road to culinary enlightenment

The story behind the genesis of usefirst.com. How a New York City line cook used his down time during Covid to try and change the industry for the better.

Why I Built Use First

Tips on how to show up for that big first restaurant job interview. First appearances are everything. Make sure you’re not ice-capading around the kitchen in a hairnet in front of your future comrades and other lifesaving tips.

What tools should you take on a restaurant trail?

Ever wonder how professional line cooks make use of cake testers to hit the pass with perfectly cooked proteins every time? Here's everything you need to know to become a ringer on grill.

How To Use A Cake Tester

A buyout is when someone buys out a restaurant for an afternoon and or an evening for a private event.  A coordinator works with the client to come up with a menu, determine space arrangements, coordinate flowers, special table settings, and a price is set for the event.

Restaurants love buyouts because they can set a price commensurate with a full night of regular service revenue and will generally come out way better on food cost. 

As a front or back of house employee, it's a welcome break from the typically hectic night of service, BUT standards for banquet food are typically much higher so it is wise to come to work expecting to focus as you will be sending out large volumes of food all at once which will all be considered VIP. 

For the perspective client, a much cheaper alternative to a buyout is a reservation in a private dining room (PDR). Most upscale restaurants will offer private dining events for groups of 8 to 50 guests with their own service staff, private bathrooms, and currated menus. 

A buyout is when someone buys out a restaurant for an afternoon and or an evening for a private event.

Buyout