Food-Issues

White poached chicken. Recipe here.

In another life, I worked in a commercial kitchen. I might even have mentioned it a time, or ten.

However, kitchen work taught me an awful lot of things, the least of which is that the amount of energy that goes into getting your meal on your table at a restaurant is astronomical.

For example, a  brie cheese and herb stuffed chicken breast, with sundried tomato reduction sauce, chat potatoes and baby vegetables.

A popular dish in the kitchen.

So, a few days before you order your meal, I am chopping enough herbs to see us through the next 3 days of prep, generally 500g of each herb, parsley, dill, rosemary, mint and thyme. I have 40 chicken breasts defrosting in water in the kitchen sink and I am prepping vegetables. This included turning 10kg of carrots into batons, 10 broccoli and 10 cauliflower into florets, top and tailing 5kg of snow peas, peeling 10kgs of potatoes and putting them on to parboil whole, before chopping them into a dice, slicing 7-8 large zucchinis and then blanching the lot, before refrigerating everything.

You see, nothing in a commercial kitchen is done small scale, so while the chicken breast and vegetables is not a hard dish to prepare by any means, it is all done in bulk ahead of time, sometimes up to a week ahead. Prepped vegies were used for most meals, so we prepped the above amounts every 3-4 days.

Once the vegies are done, I’m hopeful that the chicken breasts will have defrosted enough to work with. A quick poke in the icy water lets me know I’m good to go, so I start to set up, stalling on needing to julliene a 20 litre bucket of stirfry mix.

First is the bain marie tray I’ll set the chicken in so I can fridge it afterwards. Then the cling wrap, catering size, set at the top of my chopping board. Then comes the brie – I need to cut 40 pieces of brie from the wheel and maybe an extra bit to nibble on. What? It’s a perk.

I set the plastic container of herbs up next to me, with the brie laid out on another piece of clingwrap, spaced out so they don’t stick together. I work fast, moving backwards and forwards, doing 3 things at once. Somewhere, in a trip to the coolroom, I’ve dumped the semi-defrosted chicken into a colander and set it above a bucket to drain while I finish prepping. I beg the apprentice to sharpen my knife because I’m not fantastic at that yet.

Once I start, I need to hit a rhythym, as fast as I can.

Pull out a sheet of clingwrap. Grab a chicken breast and in one motion, remove the tenderloin and any excess fat. Throw the tenderloin into a spare container, slice through the chicken breast to create an internal pocket, dip a piece of brie into the herbs and shove it into the cavity. Then slice the clingwrap off, wrap the breast and pop it into the metal bain marie container.

Repeat. Forty times.

Then scrub your hands, scrub your chopping block and knife, throw any remaining herbs out (chicken blood, cross contamination issues) and put everything in the fridge, well covered.

That’s the chicken done for the next few days service.

When an order comes in for chicken that that week, I don’t cook it. I’m on cold larder/desserts/dishes/general runner (depending on the night and whether the other kitchen hand is working), but I do run to the coolroom and grab the preprepared chicken from the fridge, in between doing everything else I’m doing – which sometimes, depending on the day, would be scrubbing walls with a scourer. Yay.

A chef grabs a handful of cooked diced potato from the bucket and sets it aside, ready to deepfry. The chicken probably takes the longest to cook of any meal, except well done steak because you can’t precook chicken (unlike the roast meals and various other things). The chicken is panfried to crisp the skin, before being thrown into the oven, still in the pan for 30 minutes.

A minute before it comes out of the oven, a chef drops the chat potatoes into the deep fryer, the serve of vegetables into the boiling water to reheat them and mixes a few tablespoons of pureed sundried tomatoes with some cream in a saucepan. All this while the chef is making another 4-5 dishes at once.

The chicken comes out of the oven, is sliced in half, set on the chat potatoes and the sauce poured over. The vegies are salted, buttered and put on the plate too, parsley is sprinkled and the plate is sent.

The customer, usually, appreciates how much work has gone into the dish, they enjoy it, they pay and they leave.

Let’s now look at cooking for children.

With children, the amount of effort I put into a meal directly corrolates to how much is eaten.

If I spend the morning prepping and then spend 2 hours cooking and bringing the meal together, you can guarantee that they won’t eat a mouthful. They’ll hate it, or be too tired, or too hyper, or SOMETHING.

They won’t eat it.

If however, I make a quick tomato sauce, pour it over pasta and serve it with grated cheese, they’ll whinge that there isn’t enough.

While family cooking means that there is always less work to be done than in a commercial kitchen, I sort of miss the satisfied feeling of seeing an empty plate come back and a quick report from the waitress on how much they enjoyed it. Not to mention missing getting to play with food for a living.

Cooking for children is definitely harder than cooking for a restaurant. Trust me.

However, commercial kitchens are more stressful. Give me a screaming baby over a screaming chef any day. At least I have a chance that the baby is screaming because it can, and not because I fucked up.

What would you prefer? Cooking in a restaurant for appreciative customers, or feeding your children day in, day out?

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Unicorns and faerie dust and all that.

by Veronica on February 9, 2010

in Food-Issues, Life

Phew! after the fallout from my post admonishing Domino’s for false advertising, I think I need something shiny and pretty to talk about.

Or maybe a unicorn. Actually, if I could be bothered, I could try and stick a horn on one of the horses, but I doubt they’d be impressed and I’m not really sure I’m prepared to chase horses around the paddock all day with a camera.

Anyway

***

It’s been a hard week, this last week. I’m due for my period, my joints keep forgetting that they’re meant to attach to each other and sleep has been restless and broken.

Nan’s house sold and new people moved in. I thought I was fine with that, but it turns out, seeing their car in her driveway was a bit too much to bear. I cried a lot that day.

I miss her. So much. I would have liked to hear her perspective on Domino’s and I know she would have been watching the comments as closely as I was.

I watched a documentary on Palliative care last night. Brilliantly done. It follows four patients through their end of life journey. I cried the whole way through it, but if you’re interested, you can view it online here.

The lady with breast cancer, her attitude reminds me of Nan so much.

I miss her.

***

Photos!

My children play well together. Except when they don’t, and then I fear for my own safety as I wade into the fray of hair pulling and toy throwing to separate them. The house is in a permanent state of disarray, but we’re all having fun. Except for Nathan, the mess makes him twitch.

Susie is settling in well. She’s such a smart puppy and she learns so fast, that aside from normal puppy behaviours, we’ve not had any issues.

We just won’t talk about her penchant for chewing books.

Naughty dog.

***

Again on the Domino’s thing – I rang the ACCC and the government body who deals with food safety and labelling. They’re very interested in Domino’s; as the ACCC says, it’s deceptive advertising to call something Gluten Free and then add a disclaimer that it might not be completely gluten free.

Please forgive me for not knowing which government department exactly I was speaking to, I was passed through 4-5 before I got the right people. It’s someone in the Health Department and they deal with food labelling laws and issues arising from mislabelled food.

Anyway, the guy I spoke to at the Health Department, he says that Domino’s cannot have it both ways and agrees that yes, they are breaking the law in claiming Gluten Free, but then adding a disclaimer. He was lovely and we discussed the issue, including the response I got from the Coeliac Society and Domino’s.

So I can let it go, at least on the internet.

It’s being investigated by the relevant officials now.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Corn Gluten Affecting Patients with Coeliacs?

by Veronica on January 30, 2010

in Food-Issues

Just jumping in briefly, to point you towards a new study that has shown corn affects some patients dealing with coeliacs and gluten intolerances.

The full study is here – it’s written in medicalese and you will need to register to read it.

A good summary as well as some information about corn and it’s effects can be found here.

Personally I recommend the second link, but beware, if you’re dealing with a gluten intolerance or coeliacs disease, reading that link may leave you with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, as small things start to add up.

It would explain why Amy reacts to some things, even when I know they are gluten free and artificial colouring free.

Sigh.

(If you’re looking for this morning’s post – that is here.)

Thanks very much to Tiff, who passed these links along to me via The Gluten Free Review

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

So, Domino’s Pizza Australia is doing a range of gluten free pizzas now.

Which is great, it truly is. I was over the moon when I heard, knowing that some days, I would just really like to be able to buy a pizza, without all the hassle of making my own bases.

I did a quick search, to see if it really was true, or if it was a rumour and no, definitely truth.

Inevitably I wondered at the price of gluten free bases and so clicked over to the Domino’s website to check out the pricing on gluten free bases.

Only to find this when I moused over the gluten free base selection.

Gluten Free Base* Although all due care is taken with your order, your meal may contain traces of gluten. Please note your pizza topping selection may not be gluten free.

I was struck dumb, before starting to swear and curse just a little.

What use is a gluten free pizza, if it isn’t actually gluten free? I am not taking objection to the possibility of some of the topping choices not being gluten free. I know to avoid those. However, there are 13 toppings advertised as being GF choices.

And if it were just the toppings that were not gluten free, wouldn’t it only mention toppings? Not this line about ‘Although all due care is taken…’

So, Dear Domino’s,

Did you know in Australia, to declare something GLUTEN FREE, it needs to actually be, GLUTEN FREE?

It is illegal in Australia, to call something gluten free, if there is a chance it may contain traces of gluten. ILLEGAL.

False advertising all around and I am fuming.

Now, if I hadn’t researched, if I’d just gone down to the local pizza shop and bought a pizza that is declared GLUTEN FREE and endorsed by the Coeliac Society of Australia, then there is a good possibility that your pizza would have made my little girl very ill.

When she has gluten, it damages her intestines. She gets stomach pain and diarrhoea. Her behaviour deteriorates and she can’t control her moods or her body properly. She can’t absorb any nutrients from her gluten free diet and she loses weight, all because of a little bit of gluten.

It takes her gut THREE WEEKS to heal. Three weeks of a very sick little girl, all because something that should have been gluten free was contaminated with trace amounts of gluten.

It’s not good enough Domino’s, not good enough at all.

And to the Coeliac Society of Australia, I think your research was flawed and for you to be endorsing a product that isn’t actually gluten free disappoints me.

Edited to add:

I have spoken to the Coeliacs Society of Australia and they want to make it very clear that they are only endorsing the BASES of Domino’s gluten free pizza’s. The bases are made elsewhere and are certified gluten free.

Forgive me for thinking this, but when you say gluten free pizza, I imagine a base with tomato and toppings and cheese on top. Not just a baked base. Yes, the base might be gluten free when it leaves the factory, but it doesn’t stay that way if it is then contaminated with gluten while in the Domino’s store. And Dominos even says itself that they have 13 different gluten free toppings – so why aren’t they endorsed too? Oh wait, that’s right, because they can’t guarantee the gluten free status of them.

I am so so angry.

**

Edited to add – I left this in the comments, but thought it would probably be better up here.

The Laws –

16 Claims in relation to gluten content of food
(1) Claims in relation to the gluten content of food are prohibited unless expressly
permitted by this Code.

(2) A claim to the effect that a food is gluten free must not be made in relation to a food
unless the food contains –

(a) no detectable gluten; and
(b) no –
(i) oats or their products; or
(ii) cereals containing gluten that have been malted, or their products.

From here – http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/ACF2A90.pdf Page 15 of the PDF file. From Food Standards Australia and New Zealand

***

I am unsticking this post, not because Domino’s has addressed my concerns (form letter – not good enough) but because the tone of the comments is getting nasty and I’m not quite prepared to deal with much more personal nastiness. That said, comments will remain open and I will continue discussions with Domino’s, The ACCC and Food Standards Australia in regards to the illegal labelling.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Gluten Free Cheese Crackers

by Veronica on November 30, 2009

in Food-Issues

101

I’ve been searching for a recipe for Gluten Free cheese crackers for a few weeks and after coming up with nothing that tempted me, I threw everything together and made my own.

Here is what you do –

Take 200g of chilled butter and cube it up.

Cubed butter

Add 110g of Rice Flour, 110g of Tapioca Starch and 130g of Potato Flour. Set it to mix until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.

looks like breadcrumbs

Then add 230g of finely grated cheese.

Cheese

and mix until the mixture starts to look a little clumped together. Add 1/2tspn salt, 3 spring onions, finely chopped, 5 cloves of garlic crushed and a bunch of parsley, finely chopped and mix some more.

Spring Onions

Parsley

It should start to hold together a little more, like this –

Coming together

While the mixer is running, add 2 tablespoons of milk and mix until it balls together.

Mixed

Pull it out of the mixer and shape into 2 large sausages. Wrap them in cling wrap and freeze for 30 minutes.

Sausages

Once it’s been in the freezer for 30 minutes, preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Slice the rolled dough into slices about 5mm thick (1/4 inch) and place onto a tray lined with baking paper.

Sliced

And then bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.

Gluten Free Cheese Crackers

They’re delicious.

Ingredients: (your American weights are guesstimated to ‘close enough’ with my calculator. It will still work)

230g cheese, finely grated (8 ounces)
200g butter (7 ounces)
110g Rice Flour (4 ounces)
110g Tapioca (4 ounces)
130g Potato Flour (4.5 ounces)
1/2 tspn salt
5 cloves of garlic (optional)
3 spring onions (optional)
a bunch of parsley, about 1/3 c chopped
2 Tbsn milk

Method:

Mix the butter into the flours until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Continue mixing and add your cheese, it will clump together a little after a while. When it does, add your garlic, salt, spring onions and parsley. Mix it some more until it starts to pull together and then add your milk. Mix for another minute, or until the milk is all combined.

Shape into sausages and wrap with cling wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes, before pulling them out of the freezer and slicing into 5mm slices.

Bake at 180C (350F) until golden brown and crispy.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }