Not to be ctitical of a critic but...

Last night, I participated in a fund raising event benefiting the Saint Francis Service Dog Foundation here in Roanoke. It is just a wonderful cause and it is always great to have a group of chef's get together to pull off a wonderful dinner for a great group of people and dogs which make a difference in peoples lives!

Tonight, I am checking around the net and happen to pull up an article about the event and I am very disappointed to read what Nona Nelson from The Roanoke Times had to say about the event. I am not bashing her and the comments others had to say in her article but I do not think she understands and gets what this was all about; to be even slightly critical of what the chefs had to prepare is a bit naive.

All of the chefs that participate in this are business owners, business men, and have very busy schedules; not to mention family and personal lives. It takes hours and hours to prep for an event like this. Many of us donated product with money out of our own pockets as well as the time invested to make all of this happen. I just do not think this was the stage to be hyper critical about the food served. If she did not like what I had to prepare for this, that is fine and I can live with that but I think she unjustly criticised Scott Lockhart from Horizon Bar and Grill. He is a wonderful chef and did his very best to put out some great looking and tasting food for all. I am sure she is right on some points she made but Chef Lockhart should be praised for the effort he put into this dinner, as well as all of the chefs. I say BRAVO to you all!

That is all I have to say about that!

Sign of the times!

I have not written here much lately and I tend to do so only when I have something interesting or exciting to say. That is probably not a great thing; you can imagine how exciting my life must be since it has been a while. One good thing; I have lost 101 pounds over the past 7 months.

I am driving down the highway this afternoon with a coworker and something strange caught my eye. A person driving next to me was holding a piece on paper with the word "HELP" and a telephone number. Did he need directions because he was lost? Was he being help hostage? Curiosity got the best of my coworker and he called the number.

The person driving the car noticed I am a chef and wanted to know what restaurant I work at and if I was hiring! This was hilarious and a very innovative way of job hunting. I am not a chef in a restaurant so I really could not help out but do hope he finds work soon!!

Customer Service?? Good bye Circuit City!

I think we live in a time of poor customer service and we as a society see this more and more each and every day. I have seen examples of this over and over the past few years and the announced closing of all Circuit City stores is a prime example. I am not saying that bad customer service did this business in but it surely did not help! Each and every time my wife and I went into this big box store, it was close to impossible to get waited on, yet even acknowledged. I went to this store one day a few years ago ready and willing to buy a computer and could not get a floor representative to wait on me; I went to Best Buy and went home with exactly what I was looking for.

It is not like this was an isolated event. Multiple time we went to Circuit City, there would be sales people gathered in a corner talking and not paying attention to customers in the floor. I do believe this was a contributing factor to the ultimate demise of this big box store. I am originally from Richmond and was a big supporter of CC. I can remember going there as a very young child but as recent years passed, it was really hard to take the complete and total lack of customer service.

I also see this trend in restaurants. If we get poor customer service in a restaurant, we tend not to go back and often, we see these eventually close their doors. We live in a different time where work ethic has been put to the side and often, young workers are more concerned with "where the party is tonight" than I have a responsibility to my employer, my customers, and to myself.

Happy New Year!

Has been a while since I have posted here; much going on over the past few months! I have lost 74 pounds over the past 4 months and hope to keep things moving in a downward positive direction. The job has kept me hopping and that is a great thing. I love what I do for a living. Had talked about doing a cooking class at my church last year and I am going to try and get a class going in just a few weeks. This class will focus on build flavor while trying to eliminate the bad fats we come across each and every day. Should be an interesting class, not a class about dieting; it is all about the flavor!! As soon as we set a date, will post it for all to see.

Will try and post more often as time allows. Most of my blogging efforts are going into my wight loss blog and I have neglected this portion of my web site. Hope you all have a safe and prosperous 2009! Please keep yourself safe!

Everyone's a comedian

Has been a rough week here for me. I have had the flu for most of the week; resulting from stress (I believe) caused by hitting a deer on a major interstate traveling at 60 MPH as I was heading into work on Monday morning. Am really glad it is Friday.

Later in the afternoon, a co-worker comes into the test kitchen and asks, "I heard venison is on the menu for today?"

Actually, it was pretty funny!

Just to let you know, I was not hurt, but the deer did not do much better and he did not win the battle. My car may have something else to say about this matter!

Bad Service

I was on vacation the past few days, at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, and discovered that there is a service crisis in other parts of the world as well. Most of the service at all of the restaurants chose to dine at was either sorry or down right horrible. At particular establishment, we got up and left because we could not get waited on. I really should say, after we were sat at our table, we could not get the attention of a waiter, host, or manager; for goodness sakes, just acknowledge your customers!

As far as food quality goes, most of what we ate was mediocre at best. I guess a vacationing couple or family has to face the fact that when dining at a tourist location, prices are going to be very high, and food quality may not exactly be what is expected. I can say with complete and total honesty, we experienced this first hand! What a down right shame. Give me good service and ok food, or great food and bad service and I can swallow that pill. Give me bad food and bad service and I really become miffed!

With all of this said, how do you tip in situations like this? Since I am in the food service industry and have a soft heart for people which rely on tips, I tend to tip a little better that the average person. If you get a 15% tip from me, that is pretty bad; I tend to tip in the 25% range if good service is rendered. Should I start tipping badly to waitstaff which delivers sub-par service?What are your feeling about all of this? Is customer service going the way of the dinosaurs?

Today, I did email the restaurant we walked out. I am never looking for a free meal or special attention so I wrote the email expressing the fact that the management of this restaurant should be made aware of the situation. I usually repay restaurants like this by never going back again. Something similar happened a few years ago here in Roanoke, I contacted the manager of that establishment, and he extended an offer for me to bring in anyone with me for a free meal. I have never and will never step foot in that establishment again.

Oprah

The episode which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Show today dealt with knowing where food we eat comes from and how animals are treated. I did not get to actually see the show but when I came home from work, my wife stated that we are never eating meat again.

One thing I think people should realize about animals in the food chain: These animals are not pets. They are harvested for a single purpose, to feed people. I will not defend the living conditions these animals are subjected to and I think that in the next 5 to 10 years, we will see dramatic changes in the way animals are treated. It all comes back to they are a food source, just like a zucchini, wheat berry, scallop, lobster, or eggplant. These are all living creatures as well.

Happier animals are more productive and produce better tasting proteins but at they end of the day, they still end up on a dinner plate. Yes, we should advocate free range chickens, hogs, lamb, beef cattle, and other protein sources but it will take time to get there. In the mean time...

Beef, it's what's for dinner!