I cooked at a high-end restaurant and currently cook in a nice hotel. I enjoy it as it gives you a fair amount of physical work (lost a hell of a lot of weight working in kitchens), shifts pass quickly, it feels satisfying to be doing something that can make someone's day go well, and I enjoy being able to just make things out of the blue that taste really good.

My specialty is mainly around Italian food, with my minor focus being on Chinese/Thai cooking. I can pretty much make any Italian or Italian-American dish you can think of, and I'm starting to get a hold of the basic ideas behind a lot of Asian cooking (When you know different techniques and common ingredients, it's easy to work your way up). I was originally trained in French cooking, but the taste of butter and flour in everything eventually just kills the food for me.

Andrew Man wrote:

Greg the White wrote: I was originally trained in French cooking, but the taste of butter and flour in everything eventually just kills the food for me. I know exactly what you are talking about.

yeah, we have a lot of cooks at my current jobs who were trained in French cooking who use roux as the all-around thickener for everything, which results in that dull, gritty taste (Imagine alfredo sauce with a few sprinkles of cheese, but with roux as the primary thickener). I tend to use cheese as a thickener in sauces where it's the main taste, or I'll just take various kinds of bases or powders, and mix them with just a dash of water, maybe make up with a little clarified butter (if there are no dietary concerns to worry about).

My favorite foods to make are all-day stuff like stews/soups, fresh sauces, roasted food, and anything that can be made in a crockpot. Nothing's better than getting cozy next to a burning cauldron full of stew with beer and friends in a Pennsylvania autumn.

Drew Linky wrote:

Dad's teaching me the recipe for his chicken strips, which are famous among our family, extended and otherwise. It's a secret to everyone else. Maybe if Sydlexians have a get together, I could cook them for you guys.

I've turned down a lot of goon meets on SA, but if one if them was like a BBQ setup, I'd definitely be down with it.

And as far as roux goes, I'm fine with it on principle, but I see to many people just dump it in there as a thickener without a second thought, but I think there are better alternatives being discovered out there now.

bassguy252 wrote:

Always works that way, Slipknot came into my restaurant once and I got the pleasure of seeing them They were apparently some of the nicest celebrities we've ever served and tipped very well

My old restaurant only got Ethan Suplee (Filmed that recent Denzel movie nearby) and Travis Pastrana (Woodward's about 30 minutes away). Oh, and Joe Paterno, but you can see the main campus from outside the restaurant.