On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 12:24 PM, Madhu Menon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Deepa Mohan wrote: > > Madhu...you say, I notice..."don't always produce great food". Are there >> chains that do? >> > > There are chains like McDonald's, and there are chains like the BJN group. > One is cheap, mass-produced food that is never great, just adequate, but > consistent. The latter is a fine dining restaurant chain, where the food > quality tends to be better, but is also more expensive. > > And then there are chains like TGIF where the food is expensive, but still > trash. They don't have "chefs", only "cooks" making stuff as per formula > laid down by the company. (One of the worst burgers I've had in my life was > at TGIF, and it cost me more than Rs. 400 too.) Ah. I actually have this theory that making food is as creative an endeavour as any other art; therefore, really good food cannot be standardized...if it is, it will lose by that process. > > > Banquet food (the wedding hall food you refer to) served at hotels is a > different beast. Have you noticed that the food almost never deviates from > the standard dishes you find at most weddings? The same dal, butter chicken, > sag paneer, etc.? And while it's sometimes ok, it never tastes > extraordinary. The good chefs are never put in the banquet kitchen, and the > food is standard so that any donkey can make it. The profit margins on it > are huge as well, since bulk cooking is a whole lot cheaper than cooking > small portions. On top of that, hotels charge by the plate for it, not by > the person, so anyone who changes plates during dinner just cost the host > another extra person's charge. One of my chef friends is aghast that his > sister, who's having her wedding reception at the Royal Orchid hotel here, > is being charged Rs. 750 per plate for the standard North-Indian spread. Ah...but when *I* said, "wedding hall food, I was thinking more of the caterer-made south Indian food....there is a wide range of quality and taste (which, I admit, is subjective) here, and I think it's the basic recipes that differ.... Oh, we also found out the hard way that an extra plate costs the host extra..we once had 50 people to dinner at some five-star place and paid (yowling loudly, but ineffectively) for 75. 75, I ask you! These caterers, especially of south Indian (I use that term in the generic way, meaning the food of all four southern states) food, are definitely cheaper in cost....a full "feast" (veg of course) meal still costs only Rs.150 or so, along with the banana leaf and full-service! I must say, I avoid the PBM-PPC (Panner Butter Masala- Pulao Puri Chhole) type of standardized food. It's always very greasy, and costs far more, and is only second in ...er...repellence, to the Indianised and masalaed Chinese, Mexican, Indian Thai that one often gets in the "high-class" Marwari/ Sindhi/Punjabi weddings. I suppose I could call this fusion cooking..but it's not meant to be. At these weddings I head for the chaat counters...generally that's yummy and with all those spices, who knows if it's not?! I went for a heritage walk to Russell Market on Sunday. The wholesale tomato market was in full swing, and one Mr Mohammed showed me a sack of truly holy tomatoes, that no self-respecting housewife would touch with a barge pole, and told me that this was the daily lot bound for a five-star hotel. And let alone a five-star hotel, long ago, when I was choosing beans in Russell Market, one by one, I curiously asked the shopkeeper, if he let housewives choose like this, what would he do with the remaining vegetables? "Not to worry!" he smiled. "I run a restaurant nearby." Madhu, cost-cutting tip for you! :) Deepa. > > > -- > <<< * >>> > Madhu Menon > Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine > Moss Cocktail Lounge > 96, Amar Jyoti Layout, Inner Ring Road, Bangalore > @ http://shiokfood.com | http://mosslounge.com > Join the Moss group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39295417270 > >
