Showing posts with label do. Show all posts
Showing posts with label do. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Whatever You Do Dont Drink the Bottled Water!
At the Slow Food events this past weekend, I noticed that water was being served in these plastic cups. This seemed a bit odd for these earth-friendly folks, but closer examination showed them to be compostable. The woman manning the water stand explained to me that these cups were made out of corn, and were biodegradable.She was beaming with pride as she filled it with San Franciscos finest tap water. Tap water? What? Thats right, thousands of we effete Bay Area foodies were being forced to drink tap water! Something that people from places like Nebraska (where the corn for the cup was probably grown) are forced to endure. The horror.
If Slow Food Nation 08 accomplished one significant thing, it was educating people that tap water is good, and bottled water is bad. Who knew? There was lots of information posted at all the "water stations" that made a great case for giving up that plastic bottle. I wont bore you with the details. You can bore yourself at the Take Back The Tap website. In all seriousness, its important info to read, and I encourage you to check it out.Remember how we all laughed and mocked those first bottled water drinkers? What a bunch of idiots - paying for water, when you can get it free from the tap! Now, we all suckle at the teat of big water. What the hell happened? It turns out our original instincts were right - we should have known the first time we saw those net water bottle purses swinging off peoples hips.
VIDEO UPDATE: A viewer passed along this clip from YouTube of an episode of Penn and Tellers show "Bullsh*t" - which will serve as further evidence of the bottled water scam. Warning: Adult language sprinkled throughout.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
How Crazy Would It Be To Do a Juice Cleanse
{Blueprint Renovation Cleanse}
Remember a long time ago when Oprah lost a bunch of weight and then rolled out the pounds of fat she lost in a Radio Flyer wagon on her show and told the world the miracle of how she lost the weight by starving herself sticking to a liquid diet? Despite the fact that she gained all of it back basically the next day (since CLEARLY you can’t lose 67 pounds in a matter of weeks unless you’re on the Biggest Loser eating disordered), juice fasts have been popular ever since. I blame Gwyneth Paltrow. Bitch.
But just like running a marathon or watching a football game, doing a juice “cleanse” has never really appealed to me. I looked at it as a way to lose (water) weight fast to fit into an age-inappropriate dress for a high school reunion or something, which, I mean, let’s face it, wouldnt apply to me anyway since my body type is still that of a perky, hipless 16-year-old. SHUT UP, YES IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!
And then, during my Whole Foods ritual of defensive cart-pushing (you have to be on the lookout for distracted shoppers!), I spied a bottle of something delicious looking: Cashew milk with agave and vanilla bean. The label said “Blueprint” and had a pretty blue lid. I nearly put the bottle in my cart before rushing to beat the lady with the cart overflowing with frozen Amy’s meals and “Organic” potato chips before I realized the drink came with an $11 price tag! If I’m paying over $10 for a beverage, it better make me drunk or beautiful, or both, and as far as I could tell, it definitely wasnt going to make me drunk.
Despite the fact that I considered $11 superfluous for one beverage, I couldnt stop thinking about it. Curious, I took to the ol’ internet to see if anyone else had seen these pricey little drinks. And that’s when it all changed.
Despite the fact that I considered $11 superfluous for one beverage, I couldnt stop thinking about it. Curious, I took to the ol’ internet to see if anyone else had seen these pricey little drinks. And that’s when it all changed.
Blueprint is actually a NYC-based cold-pressed juice cleanse company. Like, all they do is make juices that are supposed to clean your system out (read: pee and poop) and give your digestive system a rest to re-energize the rest of your body, and even help you lose weight. An $11 juice that makes me beautiful?? Tell me more! They offer a few different cleanse systems that can be delivered right to your door for however long you want. So, if you want to do a mini-cleanse, pick the three day option. If you wanna do the Gwynnie “I’m Better Than You” cleanse, pick the 6 day option. And so on. They also started selling their juices through Whole Foods to make more money them more accessible to the masses, which is nice so you don’t have to pay the $40 overnight shipping.
{The Green Juice is the first juice of the day and is a nutrient-packed concoction
of romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley, and lemon. Sounds...terrible.}
of romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, kale, parsley, and lemon. Sounds...terrible.}
In case you arent catching on, this shit’s expensive! We’re talking nearly $200 for a three-day cleanse. Did you know you could just starve yourself for free??? But despite my better judgment, I’m intrigued. The juices actually sound good (pineapple, apple, mint? Um, delicious!) and I’m really curious about this whole giving your digestive system a rest thing. Would I actually feel more energized if my pipes were empty? Could I really reallocate that energy to something like working out or judging people??
For those of you about to say something asinine like “okay, but just make your own juices!” BLASPHEMY!!! No, but seriously, there’s like 6 cups of kale in just ONE of the 6 daily juices…and that’s only one of the ingredients. So, the grocery items needed to make each juice would clearly be no more cost effective than buying the pre-made cleanse. Right??
So, I’m curious Cupcult—should I do this cleanse? The few people Ive spoken with that have done it already have nothing but great things to say (so far Ive learned that they didnt feel hungry because they drank so much and that it doesnt make your pee turn weird colors), but I’m curious if any of you have ever done this or another cleanse. How did it go? What should I know before doing a cleanse? Did yours make your pee turn weird colors??? I’m very concerned about this. I need answers!!
Friday, March 7, 2014
Do you wish your restaurant made more money
Ok, so thats a pretty obvious question. Of course you do. But, how? If youve read my profile, you know that I taught at the California Culinary Academy for almost five years. Most of that time I taught a class in Kitchen and Purchasing Math. It focused on food cost calculations, portioning math, and many other foodservice related formulas.
The thing I found most surprising was when I would speak to a former student about how their job was going at a particular restaurant, they would often say, "they dont use any of those formulas you taught us, the Chef just guesses at the amounts to order." They would tell me that new dishes were put on the menu without a complete food cost analysis first. They would tell me how there were no controls regarding postioning. Some Chefs, I was told didnt even know how to use an Excel spreadsheet to help with all this basic kitchen math!
Thankfully, any establishements that hired my students at least had one employee that knew how to breakdown these crucial numbers to find more profit.
So, I would say the simplest and fastest way to make more money is to improve your basic kitchen math and purchasing methods. I can help you do this. I have many spreadsheets and calculators already built and ready to punch in your numbers to see if we can improve things.
If you are located in the SF/Bay Area, I can consult in person. If not, this can also be done via the website. For a free consultation, send me an email and well set up a meeting.


Read More..
The thing I found most surprising was when I would speak to a former student about how their job was going at a particular restaurant, they would often say, "they dont use any of those formulas you taught us, the Chef just guesses at the amounts to order." They would tell me that new dishes were put on the menu without a complete food cost analysis first. They would tell me how there were no controls regarding postioning. Some Chefs, I was told didnt even know how to use an Excel spreadsheet to help with all this basic kitchen math!Thankfully, any establishements that hired my students at least had one employee that knew how to breakdown these crucial numbers to find more profit.
So, I would say the simplest and fastest way to make more money is to improve your basic kitchen math and purchasing methods. I can help you do this. I have many spreadsheets and calculators already built and ready to punch in your numbers to see if we can improve things.
If you are located in the SF/Bay Area, I can consult in person. If not, this can also be done via the website. For a free consultation, send me an email and well set up a meeting.
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