Developing Restaurant's Concept

It is important to have a dynamite concept. At the same time it is crucial to have a suitable one.

By concept,I mean the overall vision of the menu,what we will serve,Our services,How and who will do it? The ambiance of how the facility will look, And what impression it will make on the customers the first time they come in and repeatedly thereafter.

Finally how we will treat our customers and what impression will they carry home of us. For this restaurant to work effectively, It is very important that all these elements work together.

1. The concept be as unique as possible to separate you from the competition.
2. The dining concept is developed directly with the theme in mind and is incorporated into it immediately.
3. It must be easy to recognize and understand.
4. All elements of the system are aimed at customer service, satisfaction and perceived      value.
5. The food should be designed to be prepared in a timely manner reflecting the type of service
6. The food should be presented to the customer promptly and in an appealing manner. 

Unless we have made a comprehensive study of design, it is crucial that when this is ready to be presented to the public, the restaurant's appearance and how the food is prepared and delivered should fit together so as to reinforce one another.

Featuring the Chef is recommended as he is the main key in every success of any restaurant venture I've ever known,what he does,where he is trained and above all he is the leader of the team. 

The set up and how the restaurant will be decorated is vital in creating the ambiance,If we are dealing with an Italian Restaurant, there should be huge bottles containing infused olive oils with herbs and spices,ceramic vases with dried leaves and flowers and maybe the presence of ornamental plants inside the restaurant, Olive tree is a good example. 

The Menu should be good, simple and short especially in the opening or launching for at least on its first six months of operation. 

Below is a Menu sample applicable to a mediterranean restaurant

SOUPS

• Vegetable soup  
• Fresh Seafood in hot clear broth 
• Three Mushroom cappuccino

SALADS

• Grilled mushrooms, mesclun, shaved parmesan & reduced balsamico 
• Herbed mesclun composed of rucola,young crunchy lettuce & herbs  

With choices of toppings; grilled chicken breast,grilled garlic prawns, 

deep fried goat cheese, crumbled blue cheese

FISH & CRUSTACEANS   

• Grilled lobster tail & Mushrooms ravioli 
• Seabass in Papillote with seasonal vegetables
• Grilled garlic prawns on lemon risotto

MEATS

• Braised veal shank, garlic potatoe mash
• Panfried Duck breast al balsamico, Red wine spaghetti & shaved parmesan 
• Herbed Chicken stew,Rosemary Foccacia
• Adana Lamb Kebabs,potatoe & onion salad
• Grilled prime T bone steak at your cooking option 

DESSERTS

• Tiramisu
• Orange Panna Cotta 
• Polenta shortcake with raisins and home made lemon ice cream  
• Lemon & ricotta Tart
• Warm chocolate tart 

RecipesRedefined® Classics & Creative Concoctions

RecipesRedefined®: Personal Chef

RecipesRedefined®:A Personal Chef is a culinary professional who prepares meals for a client in the client's home kitchen, based on the client's needs and personal preferences. Meals are left packaged in containers and refrigerated or frozen for the client to enjoy later. Some Personal Chefs instead,focus on cooking for dinner parties and other special occasions in the client's home, which means they are responsible for shopping, preparing the meal, serving the guests and cleaning up afterward. The menu is pre-planned and discussed with the client, then prepared in their home. According to health-department guidelines, all food must either be prepared in the home of the client or in a kitchen that has passed an official health inspection.

With Personal Chef service,you'll have the food you've always craved for on your special occasions, cooked at your own place with cost effective menus at your option. Sure, According to the number of your invitees & your requirements.

Cooking demos & lessons could be added in the event with provisions of written original recipes

For assistance on this service, please dial;

Mobile No +39 3889064523

Sample Menu

Poached lobster tail on a bed of mesclun dressed with mustard  vinaigrette

Roasted spiced duck Balsamico,Red wine spaghetti and shaved Parmesan

Pineapple Marshmallow parfait garnished with seasonal exotic fruits 

Coffee or tea served with Chocolate pralines

RecipesRedefined® Classics & Creative Concoctions

2011 Spring In Florence,,

While in Florence, I have the opportunity  to widen my  researches  in Italian cooking
Loads of fresh ingredients mostly noted this time of the year,loads of specialty eateries who simply features tuscan cuisine and loads of noted icons in culinary scene

Grilled fresh herbed & spiced vegetables, pumpkin,radish,carrots,eggplants & tomatoes 

Pickled vegetables

Seafood Soup 

Grilled herbed sweet peppers 

Grilled herbed sweet peppers with garlic & rosemary
on balsamic & extra virgin olive oil 

Lungo Arno River 

Ponte Vecchio 

Panoramic view of Florence 

From my homey kitchen 

Rice "Suppli" stuffed with mozzarella  

Cooking Minestrone 

Curiousity / Inside L.A.'s Food Truck Phenomenon

A new style of eating is sweeping America: gourmet food trucks. From Miami to Austin to San Francisco, upmarket lunch trucks are speeding light years ahead of old-fashioned ice cream carts and mobile burrito vendors, and they're serving up inexpensive gourmet meals made from locally sourced ingredients.

Nowhere is the new food truck style more evolved than in Los Angeles. WalletPop's Jason Cochran spent the afternoon on Wilshire Boulevard, hopping its food wagons to learn the secret ingredient to their money-making success. 

The key to their success is that they don't have to pay rent on buildings or manage large staffs. All they have to do is find a patch of curb before lunch, and to accomplish that, many of them hire friends to hold spots in their cars until the the big wheels arrive for the lunch rush. When the parking ticket enforcement arrives to ticket them for overstaying their parking spot, they simply swallow the fee as the price of doing business each day. 

After all, it's cheaper than a lease on a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, so the prices of meals can be lower, too.

Food trucking is no longer a business for upstarts, either. Restaurant stalwarts are seeing the economic sense in producing mobile versions of their most popular The Wall Street Journal reports that one $75-a-meal Austin restaurant,Hudson's on the Bend, made up for declining lunch trade with the proceeds from its own food truck. In Los Angeles, a 69-year-old landmark delicatessen,Canter's, launched a food truck in March.

Eating food out of a vehicle may sound wasteful on the surface, but to hear customers tell it, the trucks perform a service. At one of the spots WalletPop checked out, outside offices of Comcast and the E! cable channel, workers poured out in a steady stream to browse the eight trucks that arrived that day. They said they were relieved not to have to drive elsewhere to find a selection of decent food. With fuel prices, parking, and traffic such prevalent problems in the city, it's economical to have the food find them, and not the other way around.

t's a culinary twist made possible by technology and the collision of cultures. Some food trucks pick a new neighborhood for each day of the week, rotating the food choices for office workers. To help customers know how to find them or when to expect them in their own areas, they maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts. By mid-morning, they've told the city where they can be tracked down.

Mobile kitchens of previous generations might have called hot dogs or burritos their most expensive dish. Now, as Americans expect higher-quality ingredients and more sophisticated fusion dishes, you can find lunch trucks serving white truffle fries and kimchee tacos.

Reference;http://www.walletpop.com/2010/05/12/inside-l-a-s-food-truck-phenomenon/

Deep Plate Exercise March 2010

RecipesRedefined®: About the Author: "Romeo M Garchitorena, Executive Chef in Egypt for Red Sea Hotels since 2008, Has been traveling for more than a decade for his assignments ..."

Deep Plate Exercise March 2010  

http://deepplate.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/march-2010-exercise-%E2%80%93-romeo-mendoza-garchitorena/

"Marinated Goat Cheese and Roasted Sweet Peppers terrine "

RecipesRedefined®: Pates & Terrines: "Marinated Goat Cheese and Roasted Sweet Peppers terrine "

RecipesRedefined® Classics & Creative Concoctions