I just updated Twitter. I added our weekly schedule to the website. Copied the schedule to both Facebook accounts (friend and fan page). Checking and replying to emails, text messages twitter replies. Made a quick stop at Yelp! to look for new reviews. Did a Google search for any new blog posts about the truck, found one and added it to our press page on the website. Checked out our new mayor at foursquare and am just now getting ready to take the truck out for the day…

The social media connection that most food trucks enjoy can be traced back to Kogi BBQ. Many innovators, Kogi being no different, are in the right place, with the right idea at the right time. Two years ago many people would never have made a connection with food trucks and a 140 character conversation on a website called twitter. Flash forward and in Los Angeles today we have more than 60 “gourmet” food trucks rolling on the streets every day, most of which use twitter and Facebook to support their business.

My business, The Sweets Truck enjoys the many benefits that social media and new online / smart phone technologies have offered. In real time we are able to communicate with our friends and fans and have conversations about the direction of our business.

With all of the benefits that social media can offer, it should go without saying that a business should not rely on any form of social media for business. Rather, social media should be a compliment to your daily routine. We have learned from the past (Friendster, MySpace) that the public’s love for any one website is fleeting and giving that much power to one source for any business is a very risky business model.

Social media is not just followers and fans: Unfortunately, some people are looking for an opportunity to negatively impact your business. It’s the double edge sword of real time communication and something that every business owner should be aware of. I know from experience and from speaking with other business owners that there’s nothing more shocking that seeing your first negative review or tweet and knowing that its something that many, many people will read.

Yes, there are many benefits as a consumer and business owners to a vast social network. Yet, we must always be aware that communicating through social media is a raw and unfiltered art form and one that carries powerful influence and with that, there must also come — responsibility.

Simply put, a tweet may bring a curious follower to your business, yet it’s the customer experience that will create the connections from which you can build the foundations for your long-term relationships …

Molly Taylor – Top Cookie
www.TheSweetsTruck.com

Follow The Sweets Truck At:

So we had an opportunity to try a 24 hour challenge. This was to give Cascades All-in-1 ActionPacs a tryout with a tough dishwasher competitor… blue berry cobbler.

Here are the instructions we received.
Instructions:

• Bake a Blueberry Cobbler.* Enjoy!
• Set the empty baking dish out for 24 hours
• Without rinsing, put it in the dishwasher with Cascade Complete

So needless to say while a bit skeptical we gave it a try and here are the pictures.

#1 Making the Blue Berry Cobbler

#2 Setting the Cascade All-in-1 ActionPac in the Dishwasher.

#3 Setting the Dirty Baking Dish in The Dishwasher. (and it was pretty dirty ;p )

#4 The Clean Baking Dish.

Needless to say the Cascade All-in-1 Product did what it promised to do and cleaned the baking dish squeaky clean. It was very easy to use as all you have to do is drop it in the dishwasher. Very much easier and less messy.
I would recommend giving it a try for yourself.
I know I will keep using it.

James Williams CC
http://www.culinaryschmooze.com

Cascade All-in-1 ActionPac Product Shot

Product Benefits:
Cascade Complete All-in-1 ActionPacs give you the confidence of a job done right.
It breaks down, dissolves and rinses away tough food particles without the need to pre-wash.

• No Prewashing
• More tough food-cleaning ingredients*
• Rinse Aid Action

*vs. regular Cascade ActionPacs

Learn more at Cascadeclean.com

Legal Disclaimer:
This product review was based on using complimentary Cascade product provided by P&G. Bloggers also received a Wal-Mart gift card to share with their readers. P&G does not represent or warrant the accuracy of any statements or product claims made here, nor does it endorse any opinions expressed within this blog site.

Cooking with infrared gas grills can be tricky the first time Although the technology was invented at TEC decades ago, many homeowners are buying their first infrared gas grill. Often we build an outdoor kitchen as part of the backyard design renovation a homeowner will ask me what type of book to buy to learn how to cook with their new infrared gas grill. Unfortunately there is not a book that I know of that provides step by step cooking instructions for using a gas grill with infrared technology.

The important thing to remember with infrared grilling is the heat. Yes, of course you know it is hot but a well-built stone oven can also be hot. If you could get your kitchen oven up to 1500 degrees, would your steaks cook faster and taste better? Of course they would. Infrared is different though. One of the important features with infrared grills is keeping the hood open when you cook. This is because the gas creates pressure in the burner so the fire is much hotter than simply running through a pipe burner. The infrared burner gives off tremendous heat without closing the hood to allow heat to conduct through the air trapped inside the hood.

The result of this burner is an enormous amount of heat rises directly off the infrared burner.  The heat is radiant heat and is direct.  This means the heat moves mostly straight up.  The cooking grates actually create a serious impediment to the heat because the heat is moving straight up, not conducting in the air.  Some of the heat will conduct through air and you can feel it while you are cooking but the direct infrared heat that instantly sears the outside of your food is too hot for that.

A burger that is frozen solid when it was placed on an infrared gas grill cooking surface will be ready to eat in less time than it take to pre-heat a traditional barbeque.  However, grilling at 1400 degrees is different with direct heat than it is with heat conducting through air trapped in a hood at 500 degrees.  The space between the cooking grates will show a different reaction to the heat than the part of the burger protected by the cooking surface. After :30 seconds your burger can appear “striped” from the divergent heat displaced by the cooking grids.  The same thing will happen regardless of what is on the infrared grill.  What I do is give the food 30 – 45 seconds and then turn it.  I do not turn it over but shift the position by turning it a quarter of a circle, or ninety degrees.  This allows the section of the burger (steak, swordfish, etc) that is not getting the direct heat to get the direct radiant heat from the infrared burner by moving slightly away from
the grid.

The timing changes because of heat conducted in the air.  For instance, while the strips in between the cooking grates are getting blasted with the direct heat from the infrared grill, the section of the food covered by the grates is still getting residual heat transferred by atmosphere, conducted and radiating off the stainless of the grids and conducted through the food itself.  At fifteen seconds, the burger will look striped with strips of cooked and uncooked areas affected by the cooking grates.  At thirty seconds the phenomena is less evident because heat is conducted.  The areas covered by the cooking grate become somewhat cooked.  With 1400 degrees blasting the area right next to it, the covered areas of food should still be getting 500 degrees of indirect residual heat – more than a typical barbeque with the hood closed.

Depending on how long you will cook the food to get the desired consistency and flavor, do the same thing on the other side of the food.  I generally give one minute and thirty seconds per side to make sure the food is completely seared.  This is more difficult with hamburgers because hamburgers are made of compressed ground beef.  The surface is not really flat and it is difficult to completely sear.  Other foods like steaks and fish filets are easier to cook and obtain a perfect sear.  I eat everything medium well so once the three minutes of searing is complete I lower the temperature and close the hood.  This allows indirect heat to surround the food conducted in the trapped air under the hood and cooks the inside of the food.

For the chef grilling rare and medium rare the “convection” step I use in unnecessary.  If you grill like I do and allow the inside of your food to grill, the type of infrared gas grill you purchase makes a difference.  Although TEC invented the infrared burner and is the best recognized infrared manufacturer, the TEC grill burners do not allow for temperature adjustments.  Solaire  infrared burner and valve design allows the grill burner to be turned to a lower temperature.  FireMagic, Alfresco, OCI and other grills are available as hybrids: part infrared and part convection.  The ability to create a lower temperature than infrared searing at 1400 degrees allows the chef to bring up the internal temperature but also to barbeque items that are not best when grilled.  Ribs, whole chicken, roasts and other foods that many of us enjoy barbecued are impossible on a TEC but with a Solaire or a hybrid infra-vection grill everything becomes possibly perfect.

Cooking with infrared is more similar to using a frying pan than it is to using a barbeque because true grilling is done at the cooking surface.  Many grills use porcelain briquettes, lava rocks and rods to conduct and radiate heat just below the grids.  The invention of infrared technology and its use in gas grills allows a shorter warm-up period and more consistency while cooking.  I just tell clients to do what you normally do but do it faster.  The rest comes with practice.

Jason C Brodrick

http://www.grill-repair.com

Check out Grill Repair on Twitter:

Share Our Strength received exciting news today—exciting for us and for all who believe, as I do, that we can end childhood hunger in America by 2015.

Walmart designated Share Our Strength as a national partner to end childhood hunger in America, part of a $2 billion commitment over five years to fight hunger in America by funding the nation’s leading anti-hunger organizations. This is a groundbreaking commitment to solving the hunger crisis in America.

Share Our Strength is honored to serve as Walmart’s national partner to help provide nutritious meals to the millions of children who struggle with hunger on a daily basis. This partnership will enable us to connect even more children to healthy food through programs like free breakfast in school and summer meals and to teach more families how to cook healthy meals on limited budgets.

Walmart is leading the private sector by making this unprecedented investment in the fight against hunger. The Walmart partnership will enable Share Our Strength to expand the resources it offers nationwide to the more than 17 million U.S. children who struggle with hunger each year, ensuring that fewer kids experience ill health or suffer educational setbacks due to hunger. As this new partnership develops, we’ll keep you posted on our progress in bringing the country a step closer to making No Kid Hungry a reality.

And, I hope that Walmart’s bold move now inspires other corporations to follow suit and commit to the No Kid Hungry goal. When corporations of such scale bring their resources to bear on an issue, we can help bring about a sea change—even one as a big as ending childhood hunger in America once and for all.

Sincerely,
Billy Shore
www.strength.org

For too many years a woman’s place was in the Kitchen – except when that kitchen happened to have a restaurant attached to it. Though every woman was expected to be a good cook, conventional wisdom declared that men would be great Chefs.

It is a known fact that women have to make life decisions that men are not asked to make. Rather, they are being forced to make the decision. Will I have a family or a job? And that…. is the base line. The present ambitious generation of women has undoubtedly opted for the later. Then… why is it that we still do not see more women chefs than men?

It has always been a misconception that “It’s harder in the culinary profession than in others because our hours are strange”. The challenge of balancing career and family life is especially difficult in the restaurant industry. Well, I do not buy this argument at all? What about the timings & work in call centers, MNC’S, IT Companies and Banks? The pressures are mind boggling and the timings are as better or worse as that of a chef.

After watching the film 3 Idiots, I am of the opinion that today’s generation of youngsters will opt for a passion driven career rather than money oriented. Industry’s top companies are working to eradicate barriers that have kept women from advancing their careers in the culinary profession. They have realized that it’s good business to move skilled women up the ranks. The World Association of Chefs Societies and the Indian Federation of Culinary Associations are in the process of creating an environment within the Industry where women feel their contributions are valued and that they can grow and take on new projects so that they want to stay and prosper.

Indian hotels can boast of a very few woman big wigs in the culinary fraternity. Chef Neeta Nagaraj, Corporate Chef, Jaypee Hotels, Chef Manisha Bhasin, Executive Chef, ITC Maurya, New Delhi, Chef Madhu Krishnan, Executive Chef, ITC Gardenia, Bangalore to name a few. Thanks to the hard work of these chefs, they are a great motivating factor for many young women to join the culinary profession and grow to this honorable title of professional chef.

Women make great chefs because multi tasking is a way of life. They possess determination under difficult circumstances and refuse to give up. They are sensitive to the needs and wants of others – guests and staff alike. The culinary industry is growing and there is an abundant requirement of chefs and in particular Women Chefs. The day is not very far when we will see women chefs taking over this mantle. As a chef myself, it will be very encouraging to see more woman chefs grow and prosper in this wonderful culinary industry.

Article by: Chef Akshay Kulkarni

Online voting open through May 3; winner to be announced May 4

ST. LOUIS, April 21, 2010 — From the nationwide call for entries, five outstanding women have been selected as regional winners of Monsanto Company’s (NYSE: MON) America’s Farmers Mom of the Year 2010. The public will determine the national winner by casting votes online at www.AmericasFarmers.com. Online voting is open through May 3, and the national winner will be announced May 4, just before Mother’s Day.

Each regional winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize and advance for the chance to be honored as the first national winner of America’s Farmers Mom of the Year and receive an additional $2,500. The nominees are:

* Northeast Region:  Sue Roohr, Cookstown, N.J.
* Southeast Region:  Erika Forsbach, Savannah, Tenn.
* Midwest Region:  Cheryl Day, Cerro Gordo, Ill.
* Southwest Region:  Carol Cowan, Watonga, Okla.
* West Region:  Caroline Luiz, Yreka, Calif.

A profile of each nominee, along with the official online voting form, is posted at www.AmericasFarmers.com. Regional winners were selected from submissions describing how each nominee embodied the values and hard work that make up the family farm way of life. Nominees were evaluated on the contributions they have made to their family, farm and community. The American Agri-Women, a national coalition of women’s farm, ranch and agribusiness organizations, partnered with Monsanto to select the regional winners.

“The list of nominations was very diverse, which is a testament to the numerous ways women make their mark in agriculture,” says Chris Wilson, President, American-Agri-Women. “There were so many compelling and heartwarming entries that it was difficult to pick just one winner from each region; however, these five women are truly outstanding. Each of these farm moms is truly deserving, and we are honored to play a part in recognizing their notable commitments to agriculture and the farm family way of life.”

Monsanto’s America’s Farmers Mom of the Year is part of the company’s America’s Farmers campaign, which celebrates the contributions of America’s farmers who help provide food, energy and clothing for our growing planet.

“This is the first year of America’s Farmers Mom of the Year, and we are impressed by the outstanding nominations we received,” says Tami Craig Schilling, Monsanto community relations spokesperson and southern Illinois farm mom. “This contest really illustrates how farm moms and wives are a vital part of the American agriculture success story.”

About Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world’s natural resources such as water and energy. To learn more about our business and our commitments, please visit: www.monsanto.com . Follow our business on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/MonsantoCo, on Facebook® at www.facebook.com/MonsantoCo, or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed .

Chefs-Resources.com is the informational resource for Professional Chefs

Where do Chefs go to find the information they require?  Chefs-Resources is a new website geared towards the Professional Chef and it is a solid starting point.  The purpose of the site is to build a culinary resource where Chefs can go for all their informational needs regarding culinary, kitchen and restaurant issues.  The site is about information, not recipes.

Want to know what an acceptable yield is when you break down a whole H&G halibut?  You’ll find it at Chefs-Resources, along with the yields of over 20 other fish.  And the list of fish on the site continues to grow.  Each fish listed includes a full page with information important to Chefs.  What are alternate names of the fish, when is it available fresh, what is the flavor profile, what is the nutritional information (which is converted to a 6 oz portion size rather than the typical 3.5 oz).  Each page has an at a glance ‘flavor scale’ which lists intensity of flavor, fat content, and texture of the fish.

Need the flavor profile of an oyster you plan to put on the menu?  Over 60 oyster varieties from the Pacific Northwest are listed along with their flavor profile, how they are grown and where they are grown.

Chef David Buchanan has worked in kitchens for 30 years and is the creator of Chefs-Resources.com.  David lives near Bellingham, WA and continues to work in the industry as a Chef.  “The idea of Chefs-Resources.com was born from a desire to have all my information available in one place at all times.  I was constantly looking for information which I had discovered or researched at some point in the past, or which I had either at work or at home but not both.  For instance, I had documented extensive yield factors for prime ribs but left the information on the computer at my last job.  I researched the various wild salmon runs last season—but that was last year!  Did Coho start running in June or July?  And so on with all kinds of information.  I wanted it all in one place and if I put it on the internet then I could access it any time from any computer.  No more, Where did I put that?  Was it an excel file or a word document?  Is it at home or at work?  What website did I
see that on?  Now I can even access the information on my cell phone!”

You’ll also find links to free downloadable versions of the IMPS Meat Buyer’s Guide for beef, veal, offal, and pork.  All are in separate PDF files.  There is a growing section on Kitchen Management Tools with information on Food Cost Control, free downloadable Prep Sheets, how to calculate Inventory Turns and more.

Looking for a culinary dictionary?  You can search several dictionaries.  How about culinary conversions?  You’ll find that here too.  The site also has a number of links to training videos on how to break down various fish.

Other unique information includes the volume capacity of various kitchen pans (hotel pans, half pans, etc).  A great help for costing recipes is the dry spice yield conversion chart which shows how many tsp/tbl are in an oz of over 90 spices.

The site is still in its infancy and currently has fresh seafood & produce information revolving around the Pacific Northwest which is where the owner resides and works as a Chef.  But the intent and purpose is to eventually have accurate, useful information for Chefs in every region of the North America.  Another unique aspect of Chefs-Resources is that it is built on a wiki engine (by editme.com).  This allows other Chefs to add their own knowledge to the existing site.  Adding content can be done either by simply adding a comment which the administrator can add into the site if it is relevant.  Or you can register (for free) and gain access to the site’s editorial tools which allow you to add content and create new pages directly into the site.  This is of course overseen by the site administrator who welcomes the professional input of others but reserves the right to modify/delete content at his own discretion.

Visit Chefs-Resources.com home page now to check it out!

Women are, by nature, homemakers. They are the ones who take care of the family, who cook and clean and maintain the home.

This being said, it is surprising that few women choose to make a career in food production. Though many women work in hotels, they are usually in housekeeping, front office, or in administration. Few women chefs have ventured out to start a career in the professional kitchen. This domain was, and is, a male dominated one, and the best chefs today are men. This could be, perhaps, due to the high physical strain required, the long and odd working hours, and the often extreme working conditions.

Many women can have a difficult time balancing the workplace and the home. A straightforward solution for the eccentric timings in the hotel industry is for women to adopt fields where they can work in straight shifts, i.e. from 9 to 5, such as pastry, garde manger etc.

Women are getting ready to accept way of life as a professional chef, such as the strict uniform code, the high standards of personal hygiene required, the restrictions on wearing any jewellery, make up, perfumes etc, while also accepting the ‘shift’ type jobs and the hard working conditions.

Although this is a male dominated industry, the same strict set of rules and high discipline standards in the workplace are in practice to ensure that women need have no fear of harassment or partiality. This is truly a field where the quality of your work alone determines your success as a chef.

When women can go to space or become fighter pilots, why can’t they step into the professional kitchens? After all, cooking is something we have been doing since the beginning of civilization. Women should take pride in their culinary skills, handed down through the generations. Most men chefs acknowledge that their mother, sister or wife, are better chefs than them. Such a statement surely proves that women are born chefs, while men are made chefs.

Chefs, today, are not restricted merely to hotels. Although, at one time, chefs were viewed only through the window of a 5 star hotel, the variety of food operation options available today has expanded the horizon for many women chefs. We can become food critics, host a tv show, write a book, become small scale entrepreneurs, become food photographers etc. A host of options are available today to women who don’t want to walk the beaten path. Apart from all this, as a homemaker, a woman chef can put out gourmet meals for her family members and guests.

I am happy to see famous women chefs like Chef Manisha Bhasin, Chef Nita Nagraj, Julia Child, Nigella Lawson to name but a few. They have achieved a great deal of success in this field and are famous names in India and abroad. These chefs are an inspiration today to women who want to enter this field. I hope that the day is not far away, when we shall see an equal number of women and men chefs in the professional kitchen.

Today, after completing almost half of my course, I can see the difference that professional training makes to my skills and capabilities as a chef. I sincerely believe that if you want to make a career for yourself, as a chef, professional training is needed to help you get the knowledge, the discipline and the ability required in this exacting field.

This post was submitted by iactca.

LOS ANGELES – (FEBRUARY 15, 2010) – “LA Street Food,” is a new iPhone and IPod touch application that will guide mobile device users through the undisputed street food capital of the world, bringing them closer to hidden gems in the vast ethnic community, while directing them to the latest craze to roll through LA – gourmet food trucks.

Available for $1.99 on iTunes, this definitive insider’s guide caters to foodies, Yelpers and the common carnivore/herbivore who want something different, delicious and most importantly in these recession obsession times – inexpensive.

Features of the “LA Street Food” iPhone & iPod touch application include:
– Timely, engaging reviews from a professional food critic with local roots.
– Dining categories ranging from Cuban to Thai, breakfast to dessert, full bar to vegan-friendly.
– Each entry sorted by name, distance, price and neighborhood.
– Interactive GPS maps for walking and driving directions from user’s exact location.
– One-click phone and website interface to peruse menus and Twitter locations.
– High-resolution picture slideshows of each entry.

“LA Street Food” currently features 76 reviews with over 500 photos from a select group that was chosen not only for their diversity, but because of their budget-conscious menus that don’t feature one item over $20. Among the many are: Kogi Truck, Zankou Chicken, Frysmith, Wurstkuche, Coolhaus, Umami Burger and Tito’s Tacos.

“LA Street Food” will be updated regularly with new entries and added features. Users will be able to download the latest versions for free on iTunes.

ABOUT LA STREET FOOD

LA’s melting pot makes it the undisputed street food capital of the world. “LA Street Food” covers it all, from Vietnamese pho houses to Mexican taco stands to Grilled Cheese food trucks. Interactive GPS maps will help you navigate through the streets of LA, while categorized listings, in-depth reviews, Twitter links, and picture slideshows will help you find a budget-conscious meal for under $20. “LA Street Food” is an engaging, definitive insider’s guide for foodies, Yelpers and the common carnivore/herbivore who want something different, delicious and most importantly in these recession obsession times – inexpensive. Download now and receive regular updates with new reviews, leave comments and join the conversation on the LA Street Food blog (www.lastreetfood.blogspot.com). Follow LA Street Food on Twitter: @lastreetfoodapp and be a Facebook fan @LA Street Food.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

If it’s cooking in LA, Patrick Green has been involved, having authored the first edition of Night + Day LA & LV guidebooks, while contributing to Citysearch, Angeleno, la.com, Sheckys, and Digital City AOL. He prides himself as the love child of Anthony Bourdain and Charles Bukowski with Guy Fieri as the surrogate.

SUTRO MEDIA

This application is published in partnership with Sutro Media. By enabling local writers to share their expertise on mobile technologies, Sutro Media is making it easier and more fun to explore the world. www.sutromedia.com

Contact:
Patrick Green
(323) 356-4195
lastreetfood@gmail.com

Facebook: LA Street Food
http://lastreetfood.blogspot.com

http://sutromedia.com/apps/LA_St_Food

Mayonnaise is something that’s very easy to buy. When you buy it, it holds longer and lasts longer, but if you make it yourself it will have a totally different and by selecting your own ingredients you can have a superior flavored product.

Mayonnaise is a Permanent Emulsion. Generally vinegar and oil don’t mix, but the egg yolks actually form a coating around the droplets of vinegar and the oil, thereby forming a more stable emulsification. Also the harder the mayonnaise is mixed the smaller the droplets of oil and vinegar and more stable it becomes.

Notes: I like to use Olive Oil myself for the added flavor, be sure to adjust the seasoning to your particular tastes with more or less, vinegar and lemon juice. Always add the initial amount of vinegar as this helps the emulsification start off right.

Mayonnaise Recipe (All ingredients should be room temperature.)
Amount: 1 Quart (You can cut each ingredient in half to make ½ qt)
Ingredients:
4 ea Egg Yolks, use pasteurized / carton egg yolks if you’re particularly worried about getting sick.
1 tbsp Vinegar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
—
1 ½ pt Salad Oil or Olive Oil
4 tbsp Vinegar
3-4 tbsp Lemon Juice

Method:
Using a hand whisk or mixer, mix the egg yolks, 1^st amount of vinegar, salt, dry mustard and Cayenne.
Once you have that mixed well, slowly begin to add the oil in a slow drizzle.
Add the vinegar as the mixture thickens to help thin it out a bit.
Add the lemon juice to taste and as a thinner when mixture gets too thick.
Use the mayonnaise, or store it properly. It lasts 3-4 days in refrigeration.

** If your mayonnaise breaks, you can take a new yolk or two, mix it up in a bowl well and slowly add the broken mayonnaise into it while mixing.