Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Azrael · Dec 10, 2010

Like a pinata filled with candy! And anthrax!

Pancamo · Dec 10, 2010

YankeeFan said:

dixiehack said:

Probably riffing off your restaurant sex tangent a few posts back. I doubt it was malicious.
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Maybe. I hope so.

Still kind of weird to say about my girlfriend.
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Lighten up Francis. It was a joke on your take that fry cooks get a lot of action.

doctorquant · Dec 10, 2010

Anybody here ... touches my thread ... I kill you!

Ace · Dec 10, 2010

Pancamo said:

YankeeFan said:

dixiehack said:

Probably riffing off your restaurant sex tangent a few posts back. I doubt it was malicious.
Click to expand...

Maybe. I hope so.

Still kind of weird to say about my girlfriend.
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Lighten up Francis. It was a joke on your take that fry cooks get a lot of action.
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Not the fry cooks. The line chefs.

Fry cooks are lucky to catch the eye of the cleaning lady.

Point of Order · Dec 10, 2010

I heart this thread. YF, has ByeDesign moved in to your couch yet? How's that going?

YankeeFan · Dec 13, 2010

The Wall Street Journal looks at the food truck business in Chicago. The article mentions the cup cake truck and the meatball truck I mentioned earlier:

Food trucks—essentially restaurants on wheels—have taken off in cities such as Los Angeles and New York, spurred by the weak economy, trendy fare and the proliferation of social media, like Twitter. Food & Wine magazine voted an L.A. food-truck chef one of its "Best New Chefs" of 2010 and the Food Network has a show devoted to such vendors. But in Chicago, one of the nation's most progressive culinary cities, the trucks are held back by restrictive rules and operate in a legal twilight zone.

...

Unlike other cities, where chefs are free to actually cook inside their trucks, Chicago chefs can't unwrap or alter the food in any way once it's on a truck. And food trucks aren't allowed to park within 200 feet of a restaurant. Such roadblocks have kept all but a few chefs from taking to the streets—even as the food trucks fight to change the rules.

"It holds me off of doing things like sprouts, herbs and microgreens," says chef Matt Maroni, noting that such ingredients would "turn to mush" if they lingered inside a pre-packaged sandwich. He'd love to do oyster po-boys, but "fried oysters would not travel well."

So Mr. Maroni sells pre-made "naan-wiches"—Indian flatbread filled with veal piccata, pork belly and lobster—from what he calls the "gaztro-wagon." Chef Phillip Foss drives his Meatyballs Mobile, selling sandwiches stuffed with balls of seafood, Thai-style turkey, venison and even bull testicles in a tomato sauce. Happy Bodega, which calls itself a "gourmet foodie truck," sells soups and pastries on city streets.

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB10001424052748704008704575638842201629742.html#printMode
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YankeeFan · Dec 15, 2010

Shared commercial kitchens, that you can rent by the hour are springing up in cities all over the country -- and providing space for entrepreneurs:

In New York’s culinary world, with its unending appetite and closet-size kitchens, it is an unimpressive building housing a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour revolving-door operation built on need, ambition and nostalgia.

Marisa Angebranndt, who lost her job at a hedge fund when Wall Street collapsed, now makes whoopie pies there.

Shefalee Patel, who had a hand in one of the most ambitious construction projects in the Middle East before being laid off, uses the space to turn out Indian sweets.

Miguel Urrego, a son of Colombian immigrants who had worked as a bartender’s assistant, waiter and cook all over Manhattan, caters parties with a menu produced there that is as diverse as New Yorkers’ palates: gyoza and mini-falafel; focaccia and soba noodles; bite-size burritos and croquettes.

On a block in Long Island City, Queens, shared by car washes, plumbing parts manufacturers and livery-car garages, the three, as well as other cooks, pay by the shift to use a commercial kitchen equipped with 80-quart mixers, deep-frying caldrons and walk-in ovens, churning out food they sell on the Web and at farmers’ markets and coffee shops.

The kitchen’s 5,500-square-foot work space is both a refuge for dreamers and a life preserver for the unemployed.

“There are a lot of career-changers here, a lot of casual gourmets who channeled their energies into cooking as a way to make money,” said Meg LaBarbara, a former travel consultant who makes dips and spreads at the kitchen, called the Entrepreneur’s Space, on 37th Street near Northern Boulevard.

Working at a hedge fund, Ms. Angebranndt, 35, had organized meetings and retreats for high-level executives. After the fund shut down in 2008, she invested her severance pay and savings in whoopie pies, adapting her grandmother’s cookie recipe and her own fillings — no marshmallow, but a dozen flavors of butter cream.

“I started out making cakes for my friends, then I asked them to spread the word, and next thing I knew, I was cooking at home until 2 in the morning,” Ms. Angebranndt said. “I figured, there’s less money, but also less stress and more fun.”

Ms. Patel, 32, worked as a civil engineer for Bermello Ajamil & Partners, which is based in Miami, and was involved in the development of artificial islands off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates until she was laid off last year.

The idea to make sweets to sell first occurred to her while she was still in Dubai, where she said chocolates are packaged and consumed as if they are luxury goods. Once she lost her job, she put the idea into action, cooking in her mother’s kitchen in Passaic, N.J., before moving to the commercial kitchen in Queens.

It is too early to know if whoopie pies or Indian treats will be lucrative, but neither Ms. Angebranndt nor Ms. Patel is worried about that.

As Ms. Patel said, “I haven’t looked for a job since I started cooking here.”

The kitchen, rare in its approach, solves many problems. It offers cooks space they do not have at home, is fully equipped and complies with the city’s health code. The place has also fostered an informal network, where cooks combine purchasing orders for things like butter and olive oil to save money, or rely on one another as taste testers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/nyregion/15kitchen.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
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LongTimeListener · Dec 15, 2010

Which is going to live longer after being thought dead -- this thread or Earl Weaver?

SpeedTchr · Dec 15, 2010

LongTimeListener said:

Which is going to live longer after being thought dead -- this thread or Earl Weaver?
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Nobody puts Abe Vigoda in the corner!

Ace · Dec 15, 2010

SpeedTchr said:

LongTimeListener said:

Which is going to live longer after being thought dead -- this thread or Earl Weaver?
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Nobody puts Abe Vigoda in the corner!
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Why not? He would make a nice coat rack.

Starman · Dec 15, 2010

Word on the street has it that an enthusiastic entrepreneur can make a good living for himself sucking cock for money. The miracle of the marketplace!!

Point of Order · Dec 15, 2010

How is your apprentice doing? Is he learning the ropes pretty good?

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Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Azrael Well-Known Member

Pancamo Active Member

doctorquant Well-Known Member

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YankeeFan Well-Known Member

LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

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Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Azrael Well-Known Member

Pancamo Active Member

doctorquant Well-Known Member

Ace Well-Known Member

Point of Order Active Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

SpeedTchr Well-Known Member

Ace Well-Known Member

Starman Well-Known Member

Point of Order Active Member

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