Mise en place is a French culinary term meaning 'Everything in Its Place'. It’s Parisian for ‘Getting Your Ducks in a Row’. The idea in culinary terms is you must prepare, measure, cut, and gather…
Mis en Place Your Cooking and Life (Better)
Panda Express: The Science, Technology, and Engineering Behind Chinese-American Wok Cooking
In 2022, I wrote a Duke Energy STEM grant proposal to provide our students the opportunity to connect STEM subjects with wok cookery. At the Panda Express near our school, a customer dropping by around…
Milk in a Thousand Varieties: Everything You Need to Learn to Master Dairy
People have been milking domesticated farm animals as far back as 6,000 years ago. That cow, goat, or yak milk (and the things which are made from it, like cheese or ice cream) are collectively…
The Line Starts Here: Finding a Job While in High School
Looking for your first job - whether it is part-time or full-time - can seem like an overwhelming task. Finding a job is hard enough to begin with, but when you have not had any…
Legal Stuff: Limitations and Opportunities for Working High School Students
There are a LOT of laws which regulate how managers hire, employ, and terminate their workers. While most restaurants and restaurant chains have policies and procedures which closely follow the laws, it is not uncommon…
Marketing ROI – What it is and how to figure it out
Restaurant ROIs can be scary things if you don’t know what they are all about. Let me explain how ROIs are used to make marketing decisions in a way that doesn’t make you hate everyone.
Thinking big picture from the beginning: How to complete a SWOT analysis (on a restaurant which doesn’t exist yet)
Creating a SWOT analysis for a restaurant is a challenge – creating one for a restaurant that hasn’t even opened? That’s a real trick. Let’s me show you how.
Menu Design – How to Make Your Concept a Reality
A restaurant’s menu is its biggest magnet. In order to build a loyal group of patrons, restaurants need to create a unique, fairly priced menu that offers fresh and reliable food and drink options. According…
Building a Successful Restaurant: Understanding Sales Mix Analysis and Menu Engineering
The key elements of menu mix and sales analysis applied to initial menu design
The Generous and Genuine Cuisine of Italy
The history and heritage of the world’s most popular cuisine; Overview of Italy’s 5 Culinary regions; Key flavors and products