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Where do Chefs go to find the information they require? Chefs-
Want to know what an acceptable yield is when you break down a whole H&G halibut? You’ll find it at Chefs-Resources (http://www.chefs-
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 (http://www.chefs-
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?
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 home page now to check it out! (http://www.chefs-
Contact David Buchanan at chefs-resources@
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
