All About Me

How did I get into the business?
This is one of those questions that has a shot and a long answer. Short first - I've always been in the hospitality business. At 14 I got a job at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Calgary and have worked as one position or another in the business ever since.

The long answer is just that longer. I went to SAIT almost right out of high school taking the professional cooking program then apprenticed at a private golf club where I met Himself, wrote my red seal exam and whala I'm a journeyman cook. A little later after working my way up to the management potion: Chef ( yes that’s right the title of Chef means you run the kitchen and has little to do with actual cooking) I landed a job as an Instructor at Sait and found with my newly reduced hours ( instructors work 6-8 hrs a day where cooks work 8-12) I had time to head back to school taking hotel and restaurant management diploma and then a Business Administration degree ( which I found to be truly dry so what did I minor in : history perhaps a little ironic). With all this newly acquired education Himself and I headed out on our own by buying a small hotel south of Calgary. It consisted of 25 guest rooms, 70 seat dining room and 110 seat bar in a 1914 building. After 5 year, severe burn out and lots of lessons learned we sold and moved to the Pass. Himself then went about doing anything but cooking ( he's actually a journeyman cook as well although he was fist known here as a contractor) and I took a job at Popiel's where I stayed for a number of years. We renovated our building into a great space to house our B&B and I went into catering.

Why I like the business or what keeps me here is easy. In my opinion is about the best job on the planet. I get to cook almost every day but get the occasional day off. I don't have to go to work if I don't have a function and I don't have to work every night or every week end. I get some holidays off and I get to meet great people. Pretty much perfect

Why Travel?

One day a few weeks ago was asked by one of my staff why we always want to go places, in essence why travel? I've been thinking about this while I've been planning my next trip. I've come up with a number of reasons, some valid some not so much. They are broken down into two categories: work related and personal. On the work related side, things like gaining new ideas, menu items and seeing how others do things are at the top of the list. Guests have commented on notions we have brought back from elsewhere. For instance after my trip to England I started making a few things that we had there; curried dishes and bangers and mash. I went out and bought several new mirrors for my guest rooms and did up personalized welcome packages after staying in a B&B in Victoria and seeing how they were used there. That type of thing, nothing earth shattering just little touches. Another thing that happens when we have been somewhere, we tend to critique our own operations and compare them to those we visit more objectively. We find things we do well and things we can do better. This is probably the most helpful of the bunch.


After being somewhere I think it is easier to gage what your customers are looking for. I say this with some reservation as it could be just that you are more aware of what you are looking for and push that on to your customers. If you follow the train of thought that we all own places, we as customers would like to go to then it stands to reason that with a fresh travel experience in our minds we should be able to guess what our customers want. Does that make sense? Well it does to me so my question is to you what do you get out of travel? What have you brought back with you that was useful?

Doneness of Beef

There seems to be some discrepancies in people’s perception of what medium rare is when it comes to the doneness of beef. I was serving a dinner, carving a roast beef and had a lady ask me for medium done. No problem we can do that. I carved her a couple of slices done medium, nicely pink and went to put it on her plate. She made a strange face so I ask if she would like it done a little more. She replied yes and I cut her some that was medium well to well done and she was happy. Now I wouldn't have thought much about it but I had this happen about 5 times in that evening: people asking for medium but really wanting medium well to well done.


This got me to thinking about what could be a miscommunication between cooks and the general public. It could be that I just don't know what is medium but I have my doubts about that. After almost 30 years in the industry and 100's of 1000's of steaks and roasts cooked I'm pretty sure that I got it figured out. So what's the deal here? I think that the doneness we are taught in cooking school doesn't match what older people think it should be. I say older people because I have found that if the group has more seniors in it you will serve more well done beef than if the group is younger. Also if you press an older person to name what they want they will tend to say medium but really they want medium well. So I guess it is like most everything else, Know your clientele and you will make out OK.

For those interested the following is a description of the different degrees of doneness as we are taught in cooking school more or less degrees of doneness

On a similar vein, I have often been asked how I tell a steak is done. Well for me after years of doing it, it comes down to timing and feel. I touch the steak and can tell from the firmness how well done it is. For those starting out here is a little trick I use to teach my students: With your hand relaxed poke the fleshy part where your thumb attaches to your hand on the palm side. Feel the firmness there. This is how a rare steak should feel. For medium rare touch your thumb to your index finger (just touch don't put pressure on it) see how it is firmer. This is how a medium rare steak feels. Medium steak, same procedure but using the middle finger and so on it goes until well done is thumb to pinkie. Hope it helps.

The Deposit Dilemma

This topic sprouted because of a bill I am having trouble collecting on. This doesn't happen very often in fact while catering it has happened only once before. But it has caused me to look at my deposit policies.


For accommodation bookings I have always required a credit card number. It’s just good sense. In the occurrence of a bad renter (I’ve never had one) you have the security of being able to charge the customer for damage done. If they do not show up for their reservation you can still charge them and all that stuff. It’s just protecting yourself. For catering I have always resisted taking deposits on a function. My payment terms are net 7 and most people pay their bill on the night of the function or within a couple of days after.

Why have I resisted deposits on catering? All the expenses are due at about the same time as the function (within a week before or after) and I have never wanted to find myself in the situation of owing for the groceries or staff but having spent the funds on something else. Next reason: I never know exactly what the final bill will be until after we have served. So deposits have to be approximate. Next reason: I don’t want to find myself owing the customer because they made deposits and then their numbers were not what they expect. And the final reason is a bit sketchy. It’s kind of a fear thing that has never happened to me but could. Meals are very personal and I never want someone to pay full price for a meal that they are not happy with (also never happened to my knowledge but could in theory). Again I could end up owing the customer.

So what to do to prevent the situation from occurring again is the real question. You never really know when this could happen. The person in question is not one I would have expected to do this. So do I relent and insist on a deposit from everyone? Not really possible. I mean many of my clients are non profits, big corporations, school boards etc. I could just apply it to individuals I guess. Then how much deposit do you take? 10% , 30% 50% . I don’t know. The thought I have had is to take a credit card number like I do with accommodation bookings but the flaw with that is how many people can afford to have $4000 charged to their credit card? If you can’t charge the bill (because it has to be charged after we serve)to the card then you are no further ahead and it may encourage more people to pey via credit card and that only costs me.

Any other ideas how to work this?

Tourism Showcase Event

Another of the South West Regional Alliance initiatives to help market our tourism operations took place a little while ago in Pincher Creek. Unfortunately I could not attend but Sue Moser (our best holiday home rep) managed to get there with her display. From all reports, including an article in the Pincher Creek Echo, the evening was a great success with approximately 30 operators attending.


This begs a question: do marketing consortia and co-op affairs work or are we just kidding ourselves thinking that collective efforts are a waste of time?

My thoughts on the matter go as follows:

1. There is no way I have time to attend all the workshops meetings and get togethers I should so I'm just glad that someone ( read Sue) has put in the effort to get there for us and I don't care if she promotes her own places first ( she should) I'm just pleased that I got included at all.

2. The referral set up we have going in our little consortium works out great for all, particularly the customers. Places are filled and customers are happy. Win -win scenario

3. The bigger consortia, like SW do a vast amount of work for us that no one small operator could accomplish not to mention the grants and buying power they create. Again it's win - win

4. To many consortia mean competition. Let’s face it if there are not a bunch of operators in a specific area there is no one to populate the consortium so there has to be some competitors in the mix. So is competition bad - No way. It tends to produce a better product for the customer , prevent price gouging , and I really believe that a traveler may not stop for one shop ( read - shop or restaurant or attraction etc.) but they are likely to stop for 10 shops. And travelers that stop are good for everyone. Just my thought (and I plan to go into it more in a later post)

Back to the Showcase Event. It sounds like it was a great night and I wish I could have gone. Thanks to Sue for going as well as for keeping us updated with your emails



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Travel Alberta Workshops

Recently we catered a workshop lunch for Travel Alberta dealing with internet marketing and I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in on at least most of the afternoon seminar. Marty, the session leader was full of all sorts of tips and advice on how to tweak and get the most out of our websites. A number of interesting topic where touched on including adding your blog to your main site as a way of creating changing content on your site.

Thier next workshop is scheduled for Pincher Creek on Nov.2 and the topic is social media and how it can work for you.

Places I've been: Victoria BC

Recently we went on a road trip. You know get in your car and drive, half the fun is getting there type trip. This particular trip took us to the BC coast. It had been a long time since neither Mark or I had been that direction, our passports had expired and the new ones had not come yet, so off we went.

We left just after serving a banquet (around 10 pm) and drove as far as Creston the first night. We checked into what Mark calls a Bluebird. You know the type; a little strip motel with nothing but a bed, hopefully decent, and a bathroom. Now you would think that these should be cheep right? Well this one cost me $94.00 including tax (holy crap they got a lot of tax in BC) and it was certainly nothing to write home about. Next morning up and out the door we went ready to really start our adventure. The drive was picturesque and the day was lovely. Around lunch time we decided to go with one of our favourite meals on the road: salami, cheese, bread etc. eaten in the car or as a picnic. here cam the first discovery of the trip; a bread called a sharing loaf. It's a round loaf with scores cut in the top so you can pull out a piece. The texture and flavour where great and if I ever find a recipe I will include it.

Now every road trip needs a theme. Our last one was antiques (but that is another whole story) Somewhere along highway 3 the theme came to us: wine. We were on the BC wine route so stopping at wineries was the answer. Our first stop brought us to a winery called   CRowsnest Vineyards how could we pass it up. They had several lovely vintages including one with a label with Crowsnest prominently featured. We bought some and theme was started. On we drove.


We arrived at the BC ferry terminal in Delta just in time - to wait for the next ferry. How in the world these people tolerate all this ferry line waiting I'll never know. Our trip took us to Nanaimo and another low end motel (although it was slightly cheaper and in a better state) but it was 11 pm and we would be off again in the morning.

Day two brought a slow drive down the island highway (now I've been from start to finish on the trans Canada highway) stopping at several vineyards along the way. . Cherry Point Vineyards produces a very likeable white blend called Coastel White that I discovered I can get in Sparwood. We stopped at Merridale Cidery for a sample and lunch. I had a great lamb burger and really enjoyed the tour of the vineyard (?) . 
  
Next it was on to our main accommodations in Victoria. Here I had broken one of the rules of a road trip and made a reservation. The Proir house was a lovely mansion style B&B ( we thought we should actually stay in a few more B&Bs seeing as we own one) with a welcoming hostess and a gorgeous space. From here we explored Victoria ,attending the Royal BC museums’ exhibit from the British Museum, taking in sights and restaurants. The museum trip was good but in some ways disappointing, mostly I think cause I spent 2 whole days in the real thing last year. The best find of the 2 days was a small tapas bar in down town Victoria which I can not remember the name of but it is on a little side street right by the Bay mall. Way good food.

Next it was back in ferry line ups to go to Mayne Island to meet up with family (my uncle lives there) Mayne island is a lovely place all be it slightly introverted. Here I found my dream operation,The  Oceanwood  . Now if I only had a million of so dollars.

Because I stayed another day with relatives the drive back was quick and uneventful. All in all a great trip.



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Recipe: Cabbage rolls

One our more popular dishes not on banquets but for take home.(yes we make up things for you to take home occasionally) is Cabbage Rolls. Why am I always making these for people? My guess is that everyone thinks it's lots of work and the ones we make are a little unusual and quit good. They developed from a Dine Alberta menu we made a few years back. The original used local bison instead of beef and had barley in them. Here is what they became. We make them all the time and you can order them from me. I line up a few customers then make several hundred at a time. Or you can make them yourself.


Frozen cabbage defrosted ( freeze it for a couple of days then let it thaw and you don't have to steam it)

Ground beef and ground pork 1/2 and 1/2
Fried bacon and onions (lots of onion)
Par cooked pearl barley (about equal to the amount of beef you use)
Seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chicken base (for you that don't have it around in buckets use knor soup base)

Combine all meat, onion, barley and seasoning and yes add the fat from cooking the bacon. Mix well then roll in separated cabbage leaves. place in baking dish. (you want to have enough room in your dish to hold the sauce and it will not boil all over your oven)

The sauce for this is simple - one can of diced tomato, one can of tomato sauce, sliced onion and lots of seasoning particularly pepper. Top the rolls with onion then pour the tomatoes and sauce over the top season well and then cover with plastic wrap (yes plastic wrap in the oven , it keeps the tomatoes from dissolving the foil) and foil back at 325 for several hours. How long depends on how big your pan is. My inserts take anywhere up to 6 hours but the average for a domestic pan would be about 3

Dine alberta, Source Local and Culinary Tourism

As relatively new travel trend (ok so the trend is not new just the name) Culinary Tourism sounds interesting and right up my alley. I mean that’s how we like to travel, go to a place, immerse ourselves in the culture, history, and food of the area and then head home. Our trip to Japan (2004) was like that. Our trip to England (2007) was definitely like that. Our trip to New Orleans (2008) was the most reflective of that style of travel. The true question is can it be a trend here in the Pass?

Let’s face it the Pass is not known for its fine restaurants or food outlets. When guests think of here(if they do) they think mountains, fishing, snowmobiling, relaxation, and maybe visiting family but fine restaurants are not on the list. What food outlets do we have to choose from? Popiel's, The Tin Roof, Vito's, The Rum Runner, Pure Country, Chris's, Ben Wong's, Rivers edge, Sidetrax, Stones Throw, Happy Mart, Red Crown, Cousin Vinnie’s, Crowsnest Mountain resort, Cinnamon Bear and the Fly Shop ( not mentioned are all the Bed and Breakfasts that serve guests meals) cover about all the restaurants and quazi restaurants. Some are good, some not so much but all suffer from their popularity or lack of in one way or another. And to my knowledge with the exception of one, none of these places source locally. Even I do very little of it (although I do buy local produce when it is available, as well as eggs and some meat products) By Local I do not mean bought in the local grocery store( no restaurant can afford to pay retail all the time and make a profit) but I refer to locally grown or produced product.

It is one of the tenets of the Dine Alberta program, Your menu must have a high percentage of Local ( Alberta ) grown product. Now most of us food preparers use Alberta beef, we would be crazy not to. It’s the best in the world but what about the rest of the raw food stuffs? Where can we get them from? That is one of the mandates of Dine Alberta - putting Chefs, and Buyers in touch with Alberta producers. check out the web site

The next step in joining the Culinary Tourism band wagon would be to identify a food history that is appealing to guests. Is there a possibility here for that? Sure there is. The Crowsnest Pass has a wealth of ethnic diversity that could easily transpose itself into unique eatery menus that could attract guests. Popeil's uses the tool a little , by playing on the owners polish heritage and serving cabbage rolls (on the menu) borscht and perogies( as specials) with great success, Pure Country plays on the western theme but that’s about it. Perhaps it's something for the rest to consider when next they remake their menus.

What do we do ourselves to promote this type of cooking? Not enough! I mean I buy local when every I can. I include dishes of ethnic origins that are very well received. I use as much Alberta produced product as I can. We have participated in the Dine Alberta program and done some really nice meals under that banner but it's still not enough. I think that to tap into this growing tourism trend we would have to band together and do it as a group and then maybe, just maybe we could make a name for ourselves in the market.

For further reading on Culinary Tourism, and Dine Alberta check these out: Alberta Food Road Trip, CHOMP , Culinary Tourism.

What to do with customers that don't pay their bills?

Although it rarely happens for me occasionally I get a catering customer that doesn't pay their bill. My real question is what can be done? It is really frustrating ,I mean you pay for all the food and your rent on the facility all the linen and then when you give the customer their bill they say they will pay you in the allotted time ( in my case it is net 7days which is better than any restaurant would let you do) . The first week goes by and you don't see them, the second week goes by and you call, they say they will be in right away, then the third week goes by and still nothing so you call again, you say I understand weddings can be expensive perhaps you could manage it in a couple of payments. They say" that would be great I will get cheques to you right away" after a month still you haven't seen them. Now what? It's a small town you think you can trust people but no the ones you don't expect are the ones you have trouble with. I'm thinking that I should run an ad in the local paper "Cognates ____ and ____ on your marriage last month Now please pay your caterer"

The Bonus of Doing What I Do

This weekend was a real busy one. So busy in fact I had to import my middle daughter ( she’s the one in cooking school) back from Let bridge to help with all the parties. We had 5 dinners, 3 breakfasts, 1 brunch, and 2 lunched all between Friday and Sunday. On Saturday, when 3 of the dinners took place, I left my girls to take care of the 2 small ones ( and they did great, thanks ladies, couldn't have done it without you) My husband and I and the rest of the staff went of to cater a wedding in Sparwood. It was a lovely Celtic affair with guests from all over the world. The bride was lovely, the groom dashing in his kilt and all had a good time. They choose a menu that transported well making out job easier and things went well. In and out in 2 hours with many compliments along the way. It was great.


Now here comes the bonus part. When the bride and groom returned the tablecloths etc. they had rented from me I got not one but three hugs for a job well done. They were so please and they let us know it. They gave me a gratuity for my staff ( I don't believe in automatically charging it but that is a whole other post) which was really nice but what was great was the genuine gratitude that showed in their actions that made my day. It was a reminder after a long week end of one of the reasons why I do this job.

Many thanks to the new Mr and Mrs F for reminding me of the great part of this job. May your life together be filled with happiness.

Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes

Recently a friend asked "How do you make scalloped potatoes?" Well it's not something I make often as they don't look particularly nice on a plate or buffet line but they are popular when I do make them. I guess it’s one of those "home cooking" (which is actually a term that irritates me to no end, what difference does it make in the quality of the produce where I make it at home or at work) things. Anyways here is the reply I gave my friend:


Ok when I make them it is for a large group but the steps are the same.
You will need a casserole dish about 1/3 to 1/2 again as big as the amount of potatoes you need ( size depends on if you want to risk them boiling over in the oven.
Slice potato into about 1/8 inch slice ( usually peeled but I have done it with new red potatoes with skins on and it turns out very nice) add onions ( add as many as you like up to 1/4 of the potato amount) toss in melted butter ( about 3/4 of a cup for 10 large potatoes) until evenly covered and there is extra in the bottom of the bowl. This is what thickens the sauce so don't be cheap. then mix in flour to absorb all the butter fat. at this time you will want to add seasoning again don't be cheep potatoes require a fair amount of salt etc. I use seasoning salt and extra pepper and sometimes a little garlic powder. Now I tend to use half milk and half whipping cream heated (makes a richer sauce) you need to add the liquid until the potatoes are covered and mix it in well the better it is mixed the less likely the sauce is to break or separate. (this doesn't hurt the taste but makes them look kind of icky. cover and cook in a 300 degree oven until the potatoes are tender. Check them often if it looks like you are getting low on liquid add a bit more milk. It's important not to boil them to hard as the milk will go all scummy but the cream helps to counter that.

I'm sure that eventually in the life of this blog the recipes will become more coherent in format but then again maybe not as I rarely measure, and most quantities I make are far larger than any of you would need but the steps are the same. I guess we will just have to see how things go.

Maybe I should include a tip with each recipe. Tip of the day: remember when you are cooking that the most important thing is taste so season often and taste your creations as you are making them to see how the seasoning is then adjust it. Never take the seasoning amounts in a recipe as gospel they are really only guidelines and nothing replaces your taste buds.