Tips to recognize a good or bad restaurant
A "rich" food does not necessarily make a good restaurant. Abundance of sauces, but "rich" may be covering defects in meat, for example.
Neither shortage nor inflation justify carelessness in applying the correct cooking techniques and hygiene of food served. The bad cooks know hide these errors, to deceive the diner. But the client can learn to detect faults.
Luis Alejandro Marcano is chef, cooking techniques professor at the Academy of Culinary Arts of Caracas and host of the radio program Mesa for three. In their social networks (@lamlar) usually valued restaurants you visit.
It then offers a guide for any diner, even inexperienced, you can assess the quality of a meal rather than just look at key details:
The plate. The first thing you see is how the dish arrives at the table. "If it is dirty (with drops or splashes where it should not) mean that whoever is joined an inexperienced" he says.
The meat. If beef must be the exact term that asked the diner. "In this they are often wrong because in many restaurants do not use or can not read the thermometer," he explains.
Rices and risottos. If rice should be soft but not last cooking. If you are open like a flower at the tip, it means it is overcooked. A risotto well done should be hard on the outside and cooked inside. Marcano admits that Venezuelans usually claim diners when served because "they are accustomed to eating last cooking".
Puree. Neither should have lumps, and should not be overworked. The potato has a lot of starch and if handled most puree gets taffy. "It is right that is smooth but not too much. This is done two or three moves to pass through the sifter and then add the butter and milk in a fair amount "describes
Cutting vegetables. This point is very important. The cuts should be the same size because that ensures that cooking will be the same in all vegetables.
The coriander. The cut of this aromatic plant reveals much more than anything else. It must be made into fine threads. "What we usually do, and wrong, it is that they put cilantro in the table and go over with the knife, crazy. This causes rust faster, "he says.
Lettuce. You must be very, very clean. You should have nothing rusty and you must remove the stalk, which is hard.
The sauces. Many sauce over the meat, chicken or fish ... may be hiding a defect that do not want the diner observe as lack of freshness, smell bad or ugly color. In addition, the sauces should be to "point nape", with little volume but without spilling. They never should have lumps.
Seafood. Nothing justifies a shrimp or shrimp arrives at the table with the intestinal vein, this dark filament that are on top. "Good restaurants hire someone just for that. I did in my early days, for eight months, Astrid & Gaston. My only function was to remove the vein to shellfish. That's why they are so expensive because they require a lot of work, "says Marcano. And it is a matter of hygiene: filament that keeps feces so they may even get sick.
Mousses. The desserts require much technique. A mousse, for example, is very complicated. If done right is, bubbles shows in each piece and dissolves in the mouth without biting.
Tartlets. The correct technique of the broken mass of tartlets is sandblasted, why should break just touched with the spoon.
The diner is entitled to demand because for that is paying. And restaurants, with good technique, show their respect for the diner.
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