Learning business from the customers and a diet tip: Today I made a humongous pot of Thai green chicken curry with lots of veggies and herbs and some coconut milk and I cant lie, it was fantastic! Dont even ask me to be humble about it folks! Coconut milk is vegan and supposedly healthy but its fattening and because I wanted the dish to be under 400 calories per portion (I got mine down to 360 calories) I had to figure out a way to thicken my curry without compromising on flavor and without using flour. So I busted out a genius move and used a handful of blended, soaked raw cashews that not only upped the nutrition factor of the dish but added a luxurious mouthfeel to the whole concoction. I further cut down the calories by serving it with cauliflower rice instead of the traditional white rice. I also made it satisfying by making a flavorful paste of lemongrass, Thai chili, fish sauce, cilantro and dried coriander in which I sauteed the veggies and the chicken before adding my own chicken stock to the pot. When you are dieting, you get fuller so much faster when your food is well spiced bordering on hot. Funnily enough, I learned this lesson in an unlikely way. I love chili flakes on pizza and at New York Kitchen we used to add a good quantity of chili flakes to our signature pizza sauce. Then one day, one of my favorite customers came up to me and said, Wow, that pizza sauce you make is so fantastic, can I have the recipe? I said Of course you can have the recipe. and went on to tell her the ingredients. She then looks at me and without missing a beat says You arent a very good business woman are you? I looked at her in shock and asked her Hey, why would you say that to me? Then she makes a statement that has stuck with me to this day, When you put chili in food, it takes so much less food to satisfy you. Other places pizza has no taste so you can eat almost an entire pizza because your taste buds dont get the message but with your spicy pizza sauce, its so satisfying that all I need is one slice. OMG! I realized she was so right. From that day forward, chili flakes were banned in the sauce at NYK. We still made it flavorful with herbs and spices but we cut those chili flakes right out of there and guess what? We noticed that people started eating more pizza just because we skipped the chili! Further, it was interesting to note that in Naples on my pizza eating adventures, I watched people knocking back an entire pizza with no problem at all. Usually, when I asked for chili, the waiters usually looked at me like I was cray cray. In the restaurants that gave me the chili I had a hard time finishing even half a pizza but then I realized that when they had no chili to give me, it was a cinch to eat the whole thing. It was another AHA moment. So, bottom line, when you are dieting, try to get as much flavor into your food as you can with lots of herbs, spices and chili if you can handle it. You will need much less food to feel full. The customer IS always right.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:40:56 +0000
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