04/26/2024
By alvaro molina
@molinacocinero
Some when they go out to eat see the prices and get scared. They compare the cards with what things cost in the market and They think they are being charged too much. Of what you are paying, little corresponds to food, the rest has to do with costs: payroll, insurance, taxes, advertising, services, rent and a lot of things that are not on the plate. Some who do not pay, barely add up what the scrambled eggs cost and add a percentage to it by eye, which is why it is not unusual for them to Of every 100 businesses, only 20 survive the first year; very few of those, the second. Opening with full tables is the easiest thing in the world, the problem is maintaining it. Not affording is one of the factors for failure. Setting prices by looking at those of the neighbors to sell cheaper is the downfall.
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The issue of costs is complex, leases sometimes unheard of. I know restaurants that pay 25 or 30 million a month and more, to earn something, you must have an almost impossible occupation. It is said that leasing should not exceed 20% of the costs, but in shopping centers and airports it is brutal. At the tip of almojábanasIf you want to have something left, you have to charge them like in El Dorado so that they can show it on television and it goes viral on the networks as a thief. Nobody knows about anyone.
And if it rains with the lease, With the payroll it doesn’t stop. Filling yourself with staff is not a solution, the issue is one of organization, training and management. I know places where the waiters chatting don’t notice when the diners arrive. Inside the kitchen the panorama does not change, the chat surpasses the work. I’ve seen them crouching in the blind spots of the cameras, while the owner in the bank begs for a loan to pay the fortnight. He who does not do his job is as responsible as he who does not train. Nothing is more expensive for the owner than mediocre equipment.
The cost of what does not go on the plate is fatal: napkins, soaps, kitchen paper, detergents, cleaning supplies, uniforms, in short, what no one adds up and the staff spends mercilessly. Add up the losses due to breakages. Every day cutlery goes in the trash, glasses, plates, cups and cups are broken and the person responsible never appears.
It hurts me to see businesses where the effort is evident and no one enters. We think that grandma’s recipes are going to sell themselves. More profitable than expensive decoration will be learning about the business. It’s not worth wearing yourself out thinking about what the initial investment costs.
Today businesses are set up with exorbitant figures in the construction or adaptation of the premises. Kitchens that cost more than 1 billion are not rare. They resort to loans as if they were going to rescue the San José galleon and there is no such thing. No one can anticipate what is going to happen, in a country where rain, blockades, marches, El Niño, public order, inflation, etc. affect. The only fixed thing in these businesses are the expenses, sales are an illusion and if people don’t like their grandmother’s recipes, turn it off and let’s go.
When you are going to set up a food business, an equation is made in which the unknowns are the variables that will affect success or failure. The problem is that from A to Z there are not enough letters to estimate the factors that They will determine your profits. The only way is knowledge. The Midas of the sector who have taken it out of the stadium have done so with their own free will and often with sweat and tears.
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Cooking is delicious, serving is even better, but having to live among accountants, banks, lawyers and state entities, sooner or later they will tire you out. That is the slavery that these businesses say they have.
Praise to the panela
I always thought that panela was from Antioquia, but I have found it with other forms and names in many countries, even prepared from other raw materials. What I have never found is another better than ours. A few years ago, doing a program for the Gourmet channel, I visited a sugar mill again and I understood why I like it so much.
When we try a food, the brain takes us back to childhood to decide whether we like it or not. The first sensory memories with food refer us to sweet flavors and among these to panela, fundamental in our Paisa culture.
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No matter the stratum, we grew up with the flavor of panela, with its nostalgic aroma and its slowly dying, sticky textures. Last week I found tough panelitas that are eaten with coconut, OMG, my son Miguel’s happy face told me everything. When he was little we made them at home.
The street coconuts they sell in bags kill me. The guandolo Hot aguapanela with lemon and ginger for the flu. The mazamorra with pieces of panela. The honeydew. Colombian cuisine is full of recipes with panela.
Like everything in the kitchen, this kitchen wonder has its technique, which we learned from the farmers who used it long before there was electricity or gas for cooking. The panela should not be boiled, it is dissolved, that is, it is placed in warm water for a few hours until it dissolves. If you want it hot, you put it on the stove, but do not let it boil, as well as coffee, tea or aromatics, which should not boil either.
It is said that one of the oldest desserts in Colombian cuisine is cane syrup with curd, cheese or quesito, adopted by Valle del Cauca cuisine from Gran Colombia. It has a very strange name:
Bronco Zamorano
1 panel
3 cups of water
1 cinnamon stick or half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 curd cut into large pieces
1 cup of milk
1 cup of water
Slide the panela until it completely dissolves and prepare the syrup by cooking on high and stirring until you obtain a very thick syrup or a light caramel. Add the cinnamon and reserve.
Heat the water with the milk. As soon as it boils, add the curd pieces to cook. Lower the heat to medium, turning it carefully so it doesn’t fall apart. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side until you feel it is very soft.
Dry the curd very well, even if it is very hot, bathe it with the hot molasses and thank life for having given us this wonderful food.
: Álvaro Molina){kind=link}