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I'd really like to know this as well. I have the same impression, but recently someone here on HN, who had experience owning a restaurant, wrote that the opposi

I'd really like to know this as well. I have the same impression, but recently someone here on HN, who had experience owning a restaurant, wrote that the opposite is true.

johan_larson 9y ago
Well, here's one account of running a coffee shop that gets into the actual economics a bit: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2005/12/bitter_brew.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2005/12/bitt...
- namdnay 9y ago
  Slightly off-topic, but this article reinforced the impression that there is a serious shortage of decent pastry bakers in the US. The guy was paying $1.25 wholesale for croissants? The consumer price in France is around $1.05-$1.25, and that's a country with very high labour costs. It's an interesting dilemma - Croissants have a shelf life of a few max, so they can't be imported. I'm guessing immigration rules + cost of expatriation would make it hard to fly in french boulangers-patissiers? Then I guess the money would be in opening "viennoiserie schools" in the US...
  - ido 9y ago
    I always wondered why pita bread is so stale/bad in middle-eastern restaurants in Germany and Austria, being that baking pita bread is not that difficult (almost every falafel/shawarma place in Israel have decent pita bread and they can't all be genius bakers).
    - marak830 9y ago
      That isn't due to the lack of pastry chefs. At least it shouldn't be if they have access to refrigeration.
      - ido 9y ago
        Right, and you honestly don't really need to be a pastry chef to make decent pita bread (I'm a layman and i can make them just fine). Which makes it all the more puzzling! It's not like it requires any exotic ingredients either...
  - marak830 9y ago
    Damn there is a shortage of pastry chefs everywhere. Biggest issue is, as apprentices (in general), they have to be at work at 2am. (Situational I know, but in general their hours are rather inverted). I had the option to specialise in pastry when I was an apprentice, but the hours looked so bad. Now I'd give my left trsticle for a decent pastry chef(well before I left hospitality), so I guess that's karma. Also croissants - you can get rather high quality par baked fairly cheaply, you can import/export them, as long as they are snap frozen(and most people can't tell the difference). - yes there is a difference before anyone tells me off, I'm just pointing out an alternative
marak830 9y ago
It was probably me :-p I replied to the above comment, if you have any follow up questions I'll reply.

I'd really like to know this as well. I have the same impression, but recently someone here on HN, who had experience owning a restaurant, wrote that the opposite is true.

johan_larson 9y ago

Well, here's one account of running a coffee shop that gets into the actual economics a bit: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2005/12/bitter_brew.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2005/12/bitt...

namdnay 9y ago
Slightly off-topic, but this article reinforced the impression that there is a serious shortage of decent pastry bakers in the US. The guy was paying $1.25 wholesale for croissants? The consumer price in France is around $1.05-$1.25, and that's a country with very high labour costs. It's an interesting dilemma - Croissants have a shelf life of a few max, so they can't be imported. I'm guessing immigration rules + cost of expatriation would make it hard to fly in french boulangers-patissiers? Then I guess the money would be in opening "viennoiserie schools" in the US...
- ido 9y ago
  I always wondered why pita bread is so stale/bad in middle-eastern restaurants in Germany and Austria, being that baking pita bread is not that difficult (almost every falafel/shawarma place in Israel have decent pita bread and they can't all be genius bakers).
  - marak830 9y ago
    That isn't due to the lack of pastry chefs. At least it shouldn't be if they have access to refrigeration.
    - ido 9y ago
      Right, and you honestly don't really need to be a pastry chef to make decent pita bread (I'm a layman and i can make them just fine). Which makes it all the more puzzling! It's not like it requires any exotic ingredients either...
- marak830 9y ago
  Damn there is a shortage of pastry chefs everywhere. Biggest issue is, as apprentices (in general), they have to be at work at 2am. (Situational I know, but in general their hours are rather inverted). I had the option to specialise in pastry when I was an apprentice, but the hours looked so bad. Now I'd give my left trsticle for a decent pastry chef(well before I left hospitality), so I guess that's karma. Also croissants - you can get rather high quality par baked fairly cheaply, you can import/export them, as long as they are snap frozen(and most people can't tell the difference). - yes there is a difference before anyone tells me off, I'm just pointing out an alternative

marak830 9y ago

It was probably me :-p I replied to the above comment, if you have any follow up questions I'll reply.