The Modern Cafe

As consumers become ever more informed, more sophisticated, and more pressed for time, the modern café must adapt to meet its customers’ needs. Operating a successful café requires the chef to be a master of many trades with a deep understanding of quality, refinement, and business strategy. Today’s café might offer breakfast baked goods, artisan breads, desserts, cakes, savory items, chocolates and confections, beverages, packaged retail items, and frozen desserts, and The Modern Café addresses them all. World-renowned pastry chef Francisco Migoya examines these major categories in information-packed chapters covering everything from recipes to pricing, displays, and packaging. Chef Migoya provides wonderful recipes for many popular café standards as well as some imaginative, colorful, and eclectic recipes that are sure to delight a wide variety of palates. Chapters include: THE BAKERY: This is typically a low-cost/high-profit area, where most sales come from volume production. Migoya covers the seven key ingredients and provides master recipes for brioche, croissants, Danish, pound cake, muffins, scones, biscuits, and breads, with multiple variations for each. THE PASTRY SHOP: This area requires special skills and a certain level of expertise to prepare cakes, individual desserts, tarts, and specialty cookies. Migoya includes contemporary recipes with ingenious twists and provides tips throughout to increase efficiency. THE SAVORY KITCHEN: With a focus on soups, salads, small plates, side dishes, entrées, and hot, chilled, and warmed sandwiches, this section in a café requires a particular attention to speed and prompt service, and à la minute preparation is key. Migoya provides dozens of mouthwatering recipes and he covers the most cutting-edge equipment available for today’s savory kitchen. BEVERAGES: Most people walk into a café to buy coffee, tea, and other hot drinks. Successful cafés prepare them well and serve them at the proper temperature. Migoya covers all the essential techniques for hot and cold beverages, as well as beer and wine sales, which can be a great way to improve any café operation’s bottom line. THE RETAIL SHELF: House-made chocolates; confections; jams, marmalades and jellies; spices; salts and other condiments; and special-occasion items are just a few of the options for expanding sales and extending the café’s reach through the retail shelf. This chapter includes tips and considerations for packaging and display, along with dozens of imaginative recipes. Migoya’s modern, refined recipes require precise execution, attention to technique, and the highest-quality ingredients. The art and craft of the baker, pastry chef, and chef are evident in every recipe. With stunning photography, real-world advice, and expert instruction on the launch and management of a café, this book fully covers the field of modern café operation.