One of the biggest struggles when attending a cocktail reception is the awkwardness of juggling a wine glass and plate of appetizers. It pretty much means foregoing either the wine or the appetizers or the entire attendee pool clusters around the food stations and cruiser tables so they have places to set their plates or glasses. What if you could offer your customers a solution to this problem?

Enter the Cocktail Plate.

This nifty plate allows for guests to hold their crystal wine glass and appetizer plate in one hand enabling them to freely use the other hand to shake hands of newly acquainted guests or use gestures to properly illustrate their story.

One of the questions we get asked most is "How do you use a cocktail plate?"

The answer lies ahead.

Imagine you’ve just arrived at a party and after some preliminary circling have headed for the bar to imbibe in a fabulous Chardonnay.

Step 1: Pick up fabulous Chardonnay

In order to make sure you behave professionally and alcohol doesn’t cloud your judgement, you’re going to want to have something to eat. So you head to the food stations to pick up some food.

Step 2: Pick up appetizers

By now you have two hands full and none available to network with. Here’s where the cocktail plate really shines.

Step 3: Place stem of wine glass in ‘c’ indent of cocktail plate and let wine glass rest on plate

Voila! One hand free to shake hands with everyone in the room!

A note of caution: This cocktail plate really shines when you’re mixing and mingling standing up – just be careful that you remove your wine glass BEFORE placing your plate down on a table. If you forget this, you’ll have a glass of wine all over yourself, the table or both.

Your customers will love being able to rent a plate like this that helps solve a common networking problem.

One of the things I admire most about the foodservice and restaurant industry is the culture of mentorship. Chefs of both notorious Michelin star restaurants and humble small town diners alike understand and cultivate the benefits of being a mentor. Perhaps it happened by accident, perhaps you set out to make a difference while sharing your passion for cooking. Whatever the reason for doing so, mentoring new culinary graduates or chefs with the passion but limited training, is one of the reasons mainstream culture has gravitated towards this industry.

Restaurant shows are popping up left right and center romanticizing the restaurant industry. What restaurant shows don’t always show is the grueling hours, backbreaking work and decisions that need to happen to keep a restaurant operational, such as finding new restaurant dishes that don’t eat into a restaurant’s profits. However what’s clear is it brings together people, passion and a hell of a lot of AH-MAZ-ING food.

To pay it forward, and help continue on the tradition of being a mentor to new culinary stars, we’ve compiled 5 tweetable quotes from famous chefs – with career advice and wisdom that should go a long way to shaping your future. If you're feeling inspired by the quotes below, feel free to click each quote to tweet it individually.

“Work ethic and attitude is everything. It's the only thing that matters.” (Click to Tweet)

“I would take a less knowledgeable cook with a great attitude and work ethic over a talented prodigy with pissy attitude any day of the week. It will always make for a better team at the restaurant. I can't tell you how many amazing cooks have been through my kitchens and simply have not made the cut because of their attitude. And guess what? Three, four, five years later those cooks are still line cooks. They still complain about how much everybody else sucks around them. If you're a line cook at 25 and still one at 35, it's time to look in the mirror. I can guarantee that YOU are the problem not anyone else.”—first published in HuffPost Taste

Marc Vetri, Chef/Founder of Philadelphia’s critically acclaimed Vetri Family of Restaurants

“Taste everything. Learn to love all flavors, textures, and appreciate them for what they are.” (Click to Tweet)

“Taste everything. Learn to love all flavors, textures, and appreciate them for what they are. If you aren't tasting it, how can you serve it?”—first published in Dallas Observer’s Burning Questions Blog

Brian Zenner, Executive Chef, Belly & Trumpet

“Always be willing to learn from others. Be open-minded. Leave your ego at the door.” (Click to Tweet)

“Be relentless in the achievement of your goals. Stick to what you believe in. Surround yourself with people that support and believe in what you are trying to do. Always be willing to learn from others. Be open-minded. Leave your ego at the door. Taste your food.” – first published in Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice News July/August 2014 Issue

Steve McGoey, Corporate Chef, Keg Restaurants

“You need to fully understand the business, because at the end of the day it is a business.” (Click to Tweet)

“You need to fully understand the business, because at the end of the day it is a business. If someone wants to be successful as a chef, they have to take the time to understand that some of the failures come from someone becoming a pretty decent cook, but not understanding the financial makeup of a kitchen — the food costs, the labor costs.”

"In this day and age, understanding marketing is a huge thing. If you can't market yourself, you're dead, especially in New York City. My hat's off to anybody who's successful in this business, because it's not easy, and the margins are very small. There are really no shortcuts to being a good cook. You have to cook a piece of fish a thousand times before you get it. You really have to put in the time." – first published in New York Daily News

Charlie Palmer, Chef/owner, Aureole, East Side

“Go into every situation with your eyes wide open, stay humble, work hard, never stop learning” (Click to Tweet)

“Stay sharp, have a positive attitude, go into every situation with your eyes wide open, stay humble, work hard, never stop learning and never give up. Not every day will be a great day but you can pretty much be sure that it will be different than yesterday. Enjoy the good and the bad and embrace it as learning and an opportunity to grow.” – first published in Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice News Magazine March/April 2014

Judson W. Simpson, Canada’s First and Only Certified Master Chef

Drinking places such as bars and pubs as well as restaurants and caterers that offer bar service often require bar supplies to ensure the bar portion of the establishment is running smoothly and generating revenue. Where to buy bar supplies is one more question that a foodservice operator doesn’t need in his/her life. To make it easier on you (because we know you’re strapped for time!) we’ve answered the question “Where to Buy Bar Supplies in Toronto” below:

1. Barsupplies.com:

Though online and based out of the United States, Barsupplies.com has a wide variety of bar supplies including corkscrews, cocktail shakers, bartender tools, and glassware. They ship to Canada and a multitude of other countries with products charged in US dollars. Depending on the level of shipping indicated, your order will vary in delivery between 5-12 business days.

2. BartenderOne Barstore:

BartenderOne Barstore is based in Toronto with locations right downtown, in Yorkville and in Mississauga. They offer a wide variety of bar supplies, similar to Barsupplies.com, but also have additional products such as videos/dvds & books to add value and enhance a bartender’s education. If you order online through their ecommerce site, it appears as though they partner with Barsupplies.com as depending on the level of shipping indicated, your order will vary in delivery by 5-12 business days. If you need it pronto, it definitely makes more sense to pop by one of their store locations.

3. KAF Supplies:

Located in Mississauga, KAF Supplies is a bar supply and restaurant supply store. They supply sodagun systems, spill-stop bartender tools, tableware, bar equipment such as industrial dishwashers & glasswashers, as well as a Coca-Cola distributor.

4. Nella Cutlery:

We’re written about Nella before, but they have their heads in most of the restaurant supply and bar supply spaces. Along with stocking their own brand of foodservice equipment and smallwares, Nella Cutlery also distributes brands such as Winco, Browne, and Johnson Rose. Because of this, they’re able to offer a variety of different bar supplies including cocktail shakers, glassware, free pourers & sure shot pourers, bottle openers, serving trays, bar strainers etc. While they do not have an online ecommerce site, they do have a 55,000 square foot showroom in North York as well as a smaller scale store downtown Toronto.

5. Hamilton Store Fixtures:

Yet another restaurant supply store that also ventures into bar supply, Hamilton Store Fixtures is located in Southwestern Ontario and along with serving your general tabletop supplies, also stocks measured and speed pours, bus bins, common bar glassware, bar tools, bar blenders and other special order items. Their normal website does not include ecommerce capabilities however they’ve got a separate site linked off their website devoted to online orders.

Hopefully this helps you on your search for local bar supplies to quickly and easily update your current or future stock.

Back in January and then again in May/June, the prominent Foodservice magazines in Canada along with Statistics Canada and the NPD Group, released their forecast of the industry for 2014. There’s a plethora of information – so much so it can be overwhelming. To focus on some of the most pertinent information, we’ve compiled an infographic to make it easier for everyone to consume. Check it out below!

We hope this infographic helps you with your menu planning and forecasting for the remainder of 2014.

Buying restaurant dishes and other restaurant supplies is just one of the multitudes of tasks restaurant operators and chefs have to deal with. Figuring out if there’s a difference between wholesale restaurant supply stores versus a regular restaurant supply is frankly not high on the list. That’s why we’re writing this post – so you don’t have to figure it out yourselves.

Wholesale Restaurant Supply Stores:

• Buy direct from factory
• Stock warehouses full of inventory to avoid shipping delays (as much as possible)
• Same/next day shipping
• No large corporations behind them to set pricing on their behalf
• Better ability to facilitate custom orders with direct relationships to factories
• In-house brands versus name brands such as Steelite, Dudson, Royal Dalton, Libby, Browne or Oneida
• Open stock allows most products to be purchased in small or very large quantities
• Comparable quality items without the multiple markups (sometimes 3 or more markups)

Restaurant Supply:

• Buy either direct from the Brand manufacturer or through a master distributor for the manufacturer
• Have an extremely large number of items generally with small quantities in stock
• Can have same/next day shipping if in stock. If not in stock could be 2-4 weeks or much longer for less prominent dish lines
• Stock brand names such as Steelite, Dudson, Libby, Oneida, etc and price based on manufacturer’s suggested wholesale price
• Are usually more expensive as a result of major brand name pricing
• Often have minimum quantities you need to buy – i.e. buy restaurant dinnerware in case packs

Hopefully this clears up any confusion on the differences amongst the two. Whomever you buy from, make sure regardless of whether they mark themselves as wholesale restaurant supplies, that they offer value for the quality offered, customer service that makes you happy and stock the inventory you require.