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Be your own Top Chef with Office templates

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By Crabby Office Lady

You're a foodie and everyone knows and enjoys that about you. You can bring home the bacon (or is that pancetta?), fry it up in a pan (copper of course), and wrap it around some seared scallops... Have I got some fresh and juicy templates for you to devour.

Whether you are a fabulous cook or just like to watch the shenanigans on TV's Top Chef, food is an important part of your life. And in this age of multi-tasking, multi-jobs, and multi-activities for the kids, it's nice to slow down and actually enjoy a meal.

Today's column is all about food. As you know, I'm a big fan of the Office templates; whether you're the one who does the cooking at home or you're considering opening up a restaurant of your own, we have a template for that.

Meal planning at home

Thanks to a tanking economy, people are staying in more often and cooking for themselves, as opposed to going out. Although you might have found that sitting around with family over a home-cooked meal, talking about the day is less dreadful than you'd imagined, the meals themselves can be a source of stress: Where is that recipe? Do I have the ingredients? And, of course, am I up to cooking it?

Regarding the recipes: If you're like me, you have index cards and pages ripped out of spiral notebooks with recipes that you've gathered over the years. I'm sure your Hungarian grandmother would be mortified if she saw how you treat her cherished goulash recipe. You want to get organized, but how? Recipe cards are a good way to start.

Then there's all that planning and shopping and such. What if you had a grocery list? If you can make a one-time list of the things that you regularly buy and prepare, the trips to the market and the budgeting that goes along with them can become less of a hassle. Take a look at some sample templates below and then after your read this column, fly away and hunt for templates that speak to you.

Restaurants

Because people are eating out less, eateries have to work harder to compete for customer loyalty. If you own a restaurant, you've got to run a tight ship and make sure your menus are up-to-date and look great (please, no coffee cup rings). You can also let your customers know that you value them with surveys and gift certificates. Give the people what they want and they will come back. ("Billions and billions" of McDonald's consumers can't be wrong...can they?)

Opening a new restaurants

Money won't be tight forever...and the small businessperson stands a chance to thrive when things get better.

You've always wanted to open your own restaurant; why not now? If you're covered on the hard stuff (business plans, start-up expense spreadsheets, hiring, and so on), then you can just concentrate on the food. Here are some templates to help you get started:

More foodie templates

There is so much more to food than could ever fill just one column, but here are a few more templates to help fill your bellies.

And oh, if you think you can be Top Chef...you go for it! Bon appétit!

"In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear." — Julia Child

— Crabby