[btimbit]

I have to say, I shared a lot of your guys opinions on chain restaurants, until I decided to actually give it a try and see what all the fuss was about. At a fellow chef's recommendation, I ended up working for earls for about a year. Spent roughly half of that helping with a new opening in Calgary and the other half doing their regional training for southern Alberta. While a lot of the staff is part time employees who, like stated in this thread, really don't seem to give a crap, I was blown away at the quality of the management. I met Chefs from across Canada and the US (They're really expanding in the US nowadays, I didn't even know that) From the individual GMs and Head Chef's at each location all the way to the corporate chef's in Vancouver, there's a lot of really really talented people in that company. They spend a lot of time and money in education and development, and a lot of young chefs owe their inspiration to what originally started as a 'who cares' part time high school job that they ended up falling in love with working at places like earls.

I did end up leaving after a little more than a year because the corporatey-ness feeling just wasn't for me, but I left there with a lot of respect for that company and really don't think they deserve the crap the seem to get on forums like CP.

Now, all that said, with the switch from Alberta beef, I'm not for or against it (yet). I don't agree with the apparent reasoning, I think the only thing that matters is if it tasted better. If they came out and said "We feel this is the best quality of beef in North America and want to bring it to our restaurants" then I'd be behind the decision. But this humane crap doesn't cut it for me.

If it does end up being a better product then I like the move. But if they end up serving a lesser quality meat just because it's "humane" then screw them. I don't care where it comes from, as long as it's delicious