My cooking style – it has evolved over 35 years

My cooking style – it has evolved over 35 years

Yep, a question I get asked a lot, what is your favorite thing to cook? And what is your cooking style, how would you describe it? Two of my favorite questions I get when people find out I am a chef.  As for my favorite thing to cook, anything in season right out of the garden or from the farmer’s market. I truly get inspired by the food I see, it made it really tough to wander the food halls in France last fall and not have a kitchen to cook in on the trip, next time! I think this desire to cook what is fresh and in season really stems from the power of the seasonal rhythm. I always ask chefs what their favorite food season is and why? Mine, it is a tie between Spring and Fall. Spring the new awakening in the garden, the early vegetables, and bright flavors that signal a new beginning. As for Fall, the comforting warmth and earthiness of the harvest bounty. I love the slow cooking of stews, soups and hard squashes, root vegetables and the aromas that are a clear sign of moving into the winter slumber. So you can see that by shifting to a seasonal mind set for me it has informed my larger cooking style of simplicity. Cooking with fewer ingredients has continued to drive my culinary approach at home and even at work. Over the last 10 years I have really found the sweet spot for me of trying to stay with in 6-8 ingredients or less when creating a dish. I have also challenged the chefs working for me to strive to self edit and reduce the number of ingredients as well as number of steps. It can be a real challenge to achieve this balance of simplicity that delivers an amazing finished dish.  What it does is allow the best ingredients possible to shine through in the final plate. I have found over the years that unnecessary ingredients can have a tendency to “muddy” the flavors in a dish. Stripping the recipe down to it basic fundamental flavors and then rebuilding it with fewer ingredients can and usually delivers a far superior result. It has become second nature for me to approach cooking this way each and every meal at home, even if I am working off a recipe from someone else, I usually tweak it to be less ingredients and more about the focus of the quality I am putting in the dish. I will leave you with a fall example of how I cook, Fig, roasted beets and Pear Salad. The fig tree is still booming with fruit, combined with a ripe pear, perfectly roasted beets, all sliced and arranged on a plate, drizzled with EVOO, Fig Balsamic Vinegar, cracked black pepper and kosher salt, that is it. The flavors come together on the plate to create a beautiful bite of fall, you can feel the crisp cooler air moving in and the leaves turning.  Cooking this way for me continues to be a journey, because each new / fresh ingredient inspires me to listen, learn and grow.  Being a chef is always about learning and loving the life we live.

BOH - Back of the house series - "Mis en place" - everything in its place

Over the next few blog entries I will share back of the house tips for improving kitchen operation performance. Each of these lessons can be used in part or whole to make an impact in your restaurant. I hope you enjoy them and use them to teach the next generation of managers that may have not benefited from these experiences.

"Mis en place" = Everything in its place- an organized kitchen runs better and smoother

It is a true fact that you can tell how well a restaurant is running by simply looking at how organized the back of the house is maintained.  When I was a young kitchen supervisor a mentor taught me that a clean and organized walk-in cooler/ freezer was always a sign that the rest of the kitchen was running well. Why is this an indicator and what does it indicate? In my opinion when you see an organized space it tells you that, food safety procedures are being followed, recipes are being used, par/ prep sheets are part of everyday behavior and line checks are the norm. Keeping a kitchen organized creates an environment for your team to do their best work and delight guest each and every shift.  Here are some keys to organizing your kitchen or 'mis en place' as we say in the culinary world, putting everything in its place.

Station/ line organization -key to being able to execute recipes to spec every time, having the right tools, ingredients and prep items all in the proper place. The station should always be setup in a standard layout so that no matter which trained team member works it - they know where everything is and focus on executing the recipe at hand. This also includes making sure that correct plateware, bowls and side dishes are stocked, clean and ready to go. This creates an environment that allows for fast and fluid movement to serve the guest 

Dry up storage area - this area should be "faced" and look like you are in a grocery store aisle. Bulk items should be held in proper storage bins that are cleaned at least every time you refill with new products. Things like flour, sugar, and chicken breading also should be covered, labeled and dated to ensure freshness anything that is bulk. An organized dry store area will help ensure that we use FIFO rotation to manage inventory and make counting easier. 

Walk in cooler/ freezer - probably the single most important area to keep organized and in good order. Why? The value of the food you handle and store in your cooler/ freezer area is extremely valuable. Organizing the cooler area is also key to proper food safety management - keeping raw and prepared ingredients separate is vital. Additionally, organizing the items to easily facilitate inventory supports smart purchasing and ordering which in turn helps manage freshness of ingredients. So as you can see being organized drives food safety, freshness and staff satisfaction. Always having items in the right spot and labeled eliminates the frustration that kitchen staff experience when having to 'hunt" up items for prep 

Dishwashing area - wow didn't think about his area did you? It is a key critical area to keep organized for many reasons not to mention guest safety / health. Does your labor budget allow for a dishwasher during your day shift? If no then it is really critical to organize and set up the area to facilitate easy washing during these hours by any kitchen staff member or even manager. You do not want to pile up all the dirty dishes until some decides they need to be cleaned at around 4 o'clock.  Establishing rules and organizing this area will make it is easier on everyone working the day shift. Here are my guidelines - dish machine is turned on and ready to go when a manager opens for the day. Each cook is responsible for washing any tools or dishes they generate while opening or doing prep. Clean as you go.   Keep a couple of dish racks set up in the rinse area so people can load direct and once full push it into the machine. Again when someone has time they should restock the clean items from the dish machine or stack the plates that have been washed. Another rule to follow - all plates are scraped and stacked by team members, silver ware and small items are in appropriate soak bins. Clean as you go. This makes it easy for everyone to run a cycle of plates or silverware during the day in the dish area and it is kept clean and organized.  Clean as you go should be the standard for everyone on your restaurant team, not just cooks but the whole team. If you keep it organized and get everyone to take pride in a clean dish area it will drive positive work environment in area we give little thought.

So my challenge to you is to look around the back of the house, see what could be better organized. Break it down into small areas as I have above to make it easy to tackle and maintain. "Mis en place" with everything in its place will deliver staff satisfaction that will deliver great execution to your customers. It takes less time to do it right the first time than to do it over again and again.  So approach not only your BOH but take the same approach in your bar, dining room and even your office space it will make it a much better day.  Create pride in a well deployed and executed shift each and everyday to make a difference in your operation. 

Jim Doak, CCC