Passion for food…. always wanting it to deliver the best

Cook with love the food taste better

The other day I had someone ask me when did I know I wanted to be a chef? Well it was a long time ago when I was 3 years old; I stood next to my grandmother and watched her cook sausage gravy. She explained to me how to cook the sausage properly in an iron skillet and why she followed the steps to make it. She was not a professional cook but someone that had a love for feeding here family great tasting food to nourish their minds and souls. I watched as she browned the sausage and the little crumble bits came off in the pan, all in that warm fat. She removed the cooked sausage patties, adds some flour and then made a paste of goodness; to this she added some whole milk. This is when I got the job of stirring the pan until the milk and flour paste magically became gravy. She then crumbled up some of the sausage into the pan, then she tasted it to make sure it was just right.  I got to taste it too as she told me about how it needed to be just right, not too thick or too thin, not too salty but maybe a little peppery. She was teaching me that to cook food for anyone you have to “feel” how it will taste to people. It is a lesson that I will never forget – you could feel the love and care in the food she cooked every time, she was breathing passion into her food. I always remember this as the earliest memory of food, especially when I spent the rest of that summer playing “cook” with my own little pots and pans at my grandmother’s house.  You see passion for food extends to the serving of food with warm hospitality and a desire to exceed the expectations of your guest.  Do you realize you have the ability to be passionate about the food you serve your guest each and everyday? Do you know they can taste the love in the food you are serving, but how can you make sure that passion is coming through? It is easy; taste it, make sure it is properly prepared, seasoned correctly and served at the right temperature every single time, every single guest.  Passion for food and creating a culture of food starts with every single member in a restaurant delivering a consistently high quality experience that is a craveable celebration of dining, not simply a plate of food. So take some time to really taste and understand everything on the menu and make sure you make every single item to spec, you will become passionate too.

BOH - Back of the house series - Walking the kitchen – an active observers guide to better operations

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.

Walking the kitchen – an active observers guide

Have you every really thought about how to walk your kitchen. It seems silly but sometimes we get into a rut and have blinders on when it comes to walking our kitchen and restaurant. With a few simple changes to your daily routine you can re-teach yourself to see what is there and needs to be corrected. Remember when an  internal inspector or health department official drops by to tour your facility they have one advantage you don’t, “fresh eyes”. So if you follow this simple exercise over a few weeks it will start to help you change the way you see your kitchen and restaurant.

First I like to start with the idea that there are three distinct zones of view: floor level, eye level and ceiling level. You will find different things to look for in each of these zones.

We will start with floor level first, probably should do this walk at least 2 times a day – it is your safety walk.

Floor level – what to look for from the floor to about 12 inches up.

·      Standing water on the floor, is something leaking?

·      Cracked or broken tiles, is there a hazard on the line, in prep, coolers, dry storage?

·      Spills – oil, food, seasoning, etc, is there some reason something is on the floor and could be a hazard?

·      Splash up – is there soap, cleaning fluids or water splashed up from hosing down the kitchen on lower shelves, plateware, uncovered food items stored on the lowest shelf?

·      How do the floor drain/ sinks look, clean and clear?

·      Un-wanted friends – do you see signs of pests in your kitchen or restaurant?

·      Extend this walk to the front of the house – what do you see that the guest or your team sees?

Eye Level – maybe the most telling walk and one you should do about 4 to 6 times a day – it lets you know what is going on in the kitchen.

·      First and foremost – look at your kitchen team, greet them, make sure everyone is healthy to work and handle food

·      Take a look around is there any snacking or drinking going on in food production areas?

·      Are the hand washing sinks, stocked, functioning and useable?

·      Is the dish machine running at proper temperature, is the dirty dish table organized to facilitate easy clean as you go.

·      Walk down the line – proper utensil storage and handling being executed?

·      Right size portion devices in the right sauces, ingredients, any visible product issues or concerns?

·      Look at the equipment on the line, is it clean, working, and maintained? If not what can you correct immediately?

·      Temperatures on all refrigerated equipment look right? Anything not function at a safe food holding level?

·      Round the corner and move through your prep production area – what do you see – any cross contamination occurring during prep/ production?

·      Gloves being used properly? In prep, on line, no bare hand contact with ready to eat foods.

·      Handling of proteins your most expensive ingredient, is it being treated with care or compromised at prolonged room temperature?

·      Inbound produce or  food order is arriving – how do the cases look? What about temp, is everything with in your standard operating guidelines?

·      Lets move into your storage areas – dry goods, cooler and freezer – are the all organized?

·      Dry store – everything covered, labeled, dated – rotated? Stored in proper hierarchy?

·      Cooler – are items organized by prepared and raw goods, floor clear, -packages properly labeled? Pull thaw – everything in proper containers, dated? Is the food hierarchy of raw on bottom with cooked on top being followed? Covered, covered and covered - ?

·      What about the freezer? Organized? FIFO?

Ceiling level – do this at least once a day both in back of house and the front of house as well.

·      How do the tiles look, clean or dirty?

·      What about the air vents – are the clean or need a wipe down

·      And the number one thing – any burned out bulbs, uncovered fluorescent tubes or bad ceiling fans? And so on………..you will see something that may need attention.

So you get the idea of the impact and importance of really being engaged when walking your kitchen – you should see everything at some point in the day. Also focus on those things that have been your hot button issues in the past. Remember teach and coach so everyone sees what you see and you will elevate the level of care and performance of your restaurant.

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