A customer orders x.. The kitchen starts preparing it.. But in few seconds another guy orders the same dish.. Do they start fresh for the next order? Chime on the previous order . What’s the strategy?
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> Do they start fresh for the next order?
That depends what you understand by “start fresh”.
It’s like when you get a takeaway pizza. They don’t start chopping veg and grating cheese when you order. That shit was done hours ago, so all they have to do when you come in and order a pizza is a bit of assembly, and they can have your pizza in the oven within a minute or so.
Most restaurant kitchens try to do the same: they spend mornings and afternoons setting everything up so they only need to do the last couple of preparation steps during the lunch- and dinnertime rushes.
Whenever possible, restaurants do all the cooking ahead of time. When you order the food, they just do whatever is necessary to combine pre-prepared elements and apply the right kind/amount of heat. Using this system, the kitchen can get dozens of orders all at roughly the same time and send the food out without significant delay.
You seem to be asking if restaurants will, on the fly, combine this last step for two people who order the same thing at the same time. i.e. two people order spaghetti and meatballs, so they prepare a double order, then split it between two plates. I think this is rare because it makes the process more complicated than just a fixed list of procedures. You don’t want to make line cooks figure out on the fly how much longer it takes to reheat a double portion of tomato sauce. It also shouldn’t be something the kitchen relies on because it won’t work well if customers have dietary restrictions or request modifications. Finally, for a lot of restaurant dishes, it doesn’t really matter. For sandwiches or classic “protein with sides” plates, there aren’t really any advantages to preparing two plates “together”.
It depends. A busy restaurant will batch certain things. For example expo would give the cook an all day (total orders on the board). “You have 5 crispy fingerlings, 3 Brussels, 4 fries. Give me 2 fingers, 1 Brussel, 2 fries first”
If you order a NY strip and 5 minute later someone else does too, they go on the grill 5 minutes apart. Then expo will call to the veg guy “2 ny strip set ups all day” and they’ll get them both ready to the point they could be plated within a minute or two. Then they hold until the steaks are ready.
If I understand the question right, then from my experience you just start on the new order. Probably like 90% of the stuff you’re going to use for every order is already prepped out. So you just start to put them together when the ticket comes in, and you see the order they come in. So you just work on the tickets by order you get them. Start on the first then the second when it comes in
The planning and prep are designed to bring every dish as close to finishable as it can get, so each one can be quickly prepared and on the way. The cooks aren’t actually boiling noodles for your lasagne one by one back there.
Depends on the management and some other factors; every place will run a bit different, but the key in the kitchen is always progress
If a kitchen gets a big ticket for several things, including a well-done steak, that steak goes on and the sides are prepared… If three minutes later the kitchen gets a ticket from a different table for a single mid-rare steak, the next steak that goes on may well become the well-done steak now and the chef may expedite the mid-rare steak ahead of the larger table since there’s time needed for the other dishes anyway… Now the mid-rare is out faster and the well-done is hotter coming out… This is efficient, but sometimes risky if over-extended… Good cooks know when to make these calls and when to just start a new table from square one; a matter of experience and preference, really
At the restaraunt I work at, they start fresh on the next order.
With that said, many ingrediants are prepped ahead of time, so staring on the next order is less starting the next order from scratch and more taking out the partially made risotto (or ravioli or whatever) and taking it from partially made to fully made.
Some things, though, do take quite a bit longer than others to cook, so the chef tries to get those orders in advance from us when at all possible. (He also will look at reservations and, if a regular comes in who generally orders X, try to get it prepped ahead of time.)
I’ve worked in restaurants before, here’s how it goes:-
All restaurants follow a clockwork system of mise-en-place (food preparation) and mise-en-scene (ambience, tables, crockery set up). These are done during non-operating hours.
For example let’s take a dish which is complicated something like Chicken in mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes.
During the mise-en-place, the chicken will be portioned, marinated and kept ready to be grilled. The mushroom sauce will be prepared and kept separately as it can be reheated again. Mashed potatoes cannot be reheated again and again as it will change in taste and texture so it’s perpetually kept in special moist food warming devices. Everything is kept ready to go.
When order starts coming in all you need is a pan and a stove. The chicken is grilled, the sauce is added to the pan, serving plate is grabbed from a shelf that’s right above or below the prep station for easy access and everything is plated. The order is ready for pickup. This continues throughout the operating hours.
most sit down restaurants make things as you order it
fast food is a little different. they usually have different levels they try to stay “ahead”. during the busiest times, they will sometimes make some popular items that are ordered very frequently 3-5 ahead. (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this, but I’m not sure, so anyone more familiar with fast food can hopefully give us that bit)
so as they’re ordered, they can grab one from under the heat lamp and throw it in a bag, and it’s good to go for that order, and another is already being cooked in the meantime. when it’s really busy this isn’t a big deal, but if you go after rush hour, and you order a popular item, you might end up getting one that’s been sitting there under the heat lamp since rush hour. I think they usually have rules on how long it can sit before they throw it away, but the trick to making sure yours is fresh is ordering it custom, meaning adding or removing an ingredient from it, so it forces them to make it from scratch. you can do this with French fries too by asking “light salt” or “no salt”, then grab a salt packet and add salt back if you want it, but it forces them to make fresh fries if you think they might not be fresh. sometimes you can just ask too
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