Hi all,
I was always wondering how some restaurants make food. Recently for example I was to family small restaurant that had many different soups, meals, pasta etc and all came within 10 min or max 15.
How do they make so many different recipes quick?
– would it be possible to use some of their techniques so cooking at home is efficient and fast? (for example, for me it takes like 1 hour to make such soup)
Thank you!
In: 9052
I work in a sports bar/restaurant as a bar manager. Our kitchen prep team arrives at 8am for an 11am open. We make about 25 different dips and sauces anyway from 4 liters to 20 liters at a time, anywhere from once to 3 times per week. Soup is made typically 2-3 times per week. meat and veggies are prepped daily. We get ingredient deliveries 4 days per week.
Since our place has been open for over a decade we are pretty good at estimating our needs for the day, week, and month. As well as that, we’re constantly able to adjust base on “par” levels (we should have x number of steaks on Wednesday, or need to order y number for Friday).
With all that we’re able to assemble things quickly when needed.
When you MAKE a burger, you have to prepare the meat, light the BBQ, cut the veggies, get out all the sauces, etc. and it might take you an hour.
When you ORDER a burger, the grill is lit, the veggies are sliced, and everything is right at hand for us as 50 minutes of work has already been done, we only need the last 10 minutes to get cooked and assembled. (Fast food gets even quicker because they often already have it cooked, meaning just the assembly is needed.)
I will go on to say that most ingredients get used in several different meals as well, and if they don’t the menu item is likely to be changed. So the same chicken pieces that are already cooked and tossed into pasta sauce, can be added to stir fry, or put on pizza.
Can you do this at home? Absolutely! But you’re going to find that YOU don’t go through enough stuff to make it as worth while. A few of the easier things to prep are stocks and sauces. So you could make 10 meals worth of pasta sauce and freeze it in different portion sizes and cook as needed. You could make a large batch of soup stock, freeze some of it, and add things to it for different soups that would each last a week. Shop sales at your grocery store for meats, and use one for a whole week worth of different meals.
One thing I’ll often do is triple/quadruple a batch of something, and freeze 2-3 portions of it for later use, then I can make fresh Lasagna twice per year, and use it every other month without spending a whole day each time I want it.
This CAN require a lot of effort and investment, but I find cooking to be relaxing and rewarding so, it’s typically fine with me.
Look up ‘meal prep’ on youtube and you can get A LOT of great ideas.
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