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
Former line cook here. Worked at a family-style cafe and a chain seafood place for years.
It’s all about the prep work. That’s the time-consuming part. And a whole lot of that can be accomplished by the kitchen crew in the hours before the restaurant opens. A lot of the food is already ready before you get there.
* veggies chopped and portioned out
* biscuit dough mixed, bread parbaked, pancake batter mixed and in a giant bowl in the fridge. Frequently served sides like cheddar biscuits or fries are cooked in large batches and kept hot under lights or similar.
* potatoes for hashbrowns pre-cooked, peeled, and cut. All they need is a few minutes on the griddle to brown.
* Meats portioned and breaded as applicable, kept in the big fridge, ready to go straight on the grill, chain-broiler, deep fryer, etc. It only takes like 3 minutes to run a premade batch of shrimp scampi through the chain broiler or slap a steak on the grill (just a couple minutes a side if you want it med-rare). Couple minutes in the steamer for crab legs… you get the idea.
* A lot of sauces and things can be made ahead of time (or even ordered from the chain distributor and kept frozen until day-of).
* Soup, chili, etc can be made as a huge batch and kept hot in a steam table.
* Pasta can be parboiled and dropped in a basket into boiling water for the last minute of cooking before they throw on the sauce and send it out.
*Some* of that is possible at home, but not to the same extent.
* You can practice [*mise-en-place*](https://food.unl.edu/article/use-mise-en-place-make-meal-preparation-easier) in your own kitchen – just run through the recipe in your head before you start, then get out all the ingredients, measuring tools, and utensils you’re going to need, have everything where you can reach it efficiently… everything in its place before you start.
* You can do meal-prep. A lot of people think that’s just for fitness/diet nuts, but if you have a system, you can do a lot of the same kind of parcooking and then refrigerate/freeze your meals. Caution: You really have to know your way around [food safety](https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/how-temperatures-affect-food) if you’re going to do a lot of reheating – do it wrong and you can expose yourself/your family to a high risk of foodborne illness.
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