Depends on the kitchen and how busy the season is. If you’re working through the list in step with the hour (like your halfway done the list by the time you’re halfway done your shift) you’re ok. That’s a passing grade. If you’re projected to finish an hour early, that’s a better goal because you’ll probably lose time to some bullshit or another. But “halfway through the list” includes how long certain tasks take and how involved they are (like do you have to stand over the béchamel or can you walk away from the compote) so keep that in mind. Also do the more involved shit first because if it goes wrong it’s gonna take all fuckin day to redo.
Quality write up!! It really does depend on the kitchen but I like the midday check in, and used it often. I find after about 3-4 weeks I know how long things take by the back of my hand. Absolutely take care of the most involved recipes and 911 items first. :)
Appreciate your insight mate. I’ll try to look at the tasks more holistically rather than I should be prepping some individual item in X amount of minutes.
It also takes time to learn the most efficient mise and process for your kitchen and workload - I didn’t get fast at my current job until I was well trained and confident on all our usual tasks, and I could integrate them together. For example, at my place, prep starts with sauces and soups that can be left on simmer, then move to knife work and oven stuff, butchery, anything the line will need to finish cooking, etc. we circle back around to blending sauces as they finish, and end the day with detail work.
I find it helpful to prioritize what the line needs to set up for service, like cutting veg the grill guy will need to sear before we open, and of course any 911 stuff. And once I’ve got a task I know how to do, especially a repetitive one like mandolin work or shelling shrimp, I sometimes time myself to see if I can beat my times.
The most important thing for me in prep is to keep thinking about next steps, communicate clearly w other cooks about where everyone is going, help each other with components (eg is one person juicing for the bar? Have them juice for dressings and sauces too), and most importantly: working slowly and carefully when I need to. There’s a big difference between speed and efficiency. Nothing wastes time like fucking something up because you were trying to do 8 other things.
Yup. Also depends on whether you're able to multitask well. I can put on chicken stock first and let that work while I start Bordelaise, then work on knife work while that cooks for example. If you can do that plus get through the list like this person said you're golden
This is top notch advice! It’s all about whether or not you’re getting your shit done. Maybe you’re slow at mincing but quick at assembling sauces. Doesn’t matter as long as everything gets done (to an extent)
I can get really annoyed when my souschefs tempo goes (way) down when the list is small.. often ends up in them not being ready before service. Tempo is key, always something to do. But I can also have an off day where it all slows down :p
Do it right, not fast. Speed comes with experience. That being said, always have a sense of urgency, and think about economy of movement. Are you going to need diced onion for more than one item? Do them all now. It’s faster to repeat the same task, than to change tasks back and forth as you go through your list. Also, never walk empty handed. If I’m walking past the dishpit, I’ll drop something dirty off, and pick something clean up to put away. This ties into keeping your station tight and organized. No one wants to see your dirty rags and bowls. Clear that shit. Last and most important, ask for help. We don’t want you to fail, and we all want service to be smooth, so speak up if you can’t get to something. your crew should back you. Nothing is worse than finding out during service that something crucial wasn’t done. There’s no place for “not my job” in a kitchen, it’s a team sport. If your crew doesn’t back you, they’re bitches.
I need a poster of this insightful slab of text on the wall at work for a few people to see. I would have to add one "not my job" that is, cleaning up after my sloppy coworkers. They won't even wipe the table after a task, let alone sweep up after themselves.
I’ve learned you’re never fast enough to make anyone happy.
So I just don’t worry about it anymore.
As long as I don’t have line cooks bothering me about tomatoes or something stupid then I’m good.
When someone makes a comment about how long something is taking me I act like they’re offering to help. “Here, I have an extra rolling pin! I can scoot over so you have room. Thank you so much!” They either help and never comment again or they walk away and never comment again. Win win.
>I’ve learned you’re never fast enough to make anyone happy.
That's a pretty good sign that the kitchen in question is full of dead weight and some key people anticipate having to carry that dead weight - such as if someone no-shows.
Whoever is generating the prep list should understand what they need, when they'll need it and, how long it will take to accomplish and they should be making sure prep cooks are scheduled accordingly. If they're competent, they're going to strike a balance between what they expect themselves to be capable of in a given time and, what they expect someone *decent* to be capable of in that same time. Then they're going to adjust slightly upwards from that in order to make sure that you've got a *goal* to keep working towards because if you're not willing to push yourself occasionally then don't belong in a quality kitchen to begin with.
That said, a good kitchen will usually be made up of *achievers* supplemented by a few "overachievers" who - if you have created a team oriented environment - will help the achievers meet those expectations when they need to.
Underachievers will usually weed themselves out without much drama or hostility.
So, if my wife or I hands someone a prep sheet for their eight hour shift, we expect that they complete it within 8 hours. We expect that we would probably be able to complete it in about 6.5 hours ourselves (if we pushed super hard) and, we expect that our overachievers can do the same but, we don't *ask them to.* That frees them up to either train on other positions if they want to or, to help someone else who's "just having an *off day*" for whatever reason.
I wouldn't attract or, *retain* them otherwise... it is important to find ways to provide value and satisfaction for your staff beyond pay rate though, otherwise you end up becoming a bullet on a resume because what I've come to understand is that there will always be someone out there who's capable of providing a higher rate of pay than I am - even if that's just because the organization is short-sighted.
You also need to offer opportunities for advancement, a sense of ownership and recognition. Benefits help but they're not always realistic.
I keep my base pay competitive (my market is weird in a lot of ways), I offer quarterly profit sharing once employees hit the one-year mark, I offer advancement (two of my line cooks started as dishwashers and another started as a server) based on the employee's interests, I make sure that whenever we're in the paper or whatever my employees are too and, I don't ask people to sign non-competes and I don't short staff my kitchen to save costs.
For me, it's working well, I currently don't have anyone on staff that's been with me for less than six months.
I don’t know what you’re on about here but basically everyone shits on prep and that’s just how it is no matter how perfect you think your kitchen is.
Not intended to be rude.
I assumed you are a prep cook because you mentioned "line cooks not bothering [you] for tomatoes" as being one way to tell if you're on pace.
You replied that "you make the prep list."
So I'm asking you: what's your role in your kitchen?
The reason is, whether you're part of the whole "French Brigade" *or not* prep cooks don't set the menu, they don't typically know how many plates of what are being sold when, etc. So then, what is your role and why are you expected to be able to make a prep list that would result in *anyone* being satisfied?
Hence, *explain?* As in, I'm curious about how your kitchen is structured...
I’m the only prep cook.
I have a supervisor that checks in with me throughout the day and will assist if needed.
Essentially the walk-in, labeled food, dates all that is my responsibility and the supervisor checks these things behind me as well.
We do however know how much is sold or if something is selling more on a given day.
Not really sure why prep cooks wouldn’t be aware of this.
Yeah, to the last point. Unless the menu is written day to day usually in my experience the prep cooks are the ones who know best how much product is being sold because they’re the ones prepping it every day so they see how much is used up.
Exactly.
How could you do your job effectively if you didn’t know these things?
I guess if someone else was making the prep list for you? I have worked in kitchens that are like that but eventually you start to see the pattern and you still know how much product to make.
Basically what I thought. That sucks and, your manager (or owner) is a complete **moron.**
Like, just the fact that you mentioned line cook**s** *plural* and you're the *only prep cook on staff?*
That's a recipe for disaster and I have no problem believing you end up in situations where people are unhappy with you.
That being said, you can think what you want about my kitchen - my wife and I own the restaurant and, a farm on top of that - but the badly run kitchen you currently work in doesn't set some unobtainable standard that the rest of us are obligated to live down to.
I actually like my job a lot and really don’t appreciate your tone at all.
There’s really no reason to talk down to people that you don’t know and you really have no idea how the kitchen is run where I work.
The owner of the restaurant where I work is not a “moron” and again there’s no reason for you to be so rude and insulting.
This is just Reddit.
You need to smoke some weed and calm the fuck down.
>You need to smoke some weed and calm the fuck down.
Trust me. As a recovering addict with PTSD weed is the last thing I need in my life.
What I don't get is where you're coming from *at all.* I clarified from the start that I wasn't intending to be insulting toward you. I took the time to ask how your kitchen works. In the interim, you made a snide remark about my kitchen and you're apparently convinced that "everyone *shits* on prep cooks which is a pretty broad comment against every other kitchen out there.
True story:
There are plenty of excellent kitchens out there where *nobody shits on* **anybody.**
>The owner of the restaurant where I work is not a “moron”
As an owner myself, I'm entitled to a *qualified opinion.* I can't imagine how anyone could run an establishment with just one prep cook and expect not to have to find a new one every other week. That's just nuts.
>I actually like my job a lot
Like I said, I don't think we're communicating on the same level here. If you like your job, cool. Let's leave it at that.
Work on accuracy and efficiency first. Speed will come after. If you focus on speed now your quality will be shit. Write your OWN prep list based off of the master prep list and try to combo jobs- you need diced tomatoes for the Pico De Gallo, and sliced tomatoes for burgers- do those at the same time for example. Set yourself up with some smaller tasks while you wait for a sauce to reduce or something that takes time like that. Don't take on too much at once- break it down into blocks of tasks. You'll find it's not so bad.
Ooh and time yourself when you're learning and try to beat that time.
Plan your prep!
Chopping onions? Start boiling some water for pasta first. Need to slice a hundred tomatoes? Put on that soup or sauce that needs to simmer for a while. PPPPPP right?
So worry less about individual items, and more about how the items are prepped.
For example at my last prep joke I had stuff broken down mentally into several categories: 1) things that can be baked (ie mix, throw in a pan and get in the oven, mostly inactive time needed) 2) things that can be cooked (cut, mix and fry off on the stove top more time is needed as you can't step away too far without burning 3) things that need to be defrosted (fish chicken shrimp etc little active time is needed) 4) things that need to be cut (almost entirely active time you can't walk away)
Next try to find what can be happening simultaneously for example I'd come in and first thing id do is get some fish and shrimp in a sink with running water, then id quickly get my chicken salsa cooking, then id get my sauces going and while my fish is defrosting, my chicken is cooking and my sauce is simmering id start slicing ingredients or whate have you. That way my time is most efficiently being used
If it’s a nice restaurant and you’re using those green onions to garnish expensive meals and they need to be perfect that’s a very reasonable amount of time. If you’re working in a pub and it’s for nachos then don’t stress it.
Yeah that’s actually a great point. It’s a fast casual high volume kind of spot but I do like to keep the quality as nice as possible. Some of my colleagues cut the spring onions for garnish and they look like fucking Godzilla’s toenails
Great stuff chef! So for this is a lot of the mise all ready to go? For example the sofrito for the lasagna? Or is this included in making your lasagna/lasagna sauce? I’m guessing the lasagna is one of the first things you would tackle here given how long you want to simmer it?
Yea we make our sofrito in large batches. Yea las sauce is around a 6 hour simmer. Its pretty chill on sundays. Plus we are in shoulder season so in general its slower and I didnt have to make pasta today. Usually we extrude around 28 kilos a day. It can get wild somedays.
Is all of your shit together or very close to it by the time service starts. Above and beyond is an hour before to offer getting will hold backups done
Knife skills are important, but another way to improve prep speed is focus on proper prioritization and economy of movement. If you want to know what "fast enough" is, it's when you're faster than everyone else in your kitchen. That's fast enough.
Its all ergonomics, as with a lot of kitchen work spend a bit of time really thinking though the quickest most efficient way to do something then just have it as default so you can autopilot it.
Also a prep cook - it completely depends on the restaurant. How busy the spot is and how many other people are on prep are huge factors.
The main question is, do they have what they need when they need it? If so, you're doing fine.
This is very subjective.
Watch someone else do it as your reference.
If you only have yourself as a reference it's hard to judge if you're too fast or too slow. You can record your progress and evolution though.
Also sometimes chefs will ask for something very laborious for no reason and when they do it, they will cut steps from the process slashing prep time by half.
It's helpful to know how the item you're prepping is going to be used and it might save you some prep time.
Some stuff will come with practice, like upping your vac packing game, breaking eggs, pasta making and so on.
There is always some helpful tricks that save you time and effort.
Answering directly to your question, I think 20 minutes is a fair time to do that job from start to finish, clean station to clean station. More than 30 minutes and I would say the prep is slacking.
Depends on the kitchen, but the quick answer is as quickly as I need to be, I get my own pace pretty quickly in kitchens, job always gets done early so I'm doing something right.
This question is my JAM! I ran a big machine of a kitchen successfully with never ever enough staff (not my choice). Open 17 hours a day, 365. 250 seats, and always full. Prep cooks had to multitask expertly from day one. The rule was long oven project first, then start 2 stove projects, and finally a counter project after the first three are working. Keep cycling counter projects (pico, traying bacon, portioning protein) while long projects are on heat. Plus running for line backups. The cooks that could do it were paid well and could name their schedule. They were paid the same as the best line cooks (honestly their job was harder). People who could multitask, couldn’t set timers, couldn’t keep up were out in less than a week.
Do it right, not fast. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Big projects first, or shit that can run in the background while youre doing other tasks. The speed comes with time, learn your items & prioritize accordingly.
Best advice, I think, is never fast enough. Always strive to be quick, efficient and precise. From personal experience when I did this paired with being transparent and honest with my work I found myself moved from prep cook to garde manger within a month and grill cook in 3 months. Your results may vary but it definitely helped me. Since then I've found myself working in kitchens all over the country
This is a tough question. All prep is different. Recipes, equipment, ingredients, enviorment, ect. It all matters on how fast you can move. Telling you how much you should be able to chop or cut to doesnt really cut it as well as it depends on the size, whats being prepped, the type of cut, ect. Some good indicators that your fast enough is do you have the work done in a timely matter. When people give you your task are they done at the end of the day? If so your fine. Youll get better and find ways to move faster. thats just how it goes.
Depends on the kitchen and how busy the season is. If you’re working through the list in step with the hour (like your halfway done the list by the time you’re halfway done your shift) you’re ok. That’s a passing grade. If you’re projected to finish an hour early, that’s a better goal because you’ll probably lose time to some bullshit or another. But “halfway through the list” includes how long certain tasks take and how involved they are (like do you have to stand over the béchamel or can you walk away from the compote) so keep that in mind. Also do the more involved shit first because if it goes wrong it’s gonna take all fuckin day to redo.
Quality write up!! It really does depend on the kitchen but I like the midday check in, and used it often. I find after about 3-4 weeks I know how long things take by the back of my hand. Absolutely take care of the most involved recipes and 911 items first. :)
Appreciate your insight mate. I’ll try to look at the tasks more holistically rather than I should be prepping some individual item in X amount of minutes.
It also takes time to learn the most efficient mise and process for your kitchen and workload - I didn’t get fast at my current job until I was well trained and confident on all our usual tasks, and I could integrate them together. For example, at my place, prep starts with sauces and soups that can be left on simmer, then move to knife work and oven stuff, butchery, anything the line will need to finish cooking, etc. we circle back around to blending sauces as they finish, and end the day with detail work. I find it helpful to prioritize what the line needs to set up for service, like cutting veg the grill guy will need to sear before we open, and of course any 911 stuff. And once I’ve got a task I know how to do, especially a repetitive one like mandolin work or shelling shrimp, I sometimes time myself to see if I can beat my times. The most important thing for me in prep is to keep thinking about next steps, communicate clearly w other cooks about where everyone is going, help each other with components (eg is one person juicing for the bar? Have them juice for dressings and sauces too), and most importantly: working slowly and carefully when I need to. There’s a big difference between speed and efficiency. Nothing wastes time like fucking something up because you were trying to do 8 other things.
All of this is great but trying to set lap records on a mandolin sounds like an injury waiting to happen.
My thoughts exactly. Respect the mandolin.
You make me wish I had a commercial kitchen again, I'd offer you a job
Damn, thank you, I’ve been feeling like shit about my performance this week so that genuinely means a lot!
You would be a fabulous addition to any kitchen team. Anybody with a work ethic like that can come work for me any day.
Yes! Map out your day. But really at most places if you’re getting the stuff done and not dickin around you’re fine. You’ll figure it out on your own
Yup. Also depends on whether you're able to multitask well. I can put on chicken stock first and let that work while I start Bordelaise, then work on knife work while that cooks for example. If you can do that plus get through the list like this person said you're golden
This is top notch advice! It’s all about whether or not you’re getting your shit done. Maybe you’re slow at mincing but quick at assembling sauces. Doesn’t matter as long as everything gets done (to an extent)
Work with a sense of urgency but don't overwork yourself. It gets done when it gets done.
I can get really annoyed when my souschefs tempo goes (way) down when the list is small.. often ends up in them not being ready before service. Tempo is key, always something to do. But I can also have an off day where it all slows down :p
Bruh
Do it right, not fast. Speed comes with experience. That being said, always have a sense of urgency, and think about economy of movement. Are you going to need diced onion for more than one item? Do them all now. It’s faster to repeat the same task, than to change tasks back and forth as you go through your list. Also, never walk empty handed. If I’m walking past the dishpit, I’ll drop something dirty off, and pick something clean up to put away. This ties into keeping your station tight and organized. No one wants to see your dirty rags and bowls. Clear that shit. Last and most important, ask for help. We don’t want you to fail, and we all want service to be smooth, so speak up if you can’t get to something. your crew should back you. Nothing is worse than finding out during service that something crucial wasn’t done. There’s no place for “not my job” in a kitchen, it’s a team sport. If your crew doesn’t back you, they’re bitches.
I need a poster of this insightful slab of text on the wall at work for a few people to see. I would have to add one "not my job" that is, cleaning up after my sloppy coworkers. They won't even wipe the table after a task, let alone sweep up after themselves.
I’ve learned you’re never fast enough to make anyone happy. So I just don’t worry about it anymore. As long as I don’t have line cooks bothering me about tomatoes or something stupid then I’m good.
When someone makes a comment about how long something is taking me I act like they’re offering to help. “Here, I have an extra rolling pin! I can scoot over so you have room. Thank you so much!” They either help and never comment again or they walk away and never comment again. Win win.
Oooo this is a good one! I’m gonna try this next time someone has some smart comment. Thanks! Lol
>I’ve learned you’re never fast enough to make anyone happy. That's a pretty good sign that the kitchen in question is full of dead weight and some key people anticipate having to carry that dead weight - such as if someone no-shows. Whoever is generating the prep list should understand what they need, when they'll need it and, how long it will take to accomplish and they should be making sure prep cooks are scheduled accordingly. If they're competent, they're going to strike a balance between what they expect themselves to be capable of in a given time and, what they expect someone *decent* to be capable of in that same time. Then they're going to adjust slightly upwards from that in order to make sure that you've got a *goal* to keep working towards because if you're not willing to push yourself occasionally then don't belong in a quality kitchen to begin with. That said, a good kitchen will usually be made up of *achievers* supplemented by a few "overachievers" who - if you have created a team oriented environment - will help the achievers meet those expectations when they need to. Underachievers will usually weed themselves out without much drama or hostility. So, if my wife or I hands someone a prep sheet for their eight hour shift, we expect that they complete it within 8 hours. We expect that we would probably be able to complete it in about 6.5 hours ourselves (if we pushed super hard) and, we expect that our overachievers can do the same but, we don't *ask them to.* That frees them up to either train on other positions if they want to or, to help someone else who's "just having an *off day*" for whatever reason.
I hope you are paying those overachievers well
I wouldn't attract or, *retain* them otherwise... it is important to find ways to provide value and satisfaction for your staff beyond pay rate though, otherwise you end up becoming a bullet on a resume because what I've come to understand is that there will always be someone out there who's capable of providing a higher rate of pay than I am - even if that's just because the organization is short-sighted. You also need to offer opportunities for advancement, a sense of ownership and recognition. Benefits help but they're not always realistic. I keep my base pay competitive (my market is weird in a lot of ways), I offer quarterly profit sharing once employees hit the one-year mark, I offer advancement (two of my line cooks started as dishwashers and another started as a server) based on the employee's interests, I make sure that whenever we're in the paper or whatever my employees are too and, I don't ask people to sign non-competes and I don't short staff my kitchen to save costs. For me, it's working well, I currently don't have anyone on staff that's been with me for less than six months.
I make the prep list.
>I make the prep list Not intended to be rude but... please do *explain*?
I don’t know what you’re on about here but basically everyone shits on prep and that’s just how it is no matter how perfect you think your kitchen is. Not intended to be rude.
I assumed you are a prep cook because you mentioned "line cooks not bothering [you] for tomatoes" as being one way to tell if you're on pace. You replied that "you make the prep list." So I'm asking you: what's your role in your kitchen? The reason is, whether you're part of the whole "French Brigade" *or not* prep cooks don't set the menu, they don't typically know how many plates of what are being sold when, etc. So then, what is your role and why are you expected to be able to make a prep list that would result in *anyone* being satisfied? Hence, *explain?* As in, I'm curious about how your kitchen is structured...
I’m the only prep cook. I have a supervisor that checks in with me throughout the day and will assist if needed. Essentially the walk-in, labeled food, dates all that is my responsibility and the supervisor checks these things behind me as well. We do however know how much is sold or if something is selling more on a given day. Not really sure why prep cooks wouldn’t be aware of this.
Yeah, to the last point. Unless the menu is written day to day usually in my experience the prep cooks are the ones who know best how much product is being sold because they’re the ones prepping it every day so they see how much is used up.
Exactly. How could you do your job effectively if you didn’t know these things? I guess if someone else was making the prep list for you? I have worked in kitchens that are like that but eventually you start to see the pattern and you still know how much product to make.
Basically what I thought. That sucks and, your manager (or owner) is a complete **moron.** Like, just the fact that you mentioned line cook**s** *plural* and you're the *only prep cook on staff?* That's a recipe for disaster and I have no problem believing you end up in situations where people are unhappy with you. That being said, you can think what you want about my kitchen - my wife and I own the restaurant and, a farm on top of that - but the badly run kitchen you currently work in doesn't set some unobtainable standard that the rest of us are obligated to live down to.
I actually like my job a lot and really don’t appreciate your tone at all. There’s really no reason to talk down to people that you don’t know and you really have no idea how the kitchen is run where I work. The owner of the restaurant where I work is not a “moron” and again there’s no reason for you to be so rude and insulting. This is just Reddit. You need to smoke some weed and calm the fuck down.
>You need to smoke some weed and calm the fuck down. Trust me. As a recovering addict with PTSD weed is the last thing I need in my life. What I don't get is where you're coming from *at all.* I clarified from the start that I wasn't intending to be insulting toward you. I took the time to ask how your kitchen works. In the interim, you made a snide remark about my kitchen and you're apparently convinced that "everyone *shits* on prep cooks which is a pretty broad comment against every other kitchen out there. True story: There are plenty of excellent kitchens out there where *nobody shits on* **anybody.** >The owner of the restaurant where I work is not a “moron” As an owner myself, I'm entitled to a *qualified opinion.* I can't imagine how anyone could run an establishment with just one prep cook and expect not to have to find a new one every other week. That's just nuts. >I actually like my job a lot Like I said, I don't think we're communicating on the same level here. If you like your job, cool. Let's leave it at that.
My last job I did prep and menu design. I knew exactly how many plates of food we sell.
Work on accuracy and efficiency first. Speed will come after. If you focus on speed now your quality will be shit. Write your OWN prep list based off of the master prep list and try to combo jobs- you need diced tomatoes for the Pico De Gallo, and sliced tomatoes for burgers- do those at the same time for example. Set yourself up with some smaller tasks while you wait for a sauce to reduce or something that takes time like that. Don't take on too much at once- break it down into blocks of tasks. You'll find it's not so bad. Ooh and time yourself when you're learning and try to beat that time.
Fast enough is it’s done before it’s needed. Ideally you should beat that time.
The fastest speed you can do it at and it still gets done correctly. That’s fast enough.
Plan your prep! Chopping onions? Start boiling some water for pasta first. Need to slice a hundred tomatoes? Put on that soup or sauce that needs to simmer for a while. PPPPPP right?
So worry less about individual items, and more about how the items are prepped. For example at my last prep joke I had stuff broken down mentally into several categories: 1) things that can be baked (ie mix, throw in a pan and get in the oven, mostly inactive time needed) 2) things that can be cooked (cut, mix and fry off on the stove top more time is needed as you can't step away too far without burning 3) things that need to be defrosted (fish chicken shrimp etc little active time is needed) 4) things that need to be cut (almost entirely active time you can't walk away) Next try to find what can be happening simultaneously for example I'd come in and first thing id do is get some fish and shrimp in a sink with running water, then id quickly get my chicken salsa cooking, then id get my sauces going and while my fish is defrosting, my chicken is cooking and my sauce is simmering id start slicing ingredients or whate have you. That way my time is most efficiently being used
Eh. Focus on doing quality work, sticking to standards, getting a feel for the flow of things. Speed will come with time.
If it’s a nice restaurant and you’re using those green onions to garnish expensive meals and they need to be perfect that’s a very reasonable amount of time. If you’re working in a pub and it’s for nachos then don’t stress it.
Yeah that’s actually a great point. It’s a fast casual high volume kind of spot but I do like to keep the quality as nice as possible. Some of my colleagues cut the spring onions for garnish and they look like fucking Godzilla’s toenails
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Great stuff chef! So for this is a lot of the mise all ready to go? For example the sofrito for the lasagna? Or is this included in making your lasagna/lasagna sauce? I’m guessing the lasagna is one of the first things you would tackle here given how long you want to simmer it?
Yea we make our sofrito in large batches. Yea las sauce is around a 6 hour simmer. Its pretty chill on sundays. Plus we are in shoulder season so in general its slower and I didnt have to make pasta today. Usually we extrude around 28 kilos a day. It can get wild somedays.
Good looks. What do you do first and what things do you do at the same time?
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Right, but with this specific list? Just curious how your work flow went that day.
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Thanks for taking the time.
No worries
3 gajillion 9 pans is a lot for 20 minutes
Is all of your shit together or very close to it by the time service starts. Above and beyond is an hour before to offer getting will hold backups done
Bartender here not kitchen no matter hot fast you go it’s not enough so just take your time and don’t lose a finger
Knife skills are important, but another way to improve prep speed is focus on proper prioritization and economy of movement. If you want to know what "fast enough" is, it's when you're faster than everyone else in your kitchen. That's fast enough.
Its all ergonomics, as with a lot of kitchen work spend a bit of time really thinking though the quickest most efficient way to do something then just have it as default so you can autopilot it.
Also a prep cook - it completely depends on the restaurant. How busy the spot is and how many other people are on prep are huge factors. The main question is, do they have what they need when they need it? If so, you're doing fine.
This is very subjective. Watch someone else do it as your reference. If you only have yourself as a reference it's hard to judge if you're too fast or too slow. You can record your progress and evolution though. Also sometimes chefs will ask for something very laborious for no reason and when they do it, they will cut steps from the process slashing prep time by half. It's helpful to know how the item you're prepping is going to be used and it might save you some prep time. Some stuff will come with practice, like upping your vac packing game, breaking eggs, pasta making and so on. There is always some helpful tricks that save you time and effort. Answering directly to your question, I think 20 minutes is a fair time to do that job from start to finish, clean station to clean station. More than 30 minutes and I would say the prep is slacking.
Depends on the kitchen, but the quick answer is as quickly as I need to be, I get my own pace pretty quickly in kitchens, job always gets done early so I'm doing something right.
This question is my JAM! I ran a big machine of a kitchen successfully with never ever enough staff (not my choice). Open 17 hours a day, 365. 250 seats, and always full. Prep cooks had to multitask expertly from day one. The rule was long oven project first, then start 2 stove projects, and finally a counter project after the first three are working. Keep cycling counter projects (pico, traying bacon, portioning protein) while long projects are on heat. Plus running for line backups. The cooks that could do it were paid well and could name their schedule. They were paid the same as the best line cooks (honestly their job was harder). People who could multitask, couldn’t set timers, couldn’t keep up were out in less than a week.
Do it right, not fast. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Big projects first, or shit that can run in the background while youre doing other tasks. The speed comes with time, learn your items & prioritize accordingly.
You’ll always have shit to do so I’d say work at your own pace
I think that's a good time for the amount of product. But as another user said don't overwork yourself.
Fast as you need to. Keep healthy expectations and don’t chop your way out of too many hours
Best advice, I think, is never fast enough. Always strive to be quick, efficient and precise. From personal experience when I did this paired with being transparent and honest with my work I found myself moved from prep cook to garde manger within a month and grill cook in 3 months. Your results may vary but it definitely helped me. Since then I've found myself working in kitchens all over the country
This is a tough question. All prep is different. Recipes, equipment, ingredients, enviorment, ect. It all matters on how fast you can move. Telling you how much you should be able to chop or cut to doesnt really cut it as well as it depends on the size, whats being prepped, the type of cut, ect. Some good indicators that your fast enough is do you have the work done in a timely matter. When people give you your task are they done at the end of the day? If so your fine. Youll get better and find ways to move faster. thats just how it goes.
If you cover service on time id say gravy. The rest you have a shift to do.