Chef
and writer Paul Sorgule has spent over four decades in professional kitchens
and has a few tricks of his own to share.
Photo Worldskills UK/Flickr
1. Keep your pans on
the ready
Line
cooks who work the sauté station are acutely aware that their pans must be
screaming hot before a protein hits the surface. Even with flames at full
throttle this can take a minute or so and slow down the action. A simple trick
is to store your sauté pans in a hot oven so that they are ready whenever you
are. This saves a few seconds and can help a cook to keep the pace of cooking.
2. Saving a broken
hollandaise
A
hollandaise is a sauce that is comprised of the fewest ingredients, yet if
prepared incorrectly or stored inappropriately will fail consistently. If that
sauce begins to ‘break’ (clarified butter separating from egg yolks) there is a
quick hack to bring it back. Add a few drops of boiling water to the broken
hollandaise and whisk with reckless abandon. If that doesn’t work, try adding
another egg yolk while whisking.
3. 60 second
hollandaise on the fly
It’s
brunch and your eggs benedict station has been hit hard – turning to that bain
holding hollandaise, the line cook notes that there are only a few portions of
hollandaise remaining for an ever-growing number of orders. Have no fear –
clarified butter is likely already on the line, eggs are readily available, and
lemon wedges are at your fingertips. If you have a blender, then hollandaise
can be made in 60 seconds. The same method: egg yolks, a few drops of hot water
and blend until the yolks turn pale yellow and fluff, turn to medium speed and
gradually add the clarified butter in a steady stream, finish with a pinch of
salt, fresh lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco – voila! The only difference
is that with this method you will need approximately twice as many egg yolks –
the flavour is slightly richer, but otherwise just like the product made by
hand.
4. Trick the nerves
in your hands
Handling
very hot products from a water bath or slicing a roast can be painful and
sometimes an impossible task. Keep a bowl of ice water at the ready and dip
your fingers in between handling the product and trick your brain into thinking
that the heat doesn’t matter. It works!
5. Forgot to soak
those beans?
Of
course we all have done this – you forgot to soak those dried beans overnight
for a cassoulet, and here it is 3pm with service looming at five. Sort, rinse,
and add your dried beans to enough water or stock with a teaspoon of baking
soda. Simmer (don’t boil) and the baking soda will break the structure of those
beans in no time. Make sure you don’t boil the beans or they will tend to blow
up and lose their integrity with this method. Next time – plan ahead!
6. Fast and efficient
shallots
Cooks
love using shallots as a full flavoured, yet sweet and mellow alternative to
onions – especially on the line. Instead of slicing or mincing the shallots –
puree them in a blender. The shallots actually melt in the pan and are less
likely to burn or add harshness to the dish.
7. Avocados ready
overnight
You
need some avocados for service tomorrow and they arrive from your vendor – hard
as a rock. Keep them intact, cover them with flour, and store at room
temperature overnight. The next day they are soft and ripe.
8. Hot coffee to cool
down
The
heat on a busy line can be unbearable. Standing over a battery of open burners
cranked to ’10’, flames leaping from a char-grill, or a 760 degree open hearth
oven can actually leave a cook with what resembles a few too many hours outside
in the July sun. Dehydration is a real problem among line cooks and it is
common to find a cook losing a couple pounds of weight in sweat after a night
on the line. Keeping hydrated and finding some form of relief from heat that is
intense enough to cook a person is of primary importance. Some might think that
cold beverages are the answer, but in fact, a steady stream of warm drinking
water or even hot coffee will provide even more relief in the long run.
9. Par poach eggs
Back
to brunch and that steady stream of Eggs Benedict orders – timing is essential
and this dish requires a variety of different cooking steps: poach the eggs,
toast the English muffin, grill the Canadian bacon, and brown the hollandaise
just before pushing the finished dish through the pass. Any step saving method
will help. Eggs can be pre-poached (about 80%) and better controlled if done in
advance. Poach the eggs with simmering water and a touch of vinegar, transfer
to ice water to shock and stop the cooking, transfer to refrigerated pans, and
wait for the orders. When needed, transfer the pre-poached eggs back to a water
bath for 20-30 seconds, just enough time to warm them through, and they are
ready for assembly.
10. Simple – Knives need
to be sharp
This
is not a hack, but rather the most basic of time saving methods in a kitchen –
keeping a cook’s knives sharp is an absolute. Right next to every cook’s knives
should be a steel and clean towel for wiping down knives that are constantly
attended to.
11. Memorise your
station map – Keep your organisation
Next
on the basic time saving methods is to have a well-designed station map that
defines exactly where every ingredient and every tool is placed. Just like a
pilot memorises his or her array of controls and metres, so too must a line
cook memorise where everything in a station is placed. You should be able to
grab for anything without even looking. The follow-up is to make sure that
everything is always returned to its place on the map no matter how busy you
are.
12. Work clean – No matter
how busy you are
An
efficient station is always clean and cooks are always cleaning as they go.
When station cleanliness begins to slip then the cook will start that slow and
steady demise that eventually leads to chaos.
13. Blanch – Shock –
Refresh
Again,
the trick is to look for ways to save a few seconds here or there without any
compromise to quality. One such method employed in most restaurants focuses on
vegetables. Par blanching vegetables and shocking them in ice water, drying
them and keeping them ready for a quick refresh when needed helps with timing,
helps to maintain their nutritional value, and keeps them looking bright, crisp
and fresh.
By FDL