Prep tricks needed

I was thinking about ways to become more efficient and cut down on time during prep and wanted to know some new techniques any of the pro's out their can think of. Tricks meaning something like the peeling garlic between two bowls kinda stuff; tricks that really cut down on tedious actions and allowing it to be done quicker.

A small bowl of water for sorting shells out of crab meat, feel and find the shell and dip it in the bowl of water and the weight of the shell will make it sink. I worked in a small English bakery, scones and shortbread being the two main things we would have to whip out. Scones, essentially being biscuits benefitted from the least amount of touching/working possible. What surprised me is that shortbread benefitted from the same treatment even thought it was such a denser dough. I don't mean fats breaking down because of heat, we worked in small batches to keep the integrity of the butter in the shortbread. Basically if we overworked the shortbread batter we would get a more bready consistency . Compared to a clean break/airy short bread. This surprised me knowing how much butter was in the dough. Not a pro by any means but I've cooked in some kitchens.

using chukabochos made me alot quicker.

Film yourself then watch the films. You'd be surprised at how much efficiency you can gain by doing this.

ThEoRy said:

Film yourself then watch the films. You'd be surprised at how much efficiency you can gain by doing this.

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BAM! This.

In every area involving efficiency of movement, this is a huge first step. If you can't see what needs changing, I'd suggest PMing some of the guys here, like Rick, to ask what they see.

@jordan, I'm just a home cook so for what its worth:

1.) Break down your prep into the smallest repeatable activity. For example, peel all onions first, then cut them all in half, then chop, slice, mince... as the last step.
2.) Before each major step in the cooking process clean prep area completely. Wipe down, put knives up, remove/clean all dirty dishes.
3.) Touch up/sharpen your knives before you put them away.

Danny and Rick's advise is excellent too. I've been watching Rick/Salty prepping food for years . I never tire of Rick demolishing cases of chickens at speed. I love the garlic smashing one too, but my all time favorite is the lobster massacre.

Make a list of the tasks you do, and I'll see if I can throw you a few tips.

I'm a career prep cook a very high-volume restaurant, and I've picked up a few tricks here and there. Accomplished veg dicer, Shrimp-cleaner, stock-maker, egg-poacher, and a few other things.

I'll try this I'm fine on time before service just would like to improve more in order to show I can move up.

Mucho Bocho said:

@jordan, I'm just a home cook so for what its worth:

1.) Break down your prep into the smallest repeatable activity. For example, peel all onions first, then cut them all in half, then chop, slice, mince... as the last step.
2.) Before each major step in the cooking process clean prep area completely. Wipe down, put knives up, remove/clean all dirty dishes.
3.) Touch up/sharpen your knives before you put them away.

Danny and Rick's advise is excellent too. I've been watching Rick/Salty prepping food for years . I never tire of Rick demolishing cases of chickens at speed. I love the garlic smashing one too, but my all time favorite is the lobster massacre.

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I got those things down tbh Ima try Rick's suggestion and film myself to see where I go wrong.

Without a list of your primary prep tasks, like LoneWolf mentioned, advice may be all over the place as far as specific tasks but one thing that used to amaze me were the guys who had no "system" to their prep.

One super-simple thing I do every single time, whether I'm dealing with a lone onion or a sack of them, is to work from left to right. It fits my body mechanics, and allows me to process food from my non-knife hand, onto the board, break it down, and then off the board into whatever container it's destined for (just rake it off the board with my knife into the container, taking advantage of the blade in my right hand).

I also look at what is going to make the biggest mess in my work space and do those things last so that I'm not having to take as much time between tasks to clean my area. For this reason I try to do onions last because the skins tend to stick to everything and require more than just a swipe into the trash to clean my board.

Tasks include: cooking grains, cutting Supremes, making dressings,dicing shallots, cutting lettuce, making crisps/ croutons, picking/chopping herbs etc... and anything else that comes my way

[video=youtube;jgkM_RrIGLM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgkM_RrIGLM[/video]

For me Mise en place is the accumulation of how service is gonna go . Service should always be based of how well you been prepared on a practical level as well as a personal/mental capacity.

Human brains don't multi-task but are mostly task oriented. What that means is that human brains don't execute /focus on different tasks simultaneously ; While it seems that we have the ability to do 8 things at a time we are rather conditioned to apply a sequence rather than being able to multi-task if that makes any sense. So that simply means that you train your brain to prioritize and create a sequence . Good cooks can prioritize properly effortlessly creating sequences that seem as if they have 10 things going on but they don't really since everything is in a sequence .

A good cook also learns how to cook by using all of his senses and when SHTF knows how to maintain focus and keep repeating the same sequences in larger volumes . During these times a cook is as good as his Mise en place. If your mine en place is not tight or proper or correct or in good numbers during preparation time it will never be during service .

Now while this is one of the first things i teach new cooks the other things that go with it really depend on how good the environment they came from was and how fast they are able to absorb and achieve a good level of execution . Having a great attitude and an open mind is important but breaking bad habits is difficult most of the times because habits are subconscious actions created by habitat training .

For me this general idea above is the base to built efficiency. The reason why i brought it in this section is because i think you should really analyze what you do. There are other things that coincide with the above ideas :Using prep list, always keeping notes, trying to be spot clean all the time (its harder than you think), organizing everything in 90 degree angle (ABK-Always be knolling) , Labelling everything , Tasting and re tasting everything etc.

I love Ricks idea about actually shooting video of yourself . iT WILL SHOW YOU A LOT .

Other than that some things need to be taught to you and there are always cool tricks that come up your way like making a cherry pitter out of a fork , or how to cut a whole flat of grape tomatoes in less than 7 minutes using quart container lids and things of that nature . I would suggest you watch a lot of videos from Jaques Pepin he has a lot of solid good basic technique .I can say this : you never stop learning .

Sometimes timing how long it takes to do something and than doing it faster next time can help with efficiency. Also adding a rhythm to your work can make it less tedious and easier to pick up the pace. Too many food hacks and your chef may take you down a peg.

CaremeFraiche said:

Sometimes timing how long it takes to do something and than doing it faster next time can help with efficiency. Also adding a rhythm to your work can make it less tedious and easier to pick up the pace. Too many food hacks and your chef may take you down a peg.

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That's a fair point and really I got general timing on tasks and organization was really just looking for some cool stuff to try not because I need it just like learning a different way to look at things.

Take a quart container lid; place cherry tomatoes until full. Invert another lid on top so you have the 2 tops of the lids creating a "sandwich" . place your hand pressing down light :take a knife and run it in between the 2 lids. You just cut 8-10 cherry tomatoes in a few seconds .

Multiply the process and you can do a whole flat of cherry or grape tomatoes in no time. As long as you have a slicer and able quantity of quart container lids .

I hope the description makes sense .

kostantinos said:

Take a quart container lid; place cherry tomatoes until full. Invert another lid on top so you have the 2 tops of the lids creating a "sandwich" . place your hand pressing down light :take a knife and run it in between the 2 lids. You just cut 8-10 cherry tomatoes in a few seconds .

Multiply the process and you can do a whole flat of cherry or grape tomatoes in no time. As long as you have a slicer and able quantity of quart container lids .

I hope the description makes sense .

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Yea it made sense, I know that one used it all the time for big catering events to cut that damm salad garnish

I found prepping well was something like 75-80% mental and 20-25% physical. I suppose it goes w/o saying, sharp knives and great knife skills are invaluable. More so however, is an ability to strategize effectively. When I was first cooking, I'd get overwhelmed and scared of my prep and just run into it w/o thinking it out. This was always disastrous. The smartest cook will almost always be the most effective.
Also, and I expect this might not meet universal approval but, you have to know when to be a hack.
Seriously though. There are times when you just have to survive in a kitchen. Trust yourself to use shortcuts if and only if they don't sacrifice the quality, and you don't think you'll get caught. I used to love working AM for this reason. I could prep like a freak, and when I knew I had a better, more efficient way of doing something than the chef would approve of, I did it.
My favorite example is this:
When I started working noodle station at Momofuku, we would sell like 100 bowls of our spicy miso ramen a night. We used to put fried garlic on the top of the egg, you know like out of a jar. One day the chef decided we had to slice, triple water blanch, and fry our own garlic chips for service. It was complete ***** madness. I watched my pm station partner just get totally destroyed trying to get these damn things ready for service. So i'm like, hell no, and went to chinatown and purchased a jar of fried garlic and hid it in my locker. A sous chef caught me and said something like, 'I know you bought these, and you should be careful doing stuff like that. I should be pissed but I actually think it's funny and understand why you are doing this.' Like a week later we went back to using the pre-made chips again.
I never had a lot of experience in kitchens so I had to be a little crafty to move through the stations as fast as I wanted to. In a turn and burn western kitchen this served me well. When I went to a high end japanese kitchen, my arrogance, haste, and occasional hack moves did me little service.
Whoa, Sorry for the rant.
Peace!

Google food hacks and whatever your trying to make you never know what might come up. Also sometimes it's as simple as asking your coworkers if they know a faster or better way to do something. If there's a will there's a way.

Always know what your next job is going to be. I find I waste more time between jobs - getting containers, going to the coolroom etc - if I'm not thinking about the next job or two in the queue.

A little tip, but it may save you ten minutes a day.

Dusty said:

Always know what your next job is going to be. I find I waste more time between jobs - getting containers, going to the coolroom etc - if I'm not thinking about the next job or two in the queue.

A little tip, but it may save you ten minutes a day.

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Yea I noticed I do this occasionally too especially when I don't have my coffee in the morning.

Multitask obviously. Put a pot of water on to boil, put your wine on to reduce, while that is going, throw the sausage in the oven while those are on start cutting stuff, now the water is boiling, start blanching stuff or cooking your pasta, while that is going continue cutting stuff. Things like this are a huge gain in productivity.

With experience you know how long a job takes so as you said can Multitask Cooking multi items. while doing other prep would set timers to 1min. before have to go to finish one of several things going on at once.

When cutting large amounts of food position the container little lower than edge of cutting board so you do not have to pick up the food off the board.

I found with experience that simply relaxing instead of getting pressured out you are more focused and take care of business.

When you label an item leave extra room between the item name and the date. When the item is old just tear off the date and use the extra room to right the current date. Saves a ton of time. Sorry Thomas Keller. https://mobile.twitter.com/srythomaskeller

bogeybrown said:

Without a list of your primary prep tasks, like LoneWolf mentioned, advice may be all over the place as far as specific tasks but one thing that used to amaze me were the guys who had no "system" to their prep.

One super-simple thing I do every single time, whether I'm dealing with a lone onion or a sack of them, is to work from left to right. It fits my body mechanics, and allows me to process food from my non-knife hand, onto the board, break it down, and then off the board into whatever container it's destined for (just rake it off the board with my knife into the container, taking advantage of the blade in my right hand).

I also look at what is going to make the biggest mess in my work space and do those things last so that I'm not having to take as much time between tasks to clean my area. For this reason I try to do onions last because the skins tend to stick to everything and require more than just a swipe into the trash to clean my board.

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How do you deal with waste in that system? Do you keep a waste container at the top of your board?

Chuckles said:

When you label an item leave extra room between the item name and the date. When the item is old just tear off the date and use the extra room to right the current date. Saves a ton of time. Sorry Thomas Keller. https://mobile.twitter.com/srythomaskeller

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Why would you want to keep product past its expiration date? Even if it was still ok to use, wouldn't you want to change the container? Now you the scenario of having fresh product with a shorter expiration date than re-labeled old stuff. I'm kinda shocked Keller would use such a risky system.

ecchef said:

Why would you want to keep product past its expiration date? Even if it was still ok to use, wouldn't you want to change the container? Now you the scenario of having fresh product with a shorter expiration date than re-labeled old stuff. I'm kinda shocked Keller would use such a risky system.

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They're joking. You might be joking about not getting the joke.

That's an example of being a hack. The art of being a hack is a common source of humor ITK.

It was one of my favorite quotes from the Sorry Thomas Keller Twitter feed. It is an open confessional to Keller for cooks perpetrating or witnessing alarming food practices and it is entertaining. I think I learned about it here. It is tricky trying to write sarcasm. And I am not a great writer to begin with. :clown:

Among my favorites was to the effect "Is it the green mold that is bad for you or the blue mold?" I don't even know what a twitter feed is but that was a hoot. Seems to be dormant now.

Love that Sorry TK account.

I'm not a fast cook. But I get it done.

One trick I like is when making an ice bath for shocking veggies, I put the ice and water in a 600 hotel pan, and use a perforated 400 hotel pan to dump the veggies in. Once everything is chilled, drain with the perf pan, and it's ready to use. Or for smaller amounts, a bowl of ice and water and the blanching basket to keep the ice separate from the veggies. I see cooks just dump the blanched veggies in with the ice, then spend a lot of time either picking the veggies out, or picking the ice out, or letting the ice melt while the veggies come to room temp.

And similar to what theory said, organize your tasks by starting what takes the longest first. Start all the unattended cooking tasks first, and do the shorter tasks while those are coming to the boil, simmering, roasting, etc. I recently saw a cook put a small pot of oil on a burner for frying and was going to watch it come up to temp. As if no other tasks can be done while oil is heating. Or if someone started tomato sauce at the end of their day, then had to wait for it to simmer, then wait again for it to cool off before putting it away properly.

But there's always tricks to be learned from co-workers.