PORTION CONTROL & KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

Labeling

Every professionally operated kitchen will have an effective label and date system being used by all staff to ensure the quality of their food and the safety of anyone eating their food products. This is a necessary, very simply system of communication; the prepared food items on the shelves of your refrigerator will be organized in containers, all of which will have dissolving or easily-removable white labels. Each prepared food product will have necessary and proper identification written on this label. Each product label should contain its name and the date the product was prepared; some companies even ask the name of the cook who prepared the item to be on the label as well. This is to ensure accountability for the item’s quality, freshness and flavor.

Portion Control

Portion control means properly measuring all portions served. This ensures all amounts are correct, and that recipes have proper yield. Also, the chef’s food costs reflect properly. The concept and function of portion control is essential to understand for everyone who wants to prepare a meal. It’s a matter of measurement, which begins in the planning and preparation stages, and is carried all the way through till the end of service.

Controlling portions usually begins when you measure the needed ingredients for a recipe, and purchasing that proper amount of food for that recipe.

Proper measuring and ordering will assure proper portions. Proper measuring calls for proper measuring tools: Cups, spoons, ladles, scoops, scales, and so on. Being accurate is one of the best kitchen habits to develop. Don’t guess! It may cost you money and customer satisfaction.

Equipment

Thorough knowledge of equipment is essential for success in the kitchen. It is very important to know all the equipment you might work with or work around, especially for safety purposes.

The more you know about the equipment you will be working with, the more valuable you will be to an employer.

Common pan sizes in professional kitchens have easy-to-understand names for instance, Hotel Pans: There are full 200 (size) pans, 400s and 600s.

These numbers refer to the depth of the pan; a 200 = 2 inch depth; 400s = 4 in. depth, etc.

The pan will be either a full pan or a half pan (which is half the size as a full pan).

These are the most common industry standard-sized pans. There are also so many different, weird sizes and shapes, but we don’t need to explore these; they all seem to have their place and function, and individuality.

Unfortunately, in commercial use, these jugs must be disposed after one use. At home they can be used as per your own judgment, but reuse is not NSF approved, therefore not permitted in a professional kitchen.

In my freezer at home, I have a sanitized frozen one-gallon jug of water waiting to help cool-down my next sauce pot quickly.

CaterWrap

The term cater wrap is well known in the catering business or any time of having to transport foods in vehicles for an off-premises event. To cater wrap is basically not just putting plastic-wrap on the top of a container of foods but literally wrapping the entire container in plastic wrap so even if turned upside down, knocked off a table and rolled over a couple of times; your product stays in the container; there’s no mess and the show goes on…

CaterWrap is also the term for a pre-rolled linen-like napkin with heavyweight knife, fork and spoon set also used in catering.

Ice Wands

Ice wands are a great invention. In my opinion, they ensure one of the quickest methods to bring down the temperature of hot liquids. These ice wands are long heavy-duty Lexon-plastic tubes with a locking lid. Keep them sanitized and filled with water, and frozen solid at all times. A very cool invention. they can be purchased through most food purveyors or restaurant supply stores. At home, you can easily recreate an ice wand cooling devise by cleaning and refilling empty one-gallon water jugs with water and freezing them. It is very important they are solid frozen when ready to be used. The colder the ice is, the more diffusion of temperature there is; therefore, a quicker cooling time is available for all stocks, soups or other hot liquids. After simmering liquids, take from the heat, place on the frozen jug of ice; the jug cools the liquids, and all the ice that melts stay in its container.

A loosely translated ancient Chinese proverb states, “…yes, it is important to learn new things every day; yet it may be more important to un-learn things every day like bad habits…” Make room for NEW and BETTER.

Always be smart, mindful, and constantly educate yourself. Be good to your food, and it will be good to you!

References: Professional Cooking Author: Wayne Gisslen resource: pages 1221) Food Handling and Preparation Methods –