The soup was made at 8:30 that morning. By 11, it's in the soup well on the line, hot and ready for lunch. Then service starts. Nobody's really watching the soup anymore. It's hot. It's…
16: Don’t Sign Yet — How to Inspect a Food Delivery
The truck backs up to the door at the worst possible time. It’s the middle of a lunch rush, you’re two prep cooks short, and the driver needs a signature now. Everyone in the kitchen…
17: Food Recall in Your Kitchen — What Happens Next?
The strawberries arrived frozen. The cases were intact. They came from an approved supplier, passed receiving, and went into storage. Three days later, the vendor contacts you. Those strawberries have been recalled. Nothing was necessarily…
19: Safe Food Preparation — Thaw It, Prep It, Protect It
Prep is where cooks get themselves into trouble because almost everything you're doing feels normal. Boring, even. You're just getting ready for service. Chopping onions. Setting chicken on the worktable while you trim it. Giving…
22: Reheating — And What Happens to Food Next
If you've never worked in a restaurant kitchen, one of the things that might surprise you is how much food gets cooked ahead of time. It's a lot. New cooks are frequently shocked to discover…
23: Until Somebody Eats It
75 Pounds of Scrambled Eggs I walked into my first large-scale breakfast service at 4 a.m. The kitchen was quiet — just one other cook and the a.m. sous going over the prep sheets for…
18: How to Put Your Food Away — Label It. Date It. Store It.
Picture a walk-in cooler with a leaky package of raw chicken sitting on the top shelf. Every shelf below it is now downstream of that leak. One drop of raw chicken juice lands on a…
The Monte Cristo: History, the Fry Station, and Why Good Frying Isn’t Greasy
A Monte Cristo is a ham-and-cheese sandwich wearing a French toast costume, dunked in hot oil, and dusted with powdered sugar like it's not already a lot. It sounds like a sandwich that shouldn't work.…
21: Cooling Food Safely — Get It Cold Before Time Runs Out
The Time I Ruined 27 Turkeys About 20 years ago, I opened my first catering company, Chef Christopher Events. I shouldn't have. I had been working in restaurants for years and was doing really well…
20 — Is It Done Yet? The Cooking Temperatures Every Food-Safety Manager Needs to Know
Nobody who actually works in a kitchen carries around a laminated card with every cooking temperature printed on it. You learn the temperatures you need for the food you cook. I started my career in…