Cooking in advance... what to do than?

I leading small restaurant in poland, where sous vide and modern techniques are still unobtainable for average gastronomy, but still I want to advance and cook traditional dishes in modern way. I know how it works, I can do a great dish with mavelous texture & color... but it takes hours to prepare (i mean the bath in sous vide, infusions of flavors etc etc etc) but when it comes to service, problems showing up. I wish to see classes where you will show us how cooked food in advance is plated. There are any techniques to downgrade plaring time to 10-20 minutes if not what time is require? how long meat can be in bath? if its written 10hours in bath... what will happen if ill keep it 18 hours. Is there possibility to show up some "tips and tricks, and ways of plating food made in advance" classes? Yours Przemyslaw J.

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ttpoker

If the recipe calls for 10 hours in a bath, chances are very good that a few extra hours won't matter, typically recipes that call for extensive amounts of time are more flexible once the cook is done; trial and error. For recipes that require shorter amounts of time, create a separate bath at 60 C as a holding bath to keep the items warm after the cooking time required is done. OR pre-cook, chill, and reheat at the finishing temp. These topics are covered in extensive detail in the Modernist Cuisine books, and even here on ChefSteps in the Sousvide courses sucj as this great handy guide: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-time-and-temperature-guide

tshewman

Przemyslaw, Having been to your country many times (approximately 10) and have colleagues there, please let us know the name of your restaurant and location. Now that said, See IntheCards for tips on keeping food warm. If I recall though most dinner hours are not 10 hours long...?? So, if you have an idea on the number of diners and portions, they can be staggered into he bath so as not to put all in at once. Depending on serving size etc proteins will take the same amount of time to come up to "core" and can be held just below core temperature (seafood being perhaps he exception where little time is generally all that is needed). Keep plates in a warm oven (or cold fridge) depending on serving temperature. And knowing how you are going to plate BEFORE you plate (draw on paper etc) is helpful. See: http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/plating-and-serving

marianogreco

Hi Przemyslaw,

You have different way to approach the problem but,basically as you know very well we are not living in a perfect world.

Chefs running a "normal" rrestaurans have to face every day the unknown...how may people I'm going to cook for today?

If you are not very good in betting

for some of your recipe you should stuck in a classic way of cooking.

Very important is to be realistic,about your kitchen equipment ,about the covers you have to handle and the technical level of your kitchen...remember is a business and has to make profits!

If you are willing to enter the fine dining world be sure to have a good PR and be ready to digest a lot of bullshit;profits on that level is a tricky issue.

Be ready to take advantage of stagiers and make them work as a chefs...for free.

I have friends with Michelin star restaurant struggling everyday to survive.

I know you are already aware about this but sometimes is good to refresh the very basics.

The mindset is the most important think,if I run a steak house and I want to apply the low cooking temperature technique I will set first of all the level of doneness I'm going to serve.

Normally rare ,MR,Medium will work fine,what you can do is pre-sear the meat ,put the meat in a zip lock bag and cook it MR and Medium and then chill with herbs(Wil last for more tha 1 week) re-heat when the order get in to the kitchen,if is a busy night,you should bet and take some of it out of fridge in advance.

If someone ask for well done entrecôte..kick them out.

I'm also curious how the guys from Chefsteps handle those situations,I'm always surprised to see how things look from outside and how things really are from inside.

Best regards.

Mariano.

Przemyslaw_93807

I realize its not perfect world, also i know its bussines to make profit, but! bussiness approach to restaurant isnt healthy. We have dozens of restaurants around with simmilar menus (regional) and its cool... but damn i know that some things might be done better. After few lectures like Modernist Cuisine.. or Harold McGee Books i know i can do better that i do now, i just have no idea where to get practice in serving modern cuisine.

I dont want to serve typical fine dinning. Just some elements. I realize that traditional food have some... hmm Brackets which closing ways of serving. I also realize that modern kitchen fullfill gaps in knowledge of cooks from past, and im sure i can do some things better with present technology.

For now i handle pretty well with classic one, i want more diversity. i want my clients to say "damn this fish was melting in my mouth, never ate that awesome fish before"... know what i mean?

I know how to achieve it in fine dinning but i have no idea how to use it in kind of restaurant i lead, and i can confes that my knowledge isnt wide enough to do it correctly. i may try but i dont want to risk poisoning etc. We dont take so much reservations of tables (its restaurant near main road, so mainly i have clients that traveling in bussines randomly) so i cant predict at what hours they will come. BUT! judging from past years i can predict how many meals ill serve aproxximately~ in this day (+- 1 day)

Przemyslaw_93807

i was thinking of keeping few (like 10) pieces in bath at one time, whenever i serve for example 2-3 portions i replace them in bath with portions to reheat... but the question is. can i reheat it next day if its vaccum sealed? <= these things making me scared of this technology. low temp is risky

and i prefer to ask and talk before i do. Poisoning clients isnt the way of trial&error that i want to fallow to check it out HAH

marianogreco

Perfectly got your point, have you try to analyze how David Chang approach this kind of problems, I find him brilliant back in the days of the first momofuku ...now he is a superstar whit pro and big cons...

anyway,as a sample I find his approach to the stock making brilliant,he start to use dehydrated meat,more or less like dashi.

I know very well the problems you encounter during the way to make nice food in a small restaurant and I can imagine why you became so thrilled right now-everyone in the food iindustry is talking about Poland and Czech Republic as the next frontier of avantgarde- I'm following quite closely the situation in Latvia which is also quite promising.

But if I may I suggest ..you shouldn't start to redefine before you have a clear mindset of the concept.

I try to explain myself better:in Italy we have a very old dessert which is traditional from Napoli, it called Babá-the French have something similar called Savarin- I did some research which brought me to Poland as the place where the recipe originated.

I had this dessert in my menu when i was clear about the history,how the original recipe should taste,what I can do to make it more contemporary and most important put myself in the condition to be consistent and do not struggle during the service.

The perfect steak from modernist cuisine is fascinating,but from the many ways you have to cook a steak the one I prefer is Magnus Nilsson's way.

tshewman

If you cook sous vide then chill in an ice bath you can keep in the fridge (or freezer) and heat the next day.

Przemyslaw_93807

So as summary... Ill start to work on few recipes im sure about, and slowly expand & replace with modern solutions. Thank you very much for claryfing few problems which i came across during introducing Sous Vide. Now i know which direction to go aproximately

soon ill upload some photos "before - after". Working on reconstructing recipe from 1686 year :P

fitzek2000

Never ever go the "taking advantage of stagiers way" that is killing our business and great view on a chef the long way. Pay and treat well. Do the longshot and everything will be much easier in the end.

marianogreco

Hubert, just to remind you how really works ..ciao

http://www.eater.com/2013/10/30/6342059/noma-apologizes-for-threatening-stagiers-with-a-global-restaurant