Expanding my cafe's menu, need suggestions Chefit

Hello! I am a relatively inexperienced restaurant manager and I'm working on a new expanded menu for my small cafe and I could use some help from those who are more food-minded than I am.

Restaurant details:

• Very very small location. Saving space is one of, if not the highest priority when considering new dishes/ingredients

• Our only real cooking equipment a high-speed oven to heat/toast our food, similar to Subway; plus a steamwell for soups. We have no freezer on location, all of our frozen goods are kept in prep kitchen. We do have multiple refrigerators.

• We're a sister-restaurant to a larger full size bar & grill, and we do almost all of our prep at that location. We have access to their ovens, their grill, their flat top, their deep fryers, their slicers, their smoker, and their freezer and refrigerator space; so nothing is really off the table.

• We do mainly sandwiches, wraps, and salads. Our #1 profit item is our Chef Salad. Chicken Bacon Ranch wrap is up there as well. Sandwich-wise, ham and cheese & BLTs are our best (BLTs because they are one of the cheapest options) and the BBQ pulled pork/chicken is up there too.

• We do daily lunch specials throughout the week (m-f lunch is where the money is) and these specials consists of the bulk of our sales. Meatloaf sandwiches, potato soup, 8" personal pizza, burgers, philly cheesesteak are the normal specials. I chose these because they would be difficult/impossible to have always (except maybe meatloaf), but its no issue to bring a special up daily and sell it through lunch.

• We're located in a facility which means that our customer base is basically always the same, and we compete with the cafeteria.

• We premake our salads (among other stuff) and have them in a grab-and-go cooler. We only have a chef, garden veggie, and caesar. I personally think we need to add a new salad. We used to have a spinach salad but it wasn't a great seller and had 2 orphaned ingredients with it. Definitely willing to explore spinach salads again, perhaps with different ingredients.

• We don't have any fruit. I think a fruit salad or fruit cups would be a decent idea, I just worry that they may go bad before I can sell it all.

Our ingredients

• Our meats: Ham, Turkey, roast beef, pulled pork, pulled chicken, grilled chicken, bacon, pepperoni, chicken salad, tuna salad, bologna.
• Our veggies: Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onion, banana peppers, pickles, cucumber
• Our cheeses: American, swiss, pepperjack, shredded mix, mozzarella, Parmesan
• Our breads: White, whole wheat, hamburger bun, croissant, hoagie.
• Other: Scrambled egg patty, boiled eggs, breakfast sausage

TLDR;

I'm mostly looking for suggestions regarding new types of salads or sandwiches/wraps I could sell while adding as few ingredients as possible to save space/waste. I would like more options for our regulars to try (and maybe attract a few more regulars in the process)

Submitted October 08, 2017 at 01:02AM by Londonn http://ift.tt/2xqdeje Chefit

Help! Renovating and reopening a neglected kitchen Chefit

Have you ever taken on a disgusting kitchen renovation project? Opened a new kitchen from the ground up? Worked with an owner with 0 kitchen knowledge? Had only a week to make the shit work? I would like to know your tricks. Any of them.

Basically, I took a job as the kitchen manager of a new bar and grill opening up. The place they got was terribley neglected by the previous owners and I am astonished that they didn't kill anyone with their food or beer (or jagged floors, mildew ice machine, mini walkin nightmare, flattop from hell, concept of "why clean when you can use paint?!", mickey mouse ass cooler repair, keg lids used as insulation, refrigerator rust party, the list is endless)... but yeah...The new owner of the place is young, but quite competent, with extensive FOH management and bartending experience and has assisted in opening multiple other establishments in the past. Financials in order. Rennovation and repair plan is set. Concept is there. No red flags...

What I didn't know was that nothing in the kitchen was going to be worked on/tested/looked at before I started. They had a cleaning crew come in and scrape 10 years worth of filth off but failed to look at the internals of any of the equipment... So, here I am... I am experienced. I can cook, train, manage, write and cost a menu, do ordering and inventory and all the things that I was hired for. I know the right, the wrong and the only way to get the shit done. Unfortunately I am not an engineer, electrician, hvac specialist, mechanic or magician.

No accounts set up. No additional kitchen hires. No storage equipment. No clean equipment. No one with culinary or even remote BOH experience currently on board. Expected soft open 4 days.

Anyway, I gotta make it happen, right? This is totally what I wanted, right??? RIGHT?? (sorry, I haven't slept much since I started...)

How did you survive a restaurant open? Any advice for maximizing storage efficiency within a very small kitchen? Or on effectively and constructively communicating the physical impossibility of meeting an open date? Helpful hints for working with large distribution reps and not getting fucked? How much vodka is considered "too much vodka"? Anyone want a job in LA? Please advise.

Submitted July 22, 2017 at 04:22PM by MacheAdo http://ift.tt/2uL3uxf Chefit

Is it possible to safely reheat refrigerator temp food using only a chafing dish? Chefit

I'm catering a dinner for 30 in a remote location - zero electricity, nearest running water is a 5 minute walk, almost everything has to be brought in packed in ice. I have 4 gas burners and chafing dishes, but nothing resembling an oven.

I'd like to be able to pre-make a large pan of baked pasta and reheat it on site, but I'm worried about the time (I'm guessing 45 mins) it would spend slowly getting up to temp. Is there any way to do this safely?

Submitted April 19, 2017 at 11:18PM by Rojaddit http://ift.tt/2oW9y3f Chefit

Is it possible to safely reheat refrigerator temp food using only a chafing dish? Chefit

I'm catering a dinner for 30 in a remote location - zero electricity, nearest running water is a 5 minute walk, almost everything has to be brought in packed in ice. I have 4 gas burners and chafing dishes, but nothing resembling an oven.

I'd like to be able to pre-make a large pan of baked pasta and reheat it on site, but I'm worried about the time (I'm guessing 45 mins) it would spend slowly getting up to temp. Is there any way to do this safely?

Submitted April 19, 2017 at 11:18PM by Rojaddit http://ift.tt/2oW9y3f Chefit

[X-post from /r/cooking] DIY wedding catering for 150-175 people. Please tell me if I am doing this right! Chefit

Hello /r/cooking! Long time redditor, first time posting so please bare with me!

TL;DR - I am catering for my own wedding next fall and am looking to have 150-175 people at the location. I want to outline my ideas and I am looking for someone to tell me any faults in my logic for food preparation and serving. Please help me make this work. I have my mind set on DIY.

The venue is outdoors. The theme is backyard BBQ style food with rustic decor. I have access to electricity but no ovens so the food will have to be prepped beforehand. I am taking off work most of the week before the wedding and understand how much of a pain in the butt this will be. I have access to 6 people (4 other than bride and groom) who are willing to cook. This means that I also have access to 6 refrigerators and 6 ovens. I have priced out both Costco and GFS for items and which would be cheaper and by doing this myself I am saving over $1,000. The pans I will be using are full size deep aluminum foil pans. Please note that I do have access to 8 crock pots as well, of all different sizes (four of them are 8 q size). If I need more for any ideas you may have I could always ask around and find more! Each person offering to cook has a gas stove.

The menu: - Sloppy Joe - BBQ Chicken (open to changing this option) - Macaroni n Cheese - Musselman's Heat n Serve Homestyle Country Apples (7 lb cans) - Canned Corn (6.6 lb cans) - Mashed Potatoes - Pasta Salad/Macaroni Salad (either or)

How I plan to prep:

Sloppy Joe: 40 lbs of meat. Someone will cook portions of the meat at a time on the stove and put the browned meat into the full aluminum pans until all is cooked. Then They will put Manwich cans on the beef and store it in the refrigerator. This will be done the day before or morning of.

BBQ Chicken: I am still stuck on how to prep this. We were considering buying frozen chicken breasts from GFS, boiling the breasts, shred them in a crockpot and put BBQ sauce on them. GFS also has pre-frozen pulled BBQ chicken that serves 16 so we could ask if people prefer to have chicken or sloppy joe when we send out our invites and put our money into whichever people would want more of. Please note that if we do this route with the invitations that I will be having multiple people who could cook the pre-frozen pans, and 4 of these pre-frozen pans will fit in a standard oven (they come in 1/2 size deep aluminum pans). If anyone has any cheaper ideas please let me know!

Mac n Cheese: Boil the noodles the day before. The day of someone will heat and mix the noodles with the rest of the recipe and put it in the oven to stay warm. I will include the ingredients for the macaroni and cheese: (Serves 100) 8 lb elbow macaroni 8 lb velveeta cheese 1 1/2 lb margarine 3 c flour 2 gal milk 3 large pack shredded cheese - Boil noodles, combine all other ingredients separately, then mix them together. The recipe calls for baking for one hour at 350. I understand I need to take this recipe and multiple by 1.5x at least. How long should I bake the macaroni for once I alter the recipe?

Mashed Potatoes: With skin on, boil potatoes, mash them in a mixing bowl with hand-held mixer. Will heat up in oven. My mother was planning on making "Funeral Potatoes" with the corn flakes, but I think this may be too difficult for 100 people. What do you think?

For corn and apples: Those will just be heated on the stove or placed in the oven. Unsure of heating times right now so if you have any ideas please let me know. I personally (the bride) have large pots big enough to cook the corn in - 7.75 q stock pot, 32 q stainless steel pot. The others willing to cook have pots around these sizes as well.

Pasta/Macaroni Salad: Already pre-made, so will put into full size plan with another pan underneath filled with ice and cold water to keep it cold. This is what the bride and groom will take care of. The best man and groom will bring these the day of the wedding. These will be in full size aluminum pans as well. We plan on just emptying the containers into the pans for serving.

The plan in question: On the day of the wedding we are to marry at 4 pm and reception at 6 pm. My fiancé will be at the venue at 1 pm to receive the delivery of the hot box and make sure it is plugged in (I originally was going to do chaffing dishes with the candles, but I decided on an electric hot box/heating box instead.) The day of the wedding the food will be heated in everyone's ovens and immediately brought to the venue around 3 pm. Everyone who is offering to cook lives less than a half hour away. The heating box will be plugged in and warm enough by that time the food arrives to keep the food hot until it is to be served. Once the time comes to put the food out, the food will be placed on its designated tables with hot plates underneath to prevent the pans from burning the table cloth. The food will be rotated and only what is needed will come out. For example, I will only have out 1 full size pan of sloppy joe at a time. Once the first pan begins to run out, another pan will be brought out and condensed. There are people who will be in charge of the process of changing the pans.

The questions: - What could I do better or change? - At what temperature do you reheat the sloppy joe and mac n cheese if it was prepped the day before? - For the hot box, should I double up the foil pans and have one filled with water on the bottom to prevent the food from drying out?

Submitted October 26, 2016 at 05:28AM by Xxprettybritty http://ift.tt/2e8v2l6 Chefit

HELP! No time to wait for my pugliese biga/starter Chefit

I need to let the biga rest 18-24 hours and I don't have nearly that much time. How can I speed up the process? I remember in class to make it we used some kind of controlled climate refrigerator, anybody know what I can do??

Submitted November 17, 2014 at 09:15PM by bgross5 http://ift.tt/14zrjYC Chefit