THE HEART OF THE HOTEL
Most larger hotels anywhere in the World with restaurants and function facilities have a Main Kitchen or Production Kitchen. The kitchens are large commercial kitchens, meaning that large amounts of foods are prepared and cooked for resell like menus and function menus right through buffets and Satellite Kitchen supplies. The Main Kitchen is the center point for all food outlets. All Chefs working in the Satellite - or Function Kitchens get everything they need from the Main Kitchen or Production Kitchen.
All deliveries like, fresh goods, dry goods and all food related items are going to the main kitchen. Large walk in cool rooms to store the goods, like the cool room for fruits and vegetables, a cool room for all meats, a cool room for the cooked hot items like sauces, soups, a cool room for the cold - or larder section, a cool room or very large refrigerator for fish and seafood's, plus a large walk in freezer for all frozen goods. There is also a dry goods storage room with large storage containers for sugar, flour, rice and the like is also situated in the main kitchen.
Also the temperatures of the cool rooms and freezers have to bone monitored at all times. Cool rooms have normally a temperature of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius and the freezers minus 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. Any temperature fluctuations have to be dealt with immediately, otherwise thousands of dollars worth of food can go off.
HOT SECTION: The hot section in the Main Kitchen is responsible for all the sauces, soups, hot foods for buffets, all base sauces for the Satellite Kitchens and all the base sauces for the Function kitchen. It can get very hectic depending on the work load. All foods cooked need to be of best quality and also need to be the same in taste every time. To ensure this, every food cooked has a recipe that needs to be followed every time. You may wonder, why qualified Chefs need to follow a recipe? They should know how to cook. The answer is very simple: In a commercial kitchen operation every recipe has been calculated exactly to the cost of the recipe. Every ingredient is included in the costs. Based on how much the recipe costs, the retail price will be calculated. The term used is "Food Cost". I will show you how the food costs works in a future blog. Let's get back to the Hot Section.
There are generally 2 to 3 chefs working in the hot section. Generally there is a apprentice with the chefs. When I done my apprentice ship, us apprentices where posted in one of the sections, working and learning alongside the chef in charge of the section.
Here are a few examples of what get's cooked and prepared in the hot section.
Bouillon: A base clear beef soup made from beef marrow bones, vegetables and herbs & spices
Consomme: Made from Bouillon. Minced beef meat mixed with egg white and minced vegetables, mixed into the cold bouillon and very slowly heated and kept on low to medium heat. The beef meat mix will slowly rise to the top, giving the bouillon a very nice taste and stronger taste.
Soups of the Day: Made for the restaurant, buffets and staff canteen. Also function menus with soup as an entree.
Special Base soups: Bisque D'homard, National Soups like Bouillabaisse and the like.
Sauces: Neapolitan Sauce, tomato based and used mainly in Pasta dishes.
Cream sauce: Made with pure cream, seasoning and thickened with a Roux. (Roux is a mix with flour and butter made to a paste to thicken soups and sauces). This sauce is also used for pasta and meat dishes.
Veloute de poison: French for fish sauce. Made from a basic fish stock, thickened with a roux. This base is used for fish and seafood dishes.
Fume de poison: A strong flavored fish sauce thickened with a roux and a touch of cream added. This base is used also for seafood dishes.
Demi glaze:A brown meat base sauce for mainly stews, steak sauces.
Meat glaze: Made from their base meat sauce, reduced by a lot until it becomes a glaze. Also used for a sauce to mainly steaks.
Curry Sauce: Not made in the Main kitchen. The reason for that is that some sauces are made in the main factory of Movenpick in Switzerland. Having resorts Worldwide, like a franchise, the food had to be exactly the same. (like Mac Donald's, KFC's, Subway and the like)
Sauces like curry, Mexican, plus other fixed menu sauces where delivered to all the resorts Worldwide and I believe it is the same today. I will keep you posted as I will go to Switzerland soon and visit my old place where i made my apprenticeship.
Rice, Risotto, Pastas: where also cooked in the hot section, mainly for the satellite kitchens.
Vegetables: Blanched and chilled for mainly functions.
All sauces, pastas, rice or risottos, where prepared in the hot section for the function kitchen.
IMPORTANT NOTE
I am currently in Thailand and will later this month of June go to Switzerland. I like to re-visit the Hotel I made my apprenticeship and see if I get permission to make some photos of the original kitchens I did my apprenticeship. That is the reason why I have no pictures on this blog. The next 2 or 3 blogs will have no pictures either. Also all computers here are in Thai language and I don't know the computer commands in Thai. I have been lucky enough to find a computer I can log in to Google. As you perhaps know, Google is very big on security and I find this at times a bit of a headache but it is for everyone's good. My apologies.
Next week I will cover some of the other sections of the main- or production kitchen. Until then, enjoy life and great food.
All deliveries like, fresh goods, dry goods and all food related items are going to the main kitchen. Large walk in cool rooms to store the goods, like the cool room for fruits and vegetables, a cool room for all meats, a cool room for the cooked hot items like sauces, soups, a cool room for the cold - or larder section, a cool room or very large refrigerator for fish and seafood's, plus a large walk in freezer for all frozen goods. There is also a dry goods storage room with large storage containers for sugar, flour, rice and the like is also situated in the main kitchen.
Also the temperatures of the cool rooms and freezers have to bone monitored at all times. Cool rooms have normally a temperature of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius and the freezers minus 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. Any temperature fluctuations have to be dealt with immediately, otherwise thousands of dollars worth of food can go off.
Sections of a Main Kitchen
HOT SECTION: The hot section in the Main Kitchen is responsible for all the sauces, soups, hot foods for buffets, all base sauces for the Satellite Kitchens and all the base sauces for the Function kitchen. It can get very hectic depending on the work load. All foods cooked need to be of best quality and also need to be the same in taste every time. To ensure this, every food cooked has a recipe that needs to be followed every time. You may wonder, why qualified Chefs need to follow a recipe? They should know how to cook. The answer is very simple: In a commercial kitchen operation every recipe has been calculated exactly to the cost of the recipe. Every ingredient is included in the costs. Based on how much the recipe costs, the retail price will be calculated. The term used is "Food Cost". I will show you how the food costs works in a future blog. Let's get back to the Hot Section.
There are generally 2 to 3 chefs working in the hot section. Generally there is a apprentice with the chefs. When I done my apprentice ship, us apprentices where posted in one of the sections, working and learning alongside the chef in charge of the section.
Here are a few examples of what get's cooked and prepared in the hot section.
Bouillon: A base clear beef soup made from beef marrow bones, vegetables and herbs & spices
Consomme: Made from Bouillon. Minced beef meat mixed with egg white and minced vegetables, mixed into the cold bouillon and very slowly heated and kept on low to medium heat. The beef meat mix will slowly rise to the top, giving the bouillon a very nice taste and stronger taste.
Soups of the Day: Made for the restaurant, buffets and staff canteen. Also function menus with soup as an entree.
Special Base soups: Bisque D'homard, National Soups like Bouillabaisse and the like.
Sauces: Neapolitan Sauce, tomato based and used mainly in Pasta dishes.
Cream sauce: Made with pure cream, seasoning and thickened with a Roux. (Roux is a mix with flour and butter made to a paste to thicken soups and sauces). This sauce is also used for pasta and meat dishes.
Veloute de poison: French for fish sauce. Made from a basic fish stock, thickened with a roux. This base is used for fish and seafood dishes.
Fume de poison: A strong flavored fish sauce thickened with a roux and a touch of cream added. This base is used also for seafood dishes.
Demi glaze:A brown meat base sauce for mainly stews, steak sauces.
Meat glaze: Made from their base meat sauce, reduced by a lot until it becomes a glaze. Also used for a sauce to mainly steaks.
Curry Sauce: Not made in the Main kitchen. The reason for that is that some sauces are made in the main factory of Movenpick in Switzerland. Having resorts Worldwide, like a franchise, the food had to be exactly the same. (like Mac Donald's, KFC's, Subway and the like)
Sauces like curry, Mexican, plus other fixed menu sauces where delivered to all the resorts Worldwide and I believe it is the same today. I will keep you posted as I will go to Switzerland soon and visit my old place where i made my apprenticeship.
Rice, Risotto, Pastas: where also cooked in the hot section, mainly for the satellite kitchens.
Vegetables: Blanched and chilled for mainly functions.
All sauces, pastas, rice or risottos, where prepared in the hot section for the function kitchen.
IMPORTANT NOTE
I am currently in Thailand and will later this month of June go to Switzerland. I like to re-visit the Hotel I made my apprenticeship and see if I get permission to make some photos of the original kitchens I did my apprenticeship. That is the reason why I have no pictures on this blog. The next 2 or 3 blogs will have no pictures either. Also all computers here are in Thai language and I don't know the computer commands in Thai. I have been lucky enough to find a computer I can log in to Google. As you perhaps know, Google is very big on security and I find this at times a bit of a headache but it is for everyone's good. My apologies.
Next week I will cover some of the other sections of the main- or production kitchen. Until then, enjoy life and great food.
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