PART FOURTEN: THE FUNCTION KITCHEN WHERE SPEED AND QUALITY MATTERS

COOKING FOR GROUPS FROM 20 TO SEVERAL 100

My first introduction to high volume menu cooking and plating

I had a new experience in front of me, working in the function kitchen. Totally different from working in the Main Kitchen, the Function Kitchen is a very intense place to work. Timing, working fast and clean, doing the same thing for hours and long working hours is the norm in the Function Kitchen. 

From cocktail parties to buffets, sit down 2 or 3 course meals to grand dinners, morning and afternoon teas between conferences or seminars are served from the function kitchen. 

Working in an International Hotel, the standard of the food served needs to be very high. That applies to all food outlets including a high volume function kitchen. From the taste to the presentation, everything has to be top quality. 

Location and equipment of a Function Kitchen

The function kitchen is based next to the function rooms. In the hotel where I made my apprenticeship, the function kitchen was based on the third floor, right next to the function rooms. The reason for that is as follows; When the waiters and waitresses serve the food, the distance from the kitchen to the guests has to be short. That ensures that the food is getting to the guests still hot. It is also a reason for the chefs to set up buffets with platters, displays, hot and cold foods without having to transport the foods over a long distance. Timing is very important, so when you plate up 200 or more meals, the serving time has to be kept to a minimum. The waiting staff has to be able to serve the meals fast and return quickly to pick up the next lot of meals.

A function kitchen is a fully equiped kitchen. From a large stove to ovens, large cooking pots and fry pans, deep fryers, sinks, large working areas, refrigerators and freezers, dish - and pot wash area, bain marie's, plate heaters, different baking - and storage trays, heat lights where the food gets plated, cooking utensils and appliances, a dry goods storage area and a cleaning chemicals storage area. 

A FULL FUNCTIONING KITCHEN WHERE HIGH VOLUME MEALS ARE GETTING COOKED OR REHEATED AND SERVED.

Working in the function kitchen

Working with other chefs one has to work clean, efficient and exactly. The other important factor is that I had to learn that working in the function kitchen resulted in long days. Many times we started at 7 am and finished at 11 pm. Many times we prepared for 3 days for a VIP Buffet. A Gala Dinner took 2 days at least. The numbers of guests where in the hundreds, meaning every item on the plate had to be prepared hundreds of times. Lets take an example: Just the Main course. Eye filet medaillon with a selection of vegetables and croquette potatoes. Back in the 80s the common way was to have every vegetable turned. See image.

Turned carrots and zucchini, beans wrapped in bacon. Croquette potatoes done from scratch. So if you had 250 people for dinner, one needed 3 croquette potatoes per person, a total of 750 croquettw potatoes. 250 bundles of beans wrapped in bacon, 500 turned carrots, 500 turned zucchinis, 250 eye filet medaillons @ 250 gm each plus 25 litres of sauce. 

As an apprentice, we had to turn vegetables. A special knife is used for turning. See image.

I would spend hours turning carrots, zucchinis and parsnips. They had to be all the same size and look. The cut off parts of the vegetables would be used to make soup. 

The croquette potatoes where made from scratch and they needed to look exactly the same. See image.

The eyefilet medaillons where cut in the meat section in the main kitchen and the sauce was made in the hot section in the main kitchen. 

A VERY IMPORTANT FACT YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER

Working in the function kitchen was an important part of my training to become a chef. I had to do the same job for hours but that gave me the skill to do many things just about in my sleep. One thing I realized; I never stopped learning. It did not matter how long I worked as a chef, I learned all the time something new. Today, with over 30 years of experience, I still learn new ways of cooking and new dishes to cook. I also realized, that I can learn something from an apprentice, or a cook or a top level chef. I had to be prepared to be open minded and prepared to learn something new every day. That has not changed and still applies in the present. Never think, that you know it all, because that attitude will get you nowhere in the life of a chef. You can only become a top chef if you are prepared to learn from anyone who knows how to cook. 

Next week I talk about the satellite kitchens attached to the restaurants. Till then, enjoy life and fine foods.