Kitchen System Daily Operation Focused in Indonesian Restaurant
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CHAPTER II THE MEANING OF FOOD SERVICE SYSTEM A food service system can be defined as an entity composed of sub systems designed and functioning together to accomplish specific objectives. There are several units or components in any types of food service that are responsible for the overall functioning and the fulfilling of the objectives. Although some of these units may be small or some may be large, they are all interrelated. A food service system has also be defined as an integrated program in which procurement, storage, preparation, and service of food and beverages, and the equipment and methods required to accomplish these objectives are fully coordinated for minimum labor, optimum customer satisfaction, quality, and cost control. Additional subsystems control the entire management process. In any food service operation, large or small, there are two primary functions: (1) production and (2) service. In a restaurant, the kitchen is the production unit and the dining area is the service or distribution unit- often referred as “back of the house” and “front of the house” operation. These are two very vital sub systems within the food service system. Procurement, preparation, and transport are units which can technically be included within the production system. Receiving, holding, rethermalizing, serving, and warewashing are the primary units within the service subsystem. THE PROFESSIONAL KITCHEN The Role of The Chef In any restaurant, whether independent or attached to a hotel or club, the kitchen is the source of the goods your customers have come to buy. Professional chefs study and practice for three, four or five years to gain their basic qualification. This is quite as long as others may work to gain a degree in hotel management, accountancy or civil engineering. After this first qualification, chefs will go on to study more, often 6 moving through several hotels or restaurants to wided their experience. Like all professionals, qualified chefs are proud of their accomplishments, and will not take kindly to condescension, or to inexperienced managers stepping on their toes. Modern hotels demand that chefs be talented, creative, responsible and consistent. If there is a person who is still labor under the misapprehension that all chefs are temperamental, flighty and prone to throwing pots around the kitchen, that means that he is long overdue for a change in his mind. The Classical Kitchen The executive chef ( or chef des cuisines ) ruled a large staff ( brigade de cuisine ) who is divided into sections. Each section is run by section head ( chef de partie ), who is a qualified tradesman with years of experience. The executive chef is assisted by sous-chef ( literally, “under chef “), who is delegated for the Chef on his day off. Each Chef de partie has one or more assistants ( commis de cuisine ) who might be apprentices or qualified cooks. In addition, a small army of kitchen hands and stewards are employed to do hundreds of hours of preparation, cleaning and setup that are required in the days before automatic dishwashers, deepfreezers and prepared food become commonplace. This ‘classical ‘kitchen organization depends on a ready supply of young cooks willing to put up with long hours and low pay, in order to learn from highly skilled master chefs. It also relied on a large staff of unskilled workers to hand polish hundreds of pieces of silverware, burnish heavy copper pots and peel bushels of potatoes by hand. Though some of these elements remain ( particularly in the rarefied atmosphere of the Michelin three-star restaurants of Europe ). The Modern Kitchen The shape of the kitchens has changed: we now require much larger areas for frozen and chilled storage, and less for basic vegetable preparation. In smaller kitchens, the butchery, bakery and pastry shops have disappeared altogether, since these items are now bought in ready to use. More thought is given to sanitation and 7 food handling safety, with movable equipment, drained floors and improved ventilation. Cooking equipment is generally smaller, more efficient, and given to more than one use. Staffing levels have changed dramatically. In a kitchen that might once have employed fifty chefs and apprentices, these days twenty may do the same job. They are more highly paid and work in better conditions and for shorter hours. The days of the split-shift are numbered, as most establishments reconcile themselves to the eight- hour shift and five-days a week. In the organization chart of a modern kitchen, the number of sections has been much reduced. The chain of command is generally simpler, with fewer grades of seniority and fewer sections : The Executive Chef The Executive Sous-Chef The Head Chef The Sous-Chef The Chef Tournant The Pastry Chef ( Chef Patissier ) The Garde-Manger The Production Chef TheButcher The line Cooks The Commis Chefs THE EXECUTIVE CHEF The executive chef is responsible for the overall management of the restaurant’s kitchens, including staffing, training, menu development, usually in association with the Food and Beverage Manager, banqueting design and execution, quality control and purchasing often with the help of a purchasing officer. One hundred years ago, the Chef des Cuisines was a master artisan, capable of passing on his advanced skills s in food preparation and presentation to his chefs des partie and apprentices. These days, the Executive Chef is a business manager in the true sense of the phrase: he or she is responsible for achieving maximun profits from food operations by increasing turnover, minimizing costs and preventing waste. It is not unusual, in a large hotel, for the executive Chef to control an annual operating budget that runs into millions of dollars. THE EXECUTIVE SOUS-CHEF This position was created to meet the needs of large hotel and convention center kitchens, where the demands of supervising a large staff and multiple food service outlets, which often operate 24 hours a day, make it necessary to have a senior kitchen manager on duty at all times. THE HEAD CHEF In smaller kitchens, the chef in charge will be the working cook, with the responsibility for one or more sections of the kitchen in addition to her duties in staffing, ordering, menu planning and training. When a working head chef is employed, the owner or Food and Beverage Manager is expected to take on more clerical and administrative duties, such as payroll, purchasing or menu design. THE SOUS-CHEF The Sous-chef is in charge of practical kitchen operations under the supervision of the executive Chef. The Sous-chef’s duties are including hot and cold food preparation, banqueting preparation and service, apprentice training and staff roasters. In a large kitchen there may several sous-chefs, supervising separate shifts or restaurants. In a smaller kitchen, the sous-chef may be in charge of one or more sections and stand in the Head Chef on day off. 9 THE CHEF TOURNANT The chef tournant is the senior of the chefs de partie, the chef tournant moves from one section to another, replacing those section heads on days off or holiday. The chef tournant must be familiar with every section, other than the pastry shop, where the assistant pastry chef is in charge on days off and holidays. THE PASTRY CHEF ( CHEF PATISSIER ) This is a separate profession from that of cook : the pastry chef has been extensively in bread making, pastry cooking, dessert preparation and the making of sugar decorations, chocolates, specialized gateaux and wedding cakes. A large pastry kitchen or “shop” may employ several bakers and pastry-cooks to prepare all of a hotel’s requirements for Danish pastries, fancy breads, croissants, cakes and decorative pieces. THE GARDE-MANGER This chef de partie is responsible for the preparation of all meats and seafoods served cold, including pates and terrines, cold sauces, garnishes, salads, canapes and cocktail sandwiches. THE PRODUCTION CHEF The modern ‘production’ kitchen combines several sections of the ‘classical’ kitchen: rotisseur, entremetier, poissonnier and saucier. The production chef is responsible for all the basic sauces, roasted meats, starches, vegetables, soups and the like. THE BUTCHER Small kitchens may buy in most of their meats and poultry ready-dressed, sometimes in portion-control cuts for more accurate costing. THE LINE COOKS These are cooks assigned to a particular restaurant, who will prepare foods to order. The ‘hot line ‘ will prepare grills, sautes, deep fried food, vegetables and pasta dishes. A ‘cold line’ will supply individual salads, cold entrees, sandwiches and some desserts. The point at which the service staff collect the prepared foods is called the passe. During the busy times, either the sous-chef or the restaurant manager may stand at the passe to expedite orders. THE COMMIS CHEFS These are the assistant chefs, who may be assigned to any one of the sections. Some will be qualified cooks, who have yet to given responsibility for an entire section. Others may be apprentices, working towards their qualification in professional cookery or hotel management. STAFFING PATTERNS Staffing Ratios The number of staff employed in relation to the number of meals to be served is known as the staffing ratio. The staffing ratio will be affected by the following factors: Kitchen efficiency Overhead costs Complexity of the menu and type of establishment Staff capabilities Kitchen equipment and conditions .. Preparation and service time available Customer profile / expectancy (Cullen, Noel C (1996) “The World of Culinary Supervision, Training, and Management”, Prentice Hall) 11 Sometimes part-time staffs are employed to increase the staffing ratio to cover peak time periods such as meal service times, special functions and maximum sales periods. Part-time or casual staffs are employed to cover such eventualities as staff sickness, staff holidays, and extra duties associated with renovation and redecoration schedules.