Chapter 4 Kitchen Essentials: Part 1— Professionalism

What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary Professional? To be professional is to be courteous, honest, and responsible in your dealings with customers and coworkers. A culinarian is one who has studied and continues to study the art of cooking. The attributes of a culinary professional include: Knowledge: A professional culinary program provides the culinary student with a basic knowledge of foods, food styles, and the methods used to prepare foods. Skill: Culinary schooling alone cannot make a culinary professional. Practice and hands-on experience provide the skills necessary to produce quality foods or organize, train, motivate, and supervise a staff. Flavor, aroma, taste: Culinary professionals must produce foods that taste great, or the customer will not return. Judgment: Culinary professionals must use discretion and appropriate behavior with coworkers, supervisors, and employees. 4.1 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary Professional? (cont.) Dedication: Becoming a culinary professional is hard work. Pride: It is important to have a sense of pride about a job well done. Pride extends to personal appearance and behavior in and around the kitchen. Respect: Respect is having consideration for oneself and others. In order to respect others, a person must first respect himself or herself. Personal responsibility: Personal responsibility means that a person is responsible for the choices he or she makes. Personal responsibility means that a person accepts accountability and is in control. Education and the culinary professional: Employers value a formal culinary education. 4.1 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Workstations A workstation is a work area in the kitchen dedicated to a particular task. Workstations using the same or similar equipment for related tasks are grouped together into a work section. Good kitchen design maximizes the flow of goods and staff from one area to the next and within each area itself. A kitchen-brigade system is a method for staffing a kitchen so that each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks. A dining-room brigade is led by the dining room manager (maître d) who generally trains all service personnel, oversees wine selections, works with the chef to develop the menu, organizes the seating chart, and seats the guests. 4.1 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Section 4.1 Summary Professionalism means being courteous, honest, and responsible in one’s dealings with customers and coworkers. It also indicates that a person is maintaining standards for his or her work and behavior. Professional culinarians have knowledge, skill, taste, judgment, dedication, pride, respect, and a sense of personal responsibility. A kitchen brigade is a system of staffing a kitchen so that each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks. A traditional dining-room brigade is led by the dining room manager (maître d’) who generally trains all service personnel, oversees wine selections, works with the chef to develop the menu, organizes the seating chart, and seats the guests. 4.1 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Business Math Math influences every decision that a manager makes in an operation. It is the foundation of the kitchen and the back office. Math skills are extremely important in foodservice settings. Managers are expected to have a basic understanding of math and know how to apply mathematical principles to business situations. Chefs and managers need to know how to determine recipe yields, convert recipes from customary to metric measure, and change the yields of recipes. Culinary professionals need to understand the concepts of fraction, decimals, and percentages. They need to know how to use and apply these math functions in the kitchen. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

U.S. and Metric Measurement Systems The most commonly used system of measurement in the United States is based on customary units. Cooking and baking require exact weighing and measuring of ingredients to ensure consistent quality and minimal waste. The metric system is the standard system used in many other parts of the world. Metric units are based on multiples of 10 and include milliliters, liters, milligrams, grams, and kilograms. When a recipe is written using metric units, use metric measuring tools. Thermometers measure degrees of temperature in either Fahrenheit (°F), which is the customary measure, or Celsius (°C), which is the metric measure. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Standardized Recipes A recipe is a written record of the ingredients and preparation steps needed to make a particular dish. Recipes for institutional use, or standardized recipes, must follow a format that is clear to anyone who uses them. A standardized recipe lists the ingredients first, in the order they are to be used, followed by assembly directions or the method for putting the ingredients together. A standardized recipe includes: Name of the recipe Ingredients Yield Portion size Temperature, time, and equipment Step-by-step directions Nutrition information 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Converting Recipes Convert a recipe when the yield of the recipe (the amount it provides) is not the same as the amount of product needed. The conversion of the recipe affects the cost of the recipe, but not necessarily the cost of the portion. When properly converted and prepared, the quality of the product produced from the recipe should not vary from the original, no matter how many portions it yields. Sometimes you must change (or convert) a recipe if the yield is not the amount you need. Using basic math skills, it’s easy to increase or decrease many recipes. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Measuring Measurement refers to how much of something is being used in a recipe. Volume is the amount of space an ingredient takes up. Volume measurement is best used for liquids. Dry ingredients are measured by leveling them off evenly at the rim of the spoon or cup using a straightedge. A typical set of measuring cups includes 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1 cup measures. Liquid measuring cups are see-through and have measurement markings on the side. Measuring spoons generally come in a set of four or five. Most customary sets include these sizes: 1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, and 1 tbsp. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Measuring (cont.) Weight is the measurement of an item’s resistance to gravity. Weight is expressed in ounces and pounds. A food scale is helpful for measuring ingredients by weight. Fat can be measured in several ways. Stick method: Used for fat that comes in 1/4-pound sticks, such as butter or margarine. The wrapper is marked in tablespoons and in fractions of a cup. Simply cut off the amount needed. Dry measuring cup method: Pack the fat down into the cup. Level off the top. When adding to the recipe, use a rubber scraper to empty as much of the fat as possible from the cup. Water displacement method: This method involves combining fat with water in a liquid measuring cup. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

EP/AP Amounts To determine how much of an item is needed to yield an AP (as purchased ) amount, simply divide the edible portion amount needed by the yield percentage. To determine the AP quantity needed to result in a given EP (edible portion) quantity, it is also important to know the cooking loss for the item. A conversion chart is a list of food items showing the expected, or average, shrinkage from AP amount to EP amount. A butcher test is used to measure the amount of shrinkage that occurs during the trimming of a meat product. A cooking loss test is a way to measure the amount of product shrinkage during the cooking or roasting process. Products today can frequently be purchased in an “as edible portion.” This is something that is purchased trimmed and cut. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Costing Recipes Costing recipes can be complicated, but the profitability of a restaurant or foodservice operation depends on balancing costs and prices. Standard recipe cost and cost per serving, or standard portion cost, are key success factors in quantity food production operations. To find the total cost of a standard recipe, a manager must know both the ingredient amounts needed and the market price of each one. Many operations price out all recipes and then check them every six months to see if they are still accurate, while others compare standard recipe costs to the national price index twice a year. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism

Section 4.2 Summary A standardized recipe includes details such as the list and amounts of ingredients, yield, equipment, and cooking time and temperature. Customary units include ounces, teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, pints, and gallons. Metric units are based on multiples of 10 and include milligrams, grams, kilograms, milliliters, and liters. To measure temperature, use a thermometer; to measure fat, use the stick, dry measuring cup, or water displacement method; and to measure by weight, use a scale. To determine the as purchased or AP amount to yield an edible portion (EP) amount, divide the EP amount needed by the yield percentage. Get the yield percentage from a conversion table. To find the total cost of a standard recipe, you must know both the ingredient amounts needed and the market price of each one. Then multiply or divide the ingredient amounts by the prices. 4.2 Chapter 4 | Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism