Chef's shortcuts

[nickrey]

I was in a chef's commercial kitchen recently and was heating a pre-prepared dish. I said to the chef that it may be good to put a cartouche on top. Used to folding baking paper up then cutting it in a circle to fit the pot, I was somewhat taken aback when he grabbed a square of baking paper and pushed it down into the pot to form a perfect seal. When I mentioned about a hole in the middle, he grabbed a knife and cut a rather rough hole in the middle. It was a perfect cartouche in a busy kitchen but not something you see in the cooking shows. 

 

Do any chefs have similar shortcuts to share with us idealists?

Edited May 14, 2017 by nickrey
Automatic spelling correction making me seem illiterate (log)

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, nickrey said:

I was in a chef's commercial kitchen recently and was heating a pre-prepared dish. I said to the chef that it may be good to put a cartouche on top. Used to folding baking paper up then cutting it in a circle to fit the pot, I was somewhat taken aback when he grabbed a square of baking paper and pushed it down into the pot to form a perfect seal. When I mentioned about a hole in the middle, he grabbed a knife and cut a rather rough hole in the middle. It was a perfect cartouche in a busy kitchen but not something you see in the cooking shows. 

 

Do any chefs have similar shortcuts to share with us idealists?

 

 I am sure this would work but I cannot get out of my head a picture of Thomas Keller with the blood draining from his face as he watches this go on.

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 I am sure this would work but I cannot get out of my head a picture of Thomas Keller with the blood draining from his face as he watches this go on.

I'm more picturing his head exploding because somebody is spending 5 minutes cutting out a perfectly sized circle with a perfect little center vent in his busy kitchen when they could be just doing as mentioned above and getting on with their work.  Or maybe that's just me... 

[Anna N]

5 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm more picturing his head exploding because somebody is spending 5 minutes cutting out a perfectly sized circle with a perfect little center vent in his busy kitchen when they could be just doing as mentioned above and getting on with their work.  Or maybe that's just me... 

From a chef,  who if I recall correctly, insists that all jars of food in the walk-in be labelled with green painters' tape, cut never torn, applied exactly 1 inch from the shoulder .....   Or perhaps I just imagined it. 

[Tri2Cook]

22 minutes ago, Anna N said:

From a chef,  who if I recall correctly, insists that all jars of food in the walk-in be labelled with green painters' tape, cut never torn, applied exactly 1 inch from the shoulder .....   Or perhaps I just imagined it. 

 
Well that would certainly alter my initial response. I was not aware of those predilections. 

[gfweb]

32 minutes ago, Anna N said:

From a chef,  who if I recall correctly, insists that all jars of food in the walk-in be labelled with green painters' tape, cut never torn, applied exactly 1 inch from the shoulder .....   Or perhaps I just imagined it. 

 

Makes you wonder. Would he actually do that himself at home, or is it part of some vision of an ideal workplace culture that he has dreamed up for the staff. Perfection everywhere etc.

 

But then again...if the tape is in a dispenser cutting would be easier than tearing......

[pastrygirl]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm more picturing his head exploding because somebody is spending 5 minutes cutting out a perfectly sized circle with a perfect little center vent in his busy kitchen when they could be just doing as mentioned above and getting on with their work.  Or maybe that's just me... 

 

I was just thinking, that's not a shortcut, it's just not dicking around wasting time!  Not just you

 

[pastrygirl]

After years - years! - of peeling, cooking, and ricing potatoes for potato bread, I finally switched to Bob's Red Mill potato flakes.  Since this particular recipe had lots of olive oil and rosemary and the potatoes mostly added fluffiness, I don't think you could tell any difference.

 

Or chefs throwing huge amounts of veg into the large Hobart and mix with the paddle to break them down smaller for stock.  I definitely remember chefs doing this with mushrooms, pretty sure they did it with other veg because I was worried about them warping the paddle.  Actually, that may have been what one chef was doing when he did break the paddle on a stand mixer - I wouldn't have been as annoyed if it happened during routine pastry work, but he was mashing up carrots or chicken bones or something hard.

[Anna N]

I know Molly Stevens in All About Braising suggests just crumpling a piece of parchment, quickly running under the faucet, and using that instead of a carefully constructed cartouche. Worked for me. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

 

Makes you wonder. Would he actually do that himself at home, or is it part of some vision of an ideal workplace culture that he has dreamed up for the staff. Perfection everywhere etc.

 

But then again...if the tape is in a dispenser cutting would be easier than tearing......

 It seems to me it is something that informs his whole life.   Paying attention to the smallest detail is the mindset that he inculcates in himself and in his staff.  

[Lisa Shock]

I am such a perfectionist that at home, I have several sizes of pre-cut parchment rounds at hand, and several die-cutters for paper that could be used to make a hole quickly. If I owned a place, I'd probably still have some rounds hidden away somewhere. They are kind of pricey, but convenient when you need them fast. (part of the joy of savory-side cooking when coming from the pastry world)

[Shelby]

I am going to be kicked off of EG for this:

 

I had to google to find out what a cartouche even was.  And then I found out it had something to do with Egyptian hieroglyphics and had to continue googling.

 

[rotuts]

Honesty is a very rare policy these days.

 

congratulations

 

@Shelby

 

 

[Anna N]

35 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I am going to be kicked off of EG for this:

 

I had to google to find out what a cartouche even was.  And then I found out it had something to do with Egyptian hieroglyphics and had to continue googling.

 

 None of us can know everything.   Although I do know there are people prepared to dispute this.

[Toliver]

A previous similar eG discussion, not about chef trucs, but chef-like eG'er trucs, started by Anna N:

"The Quintessential eG Kitchen Tips/Trucs"

 

edited because I misspelled Anna N's user name. DOH! 

Edited May 15, 2017 by Toliver (log)

[Anna N]

13 minutes ago, Toliver said:

A previous similar eG discussion, not about chef trucs, but chef-like eG'er trucs, started by Anna A:

"The Quintessential eG Kitchen Tips/Trucs"

 That's a while back. Now I can waste another two hours falling down the rabbit hole.  

[Anna N]

 And for those of you who still prefer to let the perfect get in the way of the good enough: 

 

Here

Edited May 15, 2017 by Anna N
To get rid of an extraneous "is". (log)

[Doofa]

Ah, Iv'e just gone down same rabbit hole.