Many restaurants in 2019 offer seasonal menus. Some have a few signature dishes that are available all year, for which they are famous, ...
Many restaurants in 2019 offer seasonal menus. Some have a few signature dishes that are available all year, for which they are famous, such as the Langan’s Brasserie’s spinach soufflé.Diners have shown a preference for eating vegetables and fruits in season, so restaurants have begun catering for these tastes—but how do dining establishments go about storing the foods they order to make these menus?
Here is more information about how restaurants store food that enables them to serve seasonal dishes all year.
Markets
Fine dining establishments have chefs who visit fish, meat, and fresh produce markets in the early hours of the morning to select theingredients they will use that day. If they have a special menu for which they have to provide ingredients, they may have an agreement in place with the vendors to reserve certain foodstuffs for them. If they trust the food supplier, the food might even be dropped off at the restaurant kitchen area in the morning instead of obtained at the market.
Many talented chefs decide what they are going to offer for the day’s specials when they visit the markets in the morning. Others will just go to their favorite food suppliers in the market and pick up the regular order. It is usually then that food vendors will let the chef know about any special ingredients they have coming in so that the chef can choose whether to order some in advance.
Refrigeration For Perishables
When the ingredients are delivered to the restaurants, they are immediately sorted into the various storage facilities where they wait until they are used in a dish. The fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish have a different temperature that food preparation and storage guidelines stipulate is best and safe. For example, meat cuts have to be hung and refrigerated for a certain number of days to mature in steakhouses, and citrus has to be at a warm ambient temperature to release the most juice.
If there is an emergency refrigeration situation in the restaurant, it is possible to lease a transportable refrigeration unit to be placed next to the kitchen. These units have been specially designed to offer a wide range of temperatures and have no steps that would trip up staff as they run in and out. They are also used for when the kitchen needs additional storage space such as when they are catering for private events.
Dry Goods And Non-Perishables
In a top-rated restaurant, there are surprisingly fewer stored dry goods than you would expect. Chefs keep a mise en place at their food prep station. This is a pre-prepared collection of separate ingredients: salt, pepper, fresh herbs, chopped shallots, and other elements necessary for the dishes they will be making that day. The pâtissièr/e who makes the dessertswill have a supply of dry ingredients like flour and baking soda, in a storage room, though.
Now that you know how the top restaurants store their foodstuffs until they need to prepare them for the customer--there's nothing left to do but go enjoy your favorite dishes!
