Efficiency tips in kitchen

Lovely memory, what your dad taught you was precious. H debones fish beautifully, while I can do it, but mine never looks as elegant as his.

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Exactly. But this young woman repeatedly took uninspected forks of fish, chewed indiscriminately and was confounded by the bones and how to remove them from her mouth. It was about her inexperience and discomfort. She had never been taught.

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Here in California, my usual experience with restaurant fish is whole from Thai or Jamaican restaurants, where they are usually served on the bone. A less common experience is ordering at more high end sit down restaurants, and the last time I did that it was halibut cheeks, not on the bone.

I work in the clients’ places. So the timeline is as a dinner party. Max 8-10 ppl.
Typically will do standing hors d’douvres with cocktails. Then 2-4 courses at the table. Dessert might be served in the living room.
Often one or two of the guest wants to hang out in the kitchen whilst I out finishing touches on prep. With “regulars” Some come early to “chat with the chef”
I love the work, but it’s a hard way to make a living.

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That’s the thing, isn’t it?

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Sometimes, when I cook in friend’s or family’s kitchen, it can take me twice as long to do the same thing vs in my own kitchen, either it’s a problem of adaptation of their tools and equipment or it takes a lot of time to search for utensils, ingredients etc. How do you overcome this?

Yes, such a dilemma. How long have you been doing it?

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You are very generous and brave to allow others in the kitchen while you work. I cook easily by myself but find coping with others in the kitchen, husband, kids, guests, stressful to the point of making stupid mistakes I’d never make had I been on my own.

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Agree. If the cooking is nearly finishing, then it’s fine to allow them in to chat or to help. That’s why I don’t particularly appreciate the early arrivals that have a tendency to stick in the kitchen, rather than chilling outside. I guess to move the deadline an hour or half an hour may be able to deal with this pressure for me.

Someone I knew is easily distracted in tasks, in order to stay concentrated, he would start screaming and yelling, making guests not comfortable to stay around him, people would leave him alone until the meal is ready when he becomes his normal self again. At least, the meal is delivered on time.

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I think Mediterraneans in general are a bit different in the sense we all help out my parents especially for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festive meals and the 31st and 1st of January.

My husband and I “prep” the salads and my grandsons love to prepare the dough with the cookie cutters and decorate the cookies that need to be baked at a side table (they are very respectful and do not disturb my mom or dad) 
 and we do all the cleanup preparations for the dishwasher and set the table etcetra.

My dad and mom are a real team and we do not have outside guests on these dates. My grandmothers (getting on in age) always ask if they could help my parents, and they set up the wines and stemware and water glasses etcetra. And do what they can to assist. In the blood ! One of my grandmothers always prepares the main dessert, and my parents bake it 


The appetisers and mains are done by my parents. The desserts by the kids and one of my daughter in laws, who owns a Café and she brings them over. We are quite organised with the two most quintessential holidays in our country.

For January 6th, The Three Kings or the Epiphany, we are normally travelling to Italy. So, my parents always make a reservation and invite their dear friends, and their parents and our inlaws and it is a quiet celebration as the great grandsons are with their parents on ski holiday or mountains (Catalan Pyrenees) or Andorra.

For us, we do not entertain much however, when we do, we are a team and like most, do not care for non family guests in the Kitchen as it interrupts the flow of the lunch or dinner.

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When I visited my in laws in the southwest of France, I’ve helped to cook the whole Christmas meal in the recent years, I’ve not much problem in working in teams or working solo or asking anybody in the house to help, because the decision maker is not me but my MIL. I’m just following orders, no pressure. I guess my MIL is a generation that grew up in a big family, for her it’s normal to have the female family members to help preparing a meal. The male will be there for tasks like opening oysters, cutting the bird etc. Believe me, if I ask for help for a dinner at home, it will take me more time to explain to H than to do it myself.

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Bingo. And after guests arrive, I tell him to go make ho, ho, ho. I usually have under 5 minutes per course to get dinner on the table, but those 5 minutes are jam-packed and crucial.

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I don’t really have a label like “Mediterranean”, and I think of communal family meals at Thanksgiving and Easter more than Christmas. Christmas might be more for immediate family; In my house on Christmas day. I wonder if this may be African-American and/or Carribean American. Subtle difference that changes over time.

Nah.

We had lots of aunts in charge, but as far as I recall, not my mother. She did host from time to time, but not because of her food.

My mom and dad died decades ago, and now I think of my mother in law as in charge, and know she appreciates my “wind beneath her wings.” Pre-Covid she hosted about 30 for US Thanksgiving.cery

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Grinch alert: I really don’t do well with unsolicited help in the kitchen. As naf wrote, it is harder to instruct than to do it yourself. But really worse is that a well-intended but clueless guest can sabotage an otherwise workable dish. And you can do nothing about it without being incredibly rude. Best to thank them profusely and hand them some refill thing to take to the other guests in the living room.

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We do not celebrate American holidays, so I know very little. Only what I have seen on t.v. or have learnt from our Tefl Celta Teach English Foreign Language Teachers over the years that were American however, many were British from London.

Christmas eve (24th) and Christmas day (25th) are very very special to us.

Here, we call The Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday; Semana Santa, Holy Week. We travel during this week, beginning on the Friday prior to Good Friday through Easter Sunday. We are off from work and have Easter Week off - perfect for a get away.

Normally we & my parents and inlaws may take a trip down to the Madrid Capital and enjoy the retail therapy and bookshops and dining out. Or sometimes we fly to another Schengen destination and get to see people we know in other cities, like Lisbon for example or Italia.

We do not really celebrate it anymore as a classic traditional holiday at home.

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It’s my profession. Part of the reason people hire me is that they can learn to make the dish(es) I am serving. It’s their chance to have a private cooking lesson of sorts. I am not afraid of having people in the kitchen, nor do I feel any reluctance to tell someone that I “really need to concentrate on this next step”.
Have been teaching people how to cook for nearly 50 years, personally and professionally.

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15 years in the last iteration. Have coordinated volunteers for large community meals and conferences. And taught one-on-one meal prep sessions. It’s all good. Unfortunately with COVID, I haven’t felt safe going to people’s homes so have hardly worked since February 2019.
Zoom cooking class is fun, though.

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5 minutes is quite short, because you’re also eating
 It’s hard to enjoy the meal like this. How do you serve, plated like a restaurant? or a big dish or bowl arrive at the table to be passed around the guests?

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I meant that I am seldom in the kitchen over 5 or so minutes at a time between courses. I have only a very few steps to complete before the next course is ready. I plate in kitchen, husband and I serve, and he buses. I will put main course on low or re-heat during starter. Or pull out a “big meat” to rest, tented.

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Totally understand now. Interaction and teaching is part of your being there. My job is just feeding guests, and while some might like to watch, to pretend to be “teaching” them would be enormous hubris on my part.

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That would be the last time I accepted his invitation. Wow. Who cares how the food is if the guests are treated badly?! I’ve greatly simplified and adjusted my entertaining since having a kid. When I cooked more elaborate dinner parties it took days of preparation and planning.

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