While we think of restaurant Chefs as doing everything properly and methodically when it comes to food preparation, during busy times, they also need to find ways to minimize the time spent on each dish, since there is so much to do.
Many professional chefs, clad in their chef whites and bib aprons, have found different ways to reduce the time spent on different activities, so that they run a more efficient kitchen operation.
Here a few culinary hacks that chefs use in a commercial kitchen:
Cutting cake – Running the knife under hot water before cutting a cake results in a clean-cut perfect piece of cake, as the hot water prevents the cake and icing from sticking to the knife.
Lemon Juice – An atomizer can be stuck into a lemon to create lemon spray.
Burger patties – Making a slight dip in the center of the burger patty before frying reduces the frying time.
Knives – Attaching rubber bands to the handle of the knife to prevent it from slipping.
Portion sizes – Defining portion sizes with your hand.
How sour a lemon is – Knowing how sour a lemon will be from how thin the lemon peel is. The thinner the lemon peel the sourer the fruit will be.
Freshness of eggs – Finding out how fresh an egg is by the ring around the egg yolk.
Cooking sausages – Making small cuts in the sausage to ensure that it is cooked perfectly inside and outside.
Keeping cut cake fresh – Cut cake will not go stale if you keep slices of bread on the cut sides of the cake.
Keeping greens fresh – Storing greens wrapped in foil to keep them fresh for longer.
Perfectly fried bacon – Perfect bacon is actually made by placing them on foil and baking them, rather than frying them.
Slicing steak – Steak should be cut along the grain to stop it from breaking up.
Reheating pizza – When reheating pizza, spray it with some water before popping it in the oven.