What is level and skills required in kitchen and attitude and behaviour require???

  

After reading this article, you should be able to:

 • understand the basic operations of a professional kitchen with regard to safety procedures and hygiene

• appreciate the usage of knives and learn how to take care of them.

• aim an insight into the basic hierarchy in the kitchen and their placement in the brings with regard to their skills and experience.

• enumerate the safety procedures while handling basic equipment and how to lift heavy equipment.

Ø INTRODUCTION

 We can only guess how the first cooked food evolved. Maybe one day some piece of meat accidentally landed in fire and it tasted good; it could also be that a whole animal fell into a fire and got chargrilled accidentally to create the world's first barbecue. The old pictures of cavemen also depict whole animals being spit roasted. Even till this day the cuisine of nomads and tribes is essentially whole spit roasts.

Ø LEVELS OF SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

As discussed women are competing with men in all spheres of life and kitchens are no exceptions. Though cooking in a professional set up is very different from cooking home, it can be seen that more and more lady chefs are putting in the same amount of efforts and energy into becoming world-renowned chefs.

To understand a professional kitchen let us talk about the four 'P's.

Product

Process

Profit

People

Ø Product

To any customer coming to wine and dine in a restaurant, the paramount importance is food and service. The food has to be hygienically prepared and presented in a modern way, so that the restaurant stays ahead of its competitors. 

All the aspects of food need to be considered while preparing and serving food in a professional kitchen. The taste, serving temperature (hot food served hot and cold served cold), eye appeal, smell, and hygiene can never be ruled out in order to get the customer delighted.

Ø Process

Standardization is one of the biggest challenges faced today in professional kitchens. Imagine being in a restaurant where you do not know how the food will taste. To achieve the standard dish each and every time, the processes have to be in place. 

The way the ingredient is processed to get the maximum usable product, the standard equipment to be used each time to produce that dish, the modulation of heat applied to the food, and many other processes form an integral part of food business.

Ø Profit

A food service provider should be able to offer the most enjoyable dining experience to the customers. At the end of the day, apart from customer's satisfaction, one has to operate a profitable business for further growth and development of the organization. The chef behind the scenes contributes greatly to the financial viability of the business. 

He/she has to be in control of all the aspects of food operations such as purchasing, storing and portioning, and wastage control. The old saying 'customer or guest (as we call him/her today in our hotels) is God' means that the guest is always right; but we must remember that financial viability is of the utmost importance to stay in the food business.

Ø People

The first three 'P's-process, product, and profit-cannot happen unless there is a human touch involved to give finishing touches to the food. This is how a basic organisational chart of a kitchen would look like:

                                                                              Executive chef

Executive sous chef

Sous chef

Chef de partie CDP

Demi chef de partie DCDP

Commis I

Commis II

Commis III

Apprentice

Ø ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR IN THE KITCHEN

Kitchen essentially is quite a dangerous place to work in. In many areas, accidents can occur, if the basic safety rules of the kitchens are either not known to the staff ignored. The three main causes of accidents in the kitchen are:

1. Distraction

2.Haste

3. Failure to observe safety rules and regulations

Ø Distraction

Distraction in the kitchen is usually caused by other personnel working in the kitchen.

In the kitchen, a chef works with tools and equipment, such as sharp knives and intricate machinery, which help him/her to do his/her job efficiently and diligently; but if he/she loses concentration while working with any of these, it can prove fatal.

For example, while slicing onions with speed, if people talk to someone over the counter it can prove dangerous.

Ø Haste

One of the major enemies of kitchen personnel is 'haste'. A cook or a chef must complete the work which has to be done, that very moment itself. The customer can wait for his/her food for a considerable time only; but that does not mean that chefs should run around in the kitchen and try to do things fast. 

Therefore it is very important to set up the work station in a way that everything is within reach. All the mise en place should be in place and the placement of commodities should be thought through by the executive chef after doing time and motion studies. The golden rule in the kitchen is not to run, no matter how urgent the task is.

Ø Failure to Observe Rules and Regulations

The last but not the least is the failure to observe safety rules and regulations. In a busy operational kitchen, sophisticated machineries are provided to perform jobs effectively and all these machines come with safety and handling manuals. 

Any deviation could result in fatal accidents. For example, while extracting juice from a juice machine, one has to use the pusher to push the fruit in. Using bare hands can cause loss of fingers or hand.

Ø PERSONAL HYGIENE AND FOOD SAFETY IN THE KITCHEN

Hygiene is the science that deals with sanitation and disinfection. For successful operations, hygiene and food safety form the backbone of a successful business. News has shown the closure of famous food industries after the outbreak of food poisoning. Personal hygiene and food safety go hand in hand because one is complementary to the other. Most of the contamination of food takes place by improper handling of food by the food handlers and so it is imperative for us to know about these.

Food Safety and Kitchen Hygiene

Most chefs would say that food safety and kitchen hygiene relate to the cleanliness of the kitchen. Clean pots and pans being used each time someone starts cooking, wearing a clean uniform each time someone reports to work in the kitchen at the start of a shift, and food prepared in the right manner using the best quality ingredients ensures food safety and kitchen hygiene. Food and all activities related to food is why a kitchen exists, whether at home or in a hotel.

Food that is produced in the kitchen has to be safe and hygienic so that when a guest eats it, he/she does not fall ill due to food poisoning. Safe food is food that is free of contaminants and will not cause illness or harm. Persons involved in food poisoning investigations often remark about the cleanliness of the premises involved in such cases. 

Hygiene is more than cleanliness. It involves all measures necessary to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of food during manufacture, distribution, transportation, receiving, storage, issuing processing, preparation and handling, holding, sales and service. From the time raw ingredients come into the receiving department until the time the food is eaten by the guest, it is the hotel's responsibility to ensure that the food is absolutely safe and free from all contamination.

· CONTAMINATION OF FOOD

Contamination of food is a major hazard that entails the occurrence of any objectionable food (food high in protein content) may be contaminated with spoilage or food poisoning bacteria; and flour may be contaminated with rodent hair and excreta, weevils, etc.

 There are three of contamination namely matter in or on the food.

 1. Physical contamination

2. Chemical contamination

3. Microbiological contamination

· Physical Contamination

Foreign bodies found in food (other than what is supposed to be consumed) is termed as physical contamination.

 The list of foreign bodies is endless-stalks, stones, pebbles insect bodies, metal particles, nuts and bolts, glass, rodent droppings, metal screws cigarette ends, plastic pieces, plastic packaging material, stapler pins, pieces of corrugate box material, sawdust, wood chips, human hair, pins, clips, etc. This type of contamination can easily be brought under control if the establishment has sound systems a procedures in place, and a dedicated team of people who ensure that nothing unwanted comes into the kitchen place.

· Chemical Contaminat

This takes place when unwanted chemicals enter the foodstuff during:

• growth, for example, veterinary drugs, excessively-used fertilizers, pesticides, and environmental contaminants such as lead or dioxins;

 • food preparation, for example, oil, cleaning chemicals (residues found in pots and pans that have not been cleaned thoroughly), or insecticides;

• processing, for example, excessive addition of preservatives in foods such as sausages,salamis, etc.

Chemical food poisoning can cause long-term illness such as cancer, and there are many such cases.

· Microbiological Contamination

It is surprising to know that when one talks about contamination, most of the time one refers to physical contamination or chemical contamination. However, the type that can cause real havoc in a food business is seldom Spoke about-microbiological contamination. This is by far the most significant type as it results in large amounts of spoilt food and unacceptable instances of food poisoning cases.

Microbiological contamination takes place due to the presence and multiplication of food poisoning bacteria. Bacteria are single-celled organisms found everywhere on raw food and people; in the soil, air, and water. Bacteria are microscopic and vary in size from around .001 mm to .003 mm. While most of the bacteria found in nature are harmless to humans, a few are harmful and can cause damage to mankind. These bacteria are classified as 'pathogens'.

Food poisoning bacteria may be brought into the food premises from sources such as

• food handlers, people working in related departments such as kitchen stewarding, service personnel, and to a certain degree, guests; 

• raw foods including poultry, meat, eggs, milk, fish, when polluted with sewage or animal faeces (vegetables contaminated by bynure or polluted irrigation water);

• insects, rodents, animals, and birds;

• the environment, including soil and dust.

Bacterial multiplication takes place in many ways, and more often than not, it is the food handlers themselves who unknowingly contaminate perfectly safe food thereby making it hazardous to eat.