How to Manage an à la Carte Kitchen

Serve it à la carte

As diners become more interested in individual food choices, à la carte restaurants grow in popularity. With a large selection of entrées, side dishes, salads and desserts, an à la carte kitchen must be managed with a high degree of professionalism to ensure that all items are available at all times.

Instructions

1. Decide how many cooks and assistants you will need. In a large kitchen, a separate baker and pastry chef prepare the day’s baked goods and desserts. However, if you have a small clientèle, the baker may fill both positions.

2. Choose a head cook or sous chef as the defining voice in the kitchen. Along with a line chef, the sous chef will determine the quality of the food. Hire the best person you can afford for the job. Add line cooks, prep cooks, a pantry cook and assistants as kitchen space and your customer base allows.

3. Schedule the baker and pastry chefs to arrive early to begin the preparation of the day’s dessert selections and to bake the bread products. Often, the baker unlocks the à la carte kitchen in the morning.

4. Assign preparation tasks to the next cooks to arrive, the pantry cook and the prep cook. The pantry cook will inspect condiments and dressings, marinate vegetable and dice salad items. The prep cook will prepare simmering sauces, broths and soups and prepare semi-cooked pasta for quick preparation when ordered.

5. Calculate the number of customers when the sous chef arrives by totaling the reservation numbers and allowing for walk-ins. The sous chef depends upon that figure when deciding how much food to prepare in advance. Wasted food drains your profits and a good sous chef can estimate closely to avoid waste.

6. Train all staff members to work in an orderly fashion. When the dinner service begins, the sous chef takes control of the timing of the dish preparation, calling out to the assistants and monitoring the progress of each order as the à la carte items fill the plates.