Is my cafe chef job impossible or am I just slow?

So I recently started (3 months ago) as a chef at a cafe. The cafe can seat probably about 50 ish people at full capacity (inside and out). During the week it never gets completely full and service is usually very steady and quiet (easily manageable) and can get prep for the rest of the week and weekend done during service. However, during the weekend the cafe regularly reaches full capacity (especially if it's dry outside).

Now, sometimes this is okay as we have 2 sections to the menu, all day food, which consists of toasted sandwiches and salads and whatnot which are all prepped and ready to go, and then my section, the cooked food. This is full English breakfast, french toast with bacon, bacon sandwiches ect. So sometimes even at full capacity, not everyone will be ordering cooked food so it's okay. However, recently it seems like everyone wants cooked food all the time. Today for example there was a queue or probably 10-15 people at the till all ordering cooked food. So that's 15 tickets in probably about 15 minutes. Most of which will be at least 2 items (people ordering for their friends).

My cooking space consists of 1 (45 x 40 cm) stainless steel flat top grill which everything gets cooked on other than scrambled eggs. So if I get 2 tickets with 2 full englishes on them, that's 8 slices of bacon, 4 sausages, 4 big mushrooms, 4 hash browns, 4 tomatoes, all on the grill. Meaning the grill is completely full. Now, the bottleneck of time is the bacon. Takes probably about 2 mins each side to get nice and browned and crispy. So that's 30 seconds putting everything on the grill, 4 mins cooking time, + maybe 30 seconds for plating. Then I have to run the food to front of house and walk back. So overall any menu item with bacon takes about 6 ish mins from start to finish. So, if I have 15 tickets all with bacon on, how am I supposed avoid a gicantic waiting time for the last orders in that rush. I just don't see how it's feasible.

What are people's thoughts on this, feel free to ask my any questions.

in Chefitby edzzakky

95%

7mo

Peeling_pearls

127

7mo

First if you can’t match the pace of service you need to seat fewer guests at once. Talk with whoever is running FOH about seating in rounds so you can actually turn tables instead of bottle necking. You will do more covers and make more money.

Second buy a bell.

Third precook more things that won’t drastically decline in quality.

Steam sausages before service and just mark them on the order. This is faster and often when your busy will result in more consistent cooks.

Precook bacon same deal.

Mushrooms also probably could be precooked.

Riddul

7mo

Mushrooms especially should be par-cooked ahead of time. Hotel pan, mushrooms, bit of water, bit of salt, cover with tin foil and steam for a bit in the oven.

You can steam the sausages, but you could also just cook 80% of the way there in the flattop in the morning and keep them warm in a bain Marie.

Donjuanisit

7mo

I used to have my scrambled eggs mix ready (no pepper as I'm using them for french toasts) in a empty 2l milk bottle from that day. I just love the handle in the bottles, so much clean and fast.

For weekends I cook the sausages from fresh and keep them on temp just for the big rush (9 to 11) in a soup kettle and some I just leave them ready for the fridge. Them I just finish them a few seconds in the pan. Yeah, weird, but practical as it doesn't take as much space as a bain marie. As they sell so fast, they don't get mashed and by the time I'm running out them, the rush hour is over. For rolls I have a container with pre sliced sausages so just they go to the grill.

Big tables, massive rushes... I count everything (every item in each table and I make a list) and everything goes on the oven while I'm doing the eggs/getting toasts on/omelettes and french toasts.

Tell the manager to put a limit on customer that can order at the same time. With good floor staff they should manage to give a small chat, make coffes or whatever. I literally think that someone sending me 6 tables at once when I'm alone wants me dead. That is just killing a kitchen and pissing on the chef.

tommy_pt

7mo

First thing i noticed was you shouldn’t be moving from station. It wastes time,you could be doing something more important. Someone should be coming to get from you

edzzakky

7mo

Agreed, I have asked to get a bell in my kitchen so waiting staff can come and get plates from me

chefontheloose

7mo

You need to implement this immediately, accept no pushback.

goldfool

7mo

not sure of a bell, maybe a food runner dedicated for that shift

Ok-Act-5000

7mo

This will save time. Food should be taken from the pass by front of house. I have not heard of having to cook and run meals to them? Double handling.

leafextraordinaire

7mo

Buy the bell yourself, they're like 8 bucks tops at a resteraunt supply. Don't wait on higher ups to buy anything you ever need

bread-cheese-pan

7mo

Do you pre cook the bacon at all?

edzzakky

7mo

Bacon gets pre cooked in the oven until 'cooked' and then crisped up on the grill

bread-cheese-pan

7mo

Fair enough, just checking!

samuelgato

7mo

You can re-crisp bacon in an oven. Or better, a deep fryer

What do you mean by 'cooked'? You can pre cook bacon ahead of time until it gets a little bit crispy, it should only take 30-60 seconds on the grill to re-crisp. Sounds to me like you are just rendering the bacon ahead of time, not actually cooking it.

Also, are you using a bacon press? Because if you want to speed up bacon on the grill then you should have a bacon press

brbphone

7mo

Don't derp fry bacon.. I can taste it every time I get it and it's obvious.. nowhere near as good as finished on the flat top.

samtresler

7mo

95% agree. It can be done, but thatbfryer needs to be on lock with fresh oil.

I rarely see it right.

edzzakky

7mo

I just cook it until it's edible, like not raw. It's not crispy, some of that fat is slightly browned. I find the problem with cooking it more than this, is that it starts to curl up and then is hard to store efficiently and then also cook evenly on the grill if it's not flat. What is a bacon press?? I've not heard of that before, bare in mind I'm new to this. This is my first job as a chef and I was thrown in the deep end big time.

samuelgato

7mo

This:

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/choice-9-x-5-cast-iron-steak-weight/471SWCI95.html

It will solve the problem of things curling up and it will greatly speed up your cook time

edzzakky

7mo

Ooo that looks useful. I'll have a look into them. Thanks

TAYwithaK

6mo

Those are all horrible ideas, just found a lower temp section of the flat top to reheat them, hit them with a little bacon grease to speed it up or go for extra crispy but watch it. If you have a burner free Place a cast iron on it and keep it in low just for your bacon, they have them at Walmart, rectangular shape low profile, cheap.

RobbyWasaby

7mo

I put waves in the bacon on the sheet trays on parchment so that I can fit more and it has the traditional look of curly bacon and whatnot and you just stack it up in a half pan with some paper towels in the bottom you can pre-portion hash browns or buy a formed hash brown etc cook them in egg rings until they're set but not completely browned etc a lot of this is just you being prepared in advance.....

RobbyWasaby

-2

7mo

Also never heard of a full English having hash browns.. maybe some home fries which you can keep in a steam well or something

HirsuteHacker

7mo

It's pretty common for full englishes to have hash browns

spyy-c

7mo

This guy bacon!

Cook on sheet tray > half pan > keep in warm area or under heatlamp

LukeDankwalker

7mo

i salute you brother, didn’t realise this was your first chef job

Chefben35

7mo

The times at which you’re going to be busy are predictable. That your answer. Have food ready to be served in a low oven for those times. It will cost you a small amount of wasteage but if you are skilful then you should be able to hot hold a tray of tomatoes, mushrooms, sausages and bacon ready to plate. Maybe this means you do a whole grill of each once every hour or so, rather than doing the mixed batch every order.

Baloo_420

7mo

If bacon take the longest can you just cook off a few pounds before service and bring them back up on the flattop? especially if it's a one person show you have to do what you can to save time.

edzzakky

7mo

I pre cook the bacon till it's 'cooked' in the oven and then it gets crisped up on the grill. I would put the temp huggers but then I risk burning other stuff

RobbyWasaby

7mo

You can cook the bacon all the way to crispy.. all you're doing is knocking The chill off and melting the fats

Capt_Goge

7mo

Well if your grill isnt big enough to cook the food then you might want to pre cook some items, maybe when you see a big queue make some guesses, half cook some bacon so its faster to finish etc.

Ofcourse quality suffers but remember that customer wait time also effects their experience.

Most of these little cafe places run like this though, 95% of the time its chill and works but they arent equipped to be busy. Do your best but dont take full blame for it.

Seems like youve done the math, so you can either make something faster or accept this.

That shit can be a grind though man, respect.

edzzakky

7mo

Yeah I guess I gotta accept that when at full capacity it's just not really made for that. So even when working at full pace, there's always gonna be longer wait times. It's a real grind at times working solo like this

DoorStunning5371

7mo

I work in a cafe environment too - mostly breakfasts and sandwiches. We cook eggs on a flattop, and reheat sausages, bacon, veg etc mostly in the oven on 1/2 sheets. Works well and we can fit 5-6 1/2 sheets at a time in the oven and reheat the potatoes in the fryer. Are you able to use your oven for service?

edzzakky

7mo

We do have an oven yes. 3 useable racks

Oddly_Mind

7mo

Sand bag your proteins and mushrooms bro.

Itusau

7mo

Par cook your bacon and flash fry them on pick up, just to reheat. Do you have space and budget for a little more equipment, for instance and induction hob or two? A Bain marie? If you have an oven and bain marie, you can oven roast your tomatoes and hold in the Bain marie. Same with sausages, precook and hold, same with mushrooms, at least for anticipated rush periods. Even just a little at a time during lulls. How do you toast your bread? Is it a slot toaster or a toaster/grill where the toast sits flat? If the latter, you could reheat your hash browns that way.

edzzakky

7mo

We already have an oven, induction hob and bain Marie. I put sausage in one side of the bain Marie and beans in the other. Having another bain Marie for tomatoes and mushrooms would be ideal though. We just have a regular vertical toaster for the toast so unfortunately I can't do anything else there. I already pre roast the tomatoes and mushrooms, and then just reheat and get some char on them on the grill. But to be honest as long as they are hit I do t think it's necessary for them to go on the grill

RobbyWasaby

7mo

A regular countertop steam well is about 36 bucks and they have a very wide range of temperature adjustment.....

pinkwar

7mo

When I do breakfast and I know it's going to be busy I have to precook pretty much everything.

Bacon, beans, mushroom, tomato, sausages, hashbrowns and so on.

So during service time, you just focus on plating, toasting bread and cooking eggs.

Even scrambled eggs you can do in advance, but I recommend just having the mix ready and cook on order.

Stuspawton

7mo

Prep your bacon and cook it in the morning, then it’s just a matter of reheating it as and when required. It’s how we did it in the restaurant in Glasgow that I worked in

I think that as a chef/cook it shouldn’t be your job to be running the food out, and instead you should be speaking to the staff to see about getting them to come in and collect the food directly from the kitchen, that way you can pay more attention on what you’re doing. What I would say as well is that your cooking surface seems inadequate to cook the volume of food required, so it might be worth looking into getting a bigger flat top, space and budget in mind that is

PM_ME_Y0UR__CAT

7mo

You got too much cooking from scratch (or close to it), as far as I can see.

At the pace you are working, nothing should take longer than two minutes to be ready to serve. Even two is very long.

You pretty much have to get it down to 2/3 min per ticket.

Win-Objective

7mo

Precook sheet trays of bacon, cooking bacon to order is insane.

Any_Advantage_2449

7mo

People have given good advice here except that one guy that said French toast could be made with scrabbled egg mix no pepper. He’s a hack.

localscabs666

7mo

Congrats on pumping out food people are talking about and willing to wait for! It sounds like you've already done as much pre-prep as you can, so it comes down to you need another set of hands to operate even close to smoothly. Also the person behind the till needs to learn how to pace the tickets. If they're powering through the line, and not running food, what are they doing when there is no line?

barrythecook

7mo

If flow allows I'd use the oven to reheat sausages, mushroom maybe even bacon after precooking on the flat, I used to have to run with what I imagine yo be a similar set up doing breakfasts and what is do is pregrill a breakfast minus the eggs and tray the fucker then stick them in the oven to order for 2-3 minutes, doing this I was able to consistently do around 200-250 covers solo on breakfast with only a wee grill a single fryer and a hob with 3 working flames that I just used to use for eggs

[deleted]

7mo

Your employer needs to invest a little and its its a win/win situation..very nieve and unrealistic to continue this way....

leafextraordinaire

7mo

When I run into this issue on high volume days I turn the grill temps up. We run a full resteraunt with 2 flat top surfaces, a fryer, and a 6 burner. Why don't you free up space by dropping hash browns into a fryer? If they're patties and you can. Utilize the other spaces you have if you need to on the fly. Not ideal but better than ticket times getting high bc waiting on space.

leafextraordinaire

7mo

Also, why don't you just hold bacon during busy times of the day? Same with hash browns.

jaded76

7mo

Ask your food supplier about lay flat bacon, liquid eggs, and any other value added products that will help you save prep/cook time. There's lots of options.

Beelzebubbbbles

7mo

That whole set up sounds ridiculous, your only cooking space is a 45cm flat top?! Do you have any burners? An oven? Fryer? Anything else? Can you reach out to the previous chef and ask what their set up was? Did they just start serving food?

I'd definitely start precooking alot of the menu. The sausage, mushrooms, bacon, any thing you can so that pick up is just flashing it on the flat top.

How far do you have to walk it to the front? Throw a bell or something back there and ring that fucker til someone comes to grab the food.

Gr8fulJedi

7mo

Par cook your bacon before service sir

nnerdz

7mo

Get Induction burners and/or a small electric griddle (both $50 from Wal mart) to be able to cook more things at once.

fragrancetrip019

7mo

You can do bacon and cherry tomatos in the deep fryer it takes about 10 to 15 seconds, you can keep your beans near the flattop and just ise the grill for eggs and french toast. But if it's still not managable you can just go to a better organised restaurant.

homchange

7mo

I thought you’re my lead chef initially..

Interesting-Duck6793

7mo

I’m confused why it takes 4 mins to cook bacon. Par cook all that food (except eggs).

Kimhooligan

7mo

It seems like the worst problem is the prep. The easiest fix is to par cook bacon, freeze them in batches, and have them on your station in a fridge to warm up quickly on the flat top. That said, the bacon doesn’t even need to be there if you have an oven. Same with the sausages. If you can give that job to someone else while working on the things that can only be sautéed then only focus on that. During the regular week you wouldn’t need to do that. But on a weekend, it would make sense to bake like 50-100 strips every hour and keep them warm in a hot box or under a heat lamp or Bain.