Craig Giesecke
As low-key as I try to keep any holiday anymore, at least at home, the opposite was certainly true at work over the past week. I’m still in recovery mode.
Each year, more and more folks are buying what a friend calls “pre-fab” holiday meals. These are the ones that are pre-cooked and packaged all in one box. All you have to do is pick up, heat up (about an hour for the turkey or ham), transfer to serving plate or bowl (or not) and there ya go – all the smells and (most of) the flavors (everyone’s family is different) and a lot less of the cleanup.
A very real someone actually produces these meals and one of the someones is me. Granted, I am not snapping each green bean or hand-tearing old Leidenheimers for the dressing. We indeed take some professional shortcuts and we have to. Otherwise, it would be impossible to produce so much food in so short a time and make sure it’s fresh. But the end product is usually every bit as good as scratch-made, as long as the purchaser takes just a little time to doll up the presentation and sprinkle some fresh fried onion pieces on top of the green bean casserole.
One of the things I’ve been learning lately is bulk food production. In a home setting, “bulk” is what you’re buying at Sam’s to serve a hundred or so. Nononono. “Bulk” is a pallet stacked seven levels high and all cooked and packaged and out the door in 12 hours. Frankly, I cannot imagine how it looks at the manufacturer level. Take our one location and multiply it by 40. That’s just our small, regional chain. Man….
In a lot of places, they have super-big mixers and giant ovens with conveyer belts and automated packagers and labelers and forklifts and whatnot. But we don’t. Our ovens are larger than what you’ve got at home, but it’s the same process. Open oven door, insert something and wonder how you’re going to get everything ready at the same time with the oven and burner space available.
It can be a real juggling act. One morning I had to put out five complete Thanksgiving dinners at 8am. Two more at 10am. Another at 11, two at noon and a final one at 1pm. On top of this, there was a request to whip up a holiday meal for the entire staff. Done. And this was just my responsibility. Mind you, while all this is going on, the regular lunch hotline is still being produced and served.
It works so well and everything comes out hot and on time because the three or four we have doing all this are excellent communicators and facilitators. We each know what the other is doing (or at least its schedule) and, as is true in any successful shop in any business, we cover each other’s ass. If a village raises a good child, a good staff makes the best food. And, no, we do not see each other away from the shop. With only rare exception, we do not know any surnames or have any clue where each other lives. But we’re a damn tight team.
I have a friend who was an Army cook during Gulf War I in the early ‘90s. This was before a lot of the military cuisine was subcontracted out to private companies. He tells some great stories about dreadnaught equipment in gargantuan facilities with mammoth amounts of food, all built in a week’s time in the middle of a desert.
I’d have loved seeing that.
Craig Giesecke has been a broadcaster and journalist for over 30 years, including nearly two decades at the AP and UPI covering news, sports, politics, food and travel. He has been the owner of J’anita’s for five years, serving well-reviewed upscale bar food and other dishes. Comments are encouraged and welcomed.
