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Par cooking fish filets?

post #1 of 5
2/12/07 at 6:54am
Thread Starter 
My restaurant sells ALOT of catfish and grouper filets. Unfortunately, our grill/flattop space in extremely small, and the saute is usually quite full. Can the filets be par cooked/baked and held for dinner service without much quality loss? If so, can u recommend a good way to do it/hold it?

Thanks for your advice!
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post #2 of 5
2/12/07 at 7:16am
Instead of pre cooking just mark/saute' and finish in the oven too order. No sense in taking a chance that the fish is gonna go south to save time or space.

It's always been my experience that when you do this with almost any food that was meant to be and expected by the guest to be cooked the minute it was ordered, your creating a no win situation and possibly putting not only the restaurants and Exec's reputation on the line but your own as well.
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post #3 of 5
2/12/07 at 8:12am
My first restaurant job was in a NY Times 4* French fish restaurant. One of the menu items was "grilled salmon." But there was no grill in the kitchen. So as oldschool suggests, we marked the fillets in cast-iron grill pans, chilled them down, and then finished them to order in the oven.

I would not par-cook a sauteed fish fillet -- that seems to me an invitation to overcooking. But yes, you can sear the fillet fast and then finish it in the oven the same way. I've done that everywhere I worked saute station.

The bigger question is: can the kitchen be set up to accommodate the menu, or can the menu be changed to take the limitations of the kitchen into consideration? Quality can suffer from too many work-arounds.
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post #4 of 5
2/12/07 at 10:42am
You can definitely do it. I would suggest searing only one side, though.
Remember, if you sear or mark, and then refrigerate it will take as long
if not longer to cook in the oven. I have always sandbagged in high volume
restaurants. Cooking batches at a time, leaving them out at room temp.,
then finishing in the oven. If your selling 40 or 50 a night just stay up 10 orders until you start to slow down. Good luck!
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post #5 of 5
2/12/07 at 1:22pm
Yep like Stephen says. Stay ahead of the game.
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