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The best/worst kitchen duties

post #1 of 29
11/7/09 at 8:59am
Thread Starter 
What are your favorite and least favorite kitchen duties?

I enjoy:
- chopping most vegetables
- high heat sauteeing
- stirring bechamel 'till it thickens
- cleaning counters
- roasting anything

I hate:
- grating anything
- washing leafy greens and leeks
- chopping onions
- peeling potatoes
- washing pots and pans
- cleaning out the pantry
- juicing citrus
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post #2 of 29
11/7/09 at 2:08pm
I enjoy

Making meringues
tweaking sauces and getting them "just so"
Deep cleaning
Spending some time on the sink (sometimes)
Experimental food taste sessions
The moment everything comes together and we're ready to deliver
Being on my own in the kitchen on a day off. I potter about with no schedule and bake, or clean, or invent.


I dislike

Grating cheese. Even with the machine, it's a pain in the...at clean up
Cutting up chicken breasts for satays.
Cutting up chicken wings. I wait till they're 1/2 cooked now and use the shears on them
Sifting through pulses for debris
Cleaning the fryer
having to search for something thats been put in the wrong place
Answering the phone when we're busy. but I've got to.
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post #3 of 29
11/7/09 at 4:33pm
Spray the cheese grater with nonstick cooking spray and it cleans up a lot easier!

I don't enjoy peeling potatoes or carrots but other than that, I don't mind prep or cooking chores.

I do hate the cleanup!
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post #4 of 29
11/7/09 at 4:52pm
Cleaning the grease trap is hands down the worst.
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post #5 of 29
11/7/09 at 5:25pm
Ditto that Mary - you beat me to it. Had to shower for long time to get rid of the smell
Closely followed by chopping onions. Regular trips into the cold room, standing on top of an upturned milk crate, to stop the tears, eyes wide open in front of the chiller fan to stop the pain quicker.

Really enjoy/ed making salads, fruit platters, getting in a group to make the rissoles.
Rumbling the potatoes thru the machine was a good, noisy job.
I didn't mind the clean up, even to the point of really liking flushing and stoning off the hot plate (hey if you cook, your hands get scarred). I always bagged that job first. But I am weird :D Plus it took a while so I made sure I did a really good job so I wouldn't have to do much else.

Uhh...once I learnt NOT to put onion skins down the garbage disposal, that was good too, cuz you got quick results.

Funny what you can enjoy if you can find a justification :)
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post #6 of 29
11/8/09 at 11:02am
Peeling and chopping garlic....ugh.
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post #7 of 29
11/8/09 at 1:27pm
The best:
Grilling
Broiling
Roasting
Chopping
Dicing
Plating
Sauteing
Sauce Making

The worst:
Really, I just hate cleaning. I think it's clean and put it on the rack to dry and then BANG! I see a tiny spot that I missed under a handle or something. It never fails.

That and kneading dough or fondant.
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post #8 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:16pm
I use this peeler and I love it. It is the best peeler I ever used and definitely makes the job much easier, for me:

Amazon.com: Zyliss Swivel Peeler: Home & Garden
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post #9 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:31pm
I'm with ChefRay. Every word was gold.

A very sharp knife makes a big difference when cutting onions. Serrated and dull knives press volatile oils out of the onions which irritate eyes. I'm sorry if that seems like harping.

The cheap, swivel type, throw-away peelers work best for me -- probably true for anyone with large, strong hands. The modern "Y-styles," "Reversibles," and other modern shapes by Oxo, Zyliss, etc., aren't as good for me -- and so a complete waste of money. On the other hand, Linda loves her Oxo -- and so money well spent.

Go figure,
BDL
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post #10 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:47pm
The worst kitchen duty for me is cleaning deep fryers.
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post #11 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:49pm
Are you referring to the metal peelers? Of course I do not have your experience with tools. I do like the Zyliss, though. My hands are small and it does make the chore go fast and effortlessly for me.
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post #12 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:57pm
I also prefer cheap peelers. I buy the $3 Faberware ones because the tip has a hollow point for digging out the eyes of the potatoes. That's as expensive as I will go for a peeler.

Good advice on the sharp fine edge for onions. Anything to keep the SO2 from spraying out. If you still have a problem, hang a piece of bread between your lips. It stops the spray a little.
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post #13 of 29
11/8/09 at 2:59pm
Yes, I meant the cheapo metal peelers. I think the little [illegitimate offspring] work best in large hands. Please understand I'm not quibbling with your opinion or recommending them to you or anyone else for that matter. A lot of people hate them; and if anyone understands that not all tools work well for all people, it's a big-handed lefty like me.

Just sayin' is all,
BDL
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post #14 of 29
11/8/09 at 3:19pm
Oh no, I don't think that at all..I'm just trying to tell you waht I have found easy for me--I am slim and not muscular at all. My hands could never hold the pots you must pick up all day long

Thank you so much for explaining your opinion to me
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post #15 of 29
11/8/09 at 3:42pm
Grating carrots for carrot cake when I'm too lazy to dig out the appropriate attachments for the Robot Coupe. I use the Robot Coupe all the time at the shop....but not the grating attachments and feed tube so it's always a nuisance to dig everything out of the storage room and get it all set up.

Cleaning ANYTHING that has come in contact with Pate a Choux. Piping bags are a particularly nasty chore.

Scrubbing out muffin tins.

Cleaning out the bottom of the dishwasher...or dealing with clogged drains.

Cleaning the oven....or overflows on the stovetop.

Oddly enough one of my favourite kitchen jobs is peeling apples. I find it very peaceful and relaxing.

I love everything to do with baking and pastry but my absolute favourite job is cutting, rolling, and shaping my croissants every morning.
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post #16 of 29
11/8/09 at 3:47pm
The best parts:

Cooking
Cutting meat
Bulk prep (for some reason I never get tired of julienning peppers)
Developing recipes



The worst ones:

Inventory
Writing the schedule
Working Sunday brunch
The dreaded Carving Station (or omelette station for that matter...)
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post #17 of 29
11/8/09 at 4:07pm
Likes

egg/omelette station
lunch station
cooking soup
prep
fruit station

hates
the 3 and 6mm ham slices from **** (same for bologna from time to time)
calling board (especially when kitchen staff has no sense of urgencywith orders)
cleaning the freezeer
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post #18 of 29
11/8/09 at 4:29pm
I hated writing schedules, cleaning the grease trap and cleaning the drains.
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post #19 of 29
11/8/09 at 6:22pm
Best? Being the Exec in the Kitchen.

Worst? Being the Exec in the Kitchen. Hehehe.:rolleyes:

Seriously though......Reservation Phone duty on Saturday/Sunday mornings because FOH Mgmt and staff wasn't scheduled in until 2pm. (Only open for dinner both days) Never got a fricken thing done!!:mad:
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post #20 of 29
11/8/09 at 6:26pm
Running the midnight breakfast buffet after NY Eve party in the hotel.
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post #21 of 29
11/8/09 at 7:50pm
Like a few others, I enjoy pretty much any prep or cooking chore, including shopping and planning menus. My lovely wife, on the other hand, really does not like to cook. She is quite happy to leave that to me and do all, well almost all, the cleaning. When I'm making something really messy I do assist in cleanup. But in general I cook, she cleans.

She does get some pretty good meals out of the arrangement, though. I'm losing track of the exact details, but a few years back we were with another couple on our way somewhere, and the conversation turned to food. My wife was describing the previous night's dinner to our companions, and one of them said something like "Wow, how often do you eat like that?"

My wife replied "Pretty much every day."

That comment made my day!

mjb.
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post #22 of 29
11/8/09 at 8:14pm
I like most cooking, the actual cooking as opposed to most prep, which I can take or leave. When there's a pretty good fire involved, such as a gas grill/"barbie" cooking's even more fun. I like fire, I guess.

Washing dishes is a pain for me.

A grease trap? I saw and smelled one of those once, and that was enough to know that I would not like cleaning one. But the price I've paid for not having one was crawling under the house in a very tight space, battling the spiders and cobwebs, disconnecting the kitchen drainage pipe, and clearing it out there. :mad: Plumbing repairs are worse than cleaning a grease trap, I'd guess.

I don't mind chopping onions. If it gets to my eyes, I turn on a fan to blow the mist away.
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post #23 of 29
11/8/09 at 11:33pm
Best Part:

What other job can you work with fire, knives, and food.


Worst Part:

BRUNCH!
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post #24 of 29
11/9/09 at 6:27am
LOVE:
-doing pans (cooking not washing them)
-running the pass
-complicated knife work (boning, filleting etc.)
-cleaning (i grab the soapy water and another guy follows drying, i pick a night when he really wants to go home and scrub down back walls etc. taking atleast an extra 20mins to pack up. i then have to wait for deserts anyway so it doesnt effect me)

HATE:
peeling prawns
making ravioli (way too time consuming)
using the meat slicer (meat, shaving parmesan, biscotti)
getting deliveries
going in early only to get told i have to help another outlet of the hotel for a few hours
handling raw chicken, its just discusting
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post #25 of 29
11/9/09 at 6:37am
Just ask the chef to make it bigger. That's what I did one time and it worked. Otherwise I would be spending an 4-5 hours a week making raviolis.
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post #26 of 29
11/9/09 at 7:31am
I don't know, it varies.
For instance, I really enjoyed prepping lobster tails.
Then we decided to do a steak & lobster night on the buffet for a few months and suddenly I'm prepping 500 tails a day.
Initially enjoyed the challenge, and would have fun conversing while performing the task robotically, but hated it after the first couple of times.
It's been so long since we did that special that I'd probably enjoy it again.
Even my favorite tasks can be a pain on certain days, and tasks I've hated (like dishwashing) can be a relief on other days, a good stress reliever.

But I don't think I'll ever see grease traps in the "enjoy" column.
:lol:
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post #27 of 29
11/9/09 at 11:11am
I really do not like Filleting Fish...

Shucking Oysters and Sharpening Knives
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post #28 of 29
11/9/09 at 1:13pm
Thanks for the peeler suggestions. I use a cheapy metal peeler on the carrots which works ok, just takes time. When it comes to potatoes, I do a lot better using knife. The worst thing about the potatoes is that, when raw, they make my hands itch!
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post #29 of 29
11/9/09 at 3:43pm
least favorite:
shelling eggs in large numbers
ditto crawfish
shelling pecans/other nuts
my fingers invetiably get sliced on the sharp bits


Fav. baking....rifting with dough and goo.
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