En Refrigerated Drawers: Fill & Download for Free

There are some restaurants, like Applebee’s, that have many of their food items prepared in a central commissary. The food is distributed to suppliers, who deliver it to individual restaurants whenever they place an order for food. These items are bagged as individual servings and heated to order. Proteins that are cooked on the broiler, like steaks and burgers, as well as fried items, are cooked from raw.Why do they do this? Because it helps them to control the two largest variables in a restaurant kitchen: food cost and labor cost. Since their staff doesn’t prepare the food, outside of making it hot, there is little to no waste. You also don’t have to pay anyone much to heat a bag of food in a steamer, or microwave, cut the bag open, and pour it into a bowl. Because of this simplification, a high turnover rate probably doesn’t hurt them much either. Applebee’s is able to operate hundreds of restaurants, and make money, this way. If it sounds unappealing to you, don’t eat at Applebee’s. I don’t.As for just about every other restaurant in the world, they all precook food too, to some degree.Here’s a picture of some cooks in a restaurant, preparing food. As you can see, the stove tops are behind them and in front is their mise en place. Mise en place is a French term for all of the ingredients you see in the pans in front of the cook with the saute pan in his hand. He’s got cut raw vegetables, cut blanched vegetables, chopped garlic, prepared sauces, chopped herbs, etc, etc, in there. His portioned proteins, like individual steaks, chicken breasts, fish filets, raw shrimp, whatever, are probably in refrigerated drawers underneath.Let’s say he gets an order for fish and chips. He’s not going to filet a fish, mix up some batter, cut and blanch French fries, shred cabbage for coleslaw, mix up a batch of tartar sauce, and dress the coleslaw every time he gets a ticket for fish and chips. Rather, he will grab a portion of fish filets, dip them into a prepared batter and gently place them into the fryer. He will then drop an order of fries into another basket. While those items are cooking he’ll place some mixed coleslaw into a small chilled bowl and a scoop of tartar sauce into a ramekin and place them onto a plate. When the fries are done he’ll let them drain over the fryer for a minute, pour them into a bowl, salt them and then put them onto the plate. The fish will then be placed into a bowl lined with paper towels, to absorb excess oil, and they too will be seasoned with salt. The fish will go onto the plate, followed by a lemon wedge, and it will go into the window for a server to take to the table. It shouldn’t take him more than seven or eight minutes to get all of that done.During their busiest hours, or if they sell tons of fish and chips, the chef might find that placing the coleslaw, and tartar sauce, into their respective serving bowls ahead of time, and keeping them in a refrigerator makes things easier for the cooks. This way the server grabs them, and places them onto the plate, before taking it to the customer. It’s all a matter of what makes the kitchen operate faster and more efficiently, without sacrificing quality.Every restaurant prepares much of their food ahead of time. High end restaurants especially. I worked in a five star place that had us sanding vegetables with emory boards before we blanched them so each piece was “perfect”. High end restaurant serve some of the most highly processed food in the world. People just don’t take that into consideration because they pay a lot of money for it. When you’re paying $500 per person for a meal, you can rest assured that a lot of hands have touched that food and it has been processed to a point where the dish can be prepared and assembled as quickly and exactly as possible. Chefs who work at that level want few variables in preparation at service time. Every dish should leave the kitchen exactly the same, and perfectly prepared, every single time. You can’t achieve that level of perfection by making everything “fresh to order”. It’s just not possible. In many respects, they’re just reheating prepared food, the same as Applebee’s. It’s just made from higher quality ingredients, and assembled by a more skilled workforce.So, whether you order a plate of lasagna at The Spaghetti Warehouse, or a five star Italian joint, it was pre-prepared, and heated to order, at both places. You don’t make items like that from scratch. You don’t mix up a an order of cocktail sauce, salad dressing, mashed potatoes, risotto, etc, etc, to order. That food is all pre-cooked at just about every single restaurant that serves it, no matter how high, or low, brow it may be. That’s how restaurants work. We only make money when we can turn tables quickly and send out consistently well prepared food. We do that by pre-cooking every item, as much as we possibly can, without compromising quality.So, what did we learn here? All restaurants pre-cook food. Doing so ensures that they produce food of consistent cost and quality, quickly. That’s how restaurants work. The difference between a good restaurant and a bad one isn’t the method by which they prepare food. It’s their commitment to providing the customer with something they will love, that has been prepared with the utmost integrity.

I love dyeing eggs. I started doing it with the children when they were tiny, buying those cheap, store-bought coloring kits (the kind which come with cheap dye tablets, wire dippers, and bunny stickers) and every year we had fun creating colorful eggs together. However, the results weren't always that fabulous. In fact, they sucked, but the kids didn't care.I did.Since then, I've become a lot more adept at coloring eggs. I've been doing it for a long time now.“Neon egg”: Neon acrylics over yellow dye, blue and green neon Sharpie Markers with gold leaf accentsThe children have long since grown up; It has been well over 15 years since we last colored eggs together. They outgrew the tradition, but I never did. I never stopped coloring eggs. For them. For me? I don't know. What I do know is, I send them a picture of “their” eggs every year, in their honor, and every year my eggs have grown more elaborate, more outrageous.I'm proud of them.I'd like to share some of my tips, which I've learned by trial-and-error over the past decade, which may help you create some spectacular eggs of your own this year.Mise en place- Get everything you need together before you begin the process. Take the eggs out of the refrigerator to warm them to room temperature. Assemble at least a half dozen dye cups, white, so you can see the color inside the cup you're using. Clear cups will only lead to confusion once your egg is immersed. You'll forget what color you have in there. Have towels laid down on the surface. Things are about to get messy. Have a bottle of bleach spray and paper towels handy. Collect several dozen tablespoons to dip your eggs. Don't use the same spoon in different color dye cups. Never use wooden utensils in dye cups! Have a kettle of boiling water on hand to mix the new dye with. Put some music on, and pour a glass of wine. Relax and enjoy the art. Have patience with the experience!“Scrambled” boiled eggs- Eggs which don't have a yolk, and are a pretty “sworled” mixture of whites and yolk, can easily be created by twisting up a raw egg in hosiery, or a long stocking leg, and spinning vigorously for about a minute before adding to the boiled water. You won't have a yolk. Your egg will effectively be scrambled inside the shell. Delicious, just the same.Older eggs are easier to peel. Fresh eggs always have the stickier shells. I always buy my eggs at least ten days before I dye them. Eat your eggs within three days of dyeing them, otherwise they can go bad.Always boil room temperature eggs to avoid cracking. Cold eggs from the refrigerator crack in hot water. You can add a white lint-free tea cloth to the bottom of the pot to cushion the eggs so they don't roll around in the boil. Start with tepid water and slowly work up to a rolling boil. Once the water starts boiling, remove the pot from the burner, cover, and let sit for fifteen minutes. That should give you a perfectly boiled egg without cracks. To check if an egg is boiled, spin it on a hard surface. If it wobbles, it isn't done. It should spin like a top, if it doesn't, bring up to a boil again, and repeat process.Use food coloring, not a kit! You will have better results buying a package of food coloring and some white vinegar, than you will if you buy a kit. You will have more product to work with, and can always mix your own custom colors. Your eggs will always look better and have a more rich, deeply developed color than if you use dye tablets. Leave your eggs in the dye cup for at least 10 minutes to develop the color. Always have the kettle ready to pour more warm water. Always add food coloring to warm water, so it penetrates the shell. Continuously refresh your dye cups with fresh color in warm water once the temperature has cooled. Adding an egg to cool water won't take on color as readily. The dye doesn't soak into the shell as well, and your color will not be as vibrant, no matter how long you soak it.Galaxy Eggs- To create my “Galaxy Eggs” I dyed the eggs in a deep purple bath. I let them sit in the dye for a long time before I removed them, maybe fifteen minutes. I had to be patient to let the color develop. Once I removed them, I lightly wrapped, then “blotted” them using plastic wrap, giving them a “stipple” effect. After I unwrapped the plastic, I blotted them again, randomly, with a paper towel, to give them more dimension. Once they dried completely, I liberally applied green glow-in-the-dark fingernail polish, in various spots, effectively creating a raised “continent” pattern, following up by “charging” the dried glow-paint with a bright flashlight. This made for a fun after-dark egg hunt, although we didn't eat these eggs. I was not certain if the nail lacquer was toxic or not, even if the eggs are sealed. I didn't want to risk it.Galaxy Eggs with pearlized acrylic paintWith designs added“Galaxy Eggs”“Charged” Galaxy Eggs glowing in the dark atop a piece of foil.Sharpie Markers come in a variety of colors and are very easy to control. I use these for fine details to draw on my eggs after they have been colored. They are non-toxic. You may consume your eggs afterwards, although parental supervision is required when young children are using these markers, for they are permanent and any ink transferred from pen to child, to furniture, or clothing, will be very difficult to remove later.Non-toxic acrylic paints can be found at any craft store or online. These paints create raised surfaces and are great for “piping” details such as the small dots I've done in the sample photos, or even painting large patches of area a darker color. Different sized brushes will create different effects. You can buy small stamps, and paint them, press them onto your egg and transfer beautiful patterns onto your eggs.Gold leaf creates beautiful eggs, although it is expensive. Paint small areas of your egg using a non-toxic gel medium, then press the leaf onto the egg in random patches. Use your leaf sparingly. I've found the medium has a tendency to remove the dye when you are brushing off the loose leaf. Use a very soft makeup brush, such as a powder brush, to clean up the curling leaf. You'll want only the glued-down portion to remain and not have any shedding.The art of imperfection- Your eggs don't need to be perfect to be beautiful. If there are cracks in them, work around them. If you have a small crack in an egg, I suggest you take a spoon, and using the back of the bowl, gently add more cracks to it, before adding it to the dye. The cracked areas soak up the dye in a darker, more concentrated way, and your egg inside will likewise be colored. It will be pretty, regardless. Use that old stash of colored birthday candles you have leftover in your drawer to mask out areas you don't wish to take on dye, or cut out stencils, or pick a dandelion from your yard and “drybrush” around it with the acrylic paint. It will give you a pretty silhouette effect. Be creative with your project and have fun. You'll only get better with practice.If there is one thing I've learned from this experience, wear gloves! For your hands will be stained for days afterwards.Although, if you're an artist, it probably won't matter much to you, just like it doesn’t much to me. Personally, it's a labor of love and a badge of honor for me.Me, from an Easter Egg's perspective, as I'm hiding it in the grass.

I have a prep station next to the sink. In front of me are my knives, KitchenAid mixer, Braun food processor, various cutting boards, a tall jar with silicon spatulas and a small container with my tiny whisks, a couple of forks, spoons and my instant-read thermometer. Above me are metal and plastic prep and mixing bowls of various sizes as well as a box grater. Below me is a drawer with my bench scraper, can opener and various other tools.My mise en place goes on this counter. In this picture, I was making almond paste cinnamon rolls.On the side next to me is the stove. Next to the stove is a small counter with my air fryer on it and a large crock with spoons, large whisks, metal spatulas, a spider drainer, and other larger tools that I use once the food is on the stove. The drawer under the counter has the rest of my cooking tools, measuring spoons, cups, and other specialized tools. The cabinet above has spices.As I prep and use dry ingredients, as I use them, I place them on the counter on the other side of the stove to put away later. This also helps because I know right away whether I already put something in.If my son helps with prep, this is his station.Behind me is another cupboard with miscellaneous storage under and dishes above. The counter has my breadbox (yes, they really do keep bread fresh longer), my vacuum sealer and my Instant Pot. I have my flour and sugar canisters on top of the bread box so they are handy. Since it's next to the refrigerator, I put things that live in the fridge on that counter as I use them during prep to put away after prep. There's also an Amazon Fire tablet to play toons whilst doing dishes or to look at a recipe.You can see the rest of my kitchen, pantry and storage system in Adrienne Boswell's answer to What does your kitchen look like?My almond paste cinnamon rolls before they went in the oven.