Outside the Commercial Kitchen: Food Safety While Catering
July 7, 2018Many restaurants and other eating establishments like to provide catering for special events. Catering a huge business, worth over $53 billion per year.
Catering allows your restaurant to reach customers who might never set foot in your establishment otherwise. It’s incredible marketing, and rather than spending money, you’re making money!
However, if you want to make a great impression, you need to keep food safe. This requires some special equipment because you’re not in your normal commercial kitchen. Here are the steps to take.
Avoid Cross Contamination During Prep
You may be prepping onsite, or you may be creating the food in your own commercial kitchen and then bringing it to the event. Regardless, it’s vital to keep food separate and surfaces clean during the prep and cooking.
Use different cutting boards for different foods, disinfect and wash regularly, and ensure everyone washes their hands. Keeping food safe during preparation is the first line of defense for keeping guests safe!
Prepare for Careful Transportation
Keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold can be most challenging during transport. Hopefully both your commercial kitchen and the catering location has heating and cooling equipment, but the vehicle on the way may not.
If you don’t have commercial coolers to bring in a van or vehicle, make sure to pack cold food carefully with ice or frozen cold packs. Hot foot can be insulated so that it doesn’t lose heat.
Be sure you take into account the temperature outside. On very hot days, cold food needs more attention, and vice versa. However, never assume that the outside temperature will keep a particular type of food safe. You need 145 degrees for hot food and 40 degrees or less for cold.
Have Proper Equipment at the Catering Site
Once you’re on site, be sure you have the equipment you need. That includes chafing dishes, ice, and onsite refrigeration. You want to make sure that you know how much food is needed, so that only a specific amount of food is out at a time.
Of course, if there isn’t on-site refrigeration or heating, you have a bigger challenge. Being outdoors is even harder. If you face these additional challenges, be sure to scout the site beforehand. Find out if you can bring portable equipment from your commercial kitchen and perhaps plug it in. Many park gazebos have at least one outlet.
Use Well-Trained Staff When Outside the Commercial Kitchen!
When you provide catering, bring your best – both in food and in staff! Your employees should be well trained in both hospitality and food safety.
Food temps should be measured regularly, and anything outside the safety zone should be removed promptly. At the same time, your employees should be excellent at customer service and soothing frazzled nerves.
You never know what’s going to happen. When your staff is ready for every eventuality with poise and a smile, the catering event will be an incredible promotion for your business.
Do you need kitchen equipment for your commercial kitchen or catering operation? We’d love to help. Contact us for a quote today!
4 Money-Saving Strategies You Can Use in Your Restaurant NOW
Running a restaurant is one of the most interesting and lucrative businesses one can engage in with the right money-saving strategies. However, it also poses to be one of the most difficult. Many factors have to be put into consideration in order to make sure that...
Businesses that Should be Selling Frozen Beverages in 2017
Adding a frozen beverage machine to your slate of money-making channels is great way to drum up additional sales. Since there is low overhead cost associated with selling frozen beverages, whether it is an FCB (Frozen Carbonated Beverage) or FUB (Frozen Uncarbonated...
Start Preparing Your Restaurant for Summer!
As a restaurant owner, you may have noticed that weather has affects the number of customers that walk through your door. It is widely understood, for example, that rain drives customers indoors as they seek shelter from the storm. Snowstorms, of course, discourage...
Create a Memorable Dining Experience with the Right Flatware
According to Will Rogers, “you will never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In a restaurant, flatware is a small but essential part of making a great impression. Flatware is a particularly important design element because customers won’t just look it;...
Cleaning Your Commercial Deep Fryer Made Easy
A commercial deep fryer requires daily cleaning to keep the appliance in perfect working condition. However, cleaning the restaurant’s deep fryer is one of the most dreaded tasks for many restaurant workers. Who could blame them? The process of cleaning a deep fryer...
The Top Chefs Use Cast Iron. Do You?
From pots to pans, restaurant cookware has been made out of all kinds of materials. What kind do you use? It’s time for you to use cast iron. Cast iron cookware has many benefits. Let’s take a look at why you need to be using cast iron in your professional kitchen....
How to Crash the Dine and Dash
Any business that sells physical products is subject to the occasional theft. So do restaurants, but it's just called dine and dash. Those who dine and dash take advantage of the fact that they receive their purchase before they pay, rather than after. In many...
Preparing for Your Restaurant’s Grand Opening
Starting a restaurant is an adventure, especially with the Grand Opening. There will have been months of planning, preparation, purchasing and hiring for your grand opening. When you finally have everything ready, your grand opening is a big deal. If everything is...
Guide to Buying the Perfect Knives
Knives are arguably one of the most important tools in any kitchen. Your chefs are the heartbeat of your restaurant and they deserve quality knives that ease the task of cooking great food. When buying the perfect knives for your chefs, keep in mind that the most...
Equipment Buying Tips for Restaurant Owners
If you own a restaurant or you’re starting a new one, you will need the right equipment. It is important to choose quality equipment that will not only get the job done well but also cost you less in the long run. However, it can be hard to know where to start. Here...
5 Decor Ideas for an Inviting Restaurant Feel
Great food and customer service are important parts of the equation that keeps customers coming, but the restaurant experience is not just about the food. The best restaurants cater to every aspect of a customer’s experience. The right ambiance is a must. This means...
5 Tips for an Ergonomically Sound Restaurant
The physical environment of your restaurant should not only be appealing to customers but also be comfortable and safe for your employees. Due to the repetitive motions that characterize the job description of restaurant employees, there is a potential for...
How to Make Your Silverware Sparkle and Shine
No one wants to eat off of dirty or tarnished silverware. While it’s easy to clean silverware of leftover food, the tarnishing will still linger unless you take steps to make your silverware shine. To make the best impression on your guests, your silverware should not...
Top 6 Movies for Restaurant Owners
The movies that connect with us on a personal level are the ones that linger in our memories forever, especially when it deals with food and the drama in a commercial kitchen. Achieving that level of intimacy in the fictional world of movies is easier said than done....