Ask HN: Do you cook for multiple people (> 2 or 3)?
6 comments
From the cookin-process perspective, for me it is not different. I always cook a big quantity. In the bachelor years, living alone, this lasted several days :D . Now it goes faster with the whole family on it.
I volunteer in a kitchen and regularly cook for 80+.
* Depending on your jurisdiction, there is likely a legal process to follow before you can do this kind of thing at all, and also paperwork to do every day. Typically this involves some form of assessment, certification (here this can be done online for a small fee, and does not take long) but also rules to follow before and during prep and during serving (keeping things clean, keeping yourself clean, separate utensils for different kinds of ingredients, how to store food, minimum cooking time vs temperature reached etc), and you also need to keep records of these being followed and also meticulously track what is in the food you are serving people - allergen content etc - and also what happened to it between shop and cooking pot (e.g. has it spent too long outside a fridge? Was it open before you used it today? - is there any possibility of cross contamination? etc). None of this takes very long, but you need to plan it in and be thorough and careful about doing it: you may be inspected at any time, but, much more importantly, unpleasant outcomes that are tiny risks when making a meal for two people you know well become near-certainties when cooking for a large population of strangers with unknowable medical histories.
* Actions that you don't think twice about when cooking for 1-2 people take significant amounts of time when cooking for 80+. Ingredients take a long time to prep and food to reach temperature. You need to plan them into your day. Also, hours of vegetable prep make you tired in ways that a few minutes does not.
* Recipes don't scale linearly. They are written so that ingredients get used in nice fractions of the quantities they are sold in and/or in amounts that are easy to measure. In small quantities, things being a little out of proportion with respect to each other isn't that big a deal. When you scale up, it makes a noticeable difference. You'll need to experiment and tweak.
A catering business will also have concerns I do not. When I cook, I am typically making 2-3 meal options (depending on dietary requirements), and know ahead of time what food will be needed when. A restaurant doesn't know what is needed until a customer makes the order, and does not then have very long to make it. Dealing with this involves a whole extra level of organisation, prep and accounting - estimate what you'll sell over the evening, part-cook/prep ahead of time and mise en place while keeping everything safe for consumption. I'm kinda glad I get to skip all of that :)
EDIT: missed one. Everything is bigger than you are used to in a commercial kitchen. The hobs are enormous (and hot!), the pots are huge etc etc. The unexpected thing here is that if for some reason you need to make just a small amount of something, it is surprisingly awkward and takes extra planning.
* Depending on your jurisdiction, there is likely a legal process to follow before you can do this kind of thing at all, and also paperwork to do every day. Typically this involves some form of assessment, certification (here this can be done online for a small fee, and does not take long) but also rules to follow before and during prep and during serving (keeping things clean, keeping yourself clean, separate utensils for different kinds of ingredients, how to store food, minimum cooking time vs temperature reached etc), and you also need to keep records of these being followed and also meticulously track what is in the food you are serving people - allergen content etc - and also what happened to it between shop and cooking pot (e.g. has it spent too long outside a fridge? Was it open before you used it today? - is there any possibility of cross contamination? etc). None of this takes very long, but you need to plan it in and be thorough and careful about doing it: you may be inspected at any time, but, much more importantly, unpleasant outcomes that are tiny risks when making a meal for two people you know well become near-certainties when cooking for a large population of strangers with unknowable medical histories.
* Actions that you don't think twice about when cooking for 1-2 people take significant amounts of time when cooking for 80+. Ingredients take a long time to prep and food to reach temperature. You need to plan them into your day. Also, hours of vegetable prep make you tired in ways that a few minutes does not.
* Recipes don't scale linearly. They are written so that ingredients get used in nice fractions of the quantities they are sold in and/or in amounts that are easy to measure. In small quantities, things being a little out of proportion with respect to each other isn't that big a deal. When you scale up, it makes a noticeable difference. You'll need to experiment and tweak.
A catering business will also have concerns I do not. When I cook, I am typically making 2-3 meal options (depending on dietary requirements), and know ahead of time what food will be needed when. A restaurant doesn't know what is needed until a customer makes the order, and does not then have very long to make it. Dealing with this involves a whole extra level of organisation, prep and accounting - estimate what you'll sell over the evening, part-cook/prep ahead of time and mise en place while keeping everything safe for consumption. I'm kinda glad I get to skip all of that :)
EDIT: missed one. Everything is bigger than you are used to in a commercial kitchen. The hobs are enormous (and hot!), the pots are huge etc etc. The unexpected thing here is that if for some reason you need to make just a small amount of something, it is surprisingly awkward and takes extra planning.
thanks for the detailed reply.
Labor per portion gets better with more mouths to feed. I find 6-8 is the sweet point.
Yep, me, wife and 2 kids. Not every day though.
I've always wondered how it is different, but now I am asking not out of curiosity, but because I am thinking of starting a small catering side business.
Thanks in advance to all to reply.