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FRMCA Level 1, Chapter 4

Kitchen Essentials: Part 1—Professionalism and Standardized Recipes

2013 Summer Institutes Level 1

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Session Objectives

• Define professionalism, and explain what it means to culinary professionals.

• Identify the components and functions of a standardized recipe.

• Convert recipes to yield smaller and larger quantities based on operational needs.

• Given a problem, calculate as-purchased (AP) and edible-portion (EP) amounts.

• Calculate the total cost and portion costs of a standardized recipe.

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What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary Professional?

• Culinarian: Studied and continues to study the art of cooking

• Attributes of a culinary professional:

– Knowledge: A professional culinary program provides a basic knowledge of foods, food styles, and methods of preparation.

– Skill: Practice and acquire hands-on experience.

– Flavor, aroma, taste: Culinary professionals must produce food that tastes great.

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– Judgment: Culinary professionals must be courteous, honest, and responsible, use should discretion and appropriate behavior with coworkers, supervisors, employees, and customers.

– Dedication: Becoming a culinary professional is hard work.

– Pride: Have a sense of pride about a job well done. Pride extends to personal appearance and behavior in and around the kitchen.

What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary Professional? continued

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– Respect: Respect is having consideration for oneself and others. In order to respect others, a person must first respect himself or herself.

– Personal responsibility: Personal responsibility means taking responsibility for one’s choices. Personal responsibility means accepting accountability and being in control.

– Education and the culinary professional: Employers value a formal culinary education and continuing education.

What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary Professional? continued

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Standardized Recipes

• Recipes for institutional use, or standardized recipes, must follow a format that is clear to anyone who uses them.

• A standardized recipe lists the ingredients first, in the order they are to be used, followed by assembly directions or the method for putting the ingredients together.

• A standardized recipe helps to maintain quality and control costs.

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Standardized Recipes continued

A standardized recipe includes:

•Name of the recipe

•Ingredients

•Yield

•Portion size

•Temperature, time, and equipment

•Step-by-step directions

•Nutrition information

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Recipes are converted when the yield of the recipe (the amount it provides) is not the same as the amount of product needed.

•Recipe conversion affects the cost of the recipe, but not necessarily the portion cost.

•When properly converted and prepared, product quality should not vary from the original recipe, regardless of portion yield.

•Basic math skills are needed to increase or decrease recipes.

Converting Recipes

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• To calculate the amount of an item needed to yield an AP (as-purchased) amount, divide the edible portion amount needed by the yield percentage.

• To determine the AP quantity needed to result in a given EP (edible-portion) quantity, it is also important to know the cooking loss for the item.

EP/AP Amounts

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EP/AP Amounts continued

• Conversion chart: Lists the expected, or average, shrinkage from AP amount to EP amount for various food items

– Multiply the number of pounds needed by the percentage yield listed in the conversion chart

• Butcher test: Measures the amount of shrinkage occurring during the trimming of a meat product

• Cooking loss test: Measures the amount of product shrinkage during the cooking or roasting process; this is important information for each food item used in the operation

• As-edible portion: Items purchased that are trimmed and cut

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Restaurant and foodservice operation profitability depends on balancing costs and prices.

Many operations price out all recipes and then check them every six months to see if they are still accurate.

Other restaurants compare standard recipe costs to the national price index twice a year.

Costing Recipes

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Costing Recipes continued

• To find the total cost of a standard recipe, multiply or divide the ingredient amounts by the prices and add it all up for the recipe cost.

• Divide the total cost by the yield to get the standard portion cost.