Cooking En Masse

Not for the faint hearted.

This post is about corporate catering. At one of my places of employment we cater for HUGE amounts of people at a time.
This poses unique challenges like: Is pre cooked food really any good? How can something maintain it's structural and flavour integrity if it has to plonked in a bain marie for an hour? How can I stir 75 kilos of meat plus veggies and liquid in a vat the size of a single bed when I'm only 5'1" and have girly muscles and not quite optimum physical fitness levels? All will be revealed.....

Just so you understand, the photos for this post won't be too terrific. I had to shoot them under harsh fluro lights with my phone camera, dodging steam and grease. I figure as most of you would like a look behind the curtain, you'd probably forgive me.

Today I'm making Sweet and Sour Pork.

So as not to scare you too much, this is a SMALL example of my daily work. There's only 45kgs of meat this time. I know some chefs who hate cooking like this, but I really do enjoy it, I like to think that the dish still deserves the very best I can give it, and as much flavour as I get in! It's all about the love.

I won't give quantities for obvious reasons. Adjust the amounts to suit your individual needs, not all families have such voracious appetites. Here's another secret, I make it up as I go along. I have a vague outline of what to include, but I can pretty much use what I can find. This is not, repeat not, haute cuisine. I don't have access to fancy pantsy ingredients, just good honest basics and a few extras.

This is the meat I'm using today, as I said, it's only 45 kilos this time, lovely cubed pork shoulder at 92% lean. To get the most flavour in I'm going to marinate the meat overnight in a mixture of minced ginger, bashed up garlic cloves and some sesame oil. Massage it in (a good arm work out) and wheel back into the coolroom overnight.

I'm not going to deep fry the pork for this, as it has to be reheated the batter would go soggy anyway, and this way it's a bit more healthy. So, to cook this I'm going to steam it. I like this method as it's a good way to keep the juices in and tenderise the meat without overcooking it or drying it out. I put the meat on perforated trays to stop it stewing but over deeper containers to catch the juices so I can use them in the sauce later.

 What do you think of our big combi oven? This can do the lot, steam, conventional heating, or any combination in between. Fantastic, don't you wish you had one- maybe just a bit smaller perhaps. I pop the trays in for just long enough for the meat to be cooked through, but juicy, and nice and soft still.

The trays go onto a trolley, and then into the blast chiller. We need to get the temperature of the meat down quickly to keep it in appropriate safe zones. The standard guide is above 65* or below 5*, the middle zone is the perfect environment for breeding nasties that could make you sick. I could just put the meat in the hot sauce, but because the food won't be served for a day or so, I want to keep it separate and maintain the structural integrity of both meat and veggies, and it's easier to do if they're apart.

 Now to the sauce.

For economy I'm using a mixture of fresh and tinned pineapple. Of course if this was for home it would be all lovely Queensland beauties, but at least this way I can use the juice from the tins in the sauce. The amount shown in the photos is just a token amount, I used a LOT more than this I can assure you.

I start off making a syrup with drained pineapple juice, castor sugar, white vinegar and some ginger and garlic. I boil this down until it's reduced and add some tomato paste and a little bit of salt as well- in this case I add it by the handful, not pinch. I also add in a lot of the liquid that came off the pork, this way I have the best flavour and I'm not diluting it.

 Once I'm happy with the way it's going, I throw in a couple of buckets of onion pieces. I never want to hear you whining about peeling a few onions again Readers, just try doing this for an hour or so at a time, peeling then slicing, with acid stinging your eyes and tears running down your cheeks. Suck it up Princess.

 Once these have softened down a little, I add the carrots and let them cook off for about 10 minutes or so. I turn the heat off, then add the pineapple and once it's cooled a little, the capsicums. It's a constant juggling act to get the flavors mingling happily without turning everything to mush. Remember this meal will get reheated in a day, then popped in a hot box for delivery to the customers, then placed in a chafing dish to stay hot until the customers get around to eating it. That's a lot to expect from my poor little sweet and sour porky!

Now I scoop out the veggies and put them in vats for cooling down. I leave the sauce as I want to thicken it a little. I know that more liquid will seep from the pineapple over time, so a bit of thickening is definitely called for. My favourite way to do this is with an Arrowroot powder. I make a slurry with a small amount of water bring the sauce to the boil and mix it in. Arrowroot doesn't have any colour or flavour and doesn't cloud the mix either. It's also gluten free! In fact the whole dish is, this means it's easier for me to taste as I go, and sample some for lunch- I mean for 'quality control'.

Now I cool the sauce, and put everything in the great big walk in coolrooms until tomorrow.

Ok, now to bring it all together.
 I've got to mix the meat, the veggies and the sauce into one mass of yumminess. I had to split it into 2 lots and then glove up to mix, mix, mix! Once again a terrific upperbody workout. I like to leave the boxes on trolleys as it's easier on my back that way then bending over the floor, but it would be soooo much easier if I was just a bit taller.

The meal now has to get split into the right size bain marie containers. It all depends on what function it's going to and how many each is catering for. The dishes are then double wrapped with cling film, overlapping so nothing can get in or out. The steam oven generates a fair bit of condensation and I don't want it diluting the meal.

 Back into the coolroom again, and just a little while to showtime. This all needs to be done quickly, every step is more time out of the coolroom and we need to keep the temperature in that safe zone remember.

 Action stations everyone!
The baines go into the steam oven for about 2 hours to heat up thoroughly. Before pulling them out of the oven, I use this nifty little instant read probe to check temperatures again- after all, I don't want anyone getting sick on my watch, and if all is well, they go into the hot box.

The hot box keeps the food at a constant safe temperature so we can deliver it where it needs to go. As you can see, it's bigger than me as well, and it's very, very heavy. This needs to be pushed miles along carpeted floors... another good workout. The dishes then get taken out and put into the chafing dishes at the various functions. The box sides are really, really hot and if you accidentally brush your hand against them the skin will either blister or be seared right off leaving a painful burn for more than a week. Good news for the food, not so much for me.

Ok, by my reckoning, I have taken the meat from the coolroom, lifted into the vats, lifted onto steam trays, trays into steamer, from steamer onto trolley, from trolley into vats, then sauce onto meat, then meat into bain trays, then back onto trolley, then into steamer again, then out of steamer into hot box, then hot box to chafing dishes. Is that 11 times? So 11 x 45kgs, well more than that with the sauce and the veggies and stuff, 495kgs, no wonder I'm so tired every night! Why aren't I stick thin? It must be all the muscles I'm building, yeah, that's right, muscles.


Have you ever waved a loved one off at the airport, never expecting to see them again?
It would be a lot like this.
The food is now out of my control. I have taken it from it's very basic existence, nurtured it, given it a healthy environment, kept it warm and tucked in carefully, helped it mature with a bit of exotic culture, and added a lot of love.
Now it heads off into the big wide world to be investigated, judged and criticized. It's upbringing and parentage perhaps called into question as well. I've done my best, now I just have to trust in the strength and integrity I've built into it's character.
The only difference between this and a loved one, is in this case, I am happy for it to be attacked and devoured by strangers- for money.

Well Readers, have you enjoyed this voyeuristic foray into corporate catering?
I trust you will never again eat these type of mass function foods without a little thought for us behind the scenes, and a new appreciation for the effort that goes into it.