Advance Preparation

Handle your lunch rush with ease

The lunch window is the narrowest in the day-part of any operation. Lunch is all about the worker bees, and the worker bees have a limited amount of time to eat before they have to buzz back to their hives. Restaurants that get the job done –– serving that precious lunch customer quickly without compromising quality or service –– will develop customer trust. Customer trust leads to return visits. Conversely, customers who have been burned by slow service and screw-ups during lunch will quickly seek out an alternative the next time around.

  Fast but civilized service at lunch is all about advance preparation –– “the prep.”  Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant’s kitchen knows that the prep is the key to getting the food to the table in a timely fashion.

To illustrate these thoughts in a more graphic way, I decided to take a typical lunch menu, list some of its dishes, and note alongside each dish how to go about handling the prep. Also, I am including situations where the words "don't do this" become important.  

• Soup of the Day: A no-brainer. Soup is prepared ahead and kept at serving temperature. It's just a matter of ladling it out. However, one of the most popular soups in the Italian repertoire is pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans). In this situation, the pasta (tubetti) is cooked ahead and held warm. To order, the soup (tomatoes, seasonings, beans) is ladled into the soup bowl, followed by the pasta. If the pasta is not kept separately, it swells up and gets mushy.

• Salads:  Wash and chill the greens for various salads. Portion the dressings in ramekins or plastic cups (with lids). If you have a reach-in large enough to hold enough salads to handle the lunch service, that's great. Salads can be arranged on plates so that they’re ready to go. If you don't have adequate chill space,  pre-make only enough salads to get you through the initial lunch rush. Then make the salads as you need them.

  Grilled chicken Caesar salad (very popular these days) can be done ahead. The chicken breasts can be grilled early, sliced and cooled. Get the romaine lettuce on the plate along with the croutons. To order, add the slices of grilled chicken, sprinkle on some grated Parmesan and add the dressing on the side before serving.

DON’T DO THIS: Do not dress salads ahead, even if you are serving just one house salad. Today's customers like to have the salad dressing served on the side. And don't allow salads to sit too long at room temperature. A limp salad is not a good salad.

• Sandwiches:  Some sandwiches can be made ahead; some should not. Customer preference relative to condiments, cheese, onion, tomato and lettuce must be taken into consideration. On the other hand, you can make ahead and wrap in plastic signature sandwiches that do not allow for options, such as a chicken pesto sandwich. It is what it is (and a good one to have on your menu). Another example: Turkey and Swiss (very popular sandwich). Make the description good enough to eat, like this:  "Smoked turkey shaved paper-thin, piled high on Texas toast, topped with Swiss cheese, romaine lettuce and a tangy cranberry mayonnaise."

  Wraps can partially be prepped in advance. For a grilled veggie wrap, for example, grill the veggies ahead and assemble to order.

  Paninis, or grilled Italian sandwiches, can be assembled and grilled ahead. To order, put the panino back onto the grill just long enough to heat up the bread and the filling. 

  DON'T DO THIS: Do not assemble ahead of time any sandwiches that involve sauces (barbecue sauce, sloppy Joe) or dressings (balsamic, vinaigrette). The key to good sandwich service to have a handle on sandwiches that are the top sellers and plan accordingly.

• Pasta: Pasta can be cooked ahead (even a day or two ahead), cooled, portioned (in plastic bags) and kept in the cooler (well covered). Pull the bags out of the  cooler as needed. To order, dump the pasta out of the bag into simmering water. Drain well, sauce and serve. Baked pasta dishes like lasagne, baked ziti and manicotti can be done ahead and portioned. To order, heat in the oven, ladle on some hot tomato sauce to give it that just out-of-the-oven appearance, and serve.

  DON'T DO THIS: Never sauce pasta ahead. If you sauce ahead it will affect the taste and texture of the pasta.

• Pizza: Sheet the pizza ahead. If you are using a conveyor oven, put the pizza shells on screens and stack (special racks are made for this purpose). Cover, if possible, to keep the dough from drying out.

  Personal-sized pizzas work great for lunch service. And you can par-bake a few ahead, then finish the bake to order (shorter bake time the second time around).

  DON'T DO THIS: Though some operators do it, it generally is not a good idea to sauce pizza ahead of time. The sauce will seep into the dough and make it soggy. It also downgrades its overall taste. It only takes a minute to sauce a pizza, so why ruin good pizza dough?

  On the other hand, you can par-bake some pizzas and reheat to order (just don't overdo it, or you might end up throwing money into the dumpster).   

  Obviously if you are serving slices you can bake several pizzas ahead (the most popular toppings being sausage or pepperoni or both) and have them sliced and ready to serve. Now all you need to do is slip the slice(s) into the oven for a fast reheat.

• Bread: You can slice it ahead and portion it into bread baskets, provided you keep it covered so it doesn't dry out.

• Desserts:  Tiramisu can be made ahead, portioned, plated and kept chilled. Sieve on some powdered sugar just before serving. Ditto for the cheesecake. Just before serving, jazz up the plate with fresh fruit or fruit syrup.

The bottom line is that advanced preparations are necessary to handle the quick lunch rush. The key is to increase efficiency without sacrificing quality. If you can do that, you’re well on your way to a good lunch business.

–– Pasquale “Pat” Bruno Jr.