quote:Originally posted by Slick
Some good suggestions! Although, I can't put another fryer in my kitchen because it's filled to capacity already, which is why the two portables are there. I'll think about the fried items though.
Originally posted by Slick
I have a 70 lb fryer and two small portables, so it's not hard to figure that out. My main problem is that every other person will want something fried. We'll get a bunch of fries going and then someone will want an order of okra. Okra goes in and takes up a basket. Then down the line someone will want another okra and that order has to wait on the fries to get ready because you can't mix it with the okra that's half done. Then stuff still keeps coming in and pretty soon all the fryers are filled and we get backed up. We tell folks that we're behind on fried stuff but they blow it off and order it anyway, then get pissed when they have to wait.
I've worked in large corporate restaurants whose kitchens have had the same problem. There is no room for more equipment, and the fryers can only fry food so fast. Fried food will hold for a short time in cardboard under a heat lamp. When you drop your fries, drop several more orders than you need. If fried okra creates problems, drop a few orders extra. Obviously you don't want to stockpile so much that you A) waste food or B) sacrifice quality, but in order to get through your weeds, sometimes it helps.
(A grain of salt here: The kitchen in question was part of a fairly upscale seafood restaurant. It had two tiny fryers for its 300+ seat dining room, because the fryers were intended to only cook calamari and children's food. Fried shrimp, fried cod, etc... weren't supposed to be big sellers. They were on the menu, but expected to sell only a few times per night, instead of the few times per table that one particular market seemed to desire.)
Also, limit the number of fried items on the menu. Even if some of them sell well, if people are annoyed by the time it takes to get them, those items aren't reflecting well on your restaurant. Take the fried foods that create the most problems off the menu. People will grumble, but the reasonable will accept "We needed to rearrange the menu in order to offer our guests our best level of service." The unreasonable will probably not take that well, but even in spite of best effort, some people will not be pleased.
Keep us updated. I'd be interested to find out what resolution you find, and how it (or they) worked out.
