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Copper Pot Seddon's Executive Chef Ashley Davis (left) and Head Chef Sascha Rust.
Courtesy Ashley Davis
Restaurant kitchens never close — prep continues around the clock.
Menus contain low-cost "margin builders" to balance the cost of luxury items.
There are a lot more people working behind the scenes than restaurant guests realize.
Working in the restaurant business requires a lot more than a passion for good food, but professional chefs, caterers, and restaurant owners make their jobs look easy. They can wield a knife with expert precision, feed hundreds of hungry guests at parties, and keep customers coming back for that signature dish.
2018-07-10
INSIDER asked four culinary masters how they do it, and they shared some fascinating industry secrets.
Here are five little-known insights into the restaurant business according to the people who know it best.
Chefs work around the clock to keep up with demand.
“The kitchen is 24 hours, people don’t realize how much preparation goes into cooking en masse," said Ashley Davis, awarded chef and owner of Copper Pot Seddon in Melbourne, Australia. "We often cook food through the night to keep up, and chefs work 14 hour days.”
The staff is bigger than you think — and managing them is the tricky bit.
So many cooks in the kitchen.zhgee/Shutterstock
Davis described the restaurant experience as "a snapshot in time" comprised of "a series of interactions" between people and food, and that there are a lot more people working behind the scenes than restaurant guests realize, from suppliers to delivery drivers.
"The restaurant is all about people, the customers, the staff, the suppliers, the farmers, the delivery drivers etc.," said Davis. "So it comes down to managing this dynamic between all the players, that's the tricky bit."
Menus aren't as luxurious as they seem.
Not every item on the menu is fancy.Reuters/Bernardo Montoya
Kathleen Schaffer, a former executive chef and now founder of Schaffer,explained that some items on fancy restaurant menus are "margin builders" — dishes that cost less to make in order to create space for more luxury items and balance out their total costs.
"Restaurants and caterers alike are providing a kind of perceived luxury to their menu, but they have other items in place that are going to maintain their overall food costs," she said.
If one ingredient is missing, it's a no-go.
Nina Clemente draws inspiration from farmers' markets.Chris Leaman
Substitutes don't cut it in a restaurant kitchen. If Clemente runs out of one ingredient, the dish doesn't go out until the stock is replenished.
"When you're in a restaurant you can't compromise a dish by just sending something out that doesn't have every element, so sometimes when you run out of a particular element you have to prepare it a la minute and sometimes that item could be a little longer on the preparation time," said Clemente.
Delays can happen for any number of reasons. Even chefs, who know how hectic food service can be, find it challenging to practice patience.
"Even myself, when I go into a restaurant and I'm waiting too long, I'm like 'Where's my food?'" said Clemente. "And then I remember my own job and I'm like 'Oh yeah, maybe they ran out of this particular ingredient.'"
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Talia Lakritz is a Life correspondent at Business Insider covering politics and power through a visual storytelling lens. She has reported from the White House as well as military installations, mansions, and museums across the country, bringing readers inside fascinating places through immersive features.Previously, she wrote for The New York Jewish Week and SciShow Space.Talia holds a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Barnard College of Columbia University and ordination as an interfaith minister from One Spirit Learning Alliance. She hopes to one day visit all 50 states and all 14 public presidential libraries.Politics and power:
