Balancing the Dining Space and the Kitchen in a Restaurant

Running a restaurant requires dedication, persistence and a deep sense for aesthetics. But before all that comes the planning part. How do you plan a restaurant? 

Dining Space and the Kitchen Area Very Important

Both the dining room and kitchen are the most important physical spaces making up a restaurant. But does that mean they should occupy similar square feet of area? The dining area is where the guests come in. It’s not just good food they need, but also the right ambience that makes them feel relaxed. It depends on what kind of restaurant you run. So the focus should be on the area that your customers see, and that’s certainly the dining area, not the kitchen.

The kitchen is important too, since customer satisfaction would depend on the gastronomic delicacies coming from there. But the focus for the kitchen is in the areas of practicality, efficiency and regulatory compliance – it must be conducive to producing food quickly, efficiently and hygienically. But aesthetics don’t play a role there. If you’re expecting a great number of guests at a given time, you may need more space in your kitchen. In that case, the area of your kitchen needs to be reasonably large. Not only are you managing people in the kitchen, but you also have equipment for which you need space.     

                  

The Kitchen to Dining Area Ratio

There is a standard ratio for designing, or setting up space for, the kitchen and the dining area. But that depends a lot on how much land you’ve had to build your restaurant. The ratio could be altered accordingly. The ratio accepted as standard is 60 to 40 in favor of the dining room. Again, that varies depending on the kind of restaurant you’re run. 

·      Fine food requires twice or thrice the area of a banquet service kitchen.

·      Fast-service restaurants can have kitchens that are smaller and dining rooms that are much larger. Only then can they make profit by welcoming more guests and securing greater sales volumes. 

·      Fine dining restaurants are not dependent on volume, but on the quality of experience. They would not only need tastefully designed dining areas that ooze exclusivity, but also larger kitchens to ensure that they not only make food with the highest quality, but also arrange it the right way before presenting to the guests. In such restaurants, the dining space can be lesser than usual.

As an experienced chef, Peter Theodorou has expressed his opinion on various aspects of restaurant design, apart from his culinary exploits. He believes the right ratio of the dining space to the kitchen area depends on the practical considerations of the restaurant. But the ratio certainly does make a difference to the performance of the restaurant.   

                

How Celebrity Chefs Share their Culinary Insights

The art of cuisine is probably as old as civilization itself. But it wasn’t until the late 19th century and the early 20th century, with the proliferation of journalistic media, that celebrity chefs started rising. When television came along, cookery shows displayed the talent of these chefs and live shows further enhanced their appeal. They became household names and people like me started dreaming of their kind of work and living their kind of life. So let’s take a look at two of the most famous celebrity chefs in history and find out what we can learn from them.     

Auguste Escoffier

Let’s start with Frenchman Auguste Escoffier who lived from 1846 to 1935. Ranked among the most influential cooks ever, Escoffier brought the conventional French cooking techniques to modern standards. Escoffier’s techniques were actually built on the style of Marie-Antoine Carem, another famous chef who is credited with codifying haute cuisine. All Escoffier did was simplify Careme’s elaborate style. But, being a restaurateur as well as a culinary writer, Escoffier was among the earliest celebrity chefs. There were also five mother sauces for which Escoffier codified recipes.

Escoffier’s book “Le Guide Culinaire” is still used as a reference as a guide for cooking and as a cookbook. His techniques continue to influence chefs across the world. But arguably, Escoffier’s greatest contribution was making cooking a respectable profession by bringing in discipline and order. He was given the title“King of chefs and chef of kings” -- earlier bestowed on Careme -- making him France’s most prominent chef in the early 20^th century. He was the secret behind the success of the Paris Ritz and London’s erstwhile Carlton Hotel, both originally part of the Ritz-Carlton group.

 

Anthony Bourdain

From the past let’s come to a more recent period, the time of American Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018). As much as Bourdain was known for his cuisines, he was also a major media figure. He has written many bestselling books on food including “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”, and also essays and articles that have appeared in various leading newspapers and publications.

But Bourdain really became a household name with his TV shows, primarily “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” that ran from 2005 to 2012. It all started with “The Cook’s Tour” (2002-2003), which combined his culinary adventures with travels to various destinations of the world. His final TV show was “Parts Unknown”, where he focused on the politics and cultures of exotic regions along with the cuisine. One episode even featured the then US President Barack Obama. Apart from his own TV programs, he also appeared in other shows including reality shows such as Top Chef, and created YouTube videos as well.  

These two chefs were of two different eras, but their competencies were more than just culinary talent. They shared their culinary insights with the world. That’s what made them celebrity chefs. And that’s the quest of Peter Theodorou as well, looking to make the world a better place with good food.

Why Peter Theodorou Recommends Natural Food

Natural food has the advantage of being free from artificial ingredients. You are one with nature and, as a result, your body stands to gain a lot.

Traits that Differentiate a Chef from a Cook

Ever wondered what distinguishes a cook from a chef? There is one basic principle at work here – the cook cooks, but the chef puts imagination to work. The chef doesn’t just cook, he/she brings culinary ideas to life, draws inspiration from cuisines around the world as well as trends beyond the world of cuisine, and takes great effort in presenting the cuisine in an inspiring manner. In other words, the chef adds art and life to an otherwise mechanical task. While chefs learn a lot through hotel management and gastronomic schools, they need to have an innate desire to learn new things, and the ability to imagine and think outside the box.  

Going Beyond Where a Cook Treads 

The word “chef” compulsorily implies an individual’s role in a professional environment, unlike a cook who could be performing his/her task event at home or in some kind of domestic environment and not necessarily a restaurant kitchen. A chef usually has an experience of somewhere from two to four years of serving in a professional environment. Anyone can be a great cook but not necessarily a great chef. That title is reserved only for the best of the best cooks who look to satisfy not just the taste buds of their guests but also give them an experience permeating to their inner mind. 

Distinguishing Between a Chef and a Cook

• The word “chef” originates from the French language, a term called “chef de cuisine” or “chief of the kitchen”. And that kitchen is usually one of a palace or a high-end restaurant. The term “cook” doesn’t necessarily convey that professionalism.
• Another important distinction is that a chef usually has a team of cooks under him/her. Each member of the team has a specific task to perform, as directed by the chef. This delegation is necessary because of the expansiveness of the setting and also the requirement to create culinary masterpieces that are perfect in every way and satisfying the highest standard.
• A cook usually works in an environment where the focus is on food that tastes good and not necessarily satisfying a particular kind of palate, and where presentation isn’t necessarily as important as it is for the guests of a chef. There can be several cooks serving under a chef, but in domestic settings and less professional environments the chef usually handles all aspects of cooking and preparation of the meal.    
• A chef often plays an integral part in designing the menu at major restaurants. The entire reputation of the restaurant hinges on the capability of the chef. Chefs who conquer hearts with their cuisine end up becoming celebrities. 

If you’re a cook but have the imagination and talent to go beyond what you’re doing now, all you need is the required education and training. Everything else comes from inside, as celebrity chef Peter Theodorou realized on his road to the top.  

A Page from the Life of History’s First Celebrity Chef

The celebrity chef trend isn’t new to the 21st century. Marie-Antoine Careme is considered the first celebrity chef in the world, and he lived back in the late 18th and early 19th century. He rose from just a kitchen boy for a Parisian chophouse at the age of 8 to probably the most popular patissier among the social elite of Paris, France, so much so that even the great Napoleon Bonaparte requested his services.

The Right Contacts Make the Difference

The key point in Careme’s life came at age 15 when he became an apprentice to a famous patissier, Sylvain Bailly, in a high society neighbourhood in Paris. Bailly was highly influential in Careme’s development as a highly sought after chef. But it wasn’t just on the baking table that Bailly exerted his influence.

In fact, Careme’s informal education owes a lot to Bailly. Bailly’s encouragement made Careme educate himself on various aspects. It was at the Bibliotheque Nationale that Careme spent his free time studying books on architecture and art. That would prove crucial in his culinary career. Art and architecture impressed him so much that he incorporated what he saw in the books into his baking. Careme started making pastry shaped in the form of famous buildings and various architectural attractions.

Pastry Replicas of Architectural Marvels

While he was still a teenager, Careme would create pastry replicas of Chinese fortresses and Athenian architectural ruins out of crumbled confectionary. Some of these edible replicas towered 4 feet high! All these made Bailly’s bakery a much sought after place among Parisians, who would just gaze at the window of the bakery to view these masterpieces being displayed. All it took was marzipan, sugar and pastry.

All that elaborate baking made him one of the early exponents of grande cuisine, a genre of French cuisine specializing in the high art. Careme later started his own shop called the “Patisserie de la rue de la Paix.” The astronomic rise of Careme is a testament to the promise the career of a chef holds. It also offers a lesson in what separates a chef from a cook – imagination and a desire to push the boundaries.

Peter Theodorou has certainly done a great deal of that to become one of the most well-known chefs in the United States. So can you. Remember, there’s more than just education and a college degree for being a successful chef – there is imagination!

Can I Earn Big as a Chef?

Being a chef is one of the most lucrative jobs out there. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that chefs have a mean annual wage of $46,600 as of May 2011. However, the top 10% earned a whopping $74,060 or even more.

Of course the salary you get paid depends on various factors such as your experience and the level of specialized education you have. It also depends on where you work and where the hotel or institution is located. The more posh and luxurious the institution, the greater the salary you’ll be paid. It also depends on the description of your job. As of June 2012, an executive chef who is in charge of a kitchen could earn a median salary amounting to $67,995 while the post of a sous chef had a median salary of around $42,501.

What a Chef Needs

Even if you start from a low level, there is nothing keeping you from heading all the way to the top and earning big. All you need is:

* Imagination

* An eye for detail

* The ability to work in a team and to the resources and deadlines of the workplace, and

* A hardworking nature

At the beginning of their careers, trained chefs may sometimes find jobs in lower-ranked kitchens as cooking assistants or line cooks. In 2012, these provided median salaries of around $25,076 and $21,874 respectively. These figures are what restaurant cooks get paid on an average as well.

That’s the difference between a cook and a chef. Cooks need to take care of daily food preparation and that’s it. Chefs have a greater responsibility of supervising cooks and other members of the kitchen while also examining the menu and refreshing it periodically. However, as mentioned earlier, many chefs begin their careers as cooks. It gives them the grassroots level experience and insight which would later help them become more efficient chefs who understand the challenges of the cooks in their team better.      

Private and Personal Chefs

Not all chefs work in restaurants and hotels alone -- some work for rich and influential households. These are private chefs. Personal chefs are somewhat similar except that they end up working for multiple clients in one month or even one week. The BLS states that these chefs earn a mean annual wage amounting to $31,080 while the top 10% could earn around $45,120 or more.    

Peter Theodorou has had diverse experiences as a chef. He’s worked in many of the settings that chefs find themselves at the start of their career. But his skills for experimentation and receptiveness to culinary trends from all over the globe have helped him progress quickly through the ranks and become one of the highest paid chefs in the world.

How to Avoid These 7 Common Cooking Mistakes

So many people love to watch cooking programs, read food magazines, try out new recipes, and have friends over for dinner. But are you letting yourself down by getting the very basics wrong with your cooking? With a few simple tweaks, every cook can go from average to awesome. Here are seven tips to get you on track. https://goo.gl/xhFdCP