Tag Archives: cooking

November 11, 2016 · 2:43 pm

Hiring Cast Iron People

It’s Foodie Friday and this week I want to dwell on cast iron pans. Hopefully, you own a couple and they’re not sitting in some drawer rusting away. What I’ve been thinking about today is how there are some real misunderstandings about cast iron and how a number of those misunderstandings have equivalencies in how some folks look at employees. Let me explain.

Those of you who don’t use cast iron regularly probably have a few misconceptions. You think that it’s an outdated technology and newer types of pans are lighter and have better non-stick surfaces. You feel that cast iron is temperamental. You can’t wash it with soap and water and as a result, it always has a gross sheen of old cooking oil and other gunk on it. You fear using anything metal on it in case you disrupt the non-stick surface. Finally, you fear cooking acidic food such as tomato sauces in it because the acid will result in an off taste as it interacts with the metal.

None of the above is true. Well, ok. The pans are heavy. I have a 15-inch cast iron skillet that requires a back brace to lift. But it makes a roux like no other pan I have. It took a while to learn how to use cast iron properly. It doesn’t heat evenly but it holds heat fantastically. Because of that, it puts an amazing sear on anything. It can go from stovetop to oven with no fear. I wash mine with soap and water all the time and the non-stick surface is fine. Why? Because it’s not old oil that creates the non-stick. It’s a layer of polymerized oil that has already bonded to the surface. That is also why I cook acidic foods in it without issue as well. The more I fry it in the better that layer becomes. So what does this have to do with business?

We often look at people much as we look at cast iron pans. We think that people who are older can’t have the properties that make them valuable. We hear rumors they’re difficult and that they’re temperamental. We don’t think they are versatile enough to deal with any situation. We hear they require constant care and maintenance. None of those things are true, at least not to a degree that’s any worse than we face with any demographic. The reality is that more experienced people can often perform a multitude of tasks and, like cast iron, get better at them over time and with use.

There is one other thing cast iron has that’s extremely valuable. It’s called emissivity, which is its tendency to expel a lot of heat energy from its surface in the form of radiation. Not only does it cook what’s in contact with its surface but also the food above that surface (think roasting). Who wouldn’t want an employee that radiates high energy to those around them?

If you have a cast iron pan in a closet someplace, take it out, clean it up, reseason it, and put it to work. Not a bad thought for the underutilized experienced employee in your midst either!

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June 10, 2016 · 10:31 am

Sous Contrôle Régulier

This Foodie Friday I’d like to revisit the subject of sous vide cooking. I blogged about this (you can read that post here) 18 months ago after I received an immersion circulator as a gift. I’ve come to love cooking this way. Not only is it easy but the results are amazing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, sous vide (literally “under vacuum”) is a cooking method in which the food is placed in a container of some sort (I generally use a Food Saver bag) from which the air is vacuumed out. The sealed bag is then placed in a water bath which is held at a constant temperature by the immersion circulator. It can’t overcook since it never gets hotter than the target temperature you set. While, for example, the center temperature of a steak you cook on a grill might be perfect, the outer 40% is probably overcooked (that gray layer is overdone, friends). That doesn’t happen using sous vide, although you do need to sear the outside of anything you cook briefly once it’s done.

During the earlier post, I made the business point that sous vide thinking in business is dangerous because it might lead to complacency since the method is very “set it and forget it.”. I failed to mention, however, the good things we can learn in business from sous vide. The key to this method isn’t really the vacuum – it’s the steady temperature control.  This sort of constant environment provides a couple of advantages.  Not only does it prevent overcooking as mentioned earlier, but it also is very repeatable. Maybe instead of being labeled “under vacuum,” this method should have been called “under regular control.”

The analogy to business is pretty clear in my mind.  Having worked for bosses who are very hot and cold (much like an oven’s fluctuating temperature), I can tell you that I much preferred working with managers who were more on an even keel.  I’m sure your staff, co-workers, partners and clients feel the same way.  Fostering repeatable results from our team is one of the role roles any manager plays. The fact that the food is in a bag, a closed environment, plays a role as well.  The bag keeps all the moisture in so the food braises.  If you’ve ever had a nicely braised short rib or lamb shank you can appreciate how wonderful the results can be from this method.  In business, keeping an inclusive team mentality is the equivalent of a closed bag in my mind.

I’ll repeat the warning about complacency, but I can’t recommend using the regular, even control of sous vide strongly enough, both in the kitchen and in business.  You in?

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March 25, 2016 · 11:53 am

Your Kitchen

It’s Foodie Friday! It’s no secret that I watch a bunch of cooking shows. In all candor, most of them are wonderful displays of individual talent but really don’t teach us much about the real food world. Nor are they extendable into business thinking, which is what we like to do here on the screed.

Chefs in training in Paris, France (2005).

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The real challenge in a professional restaurant kitchen is coordination and teamwork. Other than Hell’s Kitchen and the annual restaurant wars episode of Top Chef, we rarely get a sense of how difficult that teamwork can be. It does neither the quality of the product nor the business any good to have the meats sitting under a heat lamp while the garnish is being prepared. Obviously, it’s the chef who must oversee the coordination and foster communication, but it’s also the individual cooks.

You probably know that most kitchens have a line and there are various stations in that line. Meats, fish, salads, etc. generally come from different cooks. If one line cook is struggling, the entire process can break down. The cooks need to be organized, making sure to have all the materials they will be needing ready to go. They need to be able to multitask – handling several different items at once. That requires training, practice, and supervision.

Your business isn’t any different. As “the chef” overseeing my “brigade” in the non-food businesses in which I worked, I never felt as if I had to be able to jump on to any station.  By that I mean that no boss needs to be able to handle every job as well as the people doing them each day.  We do, however, need to recognize when there is a problem and ask the right questions to make the problem go away.  Just as a chef can’t make excuses for a slow line cook (train them, move them to a different station, or fire them), no manager can deflect blame for very long.  After all, it’s your kitchen!

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