# Help with Recipe and Planning



## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

hello and good day to all the chefs and professionals out there. I again was given a task to cook for our company's employees. We regularly cook one protein recipe (chicken , pork or fish ) a vegetable recipe ( stir-fry and such) and also a soup as employee meal that is given in 3 food services. 9:00 am to 2:30 p.m , 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm. 

This time, as a part of the Christmas season, there would be a day on where we are gonna cook additional 2 more recipes, which means we will be giving 5 dishes for the employee's meal. I was thinking of adding a pasta ( I was thinking of pesto so it wont spoil easily ) and also roasted chicken on where i can steam it first before roasting it, as we only have 3 small ovens and service time would be continous. 

I would like to ask for some help on a Pesto recipe that is good enough for 1,500 pax ( around 60g per person so that would be around 90kg of pasta i think? ) also i would like to ask on a recipe of a good roasted chicken and how to execute or plan my roasted chicken since i am going to use our large steamer first before putting it in the oven to speeden up the cooking time as the service would be continous..
Our target date for feeding the employees with 5 meals is around December 5 and would really appreciate some help on plans/tips on how to execute things, make the sauce in advance, if possible to cook all pasta before the given date with minimal quality loss and also the execution of cooking my roasted chicken. Thank you chefs


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

How do you plan on holding the food for 51/2 hours. No way pasta of any kind will keep for 1/2 hr. The recipes aren't the concern. Lets take about logistics first. I've done these feeding for large amounts of employees and fed all the shifts during their dinner hour at one time....Give more info on how you plan to hold and serve the food......Thanks


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

For holding of the food, we have a bain marie outside the service area on where we put our food, also we have some large food warmer cabinets behind the bain marie.


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Since the food service is continous, i was thinking on how can i execute on adding the pasta and my roasted chicken on my meals. since we only have 1 tilting pan , oven and a steamer to cook with the reason why the pasta should be pre-cooked already so that i can just focus on the chicken


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

The problem I have with the Pesto pasta is you'll have a hard time holding it. I would do a rice dish because it will hold a lot better. A bone in 1/4 baked chicken will hold well and if it's your only protein that size portion will be fine. In most cases if you have multiple proteins you'll want to watch portion size.


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Hello chefbillyb, sorry for the late reply, what we will be having is Plain Rice, a Soup, A stir-fried vegetable recipe, 1 Pork or Chicken Recipe , and the other additional two, which is what im planning is a Pesto Pasta, or any pasta dish, plus a roasted chicken, because what we have in our current kitchen where we cook all our employee meals is 1 6 burner stove (which is useless because of the low heat), 2 compartment ovens, 1 industrial steamer (Where we continously cook our rice) , 1 2 compartment fryers and a tilting pan (where we usually cook around 160-180kgs of either pork or chicken recipe)

The reason why i want the additional 2 recipes to be prepared ahead of time is because of the given equipment. Any other suggestions of what can i add to my meals? if the pasta will give us a hard time? thank you for the input chef! i appreciate it


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

I busted noticed your in the Philippines. That explains why the rice is cooking all day. When I make up menus for catering I always have to make sure the quality of each item will hold well. The quality has to be close to 100% from when the item was made, held and served. In your case pasta of any kind wouldn't be a good idea. It's no ones fault, it's just the nature of the beast. What will hold would be anything whole. Things like Whole Roasts, Hams, Roast pig, things like this carved to order. Anything you have in a sauce will hold fine. Things like Beef Stroganoff, Beef Bourguignon, Beef stew, Beef or Pork adobo and so on. The pesto would be ok if you were cooking it to order from a demo cooking station on the buffet.
Many people fail at catering not because they don't know how to cook. They fail because they pick the wrong items to hold and keep their quality. Think of things that could be cook and held in a sauce or gravy. The holding temp is also important. You don't want to continue to cook the item. You want to hold it at 140 degrees.....Good luck........ChefBillyB

P>S You may want to look at a Penne pasta salad. This would hold up better because it doesn't continue to cook on the buffet and clump together.


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## h0tb0x (Jan 31, 2018)

Thank you for your input chefbillyb! once again, much appreciated and respect to your reply! hehe, yes i am from the philippines that is why rice is always there on the menu to be partnered with a protein and veggie.


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