EATSSENTIALS

tools-for-SERVICE

By March 24, 2016No Comments

The table can be your canvas to present food in various styles to add more impact to the cafe meal experience. Mix-and-match is an approach we see today – white tableware interspersed with coloured wares or even a contrasting material; things like a chopping board as a platter or serving from a skillet come to mind. Being perceived as a casual dining outlet, cafes offer
the opportunity to add a fun factor to the experience and doing so at the table can work out pretty well if matched correctly. Here are some examples:

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Traditionally, salad plates are smaller than dinner plates due to it being an appetiser but modern cafes are serving salads as a meal; complete with proteins and carbohydrates. Therefore, consider plates with wider diameters and a little deeper to enable easy mixing and also fitting a bigger portion. Regular dinner plates are also an option as they have a wider surface.

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tools3Menu tent cards or other table collateral are used to promote special items or offers and the continuous presence can pique customers’ interest
tools4A cafe’s table usually aren’t large, therefore serving soup in smaller vessels will make more room to place items for sharing; plus it is also more casual compared to a plate with a wide diametre and a hollow bowl in the centre
tools5The chopping board lends a rustic and “rugged”eating experience – think of it as eating in the wilderness where the board is both a prep and service tool?
tools6Example of colour and plate design contrast and also an unconventional plate shape

For the chefs, it always helps to have the most accurate tool for each task even though many are interchangeable in their functions. A few small items to add to a kitchen’s repertoire:

tools7Slotted Spoon:Tried using a regular rounded bottom sieve to retrieve items from a pot of liquid? Quite difficult isn’t it? A slotted spoon is shallow, with holes that enable a chef to pick out specific items in a pot.
tools8Salad Dryer / Spinner:These are sold at domestic sized units and is used to wash and remove excess water from greens, keep them from limping and provide better adherence of dressing and oil. Typically made from plastic with an outer bowl and an inner removable colander, its cover is built with a spinning mechanism to drive water through the slits into the outer bowl.
tools9Pasta Cooker Pot:Cook pasta easier without having to fish it out with a tong or slotted spoon (slower and risk some pasta overcooking) and avoid scalding while pouring pasta into a strainer. The pot comes with fitted baskets, from one up to four baskets to cook different pastas at the same time. When its done, simply lift the respective basket up.