Best in-house cooking cheats for office cooks
Having a chef in the office is a new trend taking contemporary businesses by storm.
And it’s not a terrible idea.
Providing meals for employees at subsidised rates and having everyone eat lunch together is an affordable and team-building activity. It’s also a way in which employers can ensure their employees are eating healthily and taking care of themselves in order to be able to perform their best.
But, for the chefs themselves, it can be quite a demanding job. Most in-house chefs will prepare breakfast and lunch options for the company on a daily basis. And while it’s a great audience to test menus and new dishes on, it’s still a lot of work at the end of the day. Luckily there are cooking “cheats” that can make cooking time shorter, flavours bigger and the dish-pile lower.
Cookers are your friend
It’s not always easy to cook ahead or have everything ready on time. It’s also not ideal to have so many used pots and pans in the sink when you kind of need them to keep cooking. The solution to both of these issues? All the cookers. Rice cookers, slow cookers and pressure cookers. Anything you can add ingredients to and leave it to do its thing means you can start in the morning and leave it to bubble all day until it’s ready to be eaten. It also means that because everything goes into one “pot” to cook, there’s no need to even use the rest of your pots and pans.
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Rice cooker: Many lunch meals may require a carbohydrate of sorts and rice is an easy, affordable and delicious one to make (if you know what herbs and spices to add to it). Without having to fuss about it cooking on the stove and taking up the needed space, you can simply use a rice cooker and make large portions at a time which will help in an office environment. Not to mention that rice cookers can be used to make other things, such as frittatas.
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Slow cooker: Slow cookers are amazing for stew and stew-like meals. There are even exclusive slow cooker recipes out there for you to follow. And on a cold winter’s day, you can bet the office will be looking for those warm, tender and comforting meals.
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Pressure cooker: If you want to pump as much flavour as possible and cook tender meat over a shorter period of time, then the pressure cooker is your friend. It saves time cooking, cleaning and saves the taste and nutrients of foods by boosting them.
Cookers, in general, are your friend. Especially when cooking large portions for an office of people.
Food processors
While on the topic of appliances that shave cooking time in the kitchen, you’ll want to make sure there is a food processor in the office kitchen. It will help in the preparation of salads, dressings, dips, purees, making dough and shredding cheese. It will save time and energy as it does all the hard work for you in a matter of seconds.
Second to your cookers are your food processors.
Lunch on a stick
In-house chefs may be responsible for cooking the food, but they’re also (sometimes) responsible for clearing up once the lunch hour has passed. To save yourself from stacks of dirty plates, consider creative ways of serving food.
Have a day of the week where you serve “lunch on a stick” or, at least, part of lunch this way. Fruit kebabs are a great breakfast or post-lunch idea. You could also consider cooking wraps and serving them in takeaway packets to eat from, which will also keep the wrap together and prevent more mess.
Cubes of flavour
Sometimes chefs need a little boost to their dishes or an easier way to pack flavour in a meal over a shorter period of time. When cooking for an office, by the time lunchtime strikes, lunch better be ready and it better be good. So, how exactly do you achieve maximum flavour in the limited time frame? Maggi seasoning cubes. With Maggi cubes, it’s as simple as popping one in and enjoying the fumes that start brewing from your pot or pressure cooker.
And you don’t need to wonder about where to buy Maggi cubes and products because the answer is online. Order online and order in bulk to make sure you never run out in your in-house kitchen. And you can trust that once the employees taste the amazing-ness that is Maggi cubes, they won’t mind paying for it.
Skins on
Save yourself an incredible amount of time with your vegetables by leaving the skins on. Vegetable skins are healthy and edible. Obviously, peel-off skins from onions and garlic that would be better off than on. But, as a chef, you’ll know when it’s acceptable to leave them on.
There’s no time or need for peeling carrots, cucumbers, butternut, beetroots or zucchini. Unless, of course, you wanted to make a zucchini pasta. Then it’s necessary.