ironchef
Executive Chef
Staff meal, family meal, crew meal. They're all terms for the same thing in a restaurant. I remember reading The French Laundry cookbook awhile back, there was a small section where Thomas Keller spoke about family meal. He said that you could tell which cooks where the most passionate about food, because they always put out great staff meals with the ingredients on hand. Keep in mind that in restaurant kitchens, most of the times it's the scraps that are going into the staff meal, beit fish, beef, lamb, etc. If you're lucky, you get to work in a kitchen where the scraps are at least high-end scraps.
There have always been certain dishes made by certain cooks that are always requested by the staff to make again and again. In the restaurant I work at now, it's Jay's Thai Chicken Curry and Chris' Roast Pork with Onions and Tomato. In other restaurants, it's been Arroz con Pollo, Fish Curry, Pork Adobo, and other dishes. For those in the industry, what's been among the best staff meals that you've eaten and if you cook(ed) them, what's some of the dishes you've made that were hits?
For me, one dish that I have to make at least once a month is my Chili Pasta. I usually make the chili a day or two ahead, and then reheat it and toss it with pasta the day that it's my turn to make staff meal. Five lbs. of pasta and 7 lbs. of ground meat scrap later, this is what you get:
There have always been certain dishes made by certain cooks that are always requested by the staff to make again and again. In the restaurant I work at now, it's Jay's Thai Chicken Curry and Chris' Roast Pork with Onions and Tomato. In other restaurants, it's been Arroz con Pollo, Fish Curry, Pork Adobo, and other dishes. For those in the industry, what's been among the best staff meals that you've eaten and if you cook(ed) them, what's some of the dishes you've made that were hits?
For me, one dish that I have to make at least once a month is my Chili Pasta. I usually make the chili a day or two ahead, and then reheat it and toss it with pasta the day that it's my turn to make staff meal. Five lbs. of pasta and 7 lbs. of ground meat scrap later, this is what you get: