If you’ve ever watched the Food Network’s television show, Iron Chef, you are probably amazed at the amount of fantastic dishes these professionals can create in the one hour time limit that they are given. These chefs and their teams have an understanding of the ingredients that they are working with to make these dishes, their seamless teamwork – and most importantly, they also have the art of time management on their side.
Time management, is one of the greatest tools in the kitchen (and everywhere else!), whether you are a professional chef, or a home cook. Knowing how to plan ahead is the key to smoothing the way to a delicious meal.
Step 1: What do you want to cook?
Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or Thanksgiving dinner, think ahead of what kind of meal you want to consume. An important thing to keep in mind when planning any kind of meal, try to create dishes that have ingredients that are in season. The advantages to sticking to products that are in season include lower prices and produce that is at its peak (think super fresh and robust in flavor!).
Step 2: Manage your recipes.
Now that you know what you want to cook, organize yourself and read your recipes. Think of how much time you have to spend on preparing and cooking these recipes. It is best not to go overboard with how many dishes you’re preparing – one or two to start with is plenty.
You’re going to need to make a shopping list. When you’re reading your recipes, look at the amount of serving portions per recipe, and create a list according to how many people you plan on feeding.
This is also the best time to plan your tableware – whether you want to serve your food family style using tureens and platters, or individually, using separate plates – plan your plating ahead.
Step 3: Shopping.
This is probably one of my favorite activities… food shopping! Be sure to double check your list and any special equipment you may need for your recipes.
Step 4: Developing a strategy, preparing ingredients and cooking.
Sounds complicated? Not at all! You’ve already read your recipes in Step 2, so you have an idea of how to cook your chosen dishes. The trick to this step is planning your timeline. What time do you intend on serving your meal, how much time do you have to spend preparing the ingredients, and can anything be prepared ahead of time?
For example: the recipe calls for chicken breasts to marinate for 16-20 hours in the refrigerator – you will need to start your marinade the day before to get maximum flavor. Example: you’ve just created pie crust and it needs to chill for 3 hours – you’ll need to start preparing at least 5 hours before you plan on baking to give yourself enough time to make the dough, to let it chill and later on, to bake. Another example: the green beans in the recipe calls for a quick, three minute sauté right before serving – you don’t want to sauté that an hour before because your beans will be wilted and cold.
In short, try to look for whichever recipe will take the longest to create (including prep and cooking), and give yourself enough time to work with.
Keep yourself clean and organized – try to remove anything that you don’t need from your prep area, and keep the ingredients for each recipe together. This should prevent confusion while you’re preparing any other dishes.
Step 5: Serve it up.
Eat, drink and enjoy. This is the most satisfying part of any meal.
In essence, any meal can be easy to plan and execute. It’s a matter of following these steps, pacing yourself and never panic.
