5 labor-saving ways to cook from scratch

With clean, scratch-made dishes in high demand and labor in short supply, noncommercial operators often find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Members of FoodService Director’sChefs’ Council have found ways to squeeze out of that tight spot. Sometimes it means sourcing value-added ingredients that save time but don’t contain unwanted additives, while in other cases, additional advance prep or the paring down of menus is required. Here’s how operators are meeting the cook-from-scratch challenge.

Instead of purchasing raw meat products, Stephanie Dyehouse, culinary development supervisor for Cincinnati Public Schools, sources sous-vide beef and pork from a supplier. The meats are fully cooked and vacuum sealed, and they “give us the flexibility to create any flavor profile we choose simply by changing the spices or sauces,” she says.

For the popular new chilaquiles bowl served at Minneapolis Public Schools, chef Mark Augustine sous vides pork carnitas in the district’s central commissary kitchen. The pork is cooked in a tangy red sauce and topped off with fresh cilantro, jalapeno and queso fresco before serving.

Kevin Frank, district chef for Detroit Public Schools, has made it his mission to source products with clean ingredients. “Students had been asking for spaghetti during the colder months for quite a while, but as a heat-and-serve district, we were having issues finding a prepared meat sauce that was free of artificial colors, TVP and preservatives,” he says. Frank was able to put together a “speed-scratch” recipe using ingredients that were initially slated for other dishes, and the students loved it.

The base of the meat sauce is seasoned ground beef generally used for the menu’s Philly-Style Sloppy Joe sandwiches, rounded out with frozen fajita veggies and packaged marinara sauce. “By repurposing these ingredients, we were able to lower our inventory, increase the nutrient density in the menu and decrease the amount of artificial ingredients served to our students,” Frank reports.

In an effort to expand plant-based options at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., chef Matthew Cervay developed a new lineup of grain-and-legume salads that each feature just four to six ingredients. The grains and legumes can be cooked in advance, then mixed and matched to create 18 different combinations, resulting in a wider variety of items without taxing the kitchen. Seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs and bright citrus flavors round out the recipes, Cervay says.

Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., is implementing more customizable stations, says Dining Services’ District Executive Chef Chris Studtmann. Not only do build-your-own options take some pressure off short-order requests, but they also feature recipes that focus on the team’s culinary skills, he says. Vegan grain bowls and miso noodle bowls with assorted prepared fresh vegetables, Asian sauces and raw garnishes have both seen increasing take rates, Studtmann adds.

Brent Trudeau, chef for Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in Houston, originally created a versatile “oliveg” relish just for a meatless pasta salad. The Mediterranean flavors and healthy ingredients make it adaptable for a host of other recipes and preparations, he discovered, so now the master recipe is batched and used in other applications.