Fine Dinning vs. Fast Food
The experience of working in the restaurant business can vary greatly depending on the type of restaurant it is. Although, there is thought put into the preparation of food in every restaurant; the systems by which this is done are very different. The two main types of restaurants in this world are Fine Dining and Fast Food.
When walking into a fast food joint or a “fancy” restaurant people expect to order their food, wait for it to be prepared, then eat and leave. Unless they have had experience working in a kitchen; most people do not know what goes on behind the scenes. When it comes to fast food there is not much prep work that has to be done. Most of a fast food restaurants product is delivered frozen and just needs to be cooked and thrown together. Where as a more of an upper class restaurant where they get most of their product delivered fresh. Also depending on what type of restaurant it is (Italian, Greek, Chinese, etc.) they usually season their product to their own recipes.
People go to fast food restaurants just for that; it is fast and cheap. They do not really look at how the food is presented to them. They just want it to be fast so they can eat and get back to whatever they were doing. This can make things in the kitchen very hectic. When there is ten to twenty orders coming in at one time things can get confusing. Most fast food places use a type of assembly line to help cut down on time and confusion. For example, at The Clock of Williamston, there are five positions on the back line.
The food that needs to be cooked, is either cooked on the grill or in a deep fryer, and then brought to the middle of the line where it is put together to make plates. (Putting sides with main item) Because they want to be fast; most items on a fast food restaurants menu are not going to be healthy. Their food is usually loaded down with grease and fat.
Now at a “fancy” restaurant, everything is different. First, when people come to these restaurants they are not looking for it to be fast. Usually they come to sit down, get comfortable, and spend time with their family or significant other. This changes the whole mentality of the way the kitchen works. When working in this kind of restaurant, they try to put more time into making every plate perfect and appealing to the costumer. There is still a sense of try to be fast and get the food out but it isn’t as strong as in a fast food restaurant.
At Milanos Greek and Italian restaurant; it only takes two people to run the kitchen. One person runs the grill and the sandwiches, while the other works the oven. All the food still gets pushed to the middle where it meets to be prepared for the ticket then pushed out the window to the waiting staff. Since their ingredients are delivered fresh, this makes the prices of the food go up.
To work in either one of these types of restaurants people have to like preparing food, or they probably will not last very long in the kitchen. With working at a “fancy” restaurant the cook can take his or her time; make the plate perfect and then push it out. This is a lot less stressful than working at a fast food place. When working with fast food the cook can get very stressed after reading through two hundred tickets in a hour, and a lot of times has to take a break from cooking to go clear his or hers mind. Even though both find dining and fast food restaurants have the same concept of preparing food to be sold to the public for a profit; there are many differences when you start to look at the way the food is prepared and presented. Costumers do not usually think about the amount of effort that goes into their food when they go out to eat.
