Expediting a Broken-Down Walk-in Cold Room
Many sit-down restaurants employ someone to fill a role you may never have heard of: the role of expediter. Depending on how busy a given restaurant is, the expediter might be the most important person in the kitchen.
We are most interested in what happens when a restaurant's walk-in cold room breaks down on the cusp of what the expediter knows is going to be an extremely busy evening. Things have to continue on one way or the other, and it's the expediter's job to make sure they do. In London, they could call Icecool Trailers to handle their refrigeration emergency.
The Expediter's Job
The expediter is the one individual responsible for coordinating everything going on in the kitchen with what's happening out in the dining area. An expediter can be the top chef, one of the line cooks, or even a sous chef. The busiest restaurants in the world higher expediters that do nothing else. They simply coordinate and keep the kitchen running.
When orders come into the kitchen, the expediter immediately looks at them. He or she can then formulate in his/her mind a plan of attack to get the meals for that order out in a timely manner without rushing. He/she formulates a process for creating plates in the kitchen, moving those plates to the pass area, and getting them into the hands of servers who deliver them to customers.
The expediter also has to pay attention to what's happening in the dining room. He/she peers out onto the floor every now and again to get a good idea of the flow. He/she pays attention to how long customers are waiting to be seated, to be served their drinks, and to eventually receive their meals.
Back in the kitchen, the expediter is paying attention to everything from dishwashing to prep. With so many balls being juggled simultaneously, what do you suppose might happen if a restaurant's walk-in cold room failed in the middle of a busy dinner hour? The expediter has to keep things moving even while coming up with a solution for the cold room problem.
Calling for Emergency Refrigeration
The smart expediter doesn't wait until a breakdown occurs before looking for temporary refrigeration options. He or she already has contact information in place. That way, a phone call can be made at the very moment it become clear that the cold room is down. If that means contacting a repair technician to come out and fix things, that's fine. If it means renting temporary cold storage until the in-house unit can be replaced, then that's what needs to be done.
Icecool Trailers has plenty of experience working with expediters throughout our service area. Being that London is one of the culinary centres of Europe, a lot of our relationships are with expediters in our capital city. The most loyal among them know that they can call on us at any time for emergency service without any hesitation.
Sources:
The Independent – https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/restaurant-kitchens-expediter-meaning-services-job-explained-a8312376.html
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