The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-29
IN RESTAURANT KITCHENS
Discipline and Precise ethods Necessary Smooth Run
ming Machinery the Center Of the Busness-Ingenious
Appliances and Tricks Of the Trade.

the early diners and as they are being served
more are put over the fire. City gas is USED
for fuel in many Kitchens. while others l use
cases for broiling meats or fish. as the nre
must be always glowing. Steaks are laid
directly upon the bars which cross O., above tne
Steam is employed in many of the convent
j ences Of the restaurant kitchen. Usually
there is a steam table to keep hot and ready
for serving the dishes which are set in the
holes above Steam thus circulating about
a vessel cooks vegetables more satisfactorily
than boiling water The walls OF the ovens
filled with sand and covered with asbestos
to make the most OF the heat An oyster
cooker found in one kitchen was SO hot that
one minute. Machines for pairing vegetables
are useful labor-saving devices, and ma
chine which slices potatoes for French fried
is a necessity in any well-regulated kitchen.
When a coffee urn is used the coffee Is
pulverized. The large porcelain jar which
contains the liquid coffee is placed inside q
nickel-plated vessel and the water which
surrounds 1t is kept hot
In one place where butter is served in lit.
tie cubes the rolls are especially made with
the end just four times as large as the face
of the cube that is served. Two wires
crossing in front, separate it into four parts
and another wire fastened to an arm cuts of
the four cubes at just the right time.
In most restaurants the stock for all soups
except vegetable soups and purees, Is made
by boiling the meat in large brass kettles thai
remind one Of the soap kettles used by ouI
grandmothers.
The modern method of washing dishes is
very interesting. Glasses and silver must be
washed In the old slow way, but the plates
platters and all similar dishes can be
cleansed with greater dispatch. After being
we'll scraped the dishes are piled In iron
baskets and lowered into a tub of boiling
soap suds and moved thru it until clean
plunge into hot, clear water rinses them and
they may either be dried with q cloth or left
to drain dry. The drying is not a long process
for evaporation is rapid.
One might suppose that odors In such q
kitchen would be perhaps unpleasant. In
stead, the air is sweet and singularly pure
owing to an exhaust fan which blows the
impure air out thru a long chute high above
the surrounding buildings. Often, howa< er,
there are only hoods above the stoves ~ ii
catch the fumes and carry them awa,r- A
restaurant kitchen, with its pans hanging
overhead, its unfamiliar appliances, its glow
ing fires and dextrous cooks is so interesting
that the visitor leaves it with reluctance.
The weekly cost of provisions alone is
enormous The owner of one rest aurant signs
a check every week for milk and table but
ter alone which amounts to $3.50. The cook
ing butter Is of the same excellent quality,
but it is in tubs instead of being especially
moulded in rolls. That is only one item, but
it suffices to show how great the expenses
are. The successful restaurant manager must
have good head for business, a grasp of small
details, must be sensitive to the wants Of his
patrons and above ALL keep harmony III his
establishment He has no light task.