The Tortilla Press
January 11th- January 24th 2016
Back to Basics
50/50 rule
Glassware; only touch the bottom 50% of the glass you are using for a guest.
The top 50% is for the guest and should never be handled with your hands.
This rule should be followed at all times: even when handling glassware/cups in the wait station.
Even if the guest cannot see you!
Tray Service
Everything goes on a tray.
100% Tray Service, 100% of the time.
Drinks go on cocktail or small trays.
Large Trays for all food items…even a single queso.
This will ensure and promote pre-bussing and micro-bussing
Tray stands are to be used 100% of the time with large trays
Trays do not get dropped off with hot food and left unattended
If you run the tray, you pass out the food unless another server takes over immediately after drop off
Trays with dirty plates do not get left unattended anywhere. Take back to the dish area immediately
Do not put dirty plates on a tray with clean plates or vice versa.
Open-Body Service
Always serve open-bodied
Open-bodied= with the front of your body open to the guest.
Never have your back to the guest while serving or removing plates.
This is important for us to make the guest feel welcomed instead of awkwardly placing things down or removing items.
Kitchen HOH Focus
BBQ Pork / Shredded Chicken for Flautas, Taquitos, and Empanadas
The focus is to help us read the recipes with our prep and line cooks to insure they are understanding what the recipe is saying and how to make our recipes correctly.
BBQ Pork with and without a smoker
BBQ Pork w/ Smoker
Pre heat the smoker to 250F
Season the pork with the spices and place in the smoker.
Cook for 45 minutes only
Pull the pork out of the smoker and place in hotel pans with a wire rack and add 4 cups of water.
Cover the hotel pan with foil.
Place in pre heated oven (400F) and cook for 2 ½ hours. Do not overcook.
The pork should be tender and juicy, not dry.
Pulled Pork w/ out a smoker.
Take the pork and season well, place in hotel pans with 1 cup liquid smoke and 3 cups water. Cover the pan with foil to cook.
Pre heat the oven to 400F, cook the pork for 2 ½ hours, checking every 15 minutes to make sure the pork is cooked.
Once the pork is cooked follow the instructions on how to shred the meat.
After the meat is shredded you will add 1 cup of BBQ Sauce for every 3 LB’s of pork. Mix the pork with the BBQ sauce to incorporate it well. Do not mush up the pork while mixing in the sauce.
Portioning- Quesadillas-5 oz weight
Enchiladas- 3 oz weight
** Notes- Overcooking the pork will ensure in poor texture and flavor that we are trying to achieve.
** No matter that we are adding BBQ Sauce to the final product, when the pork is overcooked the BBQ sauce will not help it become moist. The BBQ sauce is primarily all sugar, so when heated in the micro, it will only dry it out more and give it a worse texture to it.
Chicken for Taquitos/ Flautas/ Empanadas
** This recipe is complex in that fact that you have 3 major recipes combined. IF one recipe is off at any point the final product will not be correct.
*Recipe for chicken tenders
*Recipe for Chicken Sauce
*Hamburger Seasoning (2 Cups Black Pepper/ 1 Cup Salt)
This recipe works very well and the chicken will have lots of flavor if everything is measured correctly.
Work with the line prep to make sure all the steps are being done correctly and seasoned.
All chicken must be weight out
All sauce and spice must be measured well
Cheese must be weight out well
Chicken must not be overcooked
Mix well to incorporate all the flavor of the sauce, spice mix and cheese.
When making the Flautas, taquitos, you must weight or measure the filling for each. This will ensure consistency in product for our guest and control food cost and portioning.
Check the hamburger seasoning periodically to ensure that the ratios are being done.
Portioning – Flautas are 2 weight oz of Chicken mix per
Taquitos are 1 weight oz of chicken mix per
Empanadas are #40 scoop per