This document discusses key aspects of being a culinary professional. It defines a culinarian as someone who has studied and continues to study the art of cooking. The attributes of a culinary professional include knowledge, skill, producing good flavor and aroma, judgment, dedication, pride, respect, personal responsibility, and valuing education. It also discusses workstations, brigade systems, business math concepts, measurement and conversion techniques used in cooking.

1. © Copyright 2011 by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF)
and published by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 4
Kitchen Essentials:
Part 1—
Professionalism

2. What Does It Mean To Be a
Culinary Professional?
A culinarian is one who has studied and continues to study the art of cooking. The
attributes of a culinary professional include:
•Knowledge: A professional culinary program provides the culinary student with a basic
knowledge of foods, food styles, and the methods used to prepare foods.
•Skill: Culinary schooling alone cannot make a culinary professional. Practice and hands-on
experience provide the skills necessary to produce quality foods or organize, train, motivate,
and supervise a staff.
•Flavor, aroma, taste: Culinary professionals must produce foods that taste great, or the
customer will not return. Taste refers to our ability to identify substances like foods, minerals,
and even poisons. 5 Taste Sensations-Salt, Sour, Bitter, Sweet, and Umami (savory).
•Judgment: Culinary professionals must use discretion and appropriate behavior with
coworkers, supervisors, and employees.
To be professional is to be courteous, honest, and responsible in your
dealings with customers and coworkers. A professional is responsible
to themselves, to coworkers, to the business, and to the guest.
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3. What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary
Professional? (cont.)
• Dedication: Becoming a culinary professional is hard work.
• Pride: It is important to have a sense of pride about a job well
done. Pride extends to personal appearance and behavior in and
around the kitchen. This includes clothing and uniform.
• Respect: Respect is having consideration for oneself and others.
In order to respect others, a person must first respect himself or
herself.
• Personal responsibility: Personal responsibility means that a
person is responsible for the choices he or she makes. Personal
responsibility means that a person accepts accountability and is in
control.
• Education and the culinary professional: Employers value a
formal culinary education.
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4. Workstations
• Workstations using the same or similar equipment for related tasks
are grouped together into a work section.
• Ex. Workstation Sections---Hot-foods, garde-manger, bakery,
banquet, short-order, beverage
• A kitchen-brigade system is a method for staffing a kitchen so that
each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks. A toque is a chef’s hat.
• A dining-room brigade is led by the dining room manager (maître d)
who generally trains all service personnel, oversees wine selections,
works with the chef to develop the menu, organizes the seating
chart, and seats the guests.
A workstation is a work area in the kitchen dedicated to a particular task.
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5. Brigade Systems
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Kitchen Brigade System
Chef Responsible for all kitchen operations
Sous Chef Responsible for scheduling, assists as needed, accepts orders
from dining room, reviews dishes before they are sent out
Station Chefs Produce menu items, assigned to specific task
Dining Brigade System
Wine
Steward
Responsible for wine service, including purchasing, assisting
guests with wine selection, and serving the wines.
Headwaiter Responsible for service throughout the dining room
Captains Responsible for explaining the menu to guests and taking
their orders. Responsible for any tableside preparations.
Front Waiter Responsible for assuring that the tables are set properly for
each course, foods are delivered properly to the proper
tables, and the needs of guests are met.
Back Waiter Responsible for clearing plates, refilling water glasses, and
other general tasks.

6. Stations Chefs
6

7. Business Math
• Math skills are extremely important in foodservice settings.
Managers are expected to have a basic understanding of math
and know how to apply mathematical principles to business
situations.
• Chefs and managers need to know how to determine recipe
yields, convert recipes from customary to metric measure, and
change the yields of recipes.
• Culinary professionals need to understand the concepts of
fraction, decimals, and percentages. They need to know how to
use and apply these math functions in the kitchen.
Math influences every decision that a manager makes in an operation. It is
the foundation of the kitchen and the back office.
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8. Equivalents-
Liquid/Volume
1 gallon 4 Quarts 16 Cups (8*16)=128
Fluid Oz
256 Tbsp 768 Tsp
1 quart 2 Pints 4 Cups (8*4) = 32
Fluid Oz
64 Tbsp 192 Tsp
1 pint 2 Cups (8*2)= 16
Fluid oz
32 Tbsp 96 Tsp
1 cup 8 Fluid
Ounces
(2*8)=16 Tbsp (6*8)= 48 Tsp
1 fluid oz 2 Tbsp (2*3)= 6 Tsp
1 Tbsp 3 Tsp
Dry/Volume
1 cup 16 Tbsp (16*3)= 48 Tsp
1 Tbsp 3 Tsp
Weight
1 Pound (lb) 16 ounces (oz.)

9. U.S. and Metric
Measurement Systems
• Cooking and baking require exact weighing and measuring of
ingredients to ensure consistent quality and minimal waste.
• The most commonly used system of measurement in the United States
is based on customary units. (cups, pints, gallons, ounces, fluid ounces,
teaspoons, tablespoons, Farenheit)
• The metric system is the standard system used in many other parts of
the world. Metric units are based on multiples of 10.
• Conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit: °C X 9 ÷ 5 + 32 = °F
• Water boils at 212°F (100 °C); Water freezes at 32 °F (0 °C)
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Volume Temperature Weight Length
Milliliter (mL)
Liter (L)
Degrees
Celsius (°C)
Milligrams (mg)
Gram (g)
Kilogram (kg)
Millimeter (mm)
Centimeter (cm)
Meter (m)

10. Standardized Recipes
• Recipes for institutional use, or standardized recipes, must follow a format
that is clear to anyone who uses them.
• A standardized recipe lists the ingredients first, in the order they are to be
used, followed by assembly directions or the method for putting the
ingredients together.
• Mise en place is French for “to put in place.” It is the preparation and
assembly of ingredients and equipment.
• A standardized recipe includes:
A recipe is a written record of the ingredients and preparation steps
needed to make a particular dish.
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 Name of the recipe
 Ingredients
 Yield
 Portion size
 Temperature, time, and
equipment
 Step-by-step directions
 Nutrition information

11. Converting Recipes
1. Decide on desired yield.
2. Divide Desired Yield by Original Yield to get Conversion Factor, the
number by which to multiply the ingredients
(Desired Yield ÷ Original Yield=Conversion Factor)
3. Multiply EACH ingredient by the Conversion Factor
4. Convert answers to logical, measurable amounts. Think about
equipment you have to measure.
5. Make any necessary adjustments to equipment, temperature, and
time.
Convert a recipe when the yield of the recipe (the amount it provides)
is not the same as the amount of product needed. Using basic math
skills, it’s easy to increase or decrease many recipes.
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12. Measuring
• Volume is the amount of space an ingredient takes up. Volume measurement
is best used for liquids.
• Dry ingredients are measured by filling and then leveling them off evenly at
the rim of the spoon or cup using a straightedge. Then pour out.
• A typical set of measuring cups includes 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1 cup
measures.
• Liquid measuring cups are see-through and have measurement markings on
the side. Set on level surface, pour, bend down to check, pour off or add more
as needed.
• Measuring spoons generally come in a set of four or five. Most customary sets
include these sizes: 1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, and 1 tbsp.
Measurement refers to how much of something is being used in a recipe.
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13. Measuring by Weight
• Weight is the measurement of an item’s resistance to gravity.
Weight is expressed in ounces and pounds.
• A food scale is helpful for measuring ingredients by weight.
• Taring the scale means placing an empty container on the scale and
then setting at “Zero.” Then you can get an accurate weight of the
food you add into the container.
• Types of Scales
• Spring – measures by pressure
• Balance Beam- Weight on one side and product on other side
• Electronic Scale- measures resistance electronically
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14. Measuring Fat & Sifting
• Fat can be measured in several ways.
• Stick method: Used for fat that comes in 1/4-pound sticks, such as butter or
margarine. The wrapper is marked in tablespoons and in fractions of a cup.
Simply cut off the amount needed.
• Dry measuring cup method: Pack the fat down into the cup. Level off the
top. When adding to the recipe, use a rubber scraper to empty as much of
the fat as possible from the cup.
• Water displacement method: This method involves combining fat with
water in a liquid measuring cup.
• Sifting is a process that removes lumps from an ingredient and gives
it s smoother consistency. You sift dry powdery ingredients prior to
measuring.
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15. EP/AP Amounts
• To determine how much of an item is needed to yield an AP (as purchased) amount,
simply divide the edible portion amount needed by the yield percentage.
• Edible Portion (trimmed, usable product) ÷ Yield % = AP (what you need to
buy/untrimmed)
• To determine the AP quantity needed to result in a given EP (edible portion)
quantity, it is also important to know the cooking loss for the item.
• AP (what you need to buy/untrimmed) X Yield % = EP (trimmed, usable product)
• A conversion chart is a list of food items showing the expected, or average,
shrinkage from AP amount to EP amount.
• A butcher test is used to measure the amount of shrinkage that occurs during the trimming of a meat
product. A cooking loss test is a way to measure the amount of product shrinkage during the cooking
or roasting process.
• Products today can frequently be purchased in an “as edible portion.” This is
something that is purchased trimmed and cut. This may be cheaper due to prep
time and labor cost.
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16. Costing Recipes
• Standard recipe cost and cost per serving, or standard portion cost, are
key success factors in quantity food production operations.
• To find the total cost of a standard recipe, a manager must know both
the ingredient amounts needed and the market price of each one.
• Many operations price out all recipes and then check them every six
months to see if they are still accurate, while others compare standard
recipe costs to the national price index twice a year.
Costing recipes can be complicated, but the profitability of a restaurant or
foodservice operation depends on balancing costs and prices.
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17. #24
AP (As Purchased) = Edible Portion (trimmed, usable product) ÷ Yield %
4*55%=
8.8 lbs.
How much untrimmed cauliflower do you need to buy if you need 4 pounds
and cauliflower has a 55% yield?
17

18. #25
• EP (trimmed, usable product) = AP (what you need to buy/untrimmed) X Yield %
• 10*.55
• 5.5 lbs
How much trimmed cauliflower can you yield if you have 10 pounds of
untrimmed cauliflower if cauliflower has a 55% yield?
18

19. #26
• % of a whole= Portion/Whole Group
• 75/200
• 37.5%
If 75 of 200 people in a restaurant have ordered the house special, then what
percentage of customers have ordered the house special? (Show Math)
19

20. #27
Original Amount for 12 portions New Amount for 60 portions
3 lb chicken 3*5= 15 lbs. chicken
1 ½ lb scallions 1.5*5= 7.5 lbs. scallions
6 oz. soy sauce 6*5= 30 oz. soy sauce
2 oz. ginger 2*5= 10 oz. ginger
1 lb green peppers 1*5= 5lbs. Green peppers
2 c water 2*5= 10 cups water
Convert the following recipe for 12 portions so that it yields 60 portions.
Desired Yield ÷ Original Yield=Conversion Factor
Conversion Factor * Original Ingredient Amount= New Ingredient Amount
20

21. #28
Ingredient Amount x Unit Cost
(Make sure unit costs match unit or convert first)
Ingredient Cost
Orange Juice
($2.40/Quart)
1 cup ( 1 quart= 4 cups) ; 2.40/4 .60
Olive Oil
($8.00/pint)
1 oz (16oz.= 1 pint); 8.00/16 .50
Roma Tomato
(.30/each)
3 ; 3*.30 .90
Green Pepper
($1.00/each)
1 ; 1*1 1.00
Mango
($1.50/each)
1 1.50
Cilantro
($.50/bunch)
1 bunch .50
Avocado
($1.00/each)
1 1.00
Flour Tortilla
($1.20/dozen)
1 dozen 1.20
TOTAL COST OF RECIPE 7.20
Total cost per person (Tortilla) (7.20/12) .60
•Cost the following recipe:

22. Exam Prep Questions
1. If you use 1 pound of mirepoix in a recipe that yields 1 gallon of soup, how
much mirepoix do you need to make 3 ½ gallons of soup?
a) 2 ¾ pounds
b) 3 pounds
c) 3 ½ pounds
d) 4 pounds
2. At what temperature does water boil?
a) 32 F
b) 100 F
c) 172 F
d) 212 F
3. The number of servings a recipe makes is called the ________.
a) Yield
b) Portion
c) Dividend
d) Quantity
22

23. 4. The amount of space an item occupies is called _____________.
a) Yield
b) Weight
c) Volume
d) measurement
4. The measurement of an item's resistance to gravity is called
_________________.
a) Yield
b) Length
c) Weight
d) volume
4. How many ounces does 1 cup of water weigh?
a) 4
b) 6
c) 8
d) 10
23

24. Exam Prep Questions
7. The process that removes lumps from a dry, powdered ingredient and
gives it a smoother consistency is called ________________.
a) Sifting
b) Mixing
c) Blending
d) Flattening
7. The stick and water displacement methods are used to measure
______________.
a) Liquids
b) Solid fats
c) Dry ingredients
d) Sifted ingredients
24

25. 9. To determine how much of an item is needed to yield an AP amount,
__________________________________.
a) Multiply the edible portion amount needed by the yield percentage
b) Divide the yield percentage by the edible portion amount
c) Add the yield percentage by the edible portion amount
d) Divide the edible portion amount needed by the yield percentage.
9. Fractions can be added once they have a ___________________.
a) Decimal
b) Dividend
c) Common numerator
d) Common denominator
25

26. Review Chapter 4
Go to
www.quizlet.com/Christina_Tillotson
Check Exam Prep Questions to verify you have the correct answers.
Then Study Review Questions and Vocabulary.