Turkey dinner at a restaurant
 

I have a niece who is working on Thanksgiving and she said they will be serving approx 900 dinners. Obviously a restaurant can't cook enough turkeys to feed 900 people the day of. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of this...and could use some help from any restauranteurs...

Google says to plan for 3/4 pound per person...so roughly 30-35 turkeys.

1 - cook them in the days leading into Thanksgiving. Freeze or refrigerate until the day of. But do you slice before storage? or right before serving?

2 - get them pre-cooked from your food distribution company (Sysco / Aramark)

3 - only buy turkey breasts and cook those the day of. I think that would take less time and produce more "useable" meat (based on the assumption that most people prefer white meat).

4 - something else?

Thanks.

My local medium size supermarket deli is cooking over 70 turkeys in 3 ovens in less than 24 hrs. Some of those will go into warming ovens depending when people pick them up. Should not be hard for a decent sized restaurant kitchen.

Hi bitburgr

Many restaurants will cook the turkeys in batches over the previous days. They'll let them cool a bit (it's easier to thinly slice cooler poultry, it will be juicier when rested and you will get more portions per bird this way) slice and joint them and put them into foil gastronorm containers with a lightish minimum gravy and then blast refrigerate and hold them refrigerated. They have to be refrigerated within two hours of cooking for safety.

On the day, they'll then put all of them into ovens to rewarm slowly and hold to at least 165+ degrees F to ensure safe pasteurisation to kill any highly unlikely salmonella. They will be held at that temperature for at least 30 minutes before plating up. They'll be easier to fit now as they will be in gastronorm sized containers - each brimming full with no wasted space and making the most of every oven inch. 900 portions will now take much less room than 35 turkeys ...

The carcases can then be boiled with giblets and veg etc to make a starter turkey consome soup for the big day or improve the gravy.

Roast potatos can obviously be pre-preped in quantity and many restaurants cook their roast potatos or at least finish them by deep frying like chips ....... this is quick compared with roasting and very few will or can tell the difference ...... Other veg will possibly be held in steamers or bain maries or if they like them over cooked in slow below-boiling water.

Gravy is the saviour of pre-preped meats and most people wouldn't be able to tell the degree of pre-preping and be delighted with their meal.

I'm begining to sound like a kitchen porter ......:)

Hope your niece has a good day with lot's of happy campers .... who tip well ....

Wait! Thanksgiving aboard a deployed CVN means turkey dinners for 5000 or so..., several hundred in the wardroom and the remaining thousands down below on the mess deck. Quantity and ability are not in question, but quality and presentation may suffer. After all, served in a compartmented metal tray on the messdeck, the gravy inevitably douses to pumpkin pie

Including, also inevitably, a few days before, steaming along side of a "Reefer' (refrigerated stores ship), for the transfer of slings loaded of turkeys (fortunately dead, plucked and frozen) across 50-100' of open water. For old salts, "brineing" the turkey occurs when a sling dips into a passing wave.

I don't have the specifics, but I understand that this is how it went. Thanks for the info.

Thanks.

Sadly I don't know anything important .... just food trivia.:D

You really need to write a book. :)

Next chapter....

Although not observed on carriers with what amounts to "24 hour" meals while operating, aboard smaller ships, there's an ancient custom still occasionally observed. For the evening meal, before opening the enlisted mess line, the galley sends a tray up to the OOD on the bridge, who samples it, and then authorizes the meal to be served.

Could he (and these days, some "shes") turn down the request. It's been a long time since shipboard food was so bad, but I once did reserve training on a destroyer, where the OOD gave the chief of the mess and the Supply Officer an intense ration of sh*t, because of the quality of the meal brought up to the bridge.

One of those customs, like "Strike the Bell 8 on time" in which the Captain and the OOD (usually a relatively junior officer, but due to his/her watch status, exercising substantial responsibility) may exercise some prerogatives of status. I may not have seen meals delayed, but I've seen a couple of Captains delay "8 bells" and the changing of the watch.