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Earth Eats

Rules Of The Caterer's Kitchen

By Annie Corrigan
Published November 1, 2019 at 2:25 PM EDT

Corbin Morwick has worked at cafeterias and chain restaurants. He's been a manager and a line cook. He's been second-in-command at fine dining restaurants. He needed all these experiences to prepare him for his current job as the Executive Chef of One World Catering.

Catering is fast-paced; it requires plenty of planning and problem-solving; and it's different every day. But these Rules Of The Caterer's Kitchen always stay the same.

  1. Clean and sanitize everything. "We're sending food out to large groups and if any of our dishes are contaminated in any way, we can make a lot of people sick, so we take that extremely seriously."

  2. Keep a sharpening steel handy to make sure your knives are sharp. "A dull knife doesn't do the job it's supposed to do. It mashes through the food instead of slicing or cutting through it. And, it's harder to cut yourself with a sharp knife than it is with a dull knife."

  3. Get everything assembled before you start cooking. "Get all your mixing bowls together, your measuring spoons and cups. Find all the ingredients you'll need and bring them out to where you're going to be working. Have that ready so that you don't have to leave your area to go and make what you're making."

  4. Read the entire recipe--method and all--before you crack your first egg. "A lot of times, young cooks will just look at an ingredient list and start then start throwing things together, and I'm like, ‘You didn't read that. That didn't say mix all this stuff in a bowl.' You have to read the procedure not just the ingredient list."

  5. Make an action plan. "That way we figure out what to start cooking when, so that they all finish up at the same time."

  6. And then the fun one… Taste everything. "This way you train your tongue to know what it's supposed to taste like. It kind of gets ingrained in your brain what that flavor is and what that's supposed to taste like."

    7. On this week's show, Morwick also mixes up a cucumber tomato salad in a yogurt sauce. This recipe caters well, which means he can make it ahead and the quality doesn't suffer if it has to sit for a bit.

    Also, Chef Daniel Orr gives us several ideas for how to enjoy beets, from roasted to pickled.

    And from Harvest Public Media, a tech startup in Colorado is calling itself the Airbnb of commercial kitchens.

    Stories On This Episode

    What Can The Sharing Economy Do For Local Food?

    Commercial kitchen space can be hard to come by and expensive to build. One tech startup is trying to fix that, using concepts from the sharing economy.

    Old Barns Are Turning Into Hot Decorating Product

    While the dilapidated barn might be a nuisance for farmers, reclaimed barn wood is a hot decorating trend from Manhattan to Manhattan Beach

    Calling All Cucumbers

    Sick of pickles? Chef Corbin Morwick's salad of Indian spices, tomatoes and onions is a great way to switch up your cucumber game.

    Berkeley's Soda Tax Appears To Cut Consumption

    According to a new study, the nation's first soda tax succeeded in cutting consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. But there's uncertainty about whether the effect will be permanent.

    Casein Casings: The Newest Food Packaging

    Casein is a milk protein that is 500 times as effective as plastic at preventing food spoilage.

    Beets, From Seed To Salad

    Here's a primer for growing beets, roasting beets and serving them in a salad.

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