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localnet 10 years, 5 months ago.
Local, I think those extremes would do the job. If you have two of them then cook the product for however many you have to serve; pre-portion the meat and place it in one cooler and the bread, individually foil wrapped, in the other. Think of the Taco jockeys down in the Laredo truck stops! Assemble to order. If the product won’t stay hot that long then try heating a brick (or two or three of them) wrapped in foil in the oven and place it in the cooler with the product, just warm the brick at about 250 degrees, if you get it too hot you’ll melt a hole in the cooler (ask me how I know). I think you can pull this off! If you need more cooler/heater space and don’t have the money try a card board box lined with 2″ thick Styrofoam sheets (Homedepot or Lowe’s). I have done this in a pinch and it works. Hang in there buddy, you are going to nail it! After you become a rich cheese-steak mogul, let us know how it turns out.
Need some help here guys. I have been approached by a vending company to bring food in to two plants. One plant has 600 employees on 3 lunch shifts of 30 minutes each. The other plant has 800 employees on the same time set up, 3 shifts of lunches, 11:00 – 11:30, 11:30 – noon, noon – 12:30. I have been told by the employees at one company that around 20 to 40 a shift show up for the catering company per shift, and remember we only have 30 minutes to feed these guys and gals.
And this is my problem, my specialty has went from hot dogs to Philly Cheese Steaks, which I am selling about 3-4 to 1 to the dogs which is great, but it takes time to make those steaks. I already have a number of the employees from plant one that love my food, and we are all in agreement that I would never be able to do what I do in 30 minutes and keep the plant customers happy due to time to cook/prepare.
So, how do I pull this off, I need some fresh ideas as I am tapped out. I have a 36″ griddle and a steam table and my only legal kitchen is my 10×6 trailer. I do not have a food holder/warmer but have a number of coolers. And then my other “issue” is that winter is coming and to tow my trailer honestly scares the crap out of me. Not that I am afraid in the sense that seeing snow along the side of a dry road will keep me in, but getting up in the morning to find an all day snow storm is here making it to dangerous to take the trailer out on snow covered and normally icy roads around here. Is there a way to make say 80 cheese steaks in my driveway, wrap and pack them into coolers and haul them in my 4×4 to a plant 25 miles a way and keep them hot? I don’t have the cash to buy Cambro warmers/holders so I am kinda stuck with my extreme coolers.
I also may have access to a kitchen around the corner from my house at a pizzeria, I believe they have a warmer and I know he will charge me rent, which I want to avoid.
Now I am rambling, but I think you get the jest of my problem. And I am not adverse to changing my menu to say sandwiches, but the big draw with my current plant customers are the cheese steaks.
Have any of you ran into such time constraints and or what did or what would you do? I thought about buying bulk steak, which I can get and cooking up ten pounds and trying to serve it like that, but I am back to that 30 minute time frame and then I need to melt the cheese… Any thoughts?
Sorry for rambling, but these two plants can safely get me through the winter so this is important.
Mike ��
Thank you for the info! The brick sounds like a winner as do the chafing pans, I was looking at them last night in the Gordon Foods store. And yes, I have help, I figure around 3 sets of hands minimum.
Use care when choosing chafing fuel. We are using the Blue Labeled Bakers & Chefs 6 hour cans from Sams. They really do last about 6 hours. But we have used other 6 hour cans that only last a short time (and didn’t seem very hot). Use 3 cans to start with, then drop to two and you might even drop to one. Start water pan with HOT water. Don’t fill more than 1/2 way.
A hundred people in thirty minutes is a tough nut with only one set of hands. Do you have help? Have you thought about making your sandwiches up minutes before the factory lets out for the first shift. Cooking to order is going to be very difficult in that time frame.
That said You can get a LOT of meat on a 36 inch grill. Easily enough for thirty – forty sandwiches. If you have help it may not be as hard as you think.
Also consider the chafing sets sold at costco and other places for cheap. We have Big-Lots stores that sell the little wire holders with 2 foil hotel size pans and Sterno for about 8 dollars. Each of these inch pans will hold about 30 sandwiches worth of meat. Line then up on the counter fill em up and then just use them one at a time dumped out on the grill tossed and then sent out in their rolls.
If you can pull it off your $ per hour will afford you the ability to buy a warmer on wheels which I would whole heartedly recommend.
An added bonus is that the hotel pans are disposable so you do not have to worry if they will fit in your sinks for washing. You can buy disposable foil deep reinforced hotel pans for around 2.00 each and their worth their weight in gold for the mobile kitchen operator.
Feeding 100 people out of my little wagon, 30 minute time limit.
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