Food Production and Culinary Basics
Food Production and Culinary Basics tests kitchen organisation, food safety, cooking methods and basic costing. Expect questions on the brigade, HACCP, mother sauces, stocks and portion control.
Core rules
- The kitchen brigade separates roles: executive chef, sous chef, chef de partie, commis and steward. A clear chain prevents duplication and unsafe handovers.
- HACCP identifies hazards and critical control points. Keep high-risk food out of the danger zone (roughly 5–60°C), cook thoroughly, cool quickly and store separately.
- Basic cooking methods include boiling, poaching, steaming, frying, grilling, roasting, braising and stewing. The method chosen affects texture, yield and nutrients.
- The five mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise and tomato. Stocks are foundations: white stock uses bones without browning; brown stock uses roasted bones.
- Portion control and yield testing protect cost and consistency.
Worked example: A cook prepares chicken curry for 10 portions. Ingredients cost ₹500, labour ₹150, overhead ₹100 and expected wastage is 10% of ingredient cost. Reasoning: add wastage ₹50 to ingredients, giving ₹700 total cost. Add a 20% margin if required: ₹140, selling price ₹840, or ₹84 per portion. The reasoning separates cost from price and shows why portion size and waste affect the selling price.
Traps
Do not taste with the same spoon or return tasted food to the pot. Do not store raw meat above ready-to-eat food. Do not thicken a sauce with raw flour directly into hot liquid without making a roux or slurry. Do not ignore yield when costing.