Different types of Vegetables cuts

Every cook should master these basic cuts of vegetables because different types shapes and sizes of vegetables, not only make the food appearance good but also help the food cook more easily, and taste better.

1. Brunoise (Fine Dice)

Brunoise  is a French cooking term Meaning cutting vegetables into small cubes of precise and uniform measurement. This technique is used to cut vegetables into fine dice. The food should be first julienned and turned a quarter and dice again to create 1.5 mm cubes. 

The food that is brunoised includes carrots, onions, leeks, celery, bell peppers, and hard root vegetables like beets and turnips.

Use: Garnishes, Stuffing

Size:  A regular brunoise  is 3 mm (1/8th inch) and a  fine brunoise 1.5 mm (1/6th inch) 

2. Chiffonade(Shredding)

Chiffonade is a French term that means little ribbons. It is a slicing technique used on leafy green vegetables and herbs such as spinach, sorrel, and flat-leaved herb like basil, mint. 

This technique is accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them tightly, then slicing the leaves perpendicular to the roll. Now gently separate the shreds using your fingertips, and you will have Chiffonade.

Use: Sautee, Stuffing, Garnish

Size: About 1 mm wide.

3. Julienne/ allumette(Match stick cuts)

Julienne is a French culinary knife cut technique in which food items are cut into long thin strips similar to a match stick. this technique is often used for salad ingredients and green veggies. The food that is Julienne includes carrot, celery, potatoes, and cucumber. 

The common vegetable items to be Julienned are  carrots for carrots julienne, celery for celeries remoulade, potatoes for Julienne fries, or cucumbers for naengmyeon.

Use: garnishes, Chinese stir-fries, salads

Size: About 3 to 4 cm in length

4. Macedoine(Small dice)

Macedoine is a French cooking term for a mixture of vegetables, in this technique vegetables should be cut into 1/4 inch dice. This technique is ideal for soup, salad, and large fruit.

Macedoine could be served raw or cooked, cold or hot. A typical fruit macedoine may consist of several varieties of fruit that are marinated in a sweet syrup or liqueur and then served cold or flamed from the alcohol in the liqueur.

Use: Salads, sauté preparation, soups

Size:  5 mm x 5 mm x 5 mm or (1/4 inches on each side)

5. Parmentier(Medium dice)

Parmentier is a medium-size cube cut, it is the same dice style as to make doing just slightly larger around 1.5 cm. Prepare the vegetables as above and then cut into 1/2″ slices, turn and slice again into 1/2″ slices, now from the top slice 1/2″ cubes.

Use: Salads, sautee preparation

Size of Parmentier cut: approximately 1/2 inches (13 mm)

6. Carre(Large Dice)

Carre is a large-size cube cut, "Carré" means "square" in French. This cut features cubes with 6 even sides measuring approximately 3/4 inches (2 cm).

Use: Salads, sauté preparation, vegetables like potatoes, and sometimes fruits such as watermelon.

Size:  3/4 inches x 3/4 inches x 3/4 inches square (20 mm)

7. Slicing

In this cutting technique, foods are cut into thin and relatively broad slices, this is accomplished by hand or machine. It can be used on meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese, and bread.

Use: Salads, Baked, Roasts, Grills.

8. Mincing

The mincing technique is used where food ingredients are finely divided into uniform pieces. Minced food is normally smaller than dice or chopped. Mincing is the ideal technique for aromatics, such as onion, garlic, and ginger, it is used when a paste texture is required.

Use: As herbs, Stuffing, Garnish

9. Crushing

This technique is used to crush food such as ginger, garlic.

10. Tourne/Chateau

This technique is used to turn vegetables into a barrel shape. It is used on carrot, potatoes, or squash that provide a distinctive and consistent to the food items being served. this is used to enhance the appearance of the food when they are served as part of the main course. The cut always needs seven sides.

Use: Sautéed, Poached, Boiled, Baked

Size: 2 inches by 7 sides

11. Roundelle/Washer

The term roundel means round or circular, this technique is used to cut vegetables or fruits into a round shape. foods like cucumber, zucchini, carrots, cucumber, pineapples, strawberry are used.

12. Paysanne

Paysanne is a French term that means “country-style”, indicating that this is a rougher, more informal cut than other more precise cuts that exist in French cooking. Paysanne cut consists of slices of vegetables about 1mm thick. It is ideal for soup and trims

Uses: Sautee preparation, Garnish

Size of paysanne cut:  1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 inches (10 mm × 10 mm × 3 mm)

 

13. Wedges 

Round vegetables cut equally lengthwise, this technique is used on tomato, potato, lemon, cut into four or six pieces.

Use:  Stew, Fried, Grilled, Roasted, Boil, Poached

14. Baton

Larger, thicker version of julienne and jardinière cut, a baton usually measures about 1.5 x 5 cm. Sticks of vegetables are approximately 5 cm long, 5 mm wide, and 5 mm thick. Used as an accompaniment.

Use: Sautee preparation

Personality Traits carried by a Hotelier.

 

The hospitality industry offers a wide range of career options.
To be successful in the industry, you need certain qualities that employers look for and customers expect.

1. Commitment
To be successful in the hospitality industry, you must be committed to ensuring customer satisfaction. You must do whatever it takes to keep customers happy and create an environment where customers want to come back.

2. Communication Skills
The most successful employees in the hospitality industry are those with excellent communication skills.

Listening: Someone once said 'We've got two ears and only one mouth which means we should listen twice as much as we speak.' This is true for many things, but even more so in the hospitality industry.

Oral and body language: After the listening, comes the talking. This one is just as important as the previous one. In particular, when your guests speak a different language, you want to make sure you are confident in whatever language you speak.

3. Enthusiasm
Great employees of the hospitality industry are enthusiastic about their jobs and strive to do the best work possible. They want to give their customers the best experience available. Without the customers you do not have a job.

4. Leadership
Great hospitality employees have strong leadership skills and are able to command project and make significant contributions to an organization's overall success.

5. Organized
To stay on top of the multitude of tasks you'll face as a hospitality employee, you have to be organized and multitask without difficulty.

6. Knowledgeable of Safety / Hygiene issues
Successful hospitality employees are familiar with rules of work safety and food / personal hygiene as they apply to venues serving food.

7. Teamwork
Successful employees of the hospitality industry work well with others, you need to be a productive team member

Food Service Industry

  INTRODUCTION TO FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY IN INDIA

 The food service industry engages itself in the provision of food and beverages, mainly to people who are away from their homes for various reasons. Such people need accommodation with food and beverages if they are away for more than a day and only food and beverages if they are away for a short duration of time. 

The basic needs of customers for food and beverages are met by the food service industry, which has been associated with lodging ever since people started travelling. People who move out of their homes for various reasons, such as job, education, business, leisure, medical treatment, sports, religion, and so on, depend completely on the food service industry for their meals.

                     The food and beverage (F&B) industry in India traces its roots to the traditional community feasts and the movement of people on pilgrimage thousands of years ago. Most people were on the move primarily for preaching religion and hunting. During those days, people took shelter under trees when they were away from their homes and depended on natural sources for their food. Their lives were endangered by wild animals and wayside robbers, which forced them to look for a place that assured them safety, accommodation, and food.

 Dharamshalas and chatrams came up to protect the lives of travellers from wild animals and robbers. These were buildings where travellers could stay free of cost. Travellers were also provided with stables and sheds for horses and bullock carts, respectively, free of charge. They were given food and accommodation at no cost during the rule of kings. The barter system of transaction was slowly introduced and it motivated people to travel for trade, mainly of livestock, which later expanded to food grains, clothing, tools, and other goods. 

Traders used to share accommodation with the owner of the house and were given meals and drinks. Mighty regional kings entertained common people and merchants with feasts consisting of a variety of rich dishes, traditional dances, bravery arts, etc., during festivals.

 India has been subject to influxes of people throughout its history, some coming with arms to loot and conquer, others moving in to trade or to settle down. The country was able to absorb the impact of these intrusions because it was able to assimilate and tolerate foreign ideas and people. Outsiders who came to India during the course of its history include the Greeks under Alexander the Great, the Kushānas from Central Asia, the Mongols under Genghis Khan, Muslim traders and invaders from the Middle East and Central Asia, and finally the British and other Europeans. It was during the Mughal rule that sarais were developed to provide accommodation to travellers which were later converted to inns and western style hotels during the British rule. The invasion by other dynasties brought in their cultures and cuisines to the land. 

 Europeans visited the country to trade for the finest cotton textiles as well as spices. Eventually, the British colonized the region. They introduced their cuisines, the skill of making wines and distilled drinks, and eating habits. Table etiquettes and the art of eating with cutlery were learnt. However, even today, people continue to eat with their fingers. In south India, especially in Tamil Nadu, people eat their meals from banana leaves and in the north, from a thali. Economic activities paved the way for development of western—style hotels and restaurants, mainly to cater to the requirements of the British and European traders. 

 The people of India, in general, did not prefer dining out till the early 1960s. They always carried home-made food to the workplace, school, and while travelling. Even today, some people carry food whenever they go out. Perhaps this could be one of the reasons for dabbawalas , who are food vendors engaged in distributing meals in dabbas (boxes) to clients at their workplaces, doing so well in Mumbai. In south India, people used to buy packed food such as lime rice, tamarind rice, and curd rice from food vendors. In the north, bhojanalayas served local dishes, especially roti, sabzi, and salad. Most of the restaurants of the 1960s were not much concerned about food and personal hygiene, or serving food at the right temperature. Limited items were prepared beforehand, displayed in the shelves, and were served till the stock got exhausted.

 Those who reached early got hot food and those who came late would get cold food. The attitude of the restaurateur or mess keeper was ‘take it or leave it’ and people had no option but to have what was being given. This is because in those days they operated the business with limited dishes that were prepared beforehand and they could not afford to have food holding equipment because of the high cost and unavailability of resources. Coal or firewood were used for cooking. Only the higher-end hotels and restaurants had the luxury of cooking with gas. The development of catering in India is mainly attributed to the British, who introduced hotels and restaurants similar to the ones in Europe. 

They also established resorts in hill stations. The rapid development of transportation, especially the railways in the mid-nineteenth century, enabled people to move in large numbers. This led to the establishment of small lodges and restaurants in and around railway stations to cater to the needs of the travellers. Refreshment rooms at railway stations and pantry cars in some of the trains were introduced. Reputed hotels such as the Taj, the Oberoi, and the Ambassador were well established when India became independent. After Independence, the hospitality industry grew at a faster rate. As economic activities augmented, numerous eateries and hotels of different styles and sizes were established, which catered to the requirements of the travellers and the general public.

 The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) was set up in October 1966 with the objective of developing and expanding tourism infrastructure in the country and thereby promoting India as a tourist destination. The ITDC succeeded in achieving its objectives by promoting the largest hotel chain in India and providing all tourist services such as accommodation, catering, transport, in-house travel agency, duty-free shopping, entertainment, publicity, consultancy, and so on, under a single window. It also offered consultancy services from concept to commissioning in the tourism field for private organizations. 

The ministry of tourism, government of India, gave top priority to the development of manpower to meet the growing needs of hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality-based industries. For this purpose, 21 institutes of hotel management and catering technology and 10 food craft institutes were established by the end of the 1980s. These institutes offered three-year diploma programmes and one-year craft courses. The students not only introduced professionalism in the industry but some of them also started their own business. The hotel management programme imparts adequate knowledge and training in the core operational and managerial areas of the hospitality industry.

 This enables students understand the environment and execute their job professionally. The students who become entrepreneurs run the business confidently, create job opportunities, and contribute to the society. In 2002, the ministry launched a programme called capacity building for service providers (CBSP) to train persons engaged in small hotels, dhabas, eating joints, restaurants, and for those handling tourists such as immigration/airport staff, security/police personnel, guides, taxi operators, bus drivers, and so on. 

The objective was to provide short-term training to improve their etiquette, behaviour, and attitude towards tourists. Under this scheme, a new programme called Project Priyadarshini was launched in 2005 to impart training to women in taxi driving/ operation, entrepreneurship such as setting up souvenir kiosks, and so on, to adopt tourism as their profession. The Government of India, Ministry of Tourism had launched a special initiative, called Hunar Se Rozgar Tak (HSRT), in the year 2009–10, for creation of employable skills specific to Hospitality and Tourism Sector amongst youth. All these measures taken by the ministry have brought in quality and raised the service standards in the food service industry in India. Even those who did not undergo training were forced to implement professionalism to sustain in the market. They either employed trained and qualified hands or they themselves underwent training to manage the operations effectively. 

 Prior to the emergence of well-established network of communication and transportation, people across the country had very little contact with each other. Regional diversity in terms of food, cloth, culture, and lifestyle acted as a separating factor for the people of India, giving birth to regionalism. For example, when it comes to food, Punjab is famous for its rich and mouthwatering delicacies, and West Bengal for its milk sweets. Due to well-developed communication networks, faster transport across the country, and boom in the catering and hotel industry in India, cuisines are no longer confined to their own regions but have overlapped and influenced each other. People living anywhere in our subcontinent can now enjoy delectable cuisines of any region from the restaurant chains flourishing all over the country. 

 Civil aviation developed rapidly soon after World War II. The introduction of international flight services in 1948 and additional services in the mid-1950s encouraged a lot of foreigners to visit India and also many international chains of hotels such as the Holiday Inn, the Sheraton, and the Intercontinental, and so on, started their operations in India. The Oberoi group established the first franchised hotel with the Intercontinental hotels in Delhi in the early 1960s. Today, many international chains of hotels, such as the Marriot, the Hyatt, the Le Meridian, and the Kempinski, and so on, are operating in India and many more are coming. The Hotel Corporation of India, a subsidiary unit of Air India established hotels, the ‘Centaur Group’ in the mid-1970s near the major airports primarily for catering to flights and the transient guests. Globalization policies of the government, fast means of communication and transportation, rapid industrialization, introduction of private air transportation and no-frills airlines, Internet facilities, and the establishment of a network of well-organized travel and tour operators have made the world shrink and the movement of people has become very easy and fast. A lot of foreign food service organizations such as McDonald’s, Pizza King, Dominos, Subway, and so on, have set 

Food and Beverage Service up their operations in India, which has made local restaurateurs fine-tune their operations in order to compete with these outlets. Nirula’s and Haldiram in the north and Saravana Bhavan, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, and Annapoorna in the south are doing well in the food service industry. Radhakrishna Hospitality Services offers catering services to industries and schools in a big way. Wineries, especially the ones in Maharashtra, are coming out with wines to complement Indian dishes. Trained and qualified manpower, professionalism, availability of wide range of cooking and service equipment manufacturers, food technology, consumer demand, change in the lifestyle of our citizens, lack of time to cook, media influence, increased influx of foreigners, and so on, have changed the face of the Indian food service industry. Food service sectors continually change their style of operation to meet the changing needs of the customers. Today, we have top quality restaurants in India that are comparable with international standards.

Reference and Bibliography

1.Food and Beverage Service SECOND EDITION by Oxford University Press

Common Key terms used at Front Office.

Access time – the amount of time required for a processor to retrieve information from the hard drive; recorded in milliseconds.

Account payable – Financial obligations the hotel owes to private and government-related agencies and vendors.

Account receivable – Amount of money owed to the hotel by guests.

Aging of account – Indication of the stage of the payment cycle such as 10 days old, 30 days overdue, 60 days overdue.

All-suite – A level of service provided by a hotel for a guest who will desire an at home atmosphere.

Amenities – Personal toiletry items such as shampoo, toothpaste, mouthwash and electrical equipment.

American plan – A room rate that includes meals, usually breakfast and evening meal as well as room rental in the room rate.

Assets – Items that have monetary value.

Atrium concept – A design in which guest rooms overlook the lobby from the first floor to the roof.

Average Daily Rate ( ADR ) – A measure of the hotel staff’s ability to sell available room rates; the method to compute the ADR is :

                                    Room revenue / number of rooms sold

Balance sheet – An official financial listing of assets, liabilities and owner’s equity.

Bank card – credit cards issued by banks, examples of which include Visa, MasterCard, JCB.

Banquet sheet – a listing of the details of an event at which food and beverage are served.

Bill-to-account – An extension of credit to a guest by an individual hotel that requires the guest or the guest’s employer to establish a line of credit and to adhere to a regular payment schedule.

Biometrics – An individual electronic measurement of uniqueness of human being such as voice, hand print or facial characteristics.

Blackout – Total loss of electricity.

Blocking on the horizon – Reserving guest rooms in the distant future.

Blocking procedure – Process of reserving a room on a specific day.

Bottom up – A sales method that involves presenting the lest expensive rate first.

Brownouts – Partial loss of electricity.

Business affiliation – Chain or independent ownership of hotels.

Call accounting – A computerized system that allows for automatic tracking and posting of outgoing guest room calls.

Cancellation code – A sequential series of alphanumeric combinations that provide the guest with a reference for a cancellation of a guaranteed reservation.

Cash bank – A specific amount of paper money and coins issued to a cashier to be used for making change.

Cashier – A person who processes guest check outs and legal tender and make change for guest.

Cashier’s report – A daily cash control report that list cashier activity of cash and credit cards and machine totals by cashier shift.

Chain – A group of hotels that follow standard operating procedures such as marketing, reservations, quality of service, food and beverage operations, housekeeping and accounting.

Chain affiliations – Hotels that purchase operational and marketing service from a corporation.

Channel management – Objective review of the most profitable marketing approach for guest rooms, central reservation system, GDS, third party reservation system, toll free phone reservation, travel agent, etc.

City ledger account – A collection of accounts receivable of nonregistered guest who use the service of the hotel.

Collective bargaining unit – A labor union

Commercial cards – Credit cards issued by cooperation, an example of which is Diners Club.

Commercial hotels – Hotels that provide short-term accommodation for travelling guests.

Commercial rate – Room rates for business people who represent a company but do not necessarily have bargaining power because of their infrequent or sporadic pattern of travel.

Communication hierarchy – A listing of the order in which management personnel may be called on to take charge in an emergency situation.

Complimentary rate – A rate in which there is no charge to the guest.

Computer supplies – Paper, forms, ribbons, ink cartridges needed to operate the system.

Concierge – A person who provides an endless array of information on entertainment, sports, amusement, transportation, tours, church services and babysitting in a particular city or town.

Conference call – A conversation in which three or more persons are linked by telephone.

Confirmed reservations – Prospective guests who have a reservation for accommodations that is honored until a specified time.

Continental breakfast – Juice , fruit, sweet roll and/or cereal.

Controller – The internal accountant for the hotel.

Convention guests – Guest who attend a large convention and receive a special room rate.

Corporate client – A hotel guest who represents a business or is a guest of that business and provides the hotel with an opportunity to establish a regular flow of business during sales periods that would normally be flat.

Corporate guests– frequent guests who are employed by a company and receive a special room rate.

Corporate rates – Room rate offered to corporate clients staying in the hotel.

Credit – A decrease in an asset or an increase in liability, or an amount of money the hotel owes the guest.

Credit balance – Amounts of money a hotel owes guests in future services.

Credit card imprinter – makes an imprint of the credit card the guest will use as the method of payment.

Crisis management – maintaining control of an emergency situation.

Cross-training – training employees for performing multiple tasks and jobs.

Current guests – Guest who are registered in the hotel

Customer relationship management – A system that allows hotel managers to integrate technology to support customer service techniques that provide top-notch customer service.

Cycle of service – The progression of a guest’s request for products and service through a hotel’s department.

Daily blocking – assigning guests to their particular rooms on a daily basis.

Daily sales report – A financial activity report produced by a department in a hotel that reflects daily sales activities with accompanying cash register tapes or point-of-sales audit tapes.

Database interfaces – the sharing of information among computers.

Data sorts – Report option in a PMS that indicate groupings of information.

Debit – An increase in an asset or a decrease in a liability.

Debit balance – An amount of money the guest owes the hotel.

Debit cards – Embossed plastic cards with a magnetic strip on the reverse side that authorize direct transfer of fund from a customer’s bank account to the commercial organization’s bank account for purchase of goods and services.

Deep cleaning – A through cleaning on furniture and accessories, windows, flooring and walls.

Demographic data – Size, density, distribution, and vital statistic of population broken down into, for example; age, sex, marital status and occupation categories.

Departmental accounts – Income and expense-generating areas of the hotel, such as restaurants, gift shop and banquet.

Direct-email letters – Letter sent directly to individuals in a targeted market group in a marketing effort .

Distance learning – learning that takes place via satellite broadcasts, Picture Tel, or online computer interaction.

Double Occupancy Percentage – A measure of a hotel’s staff ability to attract more than one guest to a room; the method to compute double occupancy percentage is :

                        Number of guest – number of rooms sold / number of rooms sold X 100%

Eco tourists – Tourist who plan vacation to understand the culture and environment of a particular area

Electronic key – A plastic key with electronic codes embedded on a magnetic strip.

Electronic key system – A system composed of battery-powered or, less frequently, hardwired locks; a host computer and terminals; a keypuncher; and special entry cards that are used as keys.

Empowerment – Management’s act of delegating certain authority and responsibility to frontline employees.

Ergonomics – The study of how people relate psychologically to machines.

European plan – A rate that quotes room charge only.

Express check out – Means by which the guest uses computer technology in a guest room or a computer in the hotel lobby to check out.

Family rate – room rates offered to encourage visit by families with children.

Float – The delay in payment from an account after using a credit card or personal check.

Floor limit – A dollar amount set by the credit card agency that allows for a maximum amount of guest charges.

Flow analysis processes – The preparation of a schematic drawing of the operations included in a particular function.

Flowchart – An analysis of the delivery of a particular product or service.

Folio – A guest’s record of charges and payment.

Forecasting – Projecting room sales for a specific period.

Full house – 100 percent hotel occupancy; a hotel that has all its guest room occupied.

Full service – A level of service provided by a hotel with a wide range of conveniences for the guest.

Global Distribution System ( GDS ) – Distributor of hotel rooms to corporations such as travel agents that buy rooms in large volume.

Going green – the responsibility to take care of the environment.