The Classical Brigade System vs. Modern Brigade System

By: Dianna Bahamonde

Le Cordon Bleu

For my kitchen brigade research paper I chose to do one of my favorite restaurants, which is called Hawkers. The restaurant is located in the Downtown Orlando area and is owned by a family friend. The specialty of the small, cozy place is Asian street food that people sell-or hawk-all over the cities of Asia.
In order for a restaurant to work successfully the employers have to work as a team. Although everyone in the business is important, the place would be a ghost town without the kitchen staff. They range from dish washers to executive chefs, but each person is as important as the last. This paper is about the way the brigade system is set up at Hawkers and how it compares to the classical brigade system.
To do my research paper, I had to find all the information I could about Hawkers and about the way the kitchen brigade was set up when Escoffier designed it. I decided that since I was unable to visit the restaurant, I decided that the next best thing would be to call the manager. He answered all my questions as best as he could. In order to find the information about the classic brigade I reread my class notes and searched the internet.

The day starts every day at around nine in the morning when employers clock in to begin cooking. The first to come in is the Executive chef, also known as Tim the owner of Hawkers. He looks over the menu and checks his ingredients while making any last minute changes. Soon after, the rest of his crew joins him. There is no Sous Chef, unless you count his wife who helps keep the kitchen in order when he can’t be there.
Here in Hawkers, there are a lot of roasted and grilled meats. The business is heavily staffed with grillardines that make dishes such as grilled Vietnamese lemongrass skewers. The kitchen does not use an actual rotisseurs; instead they use special ovens to do the job. The poissonier is in charge of the fish that is made daily. He cleans and prepares everything to perfection like in their popular dish, the five spice fish. Although Hawkers is a very health fixed restaurant, they also have fried foods like fried green beans and fried rice. The friturier comes into place at this point.
Vegetables are everywhere at Hawkers. From side dishes, to soups, to main vegetarian courses. It’s only natural that they have many hands on deck for this job. It’s the entremier’s job to give vegetarians the tastiest meal they’ve had and to give plates extra flavor using delectable vegetables.
The entremier’s also work with some of the grillardines to make most of the appetizers served. The tournant is one of the most important people in the kitchen. Whether the staff is short a few or the restaurant is jam packed, the tournant is a great extra pair of hands. These helpers need to have experience in every section of the kitchen to me a successful helper. In this kitchen, the aboyeur is also the executive chef of the restaurant.

Hawkers has a large kitchen and a very large staff. There are a few positions that hawkers did exclude though. They do not have a butcher because they got to a butcher to have their food precut before it comes into the facility. They also have no need for a garde manger since all the food they serve is thoroughly cooked before being served to customers. Hawkers also has a company that they rely on for their pastries and desserts.
Hawkers is a very fast paced restaurant. They distributed their crew very well and get the job done thoroughly and in a timely manner. This creates a very lively and customer-happy environment. The meals are also very small which is part of the reason why it comes out so fast and its cooked properly.
Having a great staff leads to a great business. A boss is only as good as his workers and Hawkers demonstrates this perfectly.

Resources

http://neptunerpg.tripod.com/cook/terms/brigade.html http://www.escoffier.com/index.php/culinary-reference/124-the-brigade-de-cuisine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigade_de_cuisine