Operations: Food Processors

As kitchen costs rise, chefs discover that the food processor is as useful for saving money as it is for slicing, kneading and puréeing.

By Christine LaFave, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 12/1/2007

Food processors rarely get their due in common culinary conversation. Thirty years after their introduction, the kitchen workhorses still are sometimes maligned as being more effective at helping chefs cut corners than cut vegetables. But processors’ ability to turn out top-notch mousses and purées tout de suite is undeniable, and in an environment of rising labor costs, more operators are finding food processors more indispensable than ever.

"It’s all about getting the job done quickly and efficiently—time is money," says Gabriel Viti, chef-owner of Gabriel’s and Miramar Bistro restaurants in Highwood, Ill. Viti says that July’s minimum-wage increase has left him looking to speed up the food-prep process wherever possible.

"I think the food processor is one of the magic machines of the kitchen," Viti says. "I don’t think we could do without it." At Gabriel’s, the approximately 2-gallon commercial processor is invaluable in preparing a scallop and foie gras mousse. One of Viti’s tricks is to remove the food-processor bowl from the machine’s base once the mousse is prepared and place it in the freezer for temporary storage. The mousse is removed just before service and given a final spin in the processor.

Gabriel’s also relies on the food processor in the preparation of a dish of crespelle filled with spinach and Taleggio cheese and topped with Parmesan sauce. "We cook the spinach and we put it in the processor once we’ve squeezed the water out of it," Viti says. "It makes a really smooth purée. To do that by hand, it would take hours." Fresh fruit, salad components and garlic go into the processor, too; the machine can make mirepoix in "a couple of zaps."

Charlie Socher, chef-owner of Chicago’s Cafe Matou, echoes Viti’s sentiments. "We don’t have the pricing scheme that allows hand-cutting everything," Socher says. "As labor becomes a higher and higher percentage of cost, [labor expenses are] one of the things that people are trying to decrease these days." Cafe Matou’s extensive use of its two food processors means Socher doesn’t have to hire another staff member.

"I’ll use it a lot with more-substantial dishes during the wintertime," says Socher, who owns a top-of-the-line home model and a commercial processor. "In the summer I use it more for the lighter things, whether you’re talking about a salsa or pesto." Bread dumplings and a chickpea fritter (part of a starter called Chickpeas Two Ways) are two cold-weather comfort foods that owe their spots on Cafe Matou’s current menu to a food processor.

Given people’s tendency to gravitate toward slow-cooked, somewhat heavier meals in winter, the food processor can come especially in handy in making coatings and emulsions. "In the summer, you slice up a tomato, put some salt on it, hand it to someone and say, ‘Here, eat this,’ and it’s wonderful," Socher says. He adds, "Actually, I have more fun cooking in the wintertime, because you’re using products sometimes many of us consider mundane." One of the most-frequent uses of Cafe Matou’s food processors is in the making of breadcrumbs. "The easiest way to make fresh breadcrumbs is in the processor," Socher says.

At World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, processor-made breadcrumbs help give a uniform look to jumbo lump crab cakes. "It just makes the whole thing look right," Chef Matt Babbage says. "Twenty-five years ago, the first time somebody showed [a food processor], I laughed because I thought that the knife was the only way to go … [Today] we really have to rely on the equipment we have. Anything that I can do to make my job easier."

Keep It Fresh

Planning ahead helps World Cafe Live ensure a supply of basil and other fresh herbs through the winter. The restaurant buys herbs in bulk at farmers markets in the fall, chops the herbs in a food processor and freezes them. The best part, Babbage says, is that the process "doesn’t compromise the flavor—it actually makes it a little more intense."

Besides turning to the food processor to make the most of farmers market finds—as by chopping ends and pieces of vegetables for soups—Babbage relies on it to make pie pastry. "You don’t want to overmix [pastry] because the gluten in the flour starts to become elastic, and you end up with chewy pie crust," he says. "The food processor gives it that nice flaky texture … It just processes it while adding minimal air to it."

World Cafe Live once had to purchase several home food processors to use as a temporary fix when its standard com-mercial food processor was down. "We burned them up in a few days," Babbage says. "That’s how much we rely on food processors."

Using a plastic bowl for most processing applications and reserving a stainless-steel bowl and a separate blade for the preparation of galantines (the steel bowl helps prevent the meat from getting too warm and its fat from separating) helps extend the life of the all-important processor. At the beginning of service, "We’ll go from an empty dining room to 300 people in one shot," Babbage says. "It saves a lot of time and a lot of aggravation on things."