Technical Description Assignment

The purpose of this description is to describe the cook chill process and its benefits.
Intermountain Medical Centers (IMC) food service department has a cooking process that can
provide your kitchen with benefits. It is called Cook Chill. The purpose of this description is to
describe the cook chill process and its benefits.
The process starts with the assembly of the steam jacket
kettles and the pump station that are used to make the
soups and sauces that are be produced. The equipment is
taken apart and put back together daily so that they can
be properly cleaned and sanitized after the days
production. This process also includes performing regular
maintenance as needed so that any major repairs can be
avoided as much as possible.
After the equipment is assembled a hot water (190F or greater) sanitation
is done to ensure there is no residual chemical or biological contaminant left in the kettles or
pump station before the start of the first recipe.
In accordance with policy and procedure, patients take priority, then satellite facilities and finally
the local cafeteria. This helps to determine what recipes take priority.
Cooking process for soups, sauces and entrees (like curry) is very similar for every recipe.
-The cooks start with reading the recipe.
Besides learning the recipe, this allows the cooks to either learn the needed process or
to confirm the known process. The recipe also informs the cooks the quantity of the recipe. This
information will tell them what equipment they should use. In the case of Korean Beef recipe
being provided the cook should use the smaller 16 gallon kettle instead of the larger 60 gallon
one. It should be noted that since there are at least two (2) cooks in the cook chill unit. The
cooks are able to run more than one recipe at a time making the cook chill process more
efficient. So while one cook is using the small kettle the other will be using one of the larger
kettles at the same time.
-Gathering all the needed ingredients.
Before starting the cooking process the cooks will gather all the needed ingredients. If
the required ingredient is not available, the cooks with either ask their supervisor for direction or
not make the recipe and move on to the next.
Since it is a hospital kitchen, safety of the patients is first priority. none of the cooks are
allowed to substitute any ingredient that is not provided unless approved by their supervisor/s.
This ensures the quality of the recipe. By only using approved ingredients that meet the needs

of the patient's diet, (for example being gluten free or low sodium) it provides a safe way to
ensure that patients are getting their nutritional needs met.
-The next step of process is the actual cooking of the product. The recipe does not provide a
cooking temperature, that is because IMC Food Service cook all of our soups, sauces and
entrees to over 180F to ensure all harmful bacteria is fully killed.
This arguably can effect the quality of the finished product, but we prefer to error on the
side of caution in this case due to our patients who are at high-risk at contracting harmful
diseases.
-After the product is finished cooking it is portioned into one (1) gallon bags, sealed and then
placed into a tumble chiller to cool down quickly. This will cool the product down from 190F to
under 40F within the four (4) hour limit that is has been established by the National Restaurant
Association (Cooling food correctly, 2015).
-Then the product it removed from the tumble chiller and placed in the refrigerator which keeps
the product safely under 40F until it is either shipped out to a satellite facility or heated up in the
local cafeteria.
-When the product is ready to be served it can then be removed from the refrigerator heated up
in a steamer or a small kettle, staying in the bag, within a hour.

The benefits of using IMCs cook chill system includes but not limited to the following
-Less staff is needed to produce soups and sauces due to the quantity that can be
produced by a few cooks.
-One cook can reheat the cook-chill product while cooking other products needed for a
`meal.
-The extra staff can be reassigned to other parts of the kitchen where they are needed.
- This is an additional benefit for when the kitchen is short-staffed or there are higher
needs from the hospital.
-The product is more consistent with only a couple of cooks cooking the same recipe
than having many cooks cooking the same recipe.
-When shipped to a satellite facility, the kitchen there does not need to be an extensive
facility to maintain the foods being served. For example, these items can be reheated in a pot
on the stove.
There are no direct ISO standards that are used to govern the cook chill process. Since food
service use rubber and plastic gloves ISO standard 14285:2014 should be noted.
As far as a governing agency is concerned the National Restaurant Association (NRA) is the
most recognized U.S. national organization. They established the ServSafe certificate that is
recognized nationally. ServSafe being an advanced form of the food handlers permit intended
for kitchen managers and owners.

References
Cooling food correctly. (2015). National Restaurant Association. Retrieved November 13, 2016, from
http://www.restaurant.org/Manage-My-Restaurant/Food-Nutrition/Food-Safety/Cooling-food-correctly