Small Changes, Better Bites: Lemongrass Sliders
Every now and then, within the realm of feedback, comes a time where someone goes out of their way to say something that resonates not with an air of subjectivity and opinion, but as a means of construction to help ameliorate the idea of the concept that is applied.
Last year, as orders came rushing in for holiday get togethers, and platters were being pumped out to meet the demand, one such comment came in late after the attended party and it struck me in a way that led to certain changes.
In regards to cooking, the procedures to make a dish are not set in stone. What you may read in a recipe online is not the only way to accomplish the recipe. And you may not know that in the realm of science, the same thing goes, that when making reactions, there could be six different methods for creating the same product with the same reagents.
This changes as well when one goes to scale up a recipe. As one cooks in larger batches, precision can be more neglected, and equipment is swapped out for more volume. A chef has to rely more on tasting to make sure the larger batches are matching the overall balance.
What I didn’t find as true though, was that scaling down has the same effect, and that is how our sandwiches were altered for the better. Our sliders were being built in the same fashion as how I would make a sandwich at home. Grab the components, and like a civil engineer, layer them out in the bread to create an even level filling so each bite would get maximum effect in unity. Turns out this doesn’t work well when things get too small. I made some minimal adjustments early on by chopping things up smaller, making minces versus juliennes so items wouldn’t fall out or pull out when a sandwich was bitten into. But that wasn’t enough.
The last piece of the puzzle was to just get a bowl and mix it all together with a binder. An aioli for our lemongrass chicken. And that did the trick. So for those out there, thinking their comments are not unread, or for those who actually are looking to make a difference and want to be heard, thank you.
Our sandwiches are now better for the feedback. And I hope you might see how they taste at your next event! - Chef Peter
