My favorite definition of line cooking, is a cook who does a little bit of everything. I love the challenge of simultaneously preparing many meals. Great flavored, properly cooked and served food is what’s important to me. It’s about the main dish, not about the fancy plating or a piece of parsley. Jess is the culinary artist of the family. Her dishes look as delicious as they taste, with the perfect accoutrements. I love her creativity and her food. Together we make some delicious meals.
I have spent most of my life in the restaurant industry, owning my own restaurant for many years. Jess grew up in a family who owned multiple restaurants. This does not make us experts, it does mean we have seen and learned a lot. I started working in fast food when I was fifteen. I loved the restaurant industry from the beginning, the pace of the job and camaraderie of the people are addictive. People correctly think restaurants are a lot of work, which they are but, they are also a lot of fun!
My evolution from line cook to RV cook was seamless and simple. I learned many skills over the years in the variety of kitchens I worked in, which taught me to be flexible, creative, and adventurous. These qualities not only are important to RV cooking but, to RV life in general.
Chain Restaurants
I was a fifteen year old employee in a national chain restaurant, and I learned how satisfying it was to know exactly what I was being asked to do. There was no guessing and no deviation, each person who did the job, did it the same way, every time and was expected to have the same results. The efficiency which was created with process was even understood by myself a high school student working at my first job.
Chain restaurants control their environments. Similar size restaurants in similar types of places, often near the same retail brands in every community. The restaurants have the same branding and physically look alike. A burger in Miami will taste the same as a burger in Chicago. A chain restaurants success depends on process, within their individual restaurants and across all of their national locations.
Process in any business is what creates consistency and stability. Restaurants are as unique as individuals. Each kitchen has it’s own design and specialized equipment. Every employee working in the restaurant possesses their own skills and personalities. Process brings everyone together and creates order. When I became an owner, I knew how important it was for me to create this same organized environment.
Restaurant Ownership
As an independent owner I only had to worry about my one location. Process development was an important part of my job. When a new menu item is added it affects many things. The staff needs to understand how to properly prepare the new item and the amount of volume to prepare. They must also learn proper cooking procedures, serving sizes and plating options, including how it is integrated into the existing menu and flow of service. One simple menu addition may require several new processes to be developed and taught.
I’m guessing, if you are still reading this, you are trying to understand why I am talking about my restaurant and process development. After all my years developing and implementing process, it is part of me. My wife and I both love to cook. We are different in our cooking styles and each enjoy making different types of meals. We have developed a nice routine (process). Breakfast has always been my favorite to cook and to eat. I cook us breakfast and lunch and Jess makes us dinner.
Restaurants are complicated beasts which can be tamed with thoughtful planning and process development. I love seeing a good plan, with solid execution, turn the chaos of a restaurant, into a soothing, mesmerizing experience. There is nothing like the feeling of completing a flawless Sunday service. Happy staff and happy customers are what it was all about.
Chopped RV style
As we downsized, before selling our primary residence and moving into our RV full-time, we challenged each other to a little game. It was our own version of the tv show chopped. The goal was to empty out the pantry. Each day we used only what we had left to make our meals. It was fun trying to create a composed meal with only the ingredients which somehow found themselves in the back of our pantry. We alternated cooking each meal, with every turn it became more difficult. It was a fun, with some delicious results. I recommend it to everyone to play.
Recipes
The freedom to learn there are no rules in cooking is important. Process is not rules. It’s Okay to not follow a recipe exactly. Cooking is unique to your family’s individual preferences. I listened to many of my restaurant customers talk about how they were afraid of cooking. They would say they did not have time to cook. but what I heard when I listened to them, is that they were overwhelmed trying to follow a recipe. They were intimidated because, they do not know what to do if they do not have all the ingredients or understand the cooking terminology.
Myself and my wife both use recipes as a guide. If I have three ingredients in my fridge sometimes, I ask Google what recipes feature those three items. I read through many of the recipes and decide if there is something we would like. When I start cooking it is often a combination of several of the recipes I have read about. I also used this process in the restaurant.
Our restaurant had a menu, but we excelled in making daily specials and soups. When we had small amounts of an item to use. I would need to create something delicious that people would want to eat. Some of our most popular soups and specials were developed using this process. We made cheeseburger soup and loaded baked potato soup before they were popular.
Most people know what flavors to expect from a loaded baked potato. My soup would contain those most common flavors. Potato, sour cream, chives, bacon, cheese, etc… I could also change it up and use broccoli and cheddar or jalapeños, the options are unlimited.
Creativity
This same concept can be carried across many foods. For example: If you love BBQ brisket think about how many delicious creative ways you can serve that one ingredient. Traditionally with slaw, beans, and fries or unconventionally as BBQ brisket nachos, mac and cheese, or as an omelet. We sold a popular BBQ brisket quesadilla, which included slaw, beans and melted cheddar cheese inside the grilled tortilla shell.
This freedom to be creative and use recipes as a guide and idea generator, is key to line cooking and finding enjoyment in cooking. If I do not have an item a recipe calls for, I do not panic and run to the store I decide if it is important. Can I replace it with something I have or eliminate it completely. This skill has come in particularly beneficial in our full-time RV lifestyle. If I do not have something I don’t worry about it.
Plant-Based Diet
Jess and I adopted a plant-based diet before we knew we were going to be living in our RV full-time. Our timing was perfect. Living in the RV easily lends itself to a plant-based diet lifestyle. The bulk of our proteins are whole grains, rice, and legumes, which we can easily store in our pantry. They need no refrigeration until cooked and are quite compact.
We stock-up on our dried foods when we are in larger communities. Fresh produce and fruits are readily available even in the smallest communities and we purchase them along the way. We especially love it when we can purchase local produce from farm stands.
Shopping
We have created our process for shopping and prepping meals. We plan to shop when we know, we will have access to services like power and water. I purchase a variety fresh produce, whatever is available, and in season. Just like in my restaurant days, shopping days are hectic with multiple things happening simultaneously. Beans are cooking in the Instant-pot and potatoes are cooking on the stove at the same time I’m cutting vegetables. In just a few hours I have food prepped for several days’ meals.
I wash and cut our vegetables when I buy them. The onions, peppers and, jalapeños, are diced and stored in airtight containers in the fridge. We use the vegetables in whatever meals we want to make, it is much easier and cooking with them is effortless. This advanced prepping eliminates much of our water usage. https://hikingmemere.com/video-of-the-week-food-prep/
We often boondock and have a limited water supply. When I prep our produce I used the cutting board once and washed it once, instead of everyday, saving time and water. The process is consistent and provides many options for creativity in our meal choices.
We alternate the grains and proteins in our diet and go weeks without eating the same meal. This variety is easy with some thought put into your pantry items. I would provide you my list of must have items, but it would probably not be of much help to you. Cooking and food choices are individual.
RV Cook Equipment
Our RV https://hikingmemere.com/our-gear-list-leisure-travel-van/ is equipped with a propane two-burner stove top. It also has a high-tech multi-function oven which will microwave, convection bake, broil, air fry and probably a lot more which I have yet to learn. We purchased a Coleman propane portable grill with one burner for our BBQ option, as an added benefit it has a griddle available for perfect pancakes https://www.coleman.com/grills-stoves/grill-stove-combos/. One of my favorite cooking tools is our 3-quart Instant pot https://www.instanthome.com/product/instant-pot/duo/3-quart-mini-pressure-cooker-v5. It saves us time and delivers a consistent product. I also enjoy cooking over the open fire when we are visiting areas where it’s allowed!
RV cooking can be fun!
I believe that the more you can relax and enjoy the cooking process the more likely you will want to cook. The more confidence you gain, the more cooking you will want to do. Cooking in the RV is lots of fun! Prepping is a simple process for enhancing the cooking experience. For me nothing feels better than heading out for a week of boondocking with a fully prepped fridge.
My years as a line cook have transferred easily to our life on the road. My wife and I both love cooking in our RV. Eating quality food, which we have made, often in the middle of no where, just adds to our experience and connection to nature. Leisure Travel Vans are made for the line cook in all of us. Get out there and cook. Live Simple Live Happy.
