Corporate Cooking

A Day in the Life of a B&I Chef // By Amelia Levin

We caught up with ACF Chef Doug Patten Sr., CEC, CCA, AAC , a senior corporate executive chef for FLIK Hospitality (part of Compass Group) who has been with the company for the past three decades. Chef Patten oversees more than 100 accounts in the Northeast region, and he also travels around the country to oversee and train during new business openings.

“A lot of my work is ensuring our accounts are following the FLIK standards and offering support in any way, whether it’s helping with sanitation logs, providing recipes and training videos,” says Chef Patten, who notes he’s worked with just about every Fortune 500 company during his tenure at FLIK, where he serves in the B&I division, though the company maintains accounts in other segments such as sports and entertainment. Chef Patten has worked with businesses of all types, including law firms, investment firms, pharmaceutical companies and others.

Lately, with the advent of remote work, Chef Patten has noticed that the busier days tend to be Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, so chefs need to “check the badge counts from the previous day and weeks to get a rough estimate of how many people they’re prepping for and adjust accordingly,” he says.

On the menu development front, Chef Patten says FLIK maintains a strong marketing and R&D team that continually tracks industry trends and develops and tests recipes for the company’s proprietary recipe and nutrition database that he can access while helping onsite chefs plan their menus. “Our chefs have a lot of leeway to create their menus and if they need help, there are plenty of recipes in our database with all the nutritional info as well as cooking demo videos.” Lately, Chef Patten has been noticing that most of the FLIK customers are looking for classic, signature dishes and recipes without a ton of fuss, from pasta stations with plenty of ingredient add-ins to sizzling steak and other protein- and plant-based bowl options, plus indulgent items like chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars. Allergen-friendly items are hugely important, too.

Authentic items have to be just that. “If we are introducing a new program like a Chinese bing station, we’ll do videos on how to cook the items, set up the station and work with the equipment to get the message out correctly,” Chef Patten says.

To maintain quality and consistency, FLIK uses an outside auditing service to track customer feedback. “If a low score pops up, that’s when we’ll make sure we visit that account and support the team to get back on track,” Chef Patten says.

During this interview, Chef Patten was at a law firm in Houston. Here, he tells us a little about his day.

7 OR 8 A.M. – ARRIVE ON-SITE

“Usually when I get there I’ll do a quick assessment of the kitchen and servery. I’ll make sure everything is set up and help get last-minute dishes together. I might also help them pump out the food during breakfast service. Today it was only the chef’s third day so I also helped him set up the breakfast bar according to our standards using FLIK diagrams and photos.”

10:30 A.M. – OFFICE TIME

“After breakfast, I’ll go right into the office and might tweak some of the station diagrams that we will leave behind so if another manager or chef comes in down the road they’ll have a guide to follow. I also noticed the team was missing a couple logs so I’ll help with that. And then there are other items on my checklist on standards, procedures, sanitation and ordering guides that I might not have gotten to during the initial opening.”

11 A.M. – LUNCH PREP

“We’ll start getting the soups out and taking temperatures and marking those in the production records. I’ll make sure everything is set up correctly at the stations and then help get additional food out for lunch service.”

1:30-4 P.M. – CATERING ASSISTANCE

“I usually head to the office again to finish up some other logs for the catering division and then I’ll visit the catering kitchen to help pump out the last of those jobs. I might also do a few culinary demos for the staff, especially for new staff members. I’ll show how to correctly cut a pepper to save on waste, for example. They love that attention and that someone cares. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”

4-5:30 P.M. – FINAL OFFICE WORK

“To close out the day, I’ll update the production records so they don’t have to and make sure all the logs are in place. Maybe we’ll do a little prep for the next day. Or I’ll do other little things [the client] might need, like print off and help hang an allergen sign that was missing. I’ll spend at least a week at a time at a site to ensure the proper support. We don’t just walk in for a day or two. We stay, and when I leave here, another corporate chef will come in on the second week, and I might even be back in a couple weeks to follow up. We pride ourselves in that support, and [the kitchen teams] have our numbers and they can call us for anything they need going forward. We’re always there for them.”

Classical

ACF Competition Committee Chair Frank Costantino, Ed.D., CEC, CCA, CCE, CEPC, AAC, dean of the School of Hospitality Management and the Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College, and student Isabella Torres collaborated to present Chef Auguste Escoffier’s Recipe #1929, sole à l’andalouse, in classical and modern form. For the classical version, plated in the handheld, Russian platter-style Escoffier was known for, Chef Costantino and Torres prepared a sole and scallop forcemeat containing braised and chopped pimento that was then rolled into paupiette shape and poached in a buttered saute pan with fish stock and wine. The paupiette was nestled in a lightly cooked tomato shell with a pimento-studded risotto cooked the traditional way at the base. The stuffed tomato was then served on a round slice of fried eggplant and finished with a drizzle of beurre noisette.

Modern

Monroe College students presented this same modernized version of sole à l’andalouse during the ACF National Competition Qualifiers last year that advanced the students to the national stage at convention. Torres, who was an apprentice on the student team at the time, will lead the team in this year’s competitions. For this version, Chef Costantino and Torres prepared the same seafood forcemeat but used piquillo pepper powder for extra color and flavor. The resulting pimento mousseline was then piped onto sole filets, rolled up “pinwheel style” and lightly poached in fish fumet and white wine. To speed up the risotto cooking process for competitions, the Arborio rice was ground into a coarse powder to transform into a porridge of sorts when cooked in just a few minutes. For plating, a tomato coulis formed the base and was topped with the risotto porridge, paupiettes of sole, panfried Japanese eggplant slices and a brown butter foam. Dots of a piquillo pepper gel made with the powder and agar encircle the fish at the center with a chervil garnish offering a final ode to the legendary Escoffier, who was known for using this fine herb in many of his dishes.

For recipes, visit acfchefs.org/recipes