Can we talk about how overrated hand-cutting fries is in a busy kitchen?

I swapped to a french fry cutter last March and my ticket times dropped by 4 minutes during dinner rush, but half the guys on the line still swear hand-cut tastes better even though nobody can tell the difference once they hit the fryer oil.

3 comments

3 Comments

patb1212d ago

Hate to be that guy, but hand-cut fries actually do hold up better to the oil temperature because they're not perfectly uniform, so you get more surface area for that crispy exterior. Your mileage may vary on the ticket times though.

johnson.jesse12d ago

I mean, sure, you're not wrong about surface area and all that science stuff. But is anyone really standing over the fry station with a microscope measuring the "non-uniformity" of their potato slices? Most places I've worked at just cut them because the machine broke and we didn't have a backup. And half the time they come out either raw in the middle or burnt to a crisp because nobody's timing them right. So yeah, the theory checks out, but in practice you're probably still getting soggy fries either way when the dinner rush hits.

robertgreen12d ago

Is the crispiness tradeoff worth the inconsistent cook times during a rush though?