Outdoor Kitchen

Working Doc

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Jonathan

Thoughts on Food:

1. After speaking with a close friend in the restaurant business…
   • What you’re doing sounds like what vineyards do during grape harvest season. Lots of culinary students/chefs flock to northern cal to work the fields and learn about wine. While there they live on the land, share family meals, all chip in on effort to cook/clean up.
   • As a food operation, this is a full-time gig for 2 pros. Based on 24 people, 3 meals/day, 7/days a week, year round. Salaried positions is probably the way to go if you want to use a traditional model.
   • You can gain efficiencies with hotel pans in a family style buffet setting. Ultimately the job including managing inventory, schedule, prep, cleanup would require some dedicated human labor.
   • Health codes - if you plan on staying above board as a working farm/workshop/school/job site, best to get the kitchen cleared by whatever health department has jurisdiction.
2. My take on planning:
   • Figure out your vision first. What does the OSE apprenticeship look like with perfect funding? Is it a regimented schedule, where everyone shares family meals? Does everyone pitch in? Or, is it every person for themselves sharing a kitchen, managing their own food? This will establish the framework for planning.
   • Once you have vision, establish time and task organization. Who do you have, what tasks need to be accomplished to achieve vision, how much time can you allocate? This will enable deconfliction with learning/building tasks.
   • There is no reason the kitchen operations can’t follow the same general model of OSE, e.g., collaboration, applied learning, etc. Maybe one of the draws is a general self-sufficiency. All students/apprentices share in the task of harvesting food from garden, making supply runs to nearest Costco, planning the menu, prepping food, cleaning up.
   • After vision, time and task organization, and general plan is laid out, we can identify resource requirements. What equipment do we need to buy? How are tasks rotated to make it work? How much money do we need to source?
3. General recommendations and best practices (fueled primarily by my experience in the military)
   • Protect meal time and use it to build a regimented daily schedule for apprentices. Morale depends on predictable meal schedules, shared time off the clock to bond together and let off steam, and access to good food. Also, apprentice ownership over menu will help.
   • Build food plan into orientation - teach the system for meal planning, food safety/hygiene, grocery shopping, harvesting, task sharing as part of the RTI/welcome to OSE week.
   • Add a wiki page dedicated to recipes and menu items. Build computer access/screen/whiteboard in kitchen for rapid production. 
   • Organize kitchen and stocks with clear labels. Create open-source inventory list that is updated after each day or week.
   • Have clear trash plan that separates compostable items, recyclables, and landfill. Make signs and enforce.
   • Set sustainability goals for minimizing landfill waste.

Concept

• Concept - Roofless Roof with PV for energy provision for the equipment?
• Part of a DIY ethic of learning to manage effectively
• Near Term - Connection to fresh-pick aquaponic greenhouse in the front?
• Phase 3 - robotic milker providing milk automatically in the CV AI future version with Nigerian Dwarf goats
• Rebar truss with vines for aesthetics
• Equipment base of chillers, griddle, freezer, bread maker, ice cream maker, and more
  • Chillers or fridge provide for serve-yourself buffet with veg and cheeses
  • Griddle - serve-yourself from frozen patties, dogs, and meats
  • Break maker produces fresh bread daily
  • Industrial mixer and flour maker start from bags of grain
  • Rodent-proof everywhere - as it's open to the outside but with bug screen. Bug zapper light
  • Industrial stovetop - provides ample griddle area.
  • Storage stainless
  • Microwaves
  • Induction cooktop for most needs
  • Proof of concept of 10kW off-grid PV with very small battery bank (4 motorcycle batteries as buffer). Grid topping of batteries as needed

Quimmit

• Industrial cooker, griddle
• Chillers
• Electric slicer
• Bread maker -

Hybrid Collaboration

Outdoor kitchen concept.

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