Chapter 14 — Self-Check Quiz

Twenty-four questions. Answer them before opening the key. Constructed figures are from the Bellwether plan.

Multiple choice

1. A production sheet differs from a prep list primarily because it also carries:

A. the name of the cook assigned to each item B. the par level, the on-hand count, the recipe yield, and the forecast the par derives from C. the food-safety cooling times for each item D. the invoice cost of every component

2. Bellwether's hearth sustains 28 items an hour. One "fire slot" is therefore:

A. 28 minutes B. 8 minutes C. 2.14 minutes D. 60 minutes divided by the number of cooks

3. Of Bellwether's entrée orders, the share fired to order on the hearth is:

A. 22% B. 34% C. 44% D. 67%

4. The figure "peak fire utilization of 67%" describes:

A. the share of entrées cooked over wood B. the share of the hearth's hourly ceiling consumed by the busiest hour of a 95-cover plan night C. the percentage of the hearth's surface in use at any moment D. the utilization of the plancha at peak

5. Ticket time should be measured from:

A. the moment the guest orders, to the moment the plate reaches the table B. the moment the ticket reaches the kitchen, to the moment the last plate of that course leaves the pass C. the moment the first component starts cooking, to plate-up D. the moment the ticket is bumped on the kitchen display system

6. In the Friday scenario, the first station to break was:

A. the hearth, at 7:00 B. sauté, at 8:20 C. garde manger, at 6:30 D. the pass, at 7:18

7. Splitting the party's 14 hearth chickens into two waves of seven:

A. creates additional hearth capacity by overlapping cook times B. reduces total fire-slot demand by roughly half C. does not create capacity; it moves the delay onto the à la carte queue D. eliminates the need to 86 the flatbread

8. A Hearth Chicken cooked from raw rather than from a par-roast takes roughly:

A. 8 minutes B. 14 minutes C. 22 minutes D. 35 minutes

9. The chapter's stated reason that par cooking makes a two-person hot line possible is that it:

A. lowers food cost by reducing trim B. converts long live-fire cooks into short finishes, moving work into cheap, flexible prep hours C. allows the kitchen to buy pre-portioned proteins D. removes the need for a ticket-time standard

10. A dry-aged ribeye that dwells 16 minutes against an 8-minute average consumes:

A. one fire slot B. two fire slots C. half a fire slot D. no fire slots, because it rests off the fire

11. Which pattern in a ticket-time report most strongly indicates a shape problem rather than a capacity problem?

A. the median rises across every service B. only the 95th percentile rises C. one station's items rise and the others do not D. times rise while covers are flat

12. Times falling while comps and remakes rise most likely means:

A. the kitchen has become more efficient B. the standard was set too high C. the kitchen is meeting the number by sending food that is not ready D. the reporting period changed

13. "All day" refers to:

A. the total covers booked for a service B. the running total of an item across every open ticket C. an item that is available for the entire service D. the number of hours a station is staffed

14. The chapter's floor plan allows about 151 covers. The hearth allows about:

A. 120 B. 133 C. 144 D. 168

15. If the hearth share of entrées drifts from 44% to 50%, the cover ceiling falls to about:

A. 108 B. 133 C. 140 D. 151

16. The most defensible reason to make a capacity 86 in advance is that:

A. it saves food cost B. it returns production capacity at a known, priced cost in contribution margin C. it simplifies the menu for new servers D. it reduces the number of items on the production sheet

17. The Friday night's net hard cost, against \$6,828 of sales, was approximately:

A. \$1,150 B. \$620 C. \$117 D. zero, because the restaurant saved a wage

18. In the Friday scenario, the reason the party's first course could be plated ahead at 6:15 was that it was:

A. a hot course held above 135°F B. a cold course held at or below 41°F C. reheated to 165°F at service D. served family style from platters

Short answer

19. Explain in two sentences why the Friday's whole-service hearth utilization of about 70% and its peak-hour utilization of 136% are both true, and which one an operator should manage to.

20. Bellwether's plan week is 62 / 78 / 92 / 120 / 123. Give the two ways a single unchanging par level is wrong across that week, and say which error is more expensive and which is better hidden.

21. The chapter says the Friday's transferable lesson is not "hire more people." State what it is, in one sentence, and give one system from the chapter that serves it.

22. A cook says "I know we have enough salsa verde." What is the single follow-up question, and what is the only acceptable answer?

23. Compute: 12 flatbreads at a \$11.65 contribution margin are not sold; six of those tables substitute a starter carrying a \$10.40 contribution margin. What is the actual margin forgone?

24. Why does the chapter insist that a closing log must be signed by someone in the morning as well as at night?

Answer key **1. B.** The forecast-and-coverage column is what makes a par auditable; a prep list can only be executed. **2. C.** $60 \div 28 = 2.14$ minutes. **3. C.** 44% hearth, 34% plancha (finished from a wood par-cook), 22% sauté and oven. **4. B.** It is a utilization figure — 18.7 fire actions against a 28-per-hour ceiling — not a share of entrées. Different quantity, different denominator. **5. B.** From arrival at the pass (not the order) to "sold" (not plate-up). Measuring from the order imports the server's delay; measuring to plate-up hides food dying under a lamp. **6. C.** Garde manger, when 40 covers of first course landed in a twelve-minute window — roughly 120 minutes of plating compressed into twelve. **7. C.** Wave-splitting moves the pain; it does not add capacity. The party eats within a twelve-minute spread and the à la carte queue absorbs the difference. **8. D.** About 35 minutes, against a 14-minute standard — which is why a par-roast stock-out effectively 86s the dish. **9. B.** The par-cook converts 11–14 minute live-fire cooks into 3-minute plancha finishes, moving the work into prep hours. It is a prime-cost trade inside the same total. **10. B.** Twice the average dwell means twice the slots. Four in one hour therefore cost eight slots, not four. **11. B.** A rising tail with a flat median means capacity is adequate but arrivals are compressed. The fix is usually in the dining room, not the kitchen. **12. C.** The most dangerous pattern in the chapter: a proxy being gamed. Read ticket times next to comps, remakes, and reviews or do not read them at all. **13. B.** The running total across open tickets, which converts independent orders into a production queue and makes mid-service batching possible. **14. C.** About 144, from $28 \div 0.1946$. **15. B.** About 133 — $28 \div 0.2108$ — a loss of eleven covers, roughly \$506 at a \$46 check on any night the room would otherwise have filled. **16. B.** It is the only 86 that is a decision rather than a consequence, and its cost can be computed in advance against the capacity it returns. **17. C.** \$116.70 — about 1.7% of the night's sales — and the restaurant came out ahead on wages, which is precisely why the number is misleading about what the night actually cost. **18. B.** Cold holding at or below 41°F is what makes plating ahead legitimate. A hot first course would have been a violation waiting for an inspector, not a scheduling question. (Chapter 25 builds the rules; verify local adoption.) **19.** The 70% is an average across four and a half hours; the 136% is one hour inside it. Averages smooth and queues do not, so an operator manages to the peak band and to the 95th percentile, not to the service average. **20.** Building every night to Saturday over-produces perishable prep on Tuesday and Wednesday — real money in food cooked and never sold. Building every night to Tuesday runs the restaurant out on Saturday. Running out is more expensive, because it converts a food-cost error into a revenue and guest error; over-prep is better hidden, because no guest ever complains about it. **21.** A kitchen's resilience is decided by which decisions are still available and for how long — at 3:41 the chef held five options, at 7:20 only one. Any of the chapter's early-discovery systems serves it: the 3:00 par-cook count, the 4:30 mise audit, the production sheet's forecast column, or the written ticket-time standard. **22.** *How do you know?* The only acceptable answer involves having counted it, in the walk-in, with the sheet in hand. Most "we ran out" incidents are count errors, not par errors. **23.** Six units lose the full \$11.65 = \$69.90. Six units lose only the difference, $\$11.65 - \$10.40 = \$1.25$, so $6 \times \$1.25 = \$7.50$. Total forgone: **\$77.40.** **24.** Because a log nobody reads becomes approximately correct, then habitually correct, then fiction — and fiction is worse than no log, since it produces false confidence and looks like compliance to everyone including the owner.