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DinnerPrep

Dinner Prep

Time frame: 3:30 - 6:30 pm

Duration: 3 hrs. This is a pre-assigned shift.

Description: Dinner is the only meal we are scheduled to eat together as a camp. Although we do have a "Head Chef" at Naked Heart, the responsibility of cooking camp dinner is in the hands of the other campers. There are two different roles in the dinner prep shift:

  1. Guest chef: Being a guest chef at Naked Heart means that you take complete ownership of the preparation of an evening meal. The Head Chef will help set you up for your shift and you will be assisted by an entire team of about 5-7 volunteer cooks to execute the meal. You will be provided with the recipes for your meal before the Burn and will have access to everything you'll need when you show up to your shift. Your biggest challenge will be to get the food out in a timely manner (ideally by 6:30pm), so this position requires someone with the expertise to direct, coordinate, and lead the dinner team through a high volume recipe.
One guest chef shift will satisfy ALL your work shift obligations during the burn. If you were a guest Chef previously, please request to cook the same dish as you cooked previously.
  1. Cooks: The role of the cook is to prep dinner under the guidance of the guest chef. Tasks include chopping, dicing, rice/grain/legume cooking, and cleaning along the way to keep the kitchen clear and organized. It's production work, but it can be a lot of fun, very satisfying, and at times creative! Cooks do not need extensive experience cooking for large groups, but it is helpful that they have knife skills and a strong interest in food prep. It is also imperative that they are willing to follow precise instructions and can stay focused on a task.
Each cook kitchen shift counts for 1.5 work shifts. Doing 2 kitchen shifts counts for your entire work shift obligation. However, if you miss a kitchen shift, you must make it up with 2 non-kitchen shifts. It is preferred that each person take 2 kitchen shifts. That allows you to learn your way around the kitchen and to be really helpful on your second shift.

A few things we can do to improve the camp dinner experience:

  1. Utilizing a whiteboard to update the estimated serving time: People anticipate dinner to be served around 6:30pm, but sometimes the ETA can be later. To avoid having dozens of people popping their heads in to check on the food, we place a whiteboard outside of the kitchen to update the serving time. Please use this!
  2. Displaying the menu/ingredient list: Create signage to indicate the ingredients in each of the dishes for people with allergens/dietary preferences.
  3. Improving the serving speed: Given the size of the camp, it can take a long time to get everyone served. Please make sure there are at least two versions of each dish on the tables and have people line up on each side of the table to improve the speed.
  4. Controlling serving sizes: It has sometimes been the case that the people at the back of the line do not receive as much food as the people in the front. There should be enough food for everyone to be well-fed based on the recipe yields. However, it’s sometimes the case people in the front see a massive abundance of food, are less cognizant of how many people still need to be fed, and therefore take more than they need in their first round of serving. We’ve considered a few ways to prevent this, including:
    • a) not putting out all the food on the serving tables at once (i.e. reducing the illusion of unending abundance), and
    • b) having kitchen team members or volunteers ration out portions.
People are more than welcome to come for second rounds - we just need to make sure everyone gets a hearty first round. Feel free to take any initiative to address this issue in your own way!

Thank you for your service in preparing a warm and nourishing meal - bon appetit!!