Food Prep Checklist

Hit prep tables, low-boy tops, and the pass with degreaser before sanitizer — sanitizer is inactivated by organic soil. Two-step process: clean first, then sanitize. The dishwasher should restock clean wiping cloths in the bucket of fresh sanitizer.

Quat-amine sanitizer should test at 200-400 ppm; chlorine at 50-100 ppm; iodine at 12.5-25 ppm. Always test with a strip — eyeballing the dilution is a top-five health-inspector citation. Log the reading; the strip alone is not a record.

Red for raw beef/pork, yellow for raw poultry, blue for raw seafood, green for produce, white for dairy/cooked. Cross-contamination at the cutting board is the most common path to a foodborne-illness complaint.

Soap, single-use paper towels, and warm running water at 100°F minimum. Handwash sinks are not utility sinks — no thawing, no rinsing produce, no filling pitchers. An obstructed or cold handwash sink is an automatic critical violation in most jurisdictions.

Submerge the probe in a glass of crushed ice and water for 30 seconds; reading should be 32°F (0°C). Adjust the calibration nut on bimetal probes; replace the battery on digital probes that drift more than 2°F. Calibrate at the start of every shift.

Cold-holding requires 41°F or below per FDA Food Code. If the walk-in is reading above 41°F, do not store TCS items inside until the unit recovers — escalate to the GM and call refrigeration service. The temperature log is the only documentation that protects the operator if a complaint or inspection lands.

Each line reach-in and low-boy should hold at 41°F or below. Check the freezer at 0°F or below. Note any units running warm on the work-order log so maintenance can address before they fail mid-service.

Wet, soap, scrub for 20 seconds, rinse, dry with single-use towel. Repeat after handling raw protein, after using the restroom, after eating or smoking, and after any glove change. No bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food.

Clean coat per shift, apron over (apron comes off when leaving the line), hair fully restrained, beard guard if applicable, no jewelry below the wrist except a plain band. Cell phones stay off the prep surface.

FDA Food Code Big 6 reportable pathogens: Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella, STEC (E. coli), Salmonella Typhi, and non-typhoidal Salmonella. Symptom screen for vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, infected lesions. Anyone symptomatic goes home — exclusion is the rule, not the exception.

Walk the line and the walk-in with yesterday's count sheet. Mark each item against par and write the day's prep list — overproduction is the largest single driver of food cost variance. Adjust for known covers (private events, large reservations on Resy/OpenTable).

Use the produce sink (never the handwash sink). Spin leafy greens and herbs dry; wet greens spoil faster and dilute dressings. Discard any items showing slime, off-odor, or bruising past the trim line.

Use the calibrated scale; record yields against theoretical to flag trim variance to the chef. Keep raw proteins on the bottom shelf of the walk-in below ready-to-eat items, organized by cook temperature (poultry lowest).

Review tonight's reservation notes (Resy/SevenRooms/OpenTable allergy flags) and the BNB book. If any guest has a Top-9 allergy (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, sesame) or celiac, today's prep needs dedicated tools and surfaces and the line cooks brief on substitution paths.

Use the purple allergen-coded board, fresh gloves, and a dedicated set of tongs and pans. Hold allergen portions in a separately-labeled container in the low-boy. Brief the expediter so allergy tickets get fired on the dedicated path with no shared fryer oil.

Convection oven to 350°F unless recipe specifies, fryers to 350-365°F per oil-life log, flat top to 375°F. Skim and filter fryer oil before service if the morning cook didn't; dark or smoking oil pulls food cost and flavors poorly.

Poultry and stuffed proteins to 165°F for 15 seconds; ground meat to 155°F; whole-muscle pork, beef, fish to 145°F; reheated TCS items to 165°F within 2 hours. Probe at the thickest point, not the surface.

Sanitize the probe between proteins. Record temps for batch-cooked items (stocks, braises, soups) on the cook log — surprise health inspections check this log first. If any item misses temp, return to heat; do not pull the log entry.

FDA Food Code two-stage cooling: 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then 70°F to 41°F within an additional 4 hours (6 hours total). Use shallow pans, ice baths, or blast chiller. Record start temp/time, the 2-hour check, and the 6-hour check. The cooling log is the single most-cited missing record on health inspections.

Item name, prep date, use-by date, and prep cook initials on every container. Ready-to-eat TCS items get a 7-day max use-by from the prep date (Day 1 is prep day). Dissolvable labels are easier on the dish pit than tape residue.

Oldest dates pulled forward, newest pushed to the back. Raw proteins on the bottom shelf, ready-to-eat on top, organized by cook temp. Discard anything past use-by — back-dating or sniff-testing past-date product is how complaints turn into closures.

Final low-boy and reach-in check before service. Ice down ceviche, raw bar items, and aggressive-spoilage proteins. Hot-holding items (soups, braises, mashed potatoes) move to the steam table held at 135°F or above — confirm with the calibrated probe.