Top 5 Differences Between Commercial Cooking And Home Cooking

If you love cooking at home and get compliments on your dishes all the time and the thought of opening up your own restaurant must have occurred to you at some point.  Before diving into the business, I will recommend getting more information about the hospitality industry and its target audience. "What are the differences between Home Cooking and Commercial Cookery"? Are you capable of handling the business? Is there any substantial difference between domestic kitchens and commercial kitchens?

Although there are many things that home cooking and Commercial Cooking have in common, both are still very quite different. Let's explore one by one.

What is Commercial Cooking?

Commercial cooking is the act of preparing various meals, professionally, in a large-scale setting. These large-scale settings include schools, commercial kitchens, and restaurants. It is usually less intensive than the chef's role and requires less training time. Some key duties of a commercial cook include:

1. Working with different kitchen tools and equipment for diverse functions
2. Maintaining commercial kitchen supplies
3. Preparing regular and gourmet meals, depending on the customer
4. Going through menu options and making meals accordingly
5. Constantly coordinating with the team
6. Doing preparatory work-cutting food or arranging food in respective bowls, mugs, plates, etc.
7. Applying health and safety codes
8. Handling emergency protocols if an emergency occurs in a commercial kitchen

There are many other responsibilities that come along with commercial cooking, but in a nutshell, this is what it covers.

What is Home Cooking?

Cooking at home essentially entails preparing meals for yourself, loved ones, and guests. We are seeing that from the beginning our parents prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner at home on a regular basis.  They always preferred us to have home-made-food to live a long healthy life. 

Home Cooking Vs Restaurant Cooking

Now that you have a vague idea about how the two differ, let us see precisely what sets the two apart. Here is a proper clarification of both:

Differences between Commercial Cookery and Home Cooking.

1. Use of different Utensils

Although professional tools and appliances are deliberately manufactured to be in continual usage each and every day, they work differently. The reason is that in a restaurant, higher efficiency is essential. In a commercial kitchen, meals need to be prepared consistently and rapidly over and over. Due to this, ovens are heavy-duty and hotter, pots are larger, and deep fryer fries in seconds instead of minutes. These are the things that you’ll need some time getting used to.

Whereas in a typical household, the size of refrigerators and freezers are comparatively smaller in size. Usually, household kitchens either have a stove, oven, or combo. This cooking equipment is capable of making three meals a day for a family of four. But, commercial cooking equipment is much sturdier and heavy duty to withstand extensive usage.

2. Scaling up of different Food Items

Scaling up a food or beverage product for preparation at a commercial or mass level is a whole another level of complexity. Irrespective of the scale you are cooking for, the process is a stressful one. This one is a major aspect of understanding what is Commercial Cooking and home cooking. While at home we wing it and do what we know best but when it comes to scaling up different food items, it takes more calculation and mindfulness to do it for a commercial kitchen. For commercial cooking, appropriate scaling is an absolute must.

For instance, in a home setting, including a stick of butter into your recipe is very easy—you cut it into pieces and put them into the mix. But, while handling a 60-pound butter block, the method varies significantly. You'll require intermittent steps in your preparation to process your ingredients. This may also call for additional units of storage and staging space for pre-treated ingredients as well as equipment. Plus you have to put more physical effort into scaling ingredients before incorporating them into your meals.

3. Working Speed Difference

Many recipes do not scale well, in fact, you don't even get to cook at a leisurely pace. Many meals tend to taste better when prepared in smaller or limited quantities. It’s tough to comprehend unless and until you’ve tried it. But for those who do not know, it rarely takes the same amount of time to prepare on a larger scale without compromising on taste or quality.

Although commercial cooking is based on the same practice as home cooking, it’s not the same. Even if you are an amazing home cook, you may find yourself dazed with heavy-duty equipment, commercial-grade food products, and an ever-busy environment. 

4. Use Different Working Equipment

Cooking in a commercial setting is trickier with the usage of different working equipment. Equipment marks out as one of the major differences between Commercial Cookery and Home Cooking. When you prepare a meal at the convenience of your own home, you mostly just whip some out on a plate, and voila. You hardly have anything to worry about using operating different equipment as everything is easy to handle.

Restaurants use heavy-duty ovens, deep fryers, stoves, etc and that will take you some getting used to.

5. Teamwork is an Important Aspect

You can not daydream while stirring your soup, or lean back and relax while your oven takes its sweet time to bake. Instead, you have carried out the cooking systematically in perfect coordination with the rest of the cooking team. Teamwork is the key here, particularly on busy days, professional kitchens are always buzzing with activity. Cooking in a commercial place is not a one-man job. It takes a whole team to meet the mass requirements. For that, it is crucial to work within a team and get along with the rest of the staff. So, while comparing Home Cooking Vs Commercial Cooking teamwork is one aspect that you must take into account before making up your mind.

So to sum it up.

 We have mentioned all the essential differences between Home Cooking and Commercial Cookery, but note that the distinction between Home Cooking Vs Commercial Cooking does not end here. Home kitchens do not undergo rigorous and sometimes straight-up repetitive inspections that commercial kitchens do, because the health of hundreds of people is at stake.

Working in a restaurant is an amazing profession, but it is vastly different from cooking at home. Even if you love cooking and it comes naturally to you, commercial cooking demands so much more. You may initially feel baffled by professional equipment, commercial-grade products, and the busy environment. That said, if you have a flair for cooking and believe it to be your true calling, go for it!. If you want to learn about working in a commercial kitchen and want to become a chef then you must pursue courses like certificate III in commercial cookery. 

 FAQ: 

 Question 1) What is the difference between home-cooked food and restaurant food?

 Answer: According to studies home cooked food is the best for consumption. Home-cooked food is a lot healthier than restaurant-cooked food. The food from the restaurant contains more sodium than normal home-cooked food. Sodium is generally used to increase the flavors. Excess sodium is bad for health. Restaurant food also contains too much fat and cholesterol which is not good for health.

 Question 2) Can a home cook become a professional chef?

Answer: A home cook can become a professional chef. Before getting into the field of commercial cookery an individual has to undergo some professional courses like Certificate 3 and Certificate 4 in Commercial cookery. The courses will give a good understanding of the working of a professional kitchen.

Question 3) What are the reasons to study commercial cooking in Australia?

Answer: There are various benefits of commercial cooking like :

1. It is one of the fastest growing sectors and is expected to grow more.
2. Independence at the workplace.
3. Chances of getting global career opportunities.