Took me 6 hours to figure out my prep cooler was just 2 degrees off

I was prepping for Friday dinner service and kept noticing my herbs wilting way faster than normal. Chalked it up to a bad batch from the supplier at first. But then my hollandaise broke twice in a row and I wanted to throw my whisk. Finally checked the temp in my lowboy and it was sitting at 44 instead of 38. That 6 degree difference messed with everything from my cold sauces to my greens. I spent almost a whole shift chasing problems that all traced back to one faulty temperature probe. My GM had to call in a repair guy who fixed it in 20 minutes. Now I check every cooler with a handheld thermometer before I start prep. Has anyone else had a small equipment issue spiral into a whole wasted day?

2 comments

2 Comments

david70118d ago

Check your thermostat placement too. I had a walk in that kept reading right but everything was still warm. Turns out the probe was right next to the fan, so it was getting cold air blasted on it while the rest of the box stayed at 48. The repair guy showed me how the airflow was basically bypassing the sensor completely. Twenty dollar fix to zip tie it to a bottle of water for thermal mass and suddenly everything was back to normal.

miawalker17d ago

Spend the whole day blaming your herbs and your hollandaise when the real issue was you not checking the damn temp first thing. That's on you. Nine times out of ten when stuff goes sideways in prep it's something obvious like a bad cooler or a clogged drain, but people want to play detective instead of doing the basic walkthrough. I've seen cooks waste three hours breaking down a fryer because the oil was smoking, only to find out the new kid put the fry basket in wrong. Equipment fails, sure, but most of the time the problem is the person ignoring the first sign something's off and hoping it fixes itself.

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