A trip home to Timaru was where the majority of my cooking took place this week. The occasion was my grandmothers 90th birthday and friends and family were willing to travel from all around New Zealand to celebrate it. My mum, brother’s partner and I all worked as the weekend caterers and waiters cooking, preparing and serving food for all of guest in our home. Our plan was to all work together in order to put on enough food for approximately 50 people over two days, the food had to keep and be easily prepared while entertaining visitors. The decided menu was: One very large cranberry glazed ham, roast chickens, roast vegetables, and 5 different types of salads.
Now you have an overview on my weekly experience let’s look at ergonomics.
Ergonomics an applied science concerned with the characteristics of people that need to be considered in designing things that they use in order that people and things will interact most effectively and safely (Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary). This basically means how the person fits with the activity and visa-versa, and how the activity fits with the environment and visa-versa. To reflect on the ergonomics in this week’s kitchen adventure I will split into three headings: Person, Activity and Environment. Person - Me myself and my cooking.
I’m not usually one to lack confidence in general or the kitchen however knowing family members and friends would be eating food I cooked did make it a bit more daunting. My confidence kept rising with the encouragement from my mum. With that I started to be more competent not needing to question with every move and knew to trust my own judgment. Although I hate to admit it, I am still young and stupid when it comes to cooking. Over the weekend we had three different life stages in the kitchen, this was great to learn differences within different generations. I felt huge responsibility in not only my cooking for guests but keeping up with the other chefs as to not let the team down. Activity - The cooking itself.
Usually in my kitchen I stray from recipes don’t take care with quantities and taste test to ensure it is good enough. It was a whole new ball game when it involved satisfying 50 people so I had to change into a more controlled way of cooking. The only adaptations made to the recipes were multiplying to guarantee everyone would be fed. With the activity of cooking thinking about seasonal vegetables and what is best at the time is very important for both taste and cost. Sharing lunch meant that we didn’t have the whole day to prepare, so we had a short time frame to get organised. Cooking for visitors also incorporated a large cleaning up task before anyone arrived. Environment – Kitchen context.
It was lovely being back in my kitchen at home where everything works unlike at the flat where oven door handles fall off and none of the cupboards close. The equipment available was in high supply after gaining dishes and cutlery from my grandma’s house. We needed oven trays, dishes for serving, bowls for preparing and enough plates and cutlery for a small army. The culture in my household is that my mum is the head chef and my dad carves the meat and cleans up the mess. When I am home I slot into either assistant chef or dish hand.You can see how there were many characteristic with the activity, environment and myself that need to be considered while cooking. Having a close link between all three enabled a delicious meal to be prepared that meaningful in both the cooking of the food and sharing.
References
Ergonomics. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ergonomics