Cookingbefore

Cookingbefore is a culinary workflow concept that emphasizes cooking certain components of a dish ahead of time, with final assembly or finishing steps performed close to service. The idea is to optimize kitchen throughput, ensure uniform doneness, and improve food safety by controlling the cooking and holding temperatures throughout the process.

The term blends the words cooking and before and is used primarily in online culinary discussions. It is not an officially defined technique in formal culinary curricula, but it has been adopted by some chefs and home cooks as a way to describe sequencing work for efficiency and consistency.

Origins of the term are informal, arising in blogs, forums, and social media during trends around batch cooking and meal preparation. In practice, cookingbefore often involves fully cooking core components (such as proteins or starches), then cooling, storing, and reheating or finishing them just before plating. This can reduce final cooking time and help manage busy service periods or large meal preparations.

Common practices include planning menus in advance, precooking components to safe temperatures, rapidly chilling and holding them under controlled conditions, and applying finishing steps (searing, glazing, saucing) at service. Food-safety considerations are central, with attention to proper cooling (to 41°F or below within two hours), safe reheating, and maintenance of cold and hot holding temperatures in line with HACCP guidelines.

See also: batch cooking, mise en place, precooking, sous-vide, food safety.