Bluefin tuna are one of the most prized catches in the world’s oceans, with some markets, especially in Asia, selling them for as much as $20,000 a fish.  For sushi lovers, the bluefin is the equivalent of a purebred Angus filet mignon, and it’s a mainstay of thousands of restaurants, …

The primary focus of any food safety program, and rightly so, is on the temperature of your food product.  Heating food to the proper temperature and storing it at the proper cold temperature are vital to preventing contamination.  But allowing foreign objects like hair, metal, and insects or pests to …

Over 60 years, Hoshizaki has built a reputation across the globe for quality, design, and performance.  Since 1986, Hoshizaki’s plant in Peachtree City, GA has supplied the U.S. market with domestically produced ice makers and bins. As one of the largest producers of commercial ice machines worldwide, Hoshizaki understands that …

You’ve probably seen the NSF and UL labels in your restaurant or commercial kitchen before.  And you probably already have an idea what these organizations do and what that label means.  But fully understanding what the NSF and UL do to make sure restaurant equipment and tools meet food and …

If you’ve got a restaurant, you probably deal with a lot of oil.  Between changing the oil in fryers, making dressings and sauces, and cooking on the line, the only person moving more oil in the neighborhood is the local mechanic.  And, like any restaurateur, you probably buy the stuff …

Maintaining proper food temperature should be a constant process in your commercial kitchen, from the time it arrives through your back door to the time it arrives on the customer’s plate. When the delivery truck arrives, immediately check food products for temperature.  Reject food that arrives above 41 degrees Fahrenheit.  …

If you’re in the food service industry then you’ve heard about “local food” – ingredients sourced locally that are usually marketed as fresh, organic, and environmentally sustainable.  And while local has fast become a red-hot trend in the restaurant business, some in the industry have wondered how to make local …

There’s always some good reasons for upgrading your kitchen’s restaurant equipment: better energy efficiency, better performance, increased ease-of-use, increased output, etc. There’s always an equally pressing reason why you try to get one more year out of that same equipment: money doesn’t grow on trees, and there’s plenty of other …

8 months and 305 posts later, The Back Burner is getting ready to celebrate its first year as a blog for the food service industry.  There’s a lot of great content we’ve posted over the course of 2009 that has been slowly buried in the avalanche of new posts coming …

“Favorite Places On Google” is a new feature that provides maps, directions, reviews, and photos of 100,000 businesses across the U.S.  Many of these businesses are restaurants, and that’s significant because eventually users will be able to post reviews and other information about your restaurant and have it display on …