Big Kitchens

This episode explores one of America’s biggest surf ‘n turf restaurants. Just north of Chicago, the heat is on at one of America’s biggest and busiest steak and seafood joints. Bob Chinn’s Crab House cooks up 900 king crabs and 1500 steaks every week, feeding over 12,000 guests.

Since it opened in 1982, Bob Chinn’s has exploded into a 700-seat crab castle, serving up to 4000 starving surf n’ turf lovers daily. But being 800 miles from the nearest ocean, this crack team of crab crackers must arrange a fresh seafood delivery from the airport every day!

To make matters worse, it’s holiday season, and the 130 kitchen staff are bracing themselves for one of the busiest Saturdays of the year. As the crab-crazed crowds descend on the restaurant, the team battles to keep up with the orders of 32oz porterhouse steaks, giant king crabs, and the restaurant’s extraordinary purple paradise pie.

With critical crustacean supplies running out fast, there’s a last minute dash to the airport to stock up on giant king crab - flown in from Alaska!

With the busiest night of the year in full swing, and one meal now leaving the kitchen every 15 seconds, it’s down to the front of house teams to keep the restaurant afloat.

This episode follows the famous ‘Chile’ Twins as they serve up over a thousand of their spiciest chili dishes to hungry Albuquerque hoards arriving for a special pig roast!

The spiciest and biggest New Mexican restaurant in America, El Pinto is all about the chili. Based in Albuquerque, El Pinto's massive kitchen can feed up to three thousand people a night.

Originally opened in 1962, “Chile Twins” John and Jim Thomas took over the family business in 1990 and have spent decades perfecting their family restaurant to create chili-infused dishes that continue to draw millions of customers in from across the country.

Extremely busy every Saturday night, El Pinto is also hosting a pig roast with a 150lb seasoned pig cooked to perfection in their Native-American clay oven.  But with hundreds of additional customers coming in just to taste a perfectly-roasted pig, the pressure is on to get the pig cooked just right.

Although El Pinto starts out each night with three tons of food, the team struggles to keep up with the volume of orders without running out. When they do fall short on fresh green chili sauce, Jim roasts more in their fire-roasted chili tumbler and hand peels them in the nick of time!

It’s all hands on deck to keep up with the customer’s demands for chili-perfection but in the end, they survive the night, ready to do it all over again the next day.

This episode explores how burgers the size of dinner plates followed by massive 62 inch pizza’s feed a packed Texan crowd, including a team of rowdy roller derby girls, at Big Lou’s Pizza!

In San Antonio, just a few miles from The Alamo, Big Lou’s pizza and pasta restaurant proves everything really is bigger in Texas. Serving burgers fifteen times bigger than a Big Mac and a pizza five feet wide, demand for their super-sized food is just as BIG.

Opened in 2000 by Brian Lujan, his five table business has grown to seat more than a thousand. Each night his kitchen staff cook hundreds of pizzas in all shapes and sizes – going through nearly a ton of dough and mozzarella in the process.

On top of the massive rush of customers, Brian also has to contend with the local, girl’s roller derby team, who have ordered the 62” pizza with all the trimmings. The pressure is on not only to cook enormous food but to satisfy all his customer’s enormous appetites.

Keeping up with the relentless orders takes a monumental operation. Each part of the Big Lou’s Big kitchen runs like a giant well-oiled machine. With enormous pizzas going out every 20 seconds there is no time to catch their breath.

By the time Brian and his team serve the Alamo City Roller Derby girls their 5 foot BBQ brisket pizza, Big Lou’s is heaving with so many customers, local police are standing by to keep law and order!

Curry loving Brits hit this king of curry houses hard on the busiest night of the year, serving over 750 guests spicy Indian food made on a huge scale in its colossal custom kitchens! The Royal Nawaab in Manchester, UK is one of the biggest curry houses in Britain. Cooking up 720,000 curries every year, this is spicy cuisine on a grand scale!

In 2002, owner Mahboob Hussain converted an art deco cinema into two banquet halls and a massive 45ft long buffet. Today, this curry castle is the pride of Manchester.  In a town where people spend on average $48,000 in their lifetime on curry, the team at the Nawaab must never slip up to maintain its’ reputation as the king of spice.

Today is their busiest day of the year. Two huge events are booked in the banquet halls and the buffet is maxed out all day and all night. The Nawaab’s supersize kitchens must run like a well oiled machine. With 10 ovens, a toaster that turns out 400 nan breads an hour and a grill that can cook up to 2000 kebabs a day, hopefully the team will be able to keep up.

After the first banquet and buffet, the situation is not looking good. Food stocks are running low and Mahboob makes a last minute dash across town for more supplies.

Back at the restaurant, the 420 seat buffet restaurant is maxed and the foyer is rapidly filling up. Floor manager Mo clings to his reservations pager system to prevent total chaos as over 300 people are waiting for a table!

Will the team at the Nawaab be able to get things under control or is a meltdown on its way …

Mardi Gras masses descend on the famous Commanders Palace in New Orleans where fine dining meets creole craziness and Chef Tory McPhail’s succulent shrimp stocks are being pushed to the limit!

In New Orleans, it’s Mardi Gras. Over one million people flood to the city to party but they also want to eat! Commander’s Palace, one of the oldest and most iconic restaurants in America is pushed to the limit.

Opened in 1880 this old establishment was one of the first restaurants to put creole cuisine on the international stage. Today it has expanded into a 400 seat gourmet castle renowned for it’s exquisite southern seafood cuisine and fine dining. 10 tons of the freshest fish and 300,000 shrimp are cooked up ever year. Commander’s Palace creates mouthwatering seafood sensations on a massive scale! 

Today on the restaurant’s busiest day of the year Head Chef Tory McPhail rallies his team to serve up Mardi Gras lunch for over a thousand guests - and these party people don’t just want one course, they are ready to feast on all the seafood delights on the menu!

Gallons of their famous turtle soup are cooked up and thousands of their shrimp are peeled but still the kitchen is in danger of running out of seafood! Chef Tory battles the Mardi Gras parades as he makes a dash across town in search of more supplies.

Back at the restaurant maître di Keith tries to keep smiling as more and more guests arrive at this monster Mardi Gras mansion.

Cheesecake fans head to Brooklyn by the thousands for the biggest Cheesecake player in town – the mighty Juniors Restaurant and Cheesecake factory, churning out 150,000 of these perfect desserts a year!

In the heart of Brooklyn, New York City, is a legendary 450-seat restaurant serving up cheesecake on an epic scale – Junior’s. Every month their immense kitchen churns out 150,000 cheesecakes and 25 tons of pastrami to feed over 90,000 customers!

Opened in 1950 by Harry Rosen, it’s fallen to his grandson, Alan, to keep Junior’s massive operation running. The secret Junior’s cheesecake recipe has been handed down the generations and now each week, Alan needs enough cream cheese to fill 20 swimming pools!

As well as cheesecake, Junior’s have over 250 other classic New York dishes on their menu – from their famous Matzah Ball Soup, to their Cheese Blintzes. Today is the busiest day of the week – Alan’s team must juggle hundreds of hungry guests and the constant flow of delivery trucks needed to keep them fed.

Service gets critical as a run on their pastrami sandwiches means their supplier must rush an emergency meat order to the restaurant to keep the kitchen running and Executive Chef Adam must speed fry 200 crepes by hand to make a fresh batch of blintzes.

Will this cheesecake castle survive the onslaught, or will it collapse under the weight of the invading hoards?

This episode follows the teams at the biggest airline kitchen in the world, making enough food to feed a country the size of Canada for a week, whilst working against the clock to keep Dubai’s gourmet fleet flying high.

The biggest facility of its kind anywhere in the World, Emirates Airline Catering facility is the size of ten American football pitches, and in its eight year history has served over 265 million meals!

Based in the heart of Dubai, like the airport itself, the Emirates Catering Facility runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each day a team of 520 chefs turns out around 170,000 meals to cater for around 400 flights, and every ingredient is ordered by the ton.

Today, the team are facing a busy flight plan packed with sold out flights, with thousands of hungry passengers to feed. Flight Dispatcher Michael has his hands full making sure every one of the thousands of meals makes it to every flight on time. Tray setter Dean is also working up to the wire as last minute upgrades cause panic.

As if it isn’t busy enough, today is a big day for head chef James Griffith. It’s his new menu’s final exam, and nine months of hard development work hinge on the verdict of a tough team of taste testers. Executive chef Mike Borsdorf is also in the hot seat, as he unexpectedly gets a visit from the strict Emirates quality testers keen to sample his first class kingfish dish. Meanwhile chef Said has 650 pounds of hummous to produce, pastry chef Peter has to deliver 17,000 chocolate cakes and Syrian chef Fadi must make 5,000 baklava by hand.

One of the biggest US Army bases in the world fights to feed 12,000 hungry soldiers a week at Fort Bragg’s big bad kitchens!

In Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Falcon Inn is one of the US Army's largest dining facilities.  With just three manic 90 minute servings for breakfast, lunch and dinner, this monster cafeteria is run with military precision.

Open seven days a week, the 538 seat Falcon Inn is always packed.  A 105 strong team makes sure that eight service stations are stocked well enough to satisfy the biggest of appetites.  These really are the hardest working cooks in the military.

Today, the team is dealing with a breakfast crush, as soldiers cram into the dining facility to fuel up for the day ahead.  It's the usual protein packed meal, so the chefs are scrambling to keep up the supplies of breakfast essentials like, eggs, bacon and cream ground beef.

Lunchtime promises to be even busier, with paratroopers preparing for an afternoon jump.  And to make life even tougher, Sergeant Gardner, the Falcon Inn boss, finds herself chasing a missing delivery full of crucial provisions.

In the kitchen, the cooking team is rushing to replenish every item on the serving lines, while at the same time maintaining a culinary standard that's way beyond stereotypical army slop.  It's a fast-moving operation, but these cooks won't stop until every last soldier has a healthy feed and a full stomach.

The mighty kitchens in one of the largest cruise ships in the world work round the clock to feed almost 4,000 guests some of the finest dining on the high seas!

In the Caribbean, one of the largest floating kitchens is dishing up fine dining for over three and a half thousand cruise ship passengers.  The tireless staff on the Regal Princess work across 20 huge galleys to provide round-the-clock food that is just as stunning as the holidaymakers’ tropical surroundings.

Launched in 2014, the 1000ft long Regal Princess is a true leviathan.  And with 3,700 passengers and over 1,300 crew to feed, it has an equally giant cooking operation.  Every week these kitchens get through a whopping 140 tons of food.

We join the ship on a seven day tour of the Eastern Caribbean.  With just ten hours to stock up 15 massive provision rooms, the kitchen team can’t miss a single item.  As well as cooking for guests in 16 different bars and restaurants spread over 17 decks, this week the team also has to prepare a monster beach barbecue in the Bahamas.

And that’s not all.  Today the 300 chefs on board are rolling out a special menu, celebrating 50 years of Princess cruises.  Lobster, scallops and oxtail pasta head up a menu that is rounded off by a spectacular dessert that has taken three days to prepare.  This is haute cuisine on the high seas, and with the cruisers on board expecting only the best, the team can’t afford any mistakes.

This episode explores a kitchen that makes Donuts so big they use buckets to cut them, and 300,000 cars a year descend on this king of donut drive thru’s to taste their gargantuan glazed goodness!

Just outside Austin Texas is a drive-thru dishing out doughy delights on an extreme scale – Round Rock Donuts. Serving up five million donuts to over 300,000 vehicles a year, guests are drawn from far and wide for the world famous 14-inch orange glazed titan of the donut world – the ‘Texan’.

Opened in 1926, manager Paul Guderyahn has helped take this business to the next level, employing sixty staff working around the clock to mix one and a half tons of dough a day, bake monster cookies and decorate bespoke specialty cakes.

Today will be the busiest day of the year for manager Paul as his drive-thru is slammed with hundreds of sugar-crazed car fanatics, descending on the town for the annual Hawks Classic Car Show.

It’s critical that customers are not kept waiting long – things get heated as guests become more and more desperate for donuts. Paul is counting on his team to cook up 30,000 donuts and serve one car every 30 seconds today!

Can the Round Rock Donuts kitchen keep the pedal to the metal as they’re pushed to the limit, or will they crash and burn?

A truck stop so big it has a dentist, gym, barbers and chapel as well as a massive kitchen catering for a thousand meat-loaf munching truckers a day!

Right in the middle of one of America’s largest interstates is the biggest truck stop in the world, Iowa 80. It’s home to the super-sized Iowa 80 Kitchen, a mega meal-making machine that has fed over 18 million customers in its 50 year history, and its loyal trucker customers just keep coming back.

Today is the first day of the new trucking season, and the ten-strong kitchen crew are bracing themselves for the busiest day of the year so far. General Manager Rick is in charge of powering out four hundred breakfasts, including their gargantuan trademark breakfast, the Hungry Man. Meanwhile butcher Bobby has over 120lbs of pork to hack through to make the restaurants most popular plate of meat, their signature char-broiled pork chops, and shift manager Chris has to keep up with the demand for her grandfather’s recipe meat loaf.

But catastrophe strikes when one of the most important cookers in the kitchen goes down, and Iowa 80’s Mr Fix it Jake has his hands full with trying to reignite it and juggle an emergency run to the suppliers for five hundred extra eggs.

It’s action stations to make sure every one of the thousand hungry truckers leaves fully-fuelled for their long onward journeys across America. But there’s no let up for this colossal kitchen which pumps out thousands of plates of food 24/7, 365 days a year.

This episode follows the team behind the Bellagio hotel and one of the biggest buffets in the world as they feed a full house of 4,000 hungry diners, all demanding the best that Vegas can offer.

In the heart of the Las Vegas strip is one of the world’s biggest and most expensive hotels, the award-winning MGM Bellagio. Built in 1998 at a wallet-busting cost of $1.6 million, the Bellagio boasts nearly four thousand rooms, and is well used to feeding thousands of customers every day.

Today is Saturday, the busiest day of the week in Vegas, and the Bellagio is bracing itself to feed four thousand starving visitors. By far the most popular eatery is the Bellagio’s behemoth buffet, where a staff of 45 chefs turns out three hundred different dishes every day. It’s up to head chef Edmund Wong to ensure the operation runs like clockwork. But they’re up against it, they have tens of thousands of portions of food to produce, and fast, including thousands of pieces of sushi for the dedicated sushi bar, as well as pizzas, pastas and pastries.

Executive chef Genie has to make over 2000 portions of chicken noodle soup, and as well as entertaining some extra special VIP guests with his beef brisket executive chef Rob has an urgent salmon delivery to take before he can present one of the buffet’s newest dishes. Chinese chef Patrick has fifty Peking ducks to turn out, plus pastry chef Sylvain is on crème brulee duty.

It’s all systems go ensuring every one of the four thousand famished buffet fans gets fully-fed. But there’s no let up for the biggest buffet in the state, which has to keep turning out meals by the ton.

Eating and bowling on a massive scale as the fine dining finger food chefs cater for 32 lanes of hungry players and 3,000 rock concert fans, before they can call it a day at 3am!

One of the biggest restaurants in Las Vegas, Brooklyn Bowl, cooks up three thousand plates a night. Bowling alley, music venue and king-sized restaurant rolled into one, it creates award-winning recipes, attracting customers from all across the world.

From oyster egg shooters and potato knishes to their now legendary fried chicken, Brooklyn Bowl’s customers enjoy fine dining cuisine in a party-atmosphere. Their massive 10,000 foot kitchen keeps up with demand by using cutting edge state of the art technology. With the computer system they’ve installed, hundreds of orders an hour are delivered with total precision.

But on a Saturday night, all bets are off as a big name band is playing in their concert venue. Not until the doors open will the Brooklyn Bowl Team know whether the crowd will order above and beyond what they are capable of handling.

Customers surging in, Brooklyn Bowl fries up more than a ton of chicken and thousands of appetizers and desserts every night. It’s fancy American bar food on a massive scale – but will they score a strike on the night or a gutter ball?