I make lobster risotto fairly frequently; it takes me a good half-hour to prepare and there’s precious little time to do anything else while doing it. Do restaurants have someone spending a half-hour babying the risotto or do they have some shortcuts that allow them to multitask? They’re always serving it on Hell’s Kitchen and I can easily see how they make so many mistakes if they’re expected to perform other tasks while making a good risotto.
Some high-volume places cheat. Specifically, they partially cook it in large batches and set it aside, then put smaller portions back on the heat and add liquid to finish as needed.
I read somewhere that restaurant risottos aren’t as good as homemade for that reason (even in fancy restaurants) - they can’t spare somebody to hover over it for half an hour.
I read that they do it mostly done in the morning and then spread it out on cookie sheets to hold until ordered.
At what point do they add the vagina flavor?
When they forget to wash their hands 
I remember that thread.
In the restaurant I work in, and we try to be upscale, we make our risotto in a large batch. And yes, we have someone stand there for 30 minutes stirring. The trick is to not finish the risotto all the way, to leave it about 5 minutes from being done. We then spread it out on a sheet pan, and place it in the walk-in to cool off. When a dish with risotto gets ordered, the line cook, usually me, adds the proper serving size, and and required liquid to finish it, and brings it to a boil, stirring nearly constantly. This adds the needed liquid, and hopefully finishes the risotto around the same time the rest of the dish is ready.
Yes, this is cheating, but until we are able to convince everyone that comes in to order a course before the risotto, it has to be done so it doesn’t take over 30 minutes for one dish to come out.
I know there are some really upscale restaurants that make all their risotto to order. Anthony Bourdain talks about one such restaurant in Kitchen Confidential, but not all restaurants can afford one person to stir risotto constantly for 30 minutes per order.
Couldn’t the stirring be automated somehow? Low speed mixer designed to sit near the stove, maybe with a movable arm to swing over a pan as needed?
There are a million reasons to recommend the Campbell Scott/Stanley Tucci movie Big Night, but if you’re wondering about restaurant risotto- well, this movie is basically about restaurant risotto.
Maybe not about, but one scene in particular- a scene that could well be used to represent the movie as a whole- pivots on a risotto argument:
Restauranteur Brothers
One the proud Chef, the other the businessman
The businessman brother (Tucci) is trying to convince the Chef brother (Tony Shalhoub) that they should take risotto off the menu, arguing that it takes too long to prepare and people complain about the wait and that often they don’t understand what they are ordering in the first place. The Chef, who takes great pride in his work, showing disdain for their clientele suggests that they replace the risotto by offering hot dogs on the menu.
typo
The restaurant I worked in did the same - large batches of ‘base’ risotto cooked to within 5-8 minutes of being done then finished on the stove top when an order comes in by adding stock then butter and parmesan before a brief resting period - personally I don’t think this makes any major difference to cooking ‘a la minute’ and I often use the same technique when cooking risotto when I have friends over as it means you can do most of the work in the morning then just finish it for 5 minutes when your guests arrive meaning you aren’t slaving over a stove for half an hour while they wait! I think that the last bit of cooking - adding the butter and parmesan and leaving to sit off the heat for 3 minutes or so is the part that really makes the risotto perfect.
If you have to add cream or your risotto can be ‘shaped’ in a mold then you have failed my friend…
Add to that the scene at the opening with the philistine.
/Has seen Big Night ~50 times
//teaches a film class in a culinary school
You teach film in culinary school, I used to eat in Film class.
Like kindred spirits we are.
This sounds pretty reasonable to me. What would really disappoint me would be to go to a higher end restaurant such as Mario Batali’s and find out they weren’t making it to order but I did wonder if they were expected to do other things at the same time. I just couldn’t see that resulting in a decent risotto.
And now, off to check out Big Night and see what I’ve been missing 
I’d guess if the menu lists risotto as an appetizer, it’s probably partially precooked.
Please, report back. I expect you’ll love it.
I expect some places do make it from scratch but I suggest you try it yourself and see if you can see a massive difference - honestly if it’s not taken to far (maybe just over half way) the end result is almost exactly the same IMHO. One of the best risottos I have ever had came out within about 10 minutes of ordering so must have been pre-cooked to a degree and it was better than most made from scratch at home and I’m pretty good at risotto if I do say so myself!
I think that’s where the skill of a professional kitchen lays, the ability to know what you can cook in advance and to what degree without compromising quality.
It’s snow, isn’t it, Neil.
Terrific film, but don’t watch it hungry.
It’s risotto, Mike!
hangs head in geeky shame