Dos Rios Restaurant

[DonJuane]

P.S. The big-pot and refreezing process I have been doing now for many years. I use either ziplocks or better. some type of reusable container for each serving. I also use an ultra small scale fountain pump to speed the process ($5 eBay). I can begin as late as early afternoon and have the large pot cooled, sectioned off and placed in the freezer in a reasonable amount of time. Before I started this method, I'd often have to let the large pot cool overnight and then freeze it but I found over time that the additional cool-time was partially destroying the flavor. What I do now is cook a large dish, such as 10-12 lbs of Texas style cook-off chili or some of my own Pozole Rojo and then I serve a single serving for the current meal time. Then I place the giant pot into a bath of cold water with the small fountain pump submerged and tilted sideways to circulate and in a matter of only an hour or two, the once boiling pot has cooled to the point of being room temperature and is ready to split into freezing containers and place in the freezer without being hot and causing the original contents to begin the thawing process.

After all, this process is the same thing you are experiencing at Olive Garden and other US "chain" restaurants, the only difference is that you don't have Wall Street to keep happy and can make your dishes in the most robust artistic manner you desire, adding top quality ingredients and spices, concentrating on flavor and quality rather than on the "bottom line". Good luck!