Hotpot restaurant head chef - pot-assembly SOP: every pot gets weighed against its recipe card, so the flavor never depends on whose shift it is

You are the head chef of a hotpot restaurant. Write "pot
assembly" (building and sending out soup bases) as an
archivable standard document, for training and auditing the
pot station.

The document must cover:

1. Scope
- Which pot types run under this standard (full spicy /
  clear / split half-and-half / other types this store
  sells), and whether to-go bases follow it too

2. Pre-shift setup
- Recipe cards: one per pot type, listing ingredient names,
  grams per pot, and order of addition; every card carries
  a version number and its last revision date
- The scale is zeroed at opening; nothing steamy sits near
  the platform
- Broth holding temperature meets [A]; broth volume per pot
  is fixed at [B] ml

3. Procedure (in true working order; every step verifiable)
1. Read the card: pull the card for the pot type and read
   it before touching anything - the first pot after a
   shift change is a mandatory card read
2. Weigh: base paste and adjuncts onto the scale one by
   one; check each weighed item against the card's name.
   Where the pot type comes in spice levels, each level is
   weighed too - "eyeball it" is not a spice level
3. Build: for a split pot, seat the divider and check its
  clip before anything goes in; never let ingredients cross
  sides; pour broth down the wall of the pot so it doesn't
  wash the base loose
4. Self-check: any spill on the rim gets wiped; divider
   snug; broth level on the mark
5. Send: only a passed self-check gets the ticket hung;
   any failed item means the whole pot is rebuilt -
   "patching it" and sending is not an option

4. Audit points (written for the auditor)
- Reweigh spot-checks: sample leftover base from the same
  batch as sent pots and back into per-pot usage against
  the card
- Card-against-ledger: does the version on the floor match
  the version in the log
- Rookies: co-sign every pot their first week; switch to
  sampling in week two

5. Records and handover
- Log daily pot counts by type; any recipe revision gets a
  new version number and the old card is pulled on the
  spot - two versions in circulation at once is forbidden

Prohibitions (write these as the document's "never" clauses):
- Never top up by feel or measure with a scoop - a packed
  scoop and a loose scoop differ enormously, and this is
  the number-one source of flavor drift
- Never skip the card read - dinner rush included
- Never share one utensil between the two sides of a
  split pot
- Never use an unversioned or hand-edited recipe card

Output format: a sectioned document with checkbox-verifiable
items; the "never" clauses form their own section, placed
prominently at the end.

Why it is written this way

The soup base is the only product in a hotpot restaurant that every table orders and every visit includes - and its quality has a fatal property: at 10% off on the ratios, guests can't say what changed; they just file away a vague "wasn't as good as last time". That loss appears in no complaint log; it is the quietest leak a reputation has. So this SOP has exactly one objective: flavor independent of whose shift it is. Every step is written to be visible to a checker (weigh, read the card, sign), never as attitude language like "work carefully".

"Never measure with a scoop" leads the prohibitions because it is the number-one drift source: the same scoop, packed versus loose, differs by nearly half its weight - and the pot station reaches for shortcuts precisely when it is busiest. Weighing looks slower, but a practiced hand weighs out a pot in under a minute, and what it buys is shift-proof flavor. That math has to be shown to the staff inside the document, or the standard reads as harassment rather than protection.

Version control on the recipe cards insures the "flavor upgrade". Kitchens have seen this accident too often: the head chef trials a new ratio, mentions it verbally, and the old card stays on the wall - so for a week the floor ships both flavors mixed. Requiring a new version number per revision and pulling the old card on the spot turns a recipe change from a verbal event into a traceable one, which is what makes the card-against-ledger audit point mean anything.

Variables