What is Hotel Wrapping?

One thing you learn in catering or working in restaurants is how to hotel wrap your food. If you’ve ever taken a dish to a friend’s or a potluck, only to have it spill all over the floor of your vehicle or yourself, hotel wrapping is a tip you will want to master. It will also help to keep your food fresher and reduce waste.

The object is to wrap the dish entirely with plastic wrap, also known as cling film. Plastic wrap is supposed to cling to itself, and we know it does that very well. What it doesn’t do well is adhere to your glass, metal, plastic, or ceramic container.

If you have room in your kitchen to store a food-service roll of cling film, you’ll be happy you did. You won’t ever want to buy one of those flimsy packages that are sold in grocery stores again. Food-service rolls are also wider than what you buy at the store, and this will help to cover your larger dishes more easily.

How to Hotel Wrap Your Dish

• Put the box of cling film on the counter.
• Pull out at least twice as much as the size container you want to cover. Do not tear it off.
• Let the plastic wrap hang off the counter in front of you or lay it along the counter.
• Put your dish on top of the plastic, close to the box.
• Take the loose end and cover your dish, tucking the excess under the dish. If you don’t have enough, just pull more plastic out of the box until the container is fully covered. You want to wrap the dish entirely at least two times. This helps keep odors in or out, depending on what else you might be storing in the fridge. 
• The plastic wrap will cling to itself.
• If your container is too large to be covered completely, simply turn the dish around and wrap it in the other direction.
• When you ready to unwrap the dish, use a knife or pair of scissors to cut a hole. Now you can peel the plastic away. You will spend forever if you try to unwrap it without cutting it first.

Benefits of Hotel Wrapping

• As mentioned earlier, not having to worry about your food spilling out during transport is a huge plus.
• By wrapping the entire dish tightly and not just covering the top, the cling film will keep the air out of your baked goods and help them stay fresher longer.
• If you are planning on freezing the dish, be sure the food is totally cool before you wrap it. If it is still warm, you might create condensation, and you don’t want that excess moisture on your food. By wrapping the food entirely in plastic, it will help prevent freezer burn and keeps your food fresher longer.