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Kitchen Adages

Holly Moore

By Holly Moore
in Restaurant Life

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Holly Moore

Holly Moore

Posted
Posted

Got in a conversation with a chef about those terms every novice hears.

My introductory cooking professor, Vance Christian, admonished, "Don't put anything on a work area you wouldn't eat. ie No sitting on counters. The chef said he had always heard, "Tables are for glasses, not for asses."

A McDonald's sayings. "Time to lean, time to clean." Not really adages: No rags, only towels. Fries are cooked in shortening, not grease. Back in the day when special orders were discouraged they were called "grills" so other customers in line wouldn't think they could have their burger their way.

What other sayings come to mind?

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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chileheadmike

chileheadmike

Posted
Posted (edited)

A chef I trained under said something to the effect of, "Grease is for cars, this is oil or fat. If you call it Grease, you're fired." That was 30 years ago and the stuff is still called oil or fat.

Edited Because I can't spell grease.

Edited by chileheadmike (log)

That's the thing about opposum inerds, they's just as tasty the next day.

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fooey

fooey

Posted
Posted (edited)

"The health department works in mysterious ways!"

This always said with legato and increasing volume to the end, as The health department works IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

It was a reminder to clean one's station immediately, wash one's hands, or rectify some blatant health violation.

Edited by fooey (log)

Fooey's Flickr Food Fotography

Brünnhilde, so help me, if you don't get out of the oven and empty the dishwasher, you won't be allowed anywhere near the table when we're flambeéing the Cherries Jubilee.

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pastameshugana

pastameshugana

Posted
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I read a book a while back called "The sharper your knife, the less you cry." Of course, no matter how sharp I get my knife, the wife always protests onion duty...

PastaMeshugana

"The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd."

"What's hunger got to do with anything?" - My Father

My first Novella: The Curse of Forgetting

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boagman

boagman

Posted
Posted

A McDonald's sayings. "Time to lean, time to clean."

Actually, from what I've been told, this line is more attributed to Colonel Sanders than McDonald's. Apparently, he was an absolutely *miserable* old, um, "gentleman" to work for, and this was just one of many things he'd come up with over the years. Not that it's a bad saying, mind you, but the story goes that no one wanted to work when he did, since he was just so ornery. A great businessman? You bet. Great boss? Not so much, apparently.

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maggiethecat

maggiethecat

Posted
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OK, I've never worked in a professional kitchen, but I have friends who have. That "If you have time to lean, you've time to clean" thing annoys me no end. If hard-working line cooks have a breather, I'd say: "Lean a little. Then clean."

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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prasantrin

prasantrin

Posted
Posted

A McDonald's sayings. "Time to lean, time to clean."

Actually, from what I've been told, this line is more attributed to Colonel Sanders than McDonald's. Apparently, he was an absolutely *miserable* old, um, "gentleman" to work for, and this was just one of many things he'd come up with over the years. Not that it's a bad saying, mind you, but the story goes that no one wanted to work when he did, since he was just so ornery. A great businessman? You bet. Great boss? Not so much, apparently.

Holly used to work for McDonald's (product development, I think), so I have faith people used it say it there, too. Either way, it's annoying.

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Bootsie

Bootsie

Posted
Posted (edited)

"Never trust a skinny cook" Which strangely enough has been true for me. I've never met a skinny cook that didn't turn out to be an absolute d-bag. Or a fiend.

"Butter makes everything better you @##%%$%##^%%&! Now move your ass." Thank you Chef Barron for that one. Also remember that about this time you should be dodging rondoes. I have amazing reflexes now.

One of my favorites, though not an adage was from this great pizza place I worked at in Georgia a few years back. Someone would randomly scream "KITCHEN MEETING!!" At which point the entire staff(cooks, servers, bartenders, managers) would run to the walk-in, chug a beer, and go back to work. This happened at least five or six times a night. Those were good times.

Edited by Bootsie (log)
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whitesnack

whitesnack

Posted
Posted

had a strange experience last night with this. we have a new guy whose driving me crazy! im on Expo in the middle of valentines day dinner rush and the new guy on hot aps(who in quite frankly driving me insane) yells "how many shrimp aps do i have all day!."

"6 all day." i yell back

"how many do i have all night?" he then yells

"What the @#$@ does that mean?" i yell.

"HOW MANY DO I HAVE ALL NIGHT!!!" he just kept yelling it

this is a newer employee i havent really worked with him to much but afterward i asked him what he meant because frankly i have never heard that before.

he said something to the tune of we learned it at the cia, and mabey i just wasnt cool enough to know what it meant.

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andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
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I don't remember any specific adages from the brief times I worked in a restaurant kitchen.

However, I worked for a few years in a professional bakery (owned by my mom) and the head baker, who had many years of experience, had one very important adage which we were ordered to follow.

"Bake when the DOUGH is ready, not the clock."

I still follow this today in my own baking at home. I don't rely completely on timers because there are many things that can influence how dough behaves and it's not always the weather - sometimes I think it must be the gods of baking.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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lesliec

lesliec

Posted
Posted

Heard one on TV last night: 'Kitchen pickers wear big knickers' (ie if you spend too much time sampling the dishes you'll end up a little, shall we say, plumptious). Maybe related to the one about skinny cooks ...

Leslie Craven, aka "lesliec"
Host, eG Forums - lcraven@egstaff.org

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives ~ Oscar Wilde

My eG Foodblog

eGullet Ethics Code signatory

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