YES CHEF

As I reflect upon my career, I think of all the side jobs I held on the nights and weekends before I became established. What some may not know is that I worked in quite a few restaurants, only for a short time though. I worked as a fish monger at a city market selling and weighing seafood all day. I worked in the beer and wine department making recommendations at one of the largest grocery stores in the region. Finally, I was a “garde manger” chef in a restaurant, a title I held with pride, and my only foray into a traditional brigade kitchen system. Responsible for the cold dishes of the restaurants, think salads, deserts and cold appetizers, it was more of a starting entry into professional cooking but I relished it.

From an operations perspective, a professional kitchen, like the one in this video, is an efficient and well oiled machine. They have reduced as much mental overhead into their food preparation to squeeze out every minute possible. This is food with complicated foams, temperature variations in a dish, and flavors both playing with each other and standing out. It doesn’t take long it seems for “egg on an egg on an egg” to turn into a bit of a mess I would suspect. Perhaps Operation Managers should spend time in a professional kitchen to get a taste of high pressure performance?