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Realized my mise en place was a lie after 9 years in the kitchen
Last Tuesday during the dinner rush in Edmonton, I grabbed what I thought was julienned bell pepper but it was all uneven chunks. Turns out I'd been rushing my knife work for years and blaming the line cooks. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize your own prep standards are the real problem?
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roberts.troy17d agoTop Commenter
Oh man, I had basically the exact same wake up call a few years ago. I used to get so annoyed thinking my cooks were being lazy with their prep, then I actually watched my own footage from a slow shift and realized I was the one hacking away like a maniac. What really helped me was setting a timer for myself during prep - nothing fancy, just 10 minutes to do a specific veg and if the knife work wasn't clean, I'd dump it and start over with better focus. It sucked at first because my speed took a hit, but within a couple weeks my consistency was way better and the line stopped having those little problems. Your mileage may vary on the timer thing but it's worth a shot if you're seeing the same issue I did.
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