My line cook said 'We're just heating up other people's food' and it stuck with me.

We were breaking down a case of pre-portioned, vacuum-sealed short ribs last week. I was showing him the new branded plating guide from corporate. He just looked at the bag and said that line, totally flat. It hit different because he's 19 and I've been doing this for 12 years. I realized we've outsourced so much of the actual craft. The braising time, the seasoning balance, even the sear is done at a factory. What's left for us to actually cook? Has anyone else's kitchen gotten to the point where you feel more like an assembly line than a chef?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_blair8d ago

Man that line cuts deep because it's TRUE. Our place went full "heat and serve" on the braised lamb last year. Felt like a glorified microwave. The thing that saved my sanity was fighting to make our own sauces and pickles from scratch. Corporate gave us the main protein in a bag, fine, but we took back the sides. Now we do three house ferments and a different compound butter every day. It gave the team something REAL to put their hands on.

felix4788d ago

We started making our own pasta and bread in house. It gave the crew something to actually build from scratch, not just reheat. That small change brought back a lot of the pride we were missing.