Television has brought the back of the house into any house, along with the “reality” of what it takes to work in a kitchen. It recently dawned on me that although cooking competitions and restaurant shows might make the home chef feel that they can walk the walk, most people probably can not talk the talk. Quite literally, the kitchen has its own language, and short of having worked on the line ( kitchens are often set up in a line, so “on the line” refers to a line cook, a true clutch part of any kitchen operation) or had to communicate with a back of house, there is no way to learn what these phrases mean. So, if you don’t want to be in the weeds when it comes to kitchen lingo, see our handy dandy guide to sounding like you belong in the kitchen. To be noted, most kitchens develop their own sort of working language that comes with time, but most of these phrases are pretty universally used.
A la minute- French for “in the minute” this means making a dish from scratch, every time it is ordered rather than batch cooking an item during prep time and heating up the ordered portions.
Order- The entirety of what a table has selected and told their server. The chef will read the entire order when it is brought to the kitchen (on a “ticket”, a print out or written record of the order.)
Board- where the tickets are put, also called the rail
Fire-Action time! When a chef instructs the kitchen to “fire”, it means to start cooking the item immediately.
Pick-up- When an item is ready to be served, or “picked up”
86- When the kitchen is out of an item or ingredient. There are several stories about how this term came about, feel free to e-google-ize…
Mise en place, or “mise”- All the prepped ingredients needed at a station for service that evening.
Deuce/Four top/12 top, etc…Table talk! A deuce is a table with two guests, and any other “top” means the number of people at a table… I suck at math, but I think you can figure this out…
All Day- Refers to the total number of dishes that have to prepared for one order. It helps the chef and the cook stay on the same page; cooks will often ask the chef for an “all-day”, and the chef will tell him all of the items that need to be ready from that station. For example, ” You’ve got three spaghetti, two gnocchi’s and two linguine all day.”
On Deck- As the chef or expeditor gets all the order tickets, they will let the cooks know what is coming up next so they can prepare.
Dying on the Pass- When hot food is ready to be picked up and is sitting out for too much time and getting cold because the waitstaff can’t get it together to come get it
In the Weeds- Overwhelmed, struggling to keep up; Fucked
