Cleveland, Ohio, may be on the smaller side as far as brewery cities go, with around 21 breweries and taprooms. Still, the scene…
All Day. In chef slang, the expression all day is used to indicate the total number of orders needed. As tickets come in, a chef will shout out the orders followed by all day. If there are three orders of fries on one ticket and four orders of fries on another ticket, there are seven orders of fries all day.
Cleveland, Ohio, may be on the smaller side as far as brewery cities go, with around 21 breweries and taprooms. Still, the scene…
It’s probably every foodie’s dream to be able to walk into a famous restaurant’s kitchen and witness the culinary magic firsthand. But among the chaotic hustle and bustle brimming with unfamiliar ingredients and new techniques, conversations may seem to not make any sense, as the chefs and kitchen team have their own vocabulary. You may have heard these words and phrases before on a celebrity chef’s cooking or reality show, but do you know what they mean? Now here’s your chance to learn some cooking slang as they use it in international kitchens to give your restaurant meal a little more flavour. See if you can spice up your conversations with some of these terms!
Yes, chef! This phrase reverberated near and far in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay’s hit television cooking competitions. It’s how team members acknowledge the head chef’s orders and requests. In strict kitchens, this may be all they’re expected to say — questions should be asked before things get busy so as to not interrupt the head chef’s flow. Nowadays, many think this is an obsolete way of doing things, insisting that a two-way communication in the kitchen is better. Head chefs who listen to their teams’ opinions and suggestions will get better results. Stage Don’t expect a theatre performance when you hear this term in the kitchen. Apparently from the French word “stagiaire”, meaning apprentice or trainee, a stage is an unpaid internship during which a student chef can hone their skills with hands-on experience in the kitchen and the restaurant can get free labour.Waxing a table Why would anyone want to wax a table? Wouldn’t the plates slide off? Why indeed. Here in the kitchens, “waxing a table” means to give a table the VIP treatment, as in “Go wax table 4, that’s the owner’s wife there.”
The MICHELIN Guide takes you on a trip to Slovenia to discover the treasures of this country, its chefs, its products and its producers. Following the launch of the first MICHELIN Guide Slovenia in june 2020, we take a closer look at Hiša Franko, two-Stars restaurant and its emblematic chef, Ana Roš.
86 Chefs use this when they need to remove something from the menu, usually because they ran out of an ingredient. “86 the salmon special”, for example, if they ran out of salmon. This is an essential communication between the kitchen and the wait staff, making sure the menu is updated. Head chefs will also “86”, or cancel or reject, a dish or preparation that doesn’t meet their exacting standards. The term originated in the Prohibition era in the US, when serving alcohol was illegal. Police officers were paid off to warn the bartenders at Chumley’s in downtown Manhattan to “86” their customers before a raid. That meant to get rid of their clientele by sneaking everyone out through the rear exit at 86 Bedford Street.SOS This is kitchen shorthand for “sauce on the side”, either written with an order or said aloud, such as, “I need that salad SOS”. Not a cry to Save Our Ship, but a call for a different kind of help.All day No, this is not like Captain America’s “I can do this all day”. In the kitchen, “all day” means how many total orders of a certain dish are needed from the kitchen at that moment. Steve Doucakis, the American chef at MICHELIN Plate recipient Quince explains that saying “3 duck, 8 chicken, 6 pork, and 7 sea bass all day” is not a to-do list for that entire day. It’s how many of each dish must be made at that point in the evening when he calls those numbers out.
After over a decade of writing for leading luxury and lifestyle publications, and dining and wining with world’s famous, this Bangkokian finds herself as a Digital Editor of the MICHELIN Guide Thailand and Vietnam. She enjoys exchanging cultural views over a glass of wine or Gin Rickey. If not on the beach, she can be found at the gym, catching a plane, or at home reading Agatha Christie’s novels.
Kitchen Slang 101 | Restaurant Lingo
FAQ
What does all day mean in hospitality?
What does all day mean in a kitchen the bear?
Why do chefs say chef all the time?
Do chefs stand all day?
What does all day mean in cooking?
It’s used to describe a cooking method that relies on freshly prepared ingredients, but it’s also used to signify a dish or condiment must be made to order. Example: That sauce is made a la minute! In chef slang, the expression all day is used to indicate the total number of orders needed.
Is ‘all day’ kitchen slang used in a busy restaurant?
Yes, ‘All Day’ is kitchen slang used in a busy restaurant with many tickets or orders. Chefs primarily use it after sorting all the tickets on a rail to make quick commands in a restaurant. The restaurant staff and Chef only use kitchen slang. They are codes that help chefs and staff communicate quickly on a hectic day.
What does all day mean in slang?
Example: That sauce is made a la minute! In chef slang, the expression all day is used to indicate the total number of orders needed. As tickets come in, a chef will shout out the orders followed by all day. If there are three orders of fries on one ticket and four orders of fries on another ticket, there are seven orders of fries all day.
What is the etymology of all day?
There is no etymology of “All Day,” but chefs believed that some older kitchen slang may have been used by cooks and kitchen staff as early as the 1880s. Restaurants in that decade started to boom, and a wider variety of food was introduced to people in the city.