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.
Decoding chefspeak Posted March 12, 2014
Have you ever sat near a busy, open kitchen on a Saturday night, overheard the back-of-house team and wondered what the heck they were talking about? What is a mise and what does it mean to work the pass? Well, these kitchen terms will definitely ensure that you can talk the talk – even if youd rather not walk the walk.
Sorry to disappoint you, but most restaurant dishes are not made 100 per cent to order. As a patron, you should probably thank chefs for this, as it would simply take too long to prepare certain items from scratch, right when you place your order. However, there are certain items that are made a la minute, which is French for “to the minute”. For example, they might sear off your steak, deglaze the pan and make a quick sauce to serve with it.
Soups, however, are definitely made in advance; they probably wouldnt taste right if they werent.
During a busy service, the chef or expeditor (the person reading off the orders) might call out something like, “Two halibuts all day,” meaning that there are two orders of that dish currently on the queue. It is a quick way to ensure that none of the order have been missed, and all of the cooks know what they are working on.
This is just another name for the ticket that the kitchen receives for each table, indicating what they have ordered. Chefs are sure to hear these coming with the click-click noise they make as they are printed out of the machine. I tell you, that noise is an indicator of (welcomed) impending doom. When the chit machine starts to pick up, you better be ready to get slammed (see “in the weeds”)!
The number of tables that a restaurant has served during a service is also referred to as the number of “covers” they did. People love to brag about how many covers they did on a busy night but in reality, it is all pretty relative. The volume of food that a kitchen produces is really dependent on the size of the restaurant and the complexity of food they are serving. In theory, a large scale casual pub will serve more covers than a 20-seat fine dining restaurant.
Nothing groundbreaking: its a table of two guests.
When you hear this, it is time to start cooking! Sometimes orders are fired, or made, right when they are received whereas other times they have to be delayed to ensure that the timing is spot on. For example, if a table orders appetizers and entrees, the appies are fired first so that they can be eaten first. Then the mains are fired while they are eating, or when they are done, depending on how long they take to prepare.
An acknowledgement that a request or order has been heard. Go figure! From my experience, people have a love-hate relationship with this word. I have worked in a kitchen where no one used it but I have also worked with someone who used it every five seconds and everyone just wanted him to shut up. We get it, you heard, we hear, now let’s all be quiet!
Its inevitable. At some point during service, you are going to have so many orders thrown at you that it’s a surprise if the operation does not go down in flames, literally. You are slammed with orders and now you are paying for it. Some people get an adrenaline rush from the chaos but I have only one word for it: stressful. Well, maybe two words: stressful and meltdown.
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.
Since his restaurant AM by Alexandre Mazzia took its third star in 2021, this basketball player turned chef has made no secret of his passion for Japan and its green teas. Lets take a closer look at this creator of imaginative cuisine, a refined man who was born in Congo and adopted Marseille as his home, and who never tires of delving into the gamut of culinary sensations.
On deck This phrase lets others know that an order is being prepared. A chef may call this out so the rest of the kitchen is ready to do their part when the time comes. Or they might say this to the wait staff to let them know their order is almost done, as in “Don’t go on your smoke break now, your order is on deck!”Mise Short for “Mise en place”, which means “everything in its place” in French, this refers to the preparation of ingredients and setting up of equipment at a station so that orders can be efficiently expedited. It is believed that this practice began with the legendary Auguste Escoffier, who not only pioneered fine French cuisine but also the modern kitchen brigade system found in restaurants all over the world.Ticket This is a ticket to dine, on which wait staff takes a table’s orders and sends to the kitchen to fulfill. Thai kitchens may call this a “ticket” or a “table”, whatever makes most sense to the team.Flash If meat isn’t fully cooked properly, a chef may say this to order the meat cooked for another minute or two. Possibly using a culinary butane torch to “flash that scallop!”, which is something Vincent Thierry might say to his team at Chef’s Table, his Two MICHELIN Starred restaurant in Bangkok.
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.
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.”
Kitchen Slang 101 | Restaurant Lingo
FAQ
What does all day mean in a kitchen the bear?
Why do chefs say chef all the time?
What does all day mean in hospitality?
Why do they say hands in a kitchen?
What does ‘all day’ mean in the kitchen?
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.
What does all-day mean in a restaurant?
No one knows. According to this site on restaurant phrases, all-day means: that you are counting particular items on the ticket rail, as in “Yes, chef, there are six chicken saltimbocca all-day, three beef tenderloin all-day,” and so on.
What does all day mean?
“All day” means the total orders of each item now in the fish cook’s hands. It is a reminder and, at the same time, a check on ingredients that may be running short. Highly active question. Earn 10 reputation (not counting the association bonus) in order to answer this question.
What are some common phrases used in restaurant kitchens?
Q. Are there other common phrases used in restaurant kitchens? Ans. Yes, other common phrases include “86” (running out of an item), “on deck” (next dish to be cooked), and “in the weeds” (falling behind on orders). Q. What tools and equipment are commonly used in restaurant kitchens?