#kitchen

Diners who squat at a table long after the meal's done.

Short for shoemaker — a hack cook.

Small round dish for sauces, sides, and SOS orders.

Everything in its place before service — prepped, portioned, within reach.

Front of house — dining room, bar, host stand, anything the guest touches.

Kitchen code for 'we're out — kill it from the menu.'

Behind you with something that will burn you — move.

Verbal warning shouted when you're passing behind another cook.

Drowning in orders — past slammed, into survival mode.

Slammed past the point of catching up.

Fish cook — the station that handles everything from the sea.

The next order in the queue — get ready.

The expediter — the person at the pass organising tickets and getting food out.

Dishwasher in a professional kitchen (French).

Cooked to order the moment the ticket lands.

Your station setup; everything prepped and in its place before service.

First-in, first-out — use the old stock before the new.

Junior cook learning the ropes under a station chef.

Knife in motion — hold position.

Sauce on the side — the modifier every server scribbles when a guest doesn't want their plate drowned.

Combine two partial containers of the same product into one.

Touch lightly with heat or seasoning.

Make it exactly as the menu says — no mods, no subs.

Called out when you're walking knives or blades through the line.

Kitchen call meaning a dish is five minutes from the pass.

The classical hierarchy of a professional kitchen.

Suffix for the seat count of a table — two-top, four-top, six-top.

Cook is stepping away from their station — cover them.

A station or dish running behind the rest of the ticket.

Station chef — runs one section of the line.

Plate and push food out as fast as the line can move.

Got no tip.

A clumsy, careless cook who wrecks food.

Remake a dish fast after a misfire, return or screw-up.

Got it, chef.

Clear, reset, and reseat a table at full speed.

The free staff feed cooked and eaten before service.

A misfired, returned or no-longer-servable plate.

The number of guests served in a shift or service.

The dish that needs finishing for the window — now.

Make a dwindling ingredient last to the end of service.

Ultra-rare — basically raw and barely warm.

Sarcastic kitchen shout when somebody drops a tray of dishes.

So buried in orders you can't see daylight.

The service window where finished plates get called, checked, and handed to runners.

The cook manning one station on the hot line during service.

Hit hard with a sudden wall of orders.

The running total of an item across every open ticket — right now.

Shut down server sections and send staff home as the rush dies.

The cold station — pantry chef handling salads, charcuterie, terrines.

Microwave it.

Sauté and sauce chef — the most prestigious station on the line.

Plated food sitting too long in the window, going cold or wilting before it's served.

Chef calling tickets and quality-checking every plate as it leaves the line.

Drop everything — fire this one now.

Lunch and dinner back-to-back, one body, no break.

Steak charred hard on the outside, raw and cool in the middle — Pittsburgh-style.

Call for any available server to come run food immediately.

Grill cook — runs anything that hits open flame or char.

The dishwasher — the one in the suds all night.

The big food-grade plastic tub everything in the kitchen ends up in.

Crockery — plates, cups, the lot.

The heated shelf at the pass where finished plates wait for a runner.

Cook it well-done.

Cook it well-done.

Spanish 'behind you' — the universal back-of-house move-warning.

Out — of the dish, of the building, or of a job.

Guest left without paying.

Pour hot water into the ice well to melt it down for cleaning.

Tiny round bowl for sauces, sides or garnishes.

Second-in-command who actually runs the kitchen most nights.

The undercounter reach-in fridge on the cook line.

Roast cook in the classical kitchen brigade.

Carry plates from the pass to the table.

The standard-sized stainless pan every commercial kitchen runs on.

Working the cook stations behind the pass during service.

Back of house — the kitchen and everything behind the swinging door.

A well-done burger — overcooked, dense, and a punishment to plate.

Blind corner ahead — announce yourself before the collision.

Swing cook — roams between stations wherever it's burning.

Golden Brown and Delicious — the target colour for anything fried.

One full cycle of seat, serve, clear — the unit a restaurant lives or dies by.

The walk-in refrigerator — the giant fridge you literally walk into.

Send a finished plate out the window to the server.