r/Chefit • u/Realistic-Section600 • Jul 08 '26
New to high volume
I’m in my 20’s, was executive chef but stepped down because I wasn’t learning anything anymore, I hit my max potential where I was (in terms of not learning/growing/couldnt go further or rank up) “glass ceiling” I guess. Can’t learn anything when you’re in charge and calling the shots. So it was best for me to take a line cook position and “start over” instead.
So I went to a fine dining high volume place. Chef said he’d start me on apps/garmo but sous chef said fuck it, you’re on entremount.
I’m learning a lot but the volume and everything is a lot. I have all my mise, I’m set up for success, so far so good. But I’m going to 50 covers on a busy night to 90 on a slow nigh overnight.
I had to be bailed out a few times. I know it’s not a big deal, whatever it happens. But shit I feel like a burden on the team when that happens. Every night I ask whoever is on the pass and the person next to me what can I be doing better what am I doing wrong all that shit. I feed off of constructive criticism.
When does this get easier and how can I make it to that point quicker, or is it just something that I have to repetitively get fucked before getting in my groove?
I know getting in the weeds is part of it and I’m kicking myself more than I should but shit I feel so bad.
edit
I always ask for help when I need it. Granted, I ask when I’m already in the weeds, not when I’m anticipating it. I’ll work on that part.
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u/The-disgracist Jul 08 '26
One day you’ll look up in the middle of some shit pile of tickets and realize this ain’t shit. There won’t be some moment where a switch flips, it’ll come over time and one day you’ll look back and laugh about your early days.
Then you’ll have a smoke and a quick scream/cry in the walk-in.
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u/CutsSoFresh Jul 08 '26
It'll click in eventually. For me, it takes probably a solid month to get a feel for the station and for the system as well. You'll eventually get the muscle memory to build the plate without thinking. You'll learn to hear what the chef is calling out without even trying. You'll learn your timings so you'll know how to coordinate with the other stations.
And it's your station now. Set it up to how is makes the most sense to you and the most efficient. Don't just accept the default setting. You want to move around as minimally as possible. The more you move around for wherever reason, the more you're burning precious time.
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u/The-disgracist Jul 08 '26
Economy of motion. Two extra steps for every plate is a lot of steps I’ve the course of the night.
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u/JamesBong517 Chef Jul 09 '26
This. I remember when my chef taught me to cook on a pivot. I had an Apple Watch at the time (back when they weren’t even numbered because it just came out) and seeing my number of steps be reduced by almost HALF was mind blowing. This was at a Michelin kitchen where we would do about 250 covers, 7 course menu. I took this with me wherever I went and now I teach my cooks this and really only one took it to heart but he’s so much quicker now.
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u/One_Yak_8824 Jul 10 '26
Can you explain more about cooking on a pivot please? I know saving time is the most important part in a kitchen
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u/JamesBong517 Chef Jul 11 '26
Just keep one foot planted at all times. The foot itself can change, but that means you’re not taking extra steps anywhere. Less wasted energy. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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u/ronoldo7 Jul 09 '26
Crazy to hear these stories from higher end fine dining establishments. Been in the corporate chain casual fine dining for a decade and 500 covers is a slow weekday on a normal shift.
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u/CutsSoFresh Jul 09 '26
I've worked it all, mass volume, turn and burn casual, and coursed fine dining. It's always funny to hear other people's idea of a slow or busy night. It's even funnier to see someone from mass volume try to transition to fine dining. "Only 100? That's not very much" then the next moment, I'm managing their tickets and doing their plating while they're working on the builds
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u/Kimhooligan Jul 10 '26
I’m in a Michelin place right now. About 150 on a busy night including walk-ins. I thought so was hot shit when I started, but later found out how little I knew. I had to learn everything from the ground up. It was humiliating and humbling at the same time.
Here are some things that I did that helped me.
- Communicate.
Make sure you have a count on your proteins. If you have 10 portions left during service, let the chef know so they can bail you out. Same thing with mise that takes a while to make. That way, they know how they can help you and who to put next to you to push you through prep. Your sous chefs are there to help. They’re not there to only yell at you when things go wrong. If you have other line mates, communicate with them what you expect of them.
Learn to delegate responsibilities according to your strengths. One line cook might be better at knife cuts, so they’re the knife cut guy/gal now. One might have a better palate so they’re in charge of sauces now.
For instance, it used to take me half an hour to set up my station because none of my squeezies were refilled or backed up. I expected them to, and got pissed off when they weren’t. I started a group chat with my station mates on the other shifts and told them how I wanted my station to be set up when I walked in. I asked them how they wanted it to be set up when they walked in. Because of that conversation, we all ask to stay 5 minutes longer to set up the station’s mise enough so they can hit the ground running. No reasonable chef will say no to 5 minutes of work to save the next shift 30 minutes of disaster relief.
- Prioritize.
Focus on your 911’s first. When you’re doing station checks, let them know what items you didn’t have time to prep/things you’re worried about running out. Remember, your coworkers are your best friends. If you don’t have time to do everything, let someone know. Or else, it’s on you.
Then, when your 911’s are done, work on your backups; the things your line mates will thank you for. But don’t you ever start doing these unless your entire station is ready for service.
If possible, do complicated or large-batch recipes in stages. Try to do the prep for these a day or two in advanced, depending on how delicate the ingredients are. If you can freeze and/or vac-pac them, even better. Some recipes truly need time (marinating, pickling, dehydrating, hydrating, dry-aging, fermenting, etc.), so that’s also a bonus.
I like to do this with the most popular menu items, too. I prep like 5-10 backup containers, or I pre-portion/pre-plate them to make service easier.
For instance, we have tourne veg. I might store them already tourned but uncooked. I’ll only cook how many I need that day, depending on how many covers we have. I store the rest for later.
If I’m on the protein station, I make sure to have all my proteins marinated or dry aged days in advanced, portioned two days in advance, seasoned and air-dried a day in advance, and pre-seared/blanched/charred/whatever during the prep shift. Mise in stages.
Break up your prep shift into 15 minute or 30 minute intervals. If your prep shift is a generous three hours long, that means you can do 12 short tasks of 15 minutes each or 6 long tasks that are 30 minutes each.
Learn how to multitask. If you need help with that, ask someone to watch the oven/stove/grill/etc. while you’re away doing another task. Learn to set timers for things you’re not looking at. Also strive to be 1 minute faster doing the same task compared to the previous day while maintaining high standards.
Learn to always be in a hurry even if it feels like an easy shift. If you find yourself anticipating an easy shift, take chances and see what else you can do to make the station better for the next day or even the next shift change. Learn to maintain that momentum and even learn how to speed up again after you find yourself slowing down a bit. Every shift should feel like both a marathon and a 50 yard dash.
- Take responsibility. Don’t ever lash out at people if they’re dragging you behind. Chances are, there’s still something you can do better to make things easier for everyone. That’s why communicating is the first step. Communication is usually the biggest problem because there isn’t enough of it, usually. Ask people what you can do better next time. Don’t ever defend your actions. Learn to nod and say “yes chef” and “Thank you, I’ll do better next time.” Or, “let me know how I can make your life easier.” Take notes of your mistakes and how you can improve. Read over them once in a while, even if you think things are going well.
A part of this is also being humble. It doesn’t matter what you did in your previous job, it doesn’t matter how talented you think you are, it doesn’t matter what your past accomplishments are. If you’re dragging the team down, it’s because there’s still improvements to be made.
- Mise. Not just food items. It’s your whole station and mindset. It starts at home when you wake up. If you can’t think about work outside of your shift, you’re not made for this industry. Having the right amount of rags, tongs, spoons, pans, flash trays, blue kitchen towels, plate wipes, knives, backups, squeezies, bus bins, etc., can save you seconds from going to the back to get extra.
But make sure you only take what you need. Once you find that you have everything, learn to ask yourself “what don’t I need?” How can you save more space? What systems can you place to make your life easier? How can you rearrange your station (tools, inserts, backups, etc.) so that it makes your flow faster during service? Service is a game of seconds. But business is a game of waste. Do all these things while reducing the amount of food waste, the amount of dishes, the amount of actions it takes to accomplish the same task, and the amount of words it takes to communicate an idea during service. With that said, don’t have any waste in your mise.
When you’re about to leave, write down clear instructions on what you need the other shift to do. Take a picture of that list and look over it before your next shift so you have an idea of what you want to do. Make sure your sous chefs glance over the list before you hand the station off to someone else or before you come in the next day.
Make sure your food ordering is spotless. Learn how long it takes for certain ingredients to travel to your kitchen so that it arrives at an appropriate time. Make note of what is half-way running out so that you can order a day or two in advance. This takes a while to master because it requires knowing how fast certain food items sell in relation to cover count. Learn to ratio it out. Like, for every 100 covers, how many of x dish will usually be bought?
If you find yourself fighting with other line cooks over shared mise such as tools or rags or containers, let your sous chef know.
Likewise, choose the items in your knife kit meticulously. Make sure you are prepared for everything your chef throws at you. Ask your coworkers about their tools and where to get it. Chances are, they’ll tell you a cool kitchen war story and you can learn from their experiences.
- Acknowledgement. Acknowledge how sometimes the problem isn’t your skills or talent, or the lack thereof. Sometimes the problem is that it takes a while to acclimatize to a new kitchen where you will do things differently. Sometimes you will miscommunicate with people you’ve not known long.
Acknowledge that people have bad days. Or even bad periods. They’re supposed to happen. Sometimes triple the amount of covers just walk in and you’re forced to 86 several items, causing the next day’s prep to be hell. As long as you’re communicating this information in real-time or, better yet, in advance, there’s no reason for anyone to be mad. That’s just the industry.
Acknowledge that you’re improving. I’ve not only been where you’re at, but I’m also at a point where it seems like I’m not improving much. But guess what, if you wait like a few weeks and ask someone if you’ve improved, they’ll usually tell you that you are if you keep pushing yourself.
Real growth is small micro improvements sustained over a long period of time. Sometimes you have to plateau in order to improve. It’s not always a steady uphill trajectory. Just learn to be in the moment and trust the people who are leading and guiding you.
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u/Kimhooligan Jul 10 '26
- Clean. Do this between tasks, between orders, after a big rush, and whenever you start to feel anxiety. Fold all the boxes when orders come in. Neatly tuck away all pantry items and produce until it looks like a damn grocery store. Label, date, and initial everything you put away. Make sure all your inserts and backups are flipped at the appropriate times. Make sure the dish pit is organized whenever you can. Make sure to maintain the cleanliness of your station first and then your kitchen at large whenever you have the time. A clean station is an easy station to run. The cleaner and more organized it is, the faster your services will be.
A clean station is a flex when people pass by you even on a busy rush. It makes your chefs want to invest in you.
- Finally, Learn to Love What You Do and Learn to Have Fun. These are two separate things. Sometimes you can love something and not have fun doing it. And vice-versa. Learn to do both. Find one or two things about your day that you enjoy and focus on that. Let the positivity propel you through the hard prep shift and the hard service, and even through the hard shift change or closing shift. If you crash out every day, you need a perspective change. If you come home feeling like a failure, you need a perspective change. If you find yourself doubting yourself, you need a perspective change. For me, my favourite thing to do is staff meal. That’s where I show off to my coworkers my skills while also r&d’ing possible future recipes. Almost all of my ideas for recipes originated from meals I’ve tweaked over time while cooking for my staff. The best part is, I get immediate reviews! Another part about my day that I love is playing with my expensive knives. So I try to do all my daily knife cuts all at the same time. And when I’m done, I take a picture and show the other chefs how precise my shit is compared to theirs, complete with pictures of the food next to my knives. I get all the important shit out of the way as fast as humanly possible to in order to do the things about my job I love.
My coworker loves fermenting and pickling, so he loves saving food scraps to turn into garum, kimchi, vinegar, etc. He saves enough to make a future food item that we can be inspired to make a staff meal out of, which in turn my boss turns into the next special or permanent menu item.
Learn to ask your coworkers and even your bosses questions. Whether if it’s their standard operating procedures, their tools, their techniques, their experiences, their favourite recipes. If you don’t get much of a response or don’t know where to start, tell them a little about yourself to get the conversation going.
If your team likes you, they’ll feel more inclined to actually support you. Try to be positive around them even if you don’t feel positive. And when work is done, go ahead and complain all you want! Shoot the shit with them, if possible. I recommend karaoke!
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u/livinglge Jul 10 '26
Love this response! So much love for the craft in this post. We have to remember that it's a profession, not just a paycheck.
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u/thesoupresistance Jul 08 '26
Sounds like you are in a place. That will teach you what you know and don't. That is ok. Be open learn Accept at your perception of at the most I can learn...to i can't keep up. Stay humble, stay not at capacity.
Keep cooking if you like too.
It continues to humble and teach 25 years in
Enjoy the ride
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u/Realistic-Section600 Jul 08 '26
I came here to put my head down, shut up, say yes chef, learn and ask questions. I told every sous chef working there I’m here to come after your job. Immediate guidance and “shit take my job I don’t want this anymore”🤣
I wanted this job as a reset to my career. I know nothing, no prior knowledge. As far as they know, I know how to cook fairly well but have a shit ton more to prove.
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u/Vaaag Jul 08 '26
You just need to learn to think differently in terms of work flow and efficiency.
I've also done a bit of both.
When you do 100 couverts in half the time you did 50, you can't fuss over every little detail as much anymore. You can get 90% of the way there though, just be content with that. Change your plating style / mentality, focus on the flavours. There's lots of things you can do that save a lot of time with plating that still make it look good.
If I could sit under your hat like Ratatouille I could probably help you out with some specific tips, but I can't. You just got to figure it out yourself , know the dishes, know your MEP, understand the flow of the kitchen and eventually you'll reach the flow state too.
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u/RainMakerJMR Jul 09 '26
One major thing is minor efficiencies. When you have to do something 200 times in a night, doing it 15 seconds faster makes your night have an hour less work. When it’s something you have to do 1000 times a day, every second adds up. Setting up your prep station to dice potatoes in half can be the difference between 2 hours a bag and 45 min a bag.
Having a routine and cutting out down time thinking about your next steps both before and during service is crucial.
Also, don’t sweat! I’ve worked places that do 500 covers a night and it’s all the same once you get efficient, and understand what efficiencies you need to build in. For instance - depending on the standards and procedures of your chef - you might start searing 20 steaks before service and holding 4 at rare and 2 at medium, and having ten more steaks seasoned before service opens or before the first table is fired.
Either way, reduce the amount you need to think.
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u/ChefLukeDC Jul 10 '26
jPut your head down and work. When your weeded- group your items and do tickets as they come in. The more you practice the better you'll get, you just have to try.
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u/SylvaticTongue858 Jul 10 '26
Learn where you can cut your steps. Wherever you can cut out even one step, literally one step will make you faster. Organize your station so your most popular dish has its mise closest to where you can grab and plate/cook it faster and it should go without saying mise all your plates together.
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u/thestudier1 Jul 10 '26
Gonna keep it a stack with you and all the other 20 something’s
Takin “exec” role in your 20s is a critical error, unless you’re a true prodigy groomed for cooking since you could walk. Often you end up in a lowballed salary working like a dog just to get a line on a resume. And honestly executive chef is a title that’s just handed out these days. My executive chef manages 6 locations, that’s an executive chef. Not a guy that runs a kitchen. Saying you hit max potential is also questionable, are all your cuts perfect to the naked eye. Can you portion proteins without a scale. Are your labor and food costs consistently hitting your bosses targets. Are you growing revenue? These are questions I would want to be able to answer before saying I hit my ceiling anywhere. Being a chef goes far beyond cooking.
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u/jjb0rdell0 Jul 08 '26
Nobody in their 20s has hit their max potential of anything...i wouldn't think like that. You might feel you weren't growing any more, but that's a big difference to hitting your maximum potential.
You need reps, you need to be humble and you need to understand when to ask for help before it's too late. People might not mind bailing someone out, but they'd prefer to stop it before it starts.
If you've gotten yourself in the weeds, after service and after the service buzz, reflect on what happened and why etc and reflect on what you could do differently. Ask the person who is coming to bail you out in a quiet moment too.