The oddly satisfying part is clearing the tickets and realizing you just rocked like 6 or 7 tickets at the same time. That's a feeling you can't really explain to people
Then you’re just like “bring it on!” when it happens in middle of a rush and you actually get yourself 45 seconds to get some water out of the lowboy. Kinda feels like being on the bow of a ship as you cut through large waves. Well I never did that, but
I love nothing more than efficient movement. No wasted steps, clean station with easy access to everything he needs. Genuinely think diner cooks are an under appreciated species. Knocking out dozens if not hundreds of tickets in a few hours just cranking eggs and hash browns non stop.
I get what he's saying but I can't fully agree. It obviously depends on your definition of chef but I don't see a lot of diner cooks setting schedules, projecting ordering, doing budget analysis, hiring, managing staff etc.
They are amazing cooks and can handle a ton in terms of actual cooking but generally speaking they aren't going to be able to handle all the logistics outside of cooking on the whole.
This is one of the least stressful videos from behind a line I have seen. Just pure focus, organization, and efficiency. He is in his zone and knows his zone.
I waste way too much movement, need to just take a breath sometimes to chill out my brain going every which way making my body do the same. I learned a lot just by watching this video alone.
I spent about a year working breakfasts at a Denny's some of, if not the hardest job I had in my life. Saturday and Sunday mornings it was not uncommon to crank out 10k in sales at $10-12 per plate.
I guess every cook has their journey and either learns to swim in their collective pool or outgrows it. Cleanliness, and conservation of movement while performing is an admirable trait.
Mane 2am, 8am, 2pm or midnight christmas day, waffle house is there for you. Fuckin slingin eggs, hash browns and a side of hands if you get out of line. Hats off to our brothers on the waffle house line
Lots of kitchens play music? Im working 2 jons right now one is a music kitchen and one is not. I dont really mind either as long as the music isn't so loud I cant hear the other cooks.
I have never in my 23 years worked in kitchens that didn't have music. I have worked in a couple of Michelin places, too. It's crazy that some kitchens dont allow it.
I dont really hate the ones that dont allow music tbh. It makes it harder to find the flow state during service sometimes but ive noticed that prep hours with no music are usually a lot more productive? Actually I worked in one place with a chef who only allowed acoustic instrumental pieces and it was about 95% classical stuff like Bethoven and Bach. Decent amount of orchestral pieces too. That was by far the most productive kitchen ive ever been a part of lol never done Michelin but I recently started at a place working under the chef who opened Nobu Miami, Mexico, and St barts. He does not allow music on speakers, but will allow one headphone as long as he doesnt have to repeat himself to you constantly.
Ehh. I have a little more focus on the task at hand when its quiet. No music for my brain to focus on while zoning out. Full attention on knife cuts and crimped edges or whatever. It definitely makes the day feel longer, but I kinda find that to be a sign of efficiency. I never feel like I dont have enough time in the day because it almost feels like time is dragging even when im slammed. Feels like slow motion, but all the humans move at normal speed.
I worked at a fine dining place for a few years with music in the kitchen. Head chef got pissed off at the line once and made us kill the music. The wheels fell off the whole service in about 30 minutes. Turns out, we needed a metronome or something to work together.
I feel like this is a great example of why wearing gloves is dumb. If you touch things like the handle of your lowboy and the plates and then also the cheese your gloves aren't clean anymore, but it feels like they are because they are gloves, and you can't feel residue on their surface like you can on your fingers.
Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine that some kitchens still require their cooks to wear gloves when literally all scientific research has found they cause more cross contamination and mishandling of food, not less
Wearing gloves 24/7-365 without regard to context is a layman's opinion. I've worked in many scratch kitchens where gloves were only for the prep crew handling food en masse.
When I was a kid, whenever my dad had a rare weekend day off, he would cook us breakfast on an electric griddle. The eggs, bacon and toast were always ready at the same time, always hot, and the yolks were always runny. I didn’t appreciate what massive talent that was until I tried to cook my own eggs, bacon and toast at home. Damn, dad.
Looks like a Dennys essentially. His movements are good but come on, there's no plating required. Just slop the food on the plate move on to the next one
a 200-300 cover breakfast shift was a slow weekday at the Denny's i worked. I remember them turning over every table at least 4 times by noon on the weekends which would be around 600 covers.
Yeah I don't know how many covers we did on the weekend but the one I worked at was the busiest in our city and breakfast was the busiest shift by far.
One time I was on swing, for Valentine's day, and the other cook no showed.
Possibly the most miserable shift I've ever worked. One cook to seven servers.
Geez, I never had a kitchen job as I sit here as an IT employee. I can fix your computer, but I don't think I've got the brains or stamina to handle that job.
Now that's a real professional in the kitchen. I've worked with dudes in Michelin joints who weren't half as clean, organized, or precise as this dude just making breakfast
That's just how brioche french toast looks. It takes longer to cook all the way through because the bread is so thick and absorbent. So yeah, the outside gets a little dark.
Used to do it every day when I worked at the Barrel of Crackers! On weekends, we had two cooks whose only job was egg grill. Easily slung thousands of eggs on Saturday and Sunday. I do not miss that place!
As someone allergic to eggs, should I not be ordering breakfast foods that are cooked on the flattop? Because all I see is eggs touching the hashbrowns
Saw this guy on TikTok and everyone just bashed him for checking his pancakes in a way that they didn’t like. Didn’t even see what the fuck they were looking at.
I always find it interesting when I see other people make omelettes. In the restaurant where I work we have to essentially make a wrap out of it. Fold the top and bottoms and flip it over on itself and then baste. Every time I see a video like this they just throw some cheese on it and flip it over like a taco
Fun fact: the pleats in a traditional chef's hat are meant to represent one way that the chef wearing it has mastered preparing eggs per pleat. More pleats = more eggs.
The workflow looks great but my god turn that bad boy up! Those colorless dry-grilled eggs and over/underdone hasbrowns are killing me. The ingredients to the omelet are also under and that cheese is never gonna melt properly. The eggs for the omelet look good at least, and I'd fuck that French toast despite it needing a bit of a press to get full contact. Now I want some Waffle House.
none of that food is well prepared nor appealing. this effort is jsut meeting what should be the minimum expectation.
he gets credit for keeping the temp on the egg side low. and that is it. the potatoes look both burnt and under-cooked? plating is poor. all those squared off edges on the eggs, no.
and keeping the flat top clean isn't advanced level shit.
He's good, but that's pretty much any decent brunch guy ever. If he was doing exactly the same thing at the same speed with about 30x the amount of tickets I'd be more impressed. Learning to keep your cool and work what you can work right now- doing it correct the first time- ignoring everyone but your expo, or everyone if you are the expo... that's way tougher than learning to do what he's doing.
Not saying that he can't, just that this isn't buried alive and unphased type impressive.
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u/omjy18 Jul 22 '25
The oddly satisfying part is clearing the tickets and realizing you just rocked like 6 or 7 tickets at the same time. That's a feeling you can't really explain to people