As a non-chef, the term "heard" doesn't resonate w/ me but the ASL "sorry" was monumental. I actually taught it to my pre-school grand-daughter. There are those times where, you are feeling things that are really intense, but you still gotta get the job done (even if that "job" is coloring a picture at pre-school). It is a good technique to know for life in general--
Nick Kokonas actually confirmed in an instagram comment that this episode was originally supposed to be shot in Alinea but due to schedule issues, they couldn’t make it work.
Bartender here, definitely learned a lot from working a world best spot with a michelin starred restaurant next door. Chef would come into our prep area to steal ingredients and always help with technique.
My boyfriend converted me to being a pizza lover recently and I totally agree that I would want the deep dish as they serve it in Pequad's. I guess the show just wanted to highlight how the kitchen goes above and beyond for the customer plating it the way they did. Love this review. Loved learning about the hidden references that inspired the kitchen Richie staged in. Can't wait to hear your review of the final episodes.
I appreciate your comments about gifting, every now and then I will gift the chefs at my favorite restaurants, usually, It would be a nice bottle of some spirit, whiskey, rum , or a dozen pork buns from a famous Chinese bakery, and I just drop it at the pass and say thank you, chefs," I appreciate you", and I never expect anything in return, Also when I am sent some kitchen love I always tip on what the full cost of that dinner should have been.
I’m a bit late to the party here, your profile has been so amazing for me. I’ve been a long time fan of the industry and the concept of caring for people through cooking for them. I’ve been working in casual dining for about half a year now and you have been so insightful as to what’s ahead if I progress down this path.
I'll take any kind of acknowledgement on a call, the majority of the time though "heard" is quick and easy in a rush and seems to cut through the noise well.
My favourite part of this episode is where the chef at that restaurant gives a free meal and VIP treatment to a couple that had been saving up their money and they were both teachers. I mean it was a small passing detail that didn’t mean much until the final episode of the third season. When you find out, the chef was raised by two parents who were teachers who could not afford to put her through culinary school. it was such a beautiful detail. You always hear about celebrities and wealthy people getting VIP treatment and it’s really beautiful that she did that for those people even if it was infection. Have you ever seen anything like that happen in real life?
With the heard thing I’ve made it a habit to say heard not look at the ticket and call back the items that come from my station so “ heard one wing, two smalls (small salad) SOS, and a pot wedge( potato wedges) and I love it when the other cooks do it when I expo.
This episode spoke to me and helped validate what I do. I've always worked FOH, but there's a camaraderie with the people that actually give a shit about what we're doing. Be that BOH or FOH. It's a very satisfying experience to make someone's day. As an anecdote, I waited on a couple a few years back and they asked me for a movie recommendation. I gave them one that I had watched recently, which is fantastic (Palm Springs if you're interested) and they came back a while later (to the point where I probably would've forgotten) and name checked it to me about how much they liked it. The experience we get to provide is what makes service so satisfying.
I like heard a lot actually, but that may be because I started in smaller kitchens, holes in the wall, local chains where heard was not common so I know what it's like without. The restaurant I'm at now does the repeat method "pickup 10 squab!" and it's hard to say that isn't superior.
I was trained on the repeat method. It works better than "heard." My current kitchen doesn't do it, but I find it makes it easier for me to remember what I'm acknowledging. I really hate it when an expo or other line cook doesn't repeat what they said if they don't get at least a "heard." If I didn't respond, I need you to assume I didn't receive the information.
Unfortunately, there is one hospitality segment where staggered seating is not given any consideration. Casual dining at a private club. We don't flip tables. We don't restrict reservation times. The closest we get, is no longer accepting reservations when we get to a certain threshold, which is set by the amount of furniture or floor space we have access to at the given time. Even then, we don't turn away walk-ins. They'll just sit at the bar or stand around until seating is available. That's the only time we flip tables in our pub areas. A usual Wednesday night will have 20 to 40 on the books. We'll serve 60 to 80. And 90 percent of tickets will print within a half hour to an hour of each other. In horrible situations, I've seen a full three foot ticket rail plus two separate wads of tickets in an expo's back pocket come off the printer in 30 minutes. Something close to 120 covers. And our menu is way too large for the volume we get during pushes.
I spent 2 years during university as a dishwasher at a 3 star. Never wanted to move up though. Way too stressful and just washing dishes was good enough for me. And I had a fancy ass title to boot, plongeur, the less worldly women at uni thought it was cool.
I want to hear more about these elite dishwashers. Just read your piece on Brian! So much knowledge these people develop but never gets documented or transferred to other people
My absolute favorite episode! Question, I think I know the answer but wanna know your take. What’s the thought process behind using the term Diners instead of Customers like Chef Terry did?
Guests > diners > customers At least that’s how I came up. I think it’s mostly to prioritize hospitality over “business” - but it all means the same thing. Also changes depending on who you’re talking to sometimes
Had the same thought about the pizza. I feel like they over did it, -unless the accoutrements were game changers, which I wasn't sold on. Nice thought on the part of the staff though.
35:38 I would have at least taken half circles of the crust and butted them up to each other if I was going with his plating, then there would at least have been some of that delicious caramelized cheese.
If a three-star Michelin kitchen staff were left in charge of an Arby's for the week, I'm curious how quickly the food would be prepared and how it would taste. Also, will that restaurant outsell every other fast food establishment in the city of Chicago?
It was this place called Laja - I'm not sure if they're around anymore, but here's their World's 50 Best page: www.theworlds50best.com/latinamerica/en/the-list/laja.html
There’s a chapter in Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain that covers exactly what you mentioned about the Pequod Pizza issue. The overcomplexity, the pretension, the overstuffing of a guest, the burnout, that can all come with large tasting menus. Definitely worth a read, and it talks about Marco Pierre White and other top chefs.
I'd love to hear from a FOH member who works at a starred place to learn about their day-to-day routine. As someone who works in the FOH, I'm constantly curious about what it takes to become a true professional on the floor and move with the same elegance as these captains. It's quite rare to find any information online, so it would be a huge help!
Agree it happens with Michelin, Alinea’s first recognition in the guide was 3 stars too if I’m not mistaken. Was more sharing how it was traditionally done. And world’s 50 best hasn’t had a restaurant get number one on their first year open yet, right?
With regaurds to heard, I like repeating what was said and punctuating it with heard. For exaple "fire order 29" "fire order 29 heard". Thats how we've used it in most of the kitchens ive been in.
To me, if you're repeating what the person said, you can just save yourself 25% of that sentence and eliminate heard. If it "feels good" to say it, go for it. I do the same thing sometimes adding "yes" in front of the callback. So I'd say "yes, fire order 29" - whatever works for you, you've got the core idea already internalized 😉
Uploaded 25 mins ago bit late than my regular time but still early though!😂 Ps: also a question chef,how can i get a job in a restaurant i want to join? Any tips Tips from anyone will help a lot Thanks! Cheers
Gotta take Total Station Domination! www.joinrepertoire.com/tsd And then watch all my free videos about how to contact restaurants, use my stage email template, what to bring to the interview, what to expect in a stage, etc. th-cam.com/video/ic_Wbzt0tNo/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/edNr5KKA-e0/w-d-xo.html
In my experience, networking is the absolute best way. Talk to your coworkers about chefs they've worked for. Get a job at a restaurant in the same strata until you get contacts with people known and respected by your target workplace. Try to get that stage. Research the menu and the history like you're studying for the SAT.
Same - definitely a testament to Curtis's experience! I should also say, that's why my bias skewed towards stalking about them in this episode even though there are more points when Garret is talking to Richie about the restaurant that MUCH more align with EMP's history (ie: getting best restaurant in the world and in North America). Guess it's more of an indicator that I spent more time in Chicago than in NYC, even though it was short lived.
I'm just a humble home cook, but watching that pizza being plated was just saddening. The entire essence of what makes that pizza that pizza is gone. Not everything is ring moulds and throwing greens over top and it was very strange seeing that being done in this show. If they wanted to make it easier to eat, they coulve cut off the crust, cut a part of the pizza into small pieces that still look like pizza slices, cut the crust to size and put it against or just behind the cut out slices. At least they'd have some crust that way. Poor, discarded crust.
Heard is just a thing that is not always necessary definitely acknowledging understanding of what's going on that's hella important but just saying it just to say it can be an issue to the point where youre just on auto pilot doing it. I'm sure I'm not the only person from food who had to train themselves not to say door or corner outside of work
Something wrong with the cheese? I've added The Bear recently to my list of 'to-watch', but it's no big deal. Played it on TH-cam reviews ever since it was posted. I think it should go that way!
It's like 311's tiny desk concert from March 11th, to me. They did Down, Amber is the color of my energy, or just Amber I mean, Beautiful Disaster and All Mixed Up. Their 4 greatest songs. Talented musicians and it's all up in the air.
I assume they had her say 13:00 so it was obviously military time… even though you would never use past 12:00. She could have said “O-six hundred” maybe. Assuming it was something they did while shooting and how it sounded.
The military reference makes sense but it also makes sense with fluted mushrooms cause a lot of demos will have your knife in that position when you do the fluting maneuver - I also forgot to mention the tie in between military and the brigade structure in this scene. Should’ve just done it, the episode was already long!
You dont necessarily need kool aid you need to vet people well and get rid of the toxic people and practices as they come up. Nothing worse than someone who is a piece of shit but drank the kool aid.
Been watching all your reactions waiting for this ep, but this was one of the hardest to watch. 20min in and you are barely over the first 5min of the episode. It's cool you know these people, but it doesn't make great content going over again again.
Do not allow anyone to gaslight you about this show. It’s nothing like being a chef, service isn’t like in this show. This is not how restaurants run or treat staff. It’s pure fantasy.
@@justinkhanna I guess you work with crack heads who smoke during service and have a cousin that can pull a flawless one star service out of air whilst finding hundreds of thousands of dollars in the dry store 😂
You missed it on the Kool-Aid. It means that you are 100% down with the program. This is a reference to the 1978 cult murder / suicide in Jonestown Guyana involving the followers of Rev. Jim Jones. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
Favorite episode this season. Richie’s character growth this season is just phenomenal writing.
Same
Agree 100% - it's the longest breakdown video this season for this exact reason
@@justinkhanna love your content. These videos are very informative about restaurant life and culture
not only the best episode of the show, but from a writing standpoint one of he best written hours of TV I've seen in awhile. Since The Wire really.
As a non-chef, the term "heard" doesn't resonate w/ me but the ASL "sorry" was monumental. I actually taught it to my pre-school grand-daughter. There are those times where, you are feeling things that are really intense, but you still gotta get the job done (even if that "job" is coloring a picture at pre-school). It is a good technique to know for life in general--
Nick Kokonas actually confirmed in an instagram comment that this episode was originally supposed to be shot in Alinea but due to schedule issues, they couldn’t make it work.
Ha so I don’t feel so bad referencing them so much then 😅
Bartender here, definitely learned a lot from working a world best spot with a michelin starred restaurant next door. Chef would come into our prep area to steal ingredients and always help with technique.
My boyfriend converted me to being a pizza lover recently and I totally agree that I would want the deep dish as they serve it in Pequad's. I guess the show just wanted to highlight how the kitchen goes above and beyond for the customer plating it the way they did. Love this review. Loved learning about the hidden references that inspired the kitchen Richie staged in. Can't wait to hear your review of the final episodes.
Right?!
It's literally something that has happened at Eleven Madison Park, only they did it with NYC dirty water hot dogs
Have looked forward to every one of these eps
I appreciate your comments about gifting, every now and then I will gift the chefs at my favorite restaurants, usually, It would be a nice bottle of some spirit, whiskey, rum , or a dozen pork buns from a famous Chinese bakery, and I just drop it at the pass and say thank you, chefs," I appreciate you", and I never expect anything in return, Also when I am sent some kitchen love I always tip on what the full cost of that dinner should have been.
100% 🔥
LOL Justin's talking about proper cleaning. Here i am drooling over the Mauviel cookware.
Great description on the food runners being "agnostic". That was perfect.
Ha thanks 🙌
I’m a bit late to the party here, your profile has been so amazing for me. I’ve been a long time fan of the industry and the concept of caring for people through cooking for them. I’ve been working in casual dining for about half a year now and you have been so insightful as to what’s ahead if I progress down this path.
Thanks for the kind words 🙏 real pleasure to have you watching. Send me an email or a DM on IG, would love to connect!
Brilliant descriptions of the Orchestration of a Restaurant; Justin, you're making me a better diner. 😉
That’s the goal!! Awesome to have you watching 🙌
I'll take any kind of acknowledgement on a call, the majority of the time though "heard" is quick and easy in a rush and seems to cut through the noise well.
My favourite part of this episode is where the chef at that restaurant gives a free meal and VIP treatment to a couple that had been saving up their money and they were both teachers. I mean it was a small passing detail that didn’t mean much until the final episode of the third season. When you find out, the chef was raised by two parents who were teachers who could not afford to put her through culinary school. it was such a beautiful detail. You always hear about celebrities and wealthy people getting VIP treatment and it’s really beautiful that she did that for those people even if it was infection. Have you ever seen anything like that happen in real life?
lol it was revealed in season 3 that it was chef himself that made the smudge!
With the heard thing I’ve made it a habit to say heard not look at the ticket and call back the items that come from my station so “ heard one wing, two smalls (small salad) SOS, and a pot wedge( potato wedges) and I love it when the other cooks do it when I expo.
This episode spoke to me and helped validate what I do. I've always worked FOH, but there's a camaraderie with the people that actually give a shit about what we're doing. Be that BOH or FOH. It's a very satisfying experience to make someone's day. As an anecdote, I waited on a couple a few years back and they asked me for a movie recommendation. I gave them one that I had watched recently, which is fantastic (Palm Springs if you're interested) and they came back a while later (to the point where I probably would've forgotten) and name checked it to me about how much they liked it. The experience we get to provide is what makes service so satisfying.
Palm Springs!! Such a good movie
I love Olivia Coleman.
I like heard a lot actually, but that may be because I started in smaller kitchens, holes in the wall, local chains where heard was not common so I know what it's like without. The restaurant I'm at now does the repeat method "pickup 10 squab!" and it's hard to say that isn't superior.
This guy gets it 😎👊
I was trained on the repeat method. It works better than "heard." My current kitchen doesn't do it, but I find it makes it easier for me to remember what I'm acknowledging. I really hate it when an expo or other line cook doesn't repeat what they said if they don't get at least a "heard." If I didn't respond, I need you to assume I didn't receive the information.
Unfortunately, there is one hospitality segment where staggered seating is not given any consideration. Casual dining at a private club. We don't flip tables. We don't restrict reservation times. The closest we get, is no longer accepting reservations when we get to a certain threshold, which is set by the amount of furniture or floor space we have access to at the given time. Even then, we don't turn away walk-ins. They'll just sit at the bar or stand around until seating is available. That's the only time we flip tables in our pub areas.
A usual Wednesday night will have 20 to 40 on the books. We'll serve 60 to 80. And 90 percent of tickets will print within a half hour to an hour of each other. In horrible situations, I've seen a full three foot ticket rail plus two separate wads of tickets in an expo's back pocket come off the printer in 30 minutes. Something close to 120 covers.
And our menu is way too large for the volume we get during pushes.
I spent 2 years during university as a dishwasher at a 3 star. Never wanted to move up though. Way too stressful and just washing dishes was good enough for me. And I had a fancy ass title to boot, plongeur, the less worldly women at uni thought it was cool.
amazing episode and review, love your thoughts
I want to hear more about these elite dishwashers. Just read your piece on Brian! So much knowledge these people develop but never gets documented or transferred to other people
Will you do a breakdown of The Menu?
My absolute favorite episode! Question, I think I know the answer but wanna know your take. What’s the thought process behind using the term Diners instead of Customers like Chef Terry did?
Guests > diners > customers
At least that’s how I came up. I think it’s mostly to prioritize hospitality over “business” - but it all means the same thing. Also changes depending on who you’re talking to sometimes
Had the same thought about the pizza. I feel like they over did it, -unless the accoutrements were game changers, which I wasn't sold on. Nice thought on the part of the staff though.
Noma pics of 2024 season showed tickets with times and when you will call out a course.
35:38 I would have at least taken half circles of the crust and butted them up to each other if I was going with his plating, then there would at least have been some of that delicious caramelized cheese.
If a three-star Michelin kitchen staff were left in charge of an Arby's for the week, I'm curious how quickly the food would be prepared and how it would taste. Also, will that restaurant outsell every other fast food establishment in the city of Chicago?
Yes chef fuck me kills me every time 🤣
Same lol it's incredible timing 😭
Curious where you had your tasting in Mexico? Great video!
It was this place called Laja - I'm not sure if they're around anymore, but here's their World's 50 Best page: www.theworlds50best.com/latinamerica/en/the-list/laja.html
There’s a chapter in Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain that covers exactly what you mentioned about the Pequod Pizza issue. The overcomplexity, the pretension, the overstuffing of a guest, the burnout, that can all come with large tasting menus. Definitely worth a read, and it talks about Marco Pierre White and other top chefs.
I'd love to hear from a FOH member who works at a starred place to learn about their day-to-day routine. As someone who works in the FOH, I'm constantly curious about what it takes to become a true professional on the floor and move with the same elegance as these captains. It's quite rare to find any information online, so it would be a huge help!
17:00 Jan hartwig managed to get 3 Stars within 1 year in Germany in 2023 , might be different cause of Germany though
Agree it happens with Michelin, Alinea’s first recognition in the guide was 3 stars too if I’m not mistaken. Was more sharing how it was traditionally done. And world’s 50 best hasn’t had a restaurant get number one on their first year open yet, right?
“‘I heard that.’ What is this a hearing contest? Of course you heard it, I’m standing right next to you” - George Carlin
With regaurds to heard, I like repeating what was said and punctuating it with heard. For exaple "fire order 29" "fire order 29 heard". Thats how we've used it in most of the kitchens ive been in.
To me, if you're repeating what the person said, you can just save yourself 25% of that sentence and eliminate heard. If it "feels good" to say it, go for it. I do the same thing sometimes adding "yes" in front of the callback. So I'd say "yes, fire order 29" - whatever works for you, you've got the core idea already internalized 😉
Uploaded 25 mins ago bit late than my regular time but still early though!😂
Ps: also a question chef,how can i get a job in a restaurant i want to join? Any tips
Tips from anyone will help a lot
Thanks! Cheers
Gotta take Total Station Domination! www.joinrepertoire.com/tsd
And then watch all my free videos about how to contact restaurants, use my stage email template, what to bring to the interview, what to expect in a stage, etc.
th-cam.com/video/ic_Wbzt0tNo/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/edNr5KKA-e0/w-d-xo.html
@@justinkhannaThank you chef!
In my experience, networking is the absolute best way. Talk to your coworkers about chefs they've worked for. Get a job at a restaurant in the same strata until you get contacts with people known and respected by your target workplace. Try to get that stage. Research the menu and the history like you're studying for the SAT.
@@ms6534 ok thanks for the advice will try
Deep dish is just Lasagna ina Pizza form.
I hated the pizza plating. there was no burnt cheese crust. it looked like something I made for my 5 year old of PBJ sandwiches.
Truuuuuee
what books did you mention
also could you do a vid on books to read
All I could think was Alinea when I watched this episode.
Same - definitely a testament to Curtis's experience! I should also say, that's why my bias skewed towards stalking about them in this episode even though there are more points when Garret is talking to Richie about the restaurant that MUCH more align with EMP's history (ie: getting best restaurant in the world and in North America). Guess it's more of an indicator that I spent more time in Chicago than in NYC, even though it was short lived.
Me too, the kitchen at Ever clearly looks like alinéa too
I'm just a humble home cook, but watching that pizza being plated was just saddening.
The entire essence of what makes that pizza that pizza is gone.
Not everything is ring moulds and throwing greens over top and it was very strange seeing that being done in this show.
If they wanted to make it easier to eat, they coulve cut off the crust, cut a part of the pizza into small pieces that still look like pizza slices, cut the crust to size and put it against or just behind the cut out slices.
At least they'd have some crust that way. Poor, discarded crust.
Heard is just a thing that is not always necessary definitely acknowledging understanding of what's going on that's hella important but just saying it just to say it can be an issue to the point where youre just on auto pilot doing it. I'm sure I'm not the only person from food who had to train themselves not to say door or corner outside of work
This is proving to be a great topic to make a video on…
He found his purpose
My probelm with being a dick is imo you should get to know the person a little before screaming at anyone.
Although Colman has an English instead of rural-western accent, I definitely got Sally Schmitt vibes in her look and delivery.
Something wrong with the cheese? I've added The Bear recently to my list of 'to-watch', but it's no big deal. Played it on TH-cam reviews ever since it was posted. I think it should go that way!
It's like 311's tiny desk concert from March 11th, to me. They did Down, Amber is the color of my energy, or just Amber I mean, Beautiful Disaster and All Mixed Up. Their 4 greatest songs. Talented musicians and it's all up in the air.
I assume they had her say 13:00 so it was obviously military time… even though you would never use past 12:00. She could have said “O-six hundred” maybe. Assuming it was something they did while shooting and how it sounded.
The military reference makes sense but it also makes sense with fluted mushrooms cause a lot of demos will have your knife in that position when you do the fluting maneuver - I also forgot to mention the tie in between military and the brigade structure in this scene. Should’ve just done it, the episode was already long!
You dont necessarily need kool aid you need to vet people well and get rid of the toxic people and practices as they come up. Nothing worse than someone who is a piece of shit but drank the kool aid.
I still say "heard" and "corner," "behind," "hot," knife."
This was fun until the host went on his never-ending screed about Chicago deep-dish. Should have put a sock in it five minutes earlier.
Been watching all your reactions waiting for this ep, but this was one of the hardest to watch. 20min in and you are barely over the first 5min of the episode. It's cool you know these people, but it doesn't make great content going over again again.
Chapter markers are made for you!
Jibber jabber. Ughh this guy speaks way too much channel on block
Do not allow anyone to gaslight you about this show. It’s nothing like being a chef, service isn’t like in this show. This is not how restaurants run or treat staff. It’s pure fantasy.
I think this comment is gaslighting me 😵💫
@@justinkhanna I guess you work with crack heads who smoke during service and have a cousin that can pull a flawless one star service out of air whilst finding hundreds of thousands of dollars in the dry store 😂
You missed it on the Kool-Aid. It means that you are 100% down with the program.
This is a reference to the 1978 cult murder / suicide in Jonestown Guyana involving the followers of Rev. Jim Jones. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
The things I learn from you folks!