Had a chat with a line cook half my age that made me rethink my prep system

I’ve been doing Sunday prep the same way for like 15 years. Then this 22 year old kid, Miguel, showed me how he breaks down his station in half the time using a different knife grip and stacking method. He just said 'you’re wasting movement, chef' and walked me through it. Took me 3 shifts to unlearn my old habit but now I’m getting through cases of veg way faster. Anyone else had a younger cook teach them something that totally flipped their routine?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabethn5621d ago

Dude, that's literally what happened to me a few months ago! I had this system for organizing my workstation that I thought was genius, but then this 19 year old kid fresh from culinary school just looked at it and was like "why do you grab the same knife four times?" He showed me how to do mise en place differently and group ingredients by cook time instead of course. Took me a solid week to break the muscle memory but now I'm flying through prep. It's wild how the young ones just see the inefficiencies we've been living with forever. Makes you feel kinda dumb but also grateful they didn't just let you keep struggling.

gibson.elizabeth21d ago

Is it just me or does this whole thing apply way more than just in the kitchen? @elizabethn56 I swear I've had the same thing happen with my phone settings and even how I fold laundry. My nephew showed me a trick for organizing my apps that saved me like ten taps a day and at first I felt dumb for not figuring it out myself. But I think it's just that younger people haven't been doing things the wrong way for fifteen years so they see shortcuts we completely miss. Kinda humbling but also a good reminder to keep an open mind about everything.

taylor66812d ago

You said it's "kinda humbling" but honestly I'm not convinced this whole thing is that deep. Yeah sure the kid showed you a faster way to stack your apps or whatever but that's just a trick, not some life changing revelation. People act like every little shortcut is a major breakthrough when really it's just a different way of doing the same thing. I've seen people overcomplicate simple tasks by trying to optimize everything. Sometimes the old way works fine even if it takes an extra ten seconds. Not everything needs to be rethought just because a younger person does it different.