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PSA: Stop telling new cooks to 'just work garde manger for a year' like it's some magic training
I was in the walk-in at my spot in Cleveland last Tuesday and heard our exec tell a stage that he needs to do a full year on salads before he touches a pan. I bit my tongue then but I can't let it go. That kid already has two years on the line at a diner and can handle 40 covers solo. Making him plate greens for 12 months isn't teaching him anything, it's just hazing with extra steps. I spent 8 months on garde manger at my first real kitchen and the only thing I got faster at was remembering which dressing goes with which salad. You learn heat control by actually cooking over heat, not by watching someone else do it from across the pass. What's the longest you've seen someone get parked on one station, and did it actually make them better or did they just quit?
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blaked792h ago
Feels bad for that stage kid, honestly, because two years on a diner line is real experience and parking him on salads for a year just wastes it. Longest I saw was a guy stuck on fryer for 14 months at my old spot and he got faster at fries but learned zero about actual cooking, then quit for a grill job down the street. Tbh the good kitchens I've seen move people up when they show they can handle it, not when some calendar says so.
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