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As a former cook in one and two Michelin star restaurants, I can assure you I move 10X faster than a Subway sandwich artist. I make 10X as many moves with preci
by neednewacct 8y ago
As a former cook in one and two Michelin star restaurants, I can assure you I move 10X faster than a Subway sandwich artist. I make 10X as many moves with precision. A single mistake can make the whole flow go to crap. Moreover, I can continuously track the temperature of upwards of 100 pieces of different types of meat and fowl, 5 or 6 venison loins, 15 veal chops, 25 pieces of filet, 25 pieces of rack of lamb, ect. I can do that with the optimal rest period before the meat touches the plate. Another place I was leading the fish station. We would plate 40 scallops dishes and 30 of the sea bass dishes at a time with a team of 3. (https://www.foodnut.com/i/Picasso-Las-Vegas/Picasso-Las-Vegas-Sea-Bass.jpg https://www.foodnut.com/i/Picasso-Las-Vegas/Picasso-Las-Vega...) The cook who did this didn't get the correct angles on the cauliflower quenelles -- so far from perfection.
I write software now. I helped open that kitchen. The first couple months is engineering, how to get organized to plate 90 quenelles in 4 or 5 minutes under a heat lamp. Writing software is just like engineering that kitchen everyday all day, month after month. It's not about creativity or innovation with food. It's about creativity and innovation with solving engineering problems.
- akhilcacharya 8y agoI'm consistently amazed by the diversity of folks that post on HN. It's why I keep coming back!
- sibeliuss 8y agosame. Great response A+
- sizzle 8y agoAwesome life story, with that Michelin star kitchen skillset you have the grit and interpersonal leadership skills necessary to lead a team of devs into the unknown and produce results that matter, hopefully at a director or above level. Can you see yourself doing this? We need more diversity at the senior leadership level, please consider it if you haven't! Also if you don't mind me asking, can you share what made you leave your former profession, was it the stress/physical exhaustion? It seems like grueling work to say the least. Thanks for sharing your background and perspective on HN!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- black-tea 8y agoIn case anyone is curious, the reason why he said cook rather than chef is chef is a position in the kitchen. It's French for chief and there's only one in each kitchen. The chef doesn't actually cook much himself.
- tasuki 8y ago> I can assure you I move 10X faster than a Subway sandwich artist. I make 10X as many moves with precision Two or three times, sure, but ten? Any more info on this? Are Michelin cooks superhuman or Subway people so terrible?
- ZeikJT 8y agoI believe it's the parallelism. The subway setups I've seen only allow for about 5-6 concurrent sandwiches, an assembly line of sandwich artists working serially, and their ingredients are basically preprepared. Sounds like this Michelin cook was handling the preparations of each ingredient, including making sure each ingredient is ready at the same time, and then plating them. The quantities of each ingredient they were handling at a time was also much greater.