how do restaurant chefs keep track of orders mentally?

Question

i was watching a restaurant show where newbie had to cook in kitchen. as things got busy, orders got messed up.

afterwords the host/judge said the newbie wasn't mentally organizing the orders mathematically. what did he mean by that?

in general how do chefs keep track of orders? it seems like no one writes anything down. if you're working a station and the head chef keeps calling out orders every few minutes, i'm sure anyone would get confused (i.e. you're working meat station and have 10 steaks cooking, how can you remember which ones are rare/medium/well done, etc)

Answer 1

Chefs can ask for an "All Day" any time they need too. The expeditor will then repeat the orders. Plus, someone cooking steaks will group together all the steaks that are cooked the same. Cooks work in stations where they only have to deal with limited items. Although it may look like chaos, it really isn't.



Other restaurants use a "micros" system which is a computer program that the servers use to print tickets for the kitchen. The cooks simply read the tickets. Its not as hard as it looks. Don't beleive everything you see on TV. Don't forget that these TV programs were designed for entertainment. They don't necessarily reflect what really happens in restaurants.



I've worked as a chef in over 35 kitchens in the past 30 years. I have never worked in a restaurant where the cooks had to memorize any orders. Restaurants try to simplfiy things. It is not in the best interest of a restaurant to make things more confusing for their employees. If this were true, no one would want to work such a crappy job.

Answer 2

It takes practice, concentration, and more practice.



In college I worked the grill at a cafeteria, and after a few days I could keep track of about 5 different orders. The regular chef could do a dozen, easily.



In a normal restaurant, you'll get the orders on paper, but it's still your responsibility to keep track of them, and arrange them such that an entire table's orders are completed at the same time - even though there will be items from different stations, which is why there's often a lot of shouting in a kitchen.

Answer 3

most restaurants either use notes or a "KVS"



a KVS is a Kitchen Video System, that shows the orders and specifics for the orders (extra beans, no rice). The TV show you watched was just making the people do MUCH more work than normal to make it more entertaining for the viewer.

Answer 4

some people write it on note pads and others have good memories in my training i was trained to use my memorie lots of pressure though.

Answer 5

they don't they write them down on sticky notes.