A prep cook in Portland told me my knife skills were slowing down the line

Back when I ran a busy dinner service in Portland, a kid working the garde manger station pulled me aside and pointed out I was doing every cut the textbook way, but it was costing me 15 seconds per order. He showed me a rough chop method that looked wrong but kept the line moving, and I fought it for a week before trying it. Anyone else ever had a younger cook change how you work, and did you stick with their way?

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nancy301mo ago

I had something like that happen when I was running a breakfast spot years back. A younger guy on eggs showed me a way to crack and drop without the little wrist flick I had been doing since culinary school, and it cut down my time on the flat top a lot. It felt sloppy at first and I kept going back to my old way for a couple shifts. What got me to stay with it was watching him on a Saturday rush, he was not any less careful with the food, just faster at the parts that did not matter. I ended up keeping his method for the fast dishes and saving my textbook cuts for the plates where it actually showed.

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