samf95•8d ago

Just realized I was wasting half my prep time because of a bad knife

I was working a line cook gig in Austin about 6 months ago, and my station was always behind. My sous chef finally watched me for a full 10 minutes and just said, 'Dude, you're fighting that dull blade for every single onion.' He handed me his personal chef's knife, a Wusthof Classic, and I julienned a bell pepper in like 30 seconds flat. I'd been using the same cheap, dull house knife for two years, just thinking I was slow. Bought my own decent knife the next day and my prep time literally got cut in half. Has anyone else had a single tool change that made that big of a difference on the line?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninaw887d ago

My friend was always struggling to open cans with our rusty old can opener. It would slip and leave jagged edges. Our boss finally got a new one, the simple swing-a-way kind. She went from fighting each can for a minute to popping them open in two seconds flat.

abbyl498d ago

My buddy was always the last one done cleaning the flat top. He'd be scrubbing forever after close. One night our manager swapped his old, worn-out grill brick for a fresh one from the box. The difference was crazy. The new brick took off the carbon in like three passes where the old one just smeared it around. He finished his station twenty minutes early that night. It was a total game changer for him.