PB&J

After spending so much time in the hospitality industry with a lot of people who have also had a decent amount of experience in the same it’s easy to assume that they know what you’re talking about.  Lingo and “common sense” in a kitchen doesn’t necessarily translate to the average Joe though.  I’ve had this demonstrated to me several times since I have moved to my town.  The terms I’ve used both in the back and front of house in various kitchens in the city have somehow escaped the cooks and restaurant employees here.  I was talking to a server the other day and explained that we were going to run a particular special that took a fair amount of prep time and could not be replenished on the fly. They asked me, “what do we do if we run out?” to which I casually responded, “Then we’ll just ‘86’ it.”

The affirmation of agreement that I was expecting never came.  Instead there was a pause and blank stare.  After a brief moment I explained that the term “86” meant we would discontinue the item.  Some terms I have become used to are more specific to the various restaurants where I have worked.  Terms like “rabbit” ( i.e. the lettuce tomato pickle and onion or “burger set”) and “reggae” (regular) remain in my kitchen vocabulary even they are not necessarily found industry wide.

Earlier today I had to re-learn a lesson passed on to me almost twenty years ago.  I was navigating my way through a busy breakfast while taking care of some deep prep at the same time.  As time passed I noticed that the dishwasher wasn’t too busy at the moment and had a little time on his hands. So I casually asked if he wouldn’t mind cutting a few potatoes and putting them in a “shoebox” a plastic container about the size and shape of a standard shoe box.

I happened to have one right next to where the cutting board was that was half full of already blanched potatoes.  A few minutes later I glanced over and noticed that he was putting the raw potatoes that he had cut in with the ones I already had.  I mentioned that he had to go through the box and separate them.  He mentioned that I just said put them in a shoe box and hadn’t specified which that they needed to be in a new container. I explained that they could not be mixed in with the already blanched potatoes since they had different cooking times and the reason he was cutting them was that we were going to be blanching them as a back-up to the ones we already had.  After things were situated properly I went back to the project I was doing muttering under my breath, “I didn’t know we were going to be making PB&J sandwiches.”

While this comment may seem totally random on the surface, it refers to an exercise I took part in during a class on training fellow employees.  The leader of the class had on the table a jar of jelly, a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread and a knife and spoon.  We were then asked to write down instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  After a few minutes the instructors assistant stood by the items and a few of us were asked to read each instruction for making the sandwich.  The first one began, “take 2 slices of bread.”

The assistant stood there doing nothing but looking blankly at the loaf of bread.  The instructor mentioned that we had not explained how the 2 slices of bread were to be obtained which prompted us to amend our first instruction to, “open the bag and take 2 slices of bread.”  With great enthusiasm the assistant ripped open the package and spilled all the slices on the table and then retrieved 2 of them.

The instructions went on in this fashion for a while and then the exercise was ended.  The instructor explained that we in training others cannot assume that the employee understands what we are talking about and in our instructions we must be perfectly clear in order to achieve what we need to be done.

Likewise when an employee is given instructions and doesn’t totally understand them they may not ask for clarification because they think it may seem silly. Instead they plunge ahead into the task and instead receive correction for their actions resulting in frustration.  Why would they be corrected when they were only following the instructions as they were given to them?

So it follows that by not taking for granted that those around us know what we’re talking about and making sure our instructions are clear we not only save ourselves from exasperation but also aid those we are trying to teach by giving them a path to success and not frustration.

So what are some instances that you have had in demonstrating this point? I relish your comments.