Hmm. I've always had great difficulty with blogs and journals. High aspirations, maybe keep them a week, two at the most, and then they simply fade into obscurity. Perhaps I'll actually spread word about this one, and as people read it I'll be 'inspired' to continue? Perhaps.
The purpose of this blog is two-fold: to offer some insight to the world hidden away in the other side of the restaurant scene and to have a medium where I can stretch my mind and place thoughts to paper. Quill to paper, meet keyboard to blog.
I'm sure the few people who actually read this will be wondering what the title for my blog signifies. And that is my topic for the day; a brief glimpse into the sometimes quirky world of restaurant lingo, specifically orders for the back of the house. So much of this information depends on, or is defined, by prior knowledge, so I'll try to explain everything as a whole while still keeping them in small bite-size chunks so that they're easier to read and I might have something to write about next time.
"Order-Fire" is the term used by the expediter to start an order, signifying what dish is required of which station. Order-Fire is the call, the accelerant, the alert, the demand, and details the ticket as a whole so that, in a perfect world, the kitchen can flow together as one machine and put up the dishes as efficiently as possible.
Terms that augment Order-Fire are "Pre-Fire", "Order-Only", and "Fire". Pre-Fire is relatively intuitive: begin cooking the longer dishes, usually the protein, first, holding off on any accompaniments/garnishes until the pick-up times is closer to bear. For instance, a two-top comes in and orders a 20oz porterhouse, medium-well (blasphemy!), for Seat 1, and Seat 2 orders a Caesar salad. The steak is Pre-Fired, and the salad leads us to my next term: Order-Only.
The expediter calls out the ticket as a whole: "Pre-Fire porterhouse, med-well, Order-Only Caesar." The grill starts marking the steak, and salad mentally prepares themselves for putting a Caesar together when called upon by the expediter. The expediter is watching the grill, keeping a mental note on the time of the steak, and watching the board (the tickets) as a whole, and uses the term "Fire" to alert the salad station when to start working that Caesar.
Simple terms, simple meanings, but the kitchen would be lost without them. After working in establishments where there wasn't an expediter, nor any call outs, I can tell you they are a Godsend.
