Staging

            Experiences posses a great deal of affect over the development of a young cook's identity. The first chef, the first night on the line, the first failure on the line, the first dining experience that changes one's conception of what a restaurant can offer. These are moments of substance, which will forever rise above the countless services that often blend into one another as a series of practiced and repetitive actions. The challenge to the cook as his or her career steadily advances is to occasionally rise above the repetition that is mandated by the nature of our industry and seek out new, informative experiences that will contribute to our culinary identity.

            Within my own world I've been seeking out these experiences through the institution of staging, one of the great remnants of an older time for our industry. Although the apprenticeship model has been largely abandoned in this country, the practice of staging remains entrenched within our culture as there is seldom a restaurant that will turn away free labor. It is a symbiotic relationship between the restaurant and the stagiaire, as the kitchen benefits from a presumably competent set of hands, and the cook gains insights into the restaurant's food and style of service that cannot be understood by simply eating at the establishment. These experiences become distinct in the mind as we force ourselves into an abrasive foreign environment filled with commotion. We feel alien to this space that is not our own, but often warm quickly to its environment as the typical landmarks of a kitchen become readily apparent. Cooks quickly go from strangers to temporary compatriots with the realization that their prep lists became a bit shorter, their stress a bit subdued, and for a night you become a member of the line working towards the same goal as the rest of the staff.

            The cook is welcomed because of the assistance he can lend, while the experience is pivotal to the stagiaire because it offers a fresh vision, a different perspective on the same ingredients we all become accustomed to seeing in our respective walk-ins. It is this breadth of experiences that function to guide a line cook's development, constructing a more nuanced character that will only benefit him or her as the cook progresses towards the positions of sous and chef. But, more importantly, as I entered kitchens with Michelin stars, I witnessed a level of execution to which I was previously unaccustomed. Cooking was cleaner and more exact, stations more carefully manicured, and food plated more deliberately. This is of course a reflection of the number of cooks on the line, the demands that the chefs place upon the kitchen, and the expectations of the restaurant to meet a certain standard for dining, but it also inspires the stagiaire to embrace this level of service and bring it home to their own kitchen.

            While most cooks do not work within a service style that allows them to only plate three or four menu items, the behavior and standards of a Michelin cook are easily translatable to one that works in a more casual setting. Staging not only allows the cook to experience new modes of preparation, but more importantly he or she witnesses a level of cookery that inspires change in their own work ethic. We come home to the comfort of familiar walls and temperamental ovens, bearing with us the inspiration to change for the better, the challenge to embrace an ethic we only experienced momentarily. I will continue to immerse myself in foreign walls, consuming that which is unfamiliar while fitting these experiences into a constantly shifting culinary identity. Roaming Linecook For Life.

Ian