When it comes to the difference between the front of house and what happens behind the scenes, there is nowhere with a more stark contrast than the average restaurant. Fine dining may be a welcome treat for those of us that are the customers, but many kitchen staff are out there fighting for their lives nearly every time they clock in.
There are many reasons that contribute to this. The hours, of course, are long and unsociable; there often seem to be a hundred different things that need doing at once. Most importantly, the busiest shifts are often nonstop for every single member of staff. This is why it’s critical for everyone working to try and get everything done right, but this is frequently far from the truth.
The sheer number of catastrophic and hilarious blunders that happen in professional kitchens has been outlined recently in a revealing thread on r/KitchenConfidential, which asked about the worst mistakes new hires had ever made when they first worked in a restaurant. The anecdotes here were both eye opening and plentiful. It just goes to show that the process from order to plate can be a lot more fraught than other people might imagine.
