After 22 years between the saute station and the chef’s coat, I’ve learned the only fuel that lasts is teaching the next crew. I set aside 15 minutes before pre-shift to demo one skill — last night it was boning trout with a 6-inch boning knife — and it pays back in calmer services; what routines are helping you stay healthy and useful for the long haul?
I rotate that ‘15 minutes before pre-shift’ slot so a different cook teaches and brings one mise tip plus one common fail; , being the only voice every day burns me out. We also film the demo and dump it in Notion so new hires can catch up and I can save my throat; on the 6-inch boning knife night, do they each bone a trout or just watch? Small tweak for the long haul: a 2-minute wrist/forearm stretch right after lineup keeps tendinitis at bay.
That 15 before pre-shift is gold; after a ‘one skill’ demo like boning trout, I have the station lead jot a 3-line note in a beat-up logbook and tape a quick photo — next shift starts by reading it so it sticks. Do you track what’s been taught so you’re not repeating the same cuts every week, @bell93? On days when prep’s on fire, I swap the demo for a 5-minute quiet station check (sharp steel, towels, bin order) so we don’t roll into service wrecked.
After your trout/boning knife demo, we turn the trim into staff meal and make each cook do five deliberate reps while I spot — “practice into product” keeps the 15 tight and trims waste. Small caveat: set a hard stop so it doesn’t bleed into fire time; do you track yield or just feel the difference?
Rotate the teacher: in that 15-minute block, whoever nailed trout last service runs the micro-demo — do you ever hand the chalk to line leads, @hana30? We add a tiny “handoff” rule — next week they teach one new cook the same skill — keeps me useful without being the bottleneck. It compounds fast.