A kitchen fire at a wedding in Vermont made me rethink mise en place

I was the sous chef for a 200 person wedding outside Burlington last fall. We had a flare up on the grill station that got out of hand fast, mostly because the backup oil was stored too close. The fire was out in under a minute, but it shut down a whole line for 20 minutes. Now I'm super strict about keeping flammable stuff three feet from any open flame, but some of the older cooks I work with think that's overkill and slows us down. Where do you draw the line between safety and speed on a busy line?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thea2mo ago

Older cooks think that's overkill" - how do you handle that pushback?

troy_palmer761mo ago

They've probably seen a dozen "better" ways come and go, @the_thea. That extra prep you call good might just be wasted time and money on things that never matter on a busy night. Experience teaches you what you can actually skip.

caleb1402mo ago

What's overkill to them, @the_thea, is just good prep to me.