* We “fire” things — “I’m going to fire this steak” means I’m going to cook it.
* “Hot behind” — more than just a compliment that’ll get you slapped when said to a pretty girl, that means, ‘I am behind you with something hot’. It should be noted that in MY kitchens, the proper response to “hot behind” is, “Thanks. I work out”.
* “Sharp” — similar to “hot behind”, this means, “watch out for me — I’m carrying something sharp” (if you’re carrying a knife, it should be held tightly against the side of your leg so as not to cut someone)
* “Behind you” — notifying someone that you’re behind them.
* “Coming around” — “Coming around” means ‘I’m notifying you that I am coming around this blind corner in the kitchen’ — sorta like beeping your car horn on a blind turn.
* “Get your mise together” — this means get everything you need to cook gathered up and ready… From mise en place, which means “everything in its place”. “mise” rhymes with “fleece”.
* We don’t “put some sauce on the steak”. We “sauce the steak”.

That should get you started! Let me know how he reacts when you start throwing these out there!

Many thanks for the flow…

I teach diving here in PR and Angel is a friend of mine. I actualy came upon your site thru a google search of diving in PR.

You can check out my site at http://www.lemontreedivers.com

I also maintain a photo log site linked to the lemontreedivers site… you can access it off the blog page as well as the photo gallery.

My wife runs a small hotel here as well… you can check it out at:

http://www.lemontreepr.com

I follow your site and think that you in fact do “self promotion” really well. Its a great site with wonderful links and pics. keep it up.

Cheers

If you look at this picture — http://www.drewvogel.com/gallery2/v/culinary/GardeManger/AndrewPlatter5.jpg.html — you could imagine a customer picking up some of the salad that’s closest to the camera first, then one of the egg canapes, then one of the round slices, then one of the square slices, then some of the salad at the top. I’ll bet that if you looked at the picture while reading that, you selected the exact same slices that I did when writing it… That’s the flow at work — each component flows into the next smoothly. The platter in the picture isn’t overflowing, but it’s not empty either.

My wife and I are divers, too, and were in Puerto Rico in August of last year. We dove with Angel in La Parguera and had a great time! See the pictures here… http://www.drewvogel.com/gallery2/v/Vacations/05PuertoRico/PRdiving/

A question.

What does “flow of the platter” mean.

My future son in law is going to culenary school in Ft Lauderdale and so I amaze him from time to time by throwing expressions at him like… lets “plate up”.