Really only true in western and/or European kitchens.
They are most definitely not ubiquitous in many Asian restaurants, if at all.
Them Chinese folks. They wield a cleaver like it’s an extension of their index finger.
We probably need a large study (rather a large analysis) to see if gloved kitchen is safer than ungloved kitchen.
Edit: with the same token, I am really interested how much safer we have been after we moved from wooden cutting boards to plastic cutting boards in professional kitchens.
I know the difference between gut feelings, anecdotes, and data, but it seems to me that if you compared a kitchen where the BOH staff wear gloves vs one where they don’t, the gloved folks don’t change their gloves nearly as often as the ungloved folks wash their hands, but it seems logical that they would do it with the same frequency. I do know that I have never seen a glove wearer change gloves in a kitchen, but I have seen ungloved employees wash their hands.
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Also, although they may be meticulous, their presentation is visually quite different and mandoline uniformity is not a necessity.
Somehow changing gloves probably feels more burdensome than a handwash.
If you are washing your hands pandemic style (sing Happy Birthday to You twice), changing gloves might be quicker. I wonder how much good a quick rinse of the fingers does.
Prep is done before service. In a well-run shop it looks more like a ballet than a brawl. That’s where you want to be. Believe it or not, there are parts of the world where kitchen work isn’t the last refuge for tattooed heroin addicts.
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Not exactly sure how this relates to my comment, but ok.
I think he was upholding the honor of the BOH. Yeah, this thread is
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Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, during a college summer, I worked in prep at a restaurant and helped out during service. Unfortunately, about once a week we’d run out of stuff we prepped and ballet turned into a fire drill, mistakes were made and an accident or two occurred.
Not sure if we were poorly run or that’s par for the course but it was no fun working at speed in the middle of service.
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They are often used in Japanese Kitchens as well.
Benriner slicers and turning slicers. Japanese.
I got one of their turning slicers probably 30 years ago. How else could they do those long shreds of daikon?
They are Mandolins.
You can make very long threads of Daikon with a Knife, Nakiri work best for it.
I’m just using the terminology they use on their own home page.
operant conditioning
There’s an improv game like this called ‘dolphin training’
One person leaves the room. The rest decide on some random action this person is to perform, say, sit in the desk chair and spin around.
The person comes back in the room.
The only feedback they get is their trainers going ‘ding!’ as a positive reinforcement. They have to keep trying things and reacting to the dings til they perform the selected task.
It’s remarkably effective. I regret not using this on my insufferable EE201 prof.
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The difference is that the rube in dolphin training WANTS to please, so it’s like Charades. The cold, deep satisfaction is getting someone (who’s deserving) to do that which they otherwise wouldn’t do.
