bury

Definition

When you're so overwhelmed with orders that new tickets might as well be shoveling dirt on your grave. The state of being beyond 'in the weeds' and approaching total system failure.

Example Usage

That eight-top just buried the sauté station—send backup.

Origin

Kitchen slang for being overwhelmed

Fun Fact

The evolution from 'in the weeds' to 'buried' represents increasingly desperate levels of behind-ness.

Source: Restaurant kitchen slang

Related Terms

Beginner

walk-in

The industrial refrigerator large enough to actually walk into, where both food and occasionally traumatized cooks go to chill out. Also where you discover forgotten experiments from previous regimes.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Intermediate

sachet d'épices

A bundle of aromatic herbs and spices tied in cheesecloth for flavoring stocks and sauces, designed to be easily removed. It's a bouquet garni's more organized cousin.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Beginner

Food Porn

Visually seductive images of food so professionally shot and styled that they trigger an almost inappropriate level of desire. These Instagram-worthy culinary glamour shots make you suddenly ravenous for gourmet burgers at 2 AM despite having just eaten dinner.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Beginner

Farm-to-Table

A food movement emphasizing locally sourced ingredients that traveled a short distance from where they were grown to your plate. It's how restaurants justify charging $28 for a salad by telling you the lettuce had a shorter commute than you did.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Beginner

drop

To begin cooking something, particularly items that go into fryers or boiling water. The moment of no return when food commitment becomes real.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Intermediate

commis

A junior cook or apprentice in a professional kitchen, usually fresh out of culinary school and eager to prove themselves. They're one step above dishwasher and several years away from not crying in the walk-in.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Translate This Term

See “bury” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

MMA

Someone you're linking up withIRLmay use MMA to mean "meet me at." You're most likely to receive this version of MMA as ...