eighty-six

Definition

To run out of an ingredient or dish, removing it from availability faster than you can say 'sorry, we're out.' Also used as a verb meaning to get rid of something or someone.

Example Usage

Eighty-six the salmon—just sold the last one.

Origin

Various theories including Delmonico's Restaurant code or rhyming slang for 'nix'

Fun Fact

Some claim it originated from Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code, which covers refused service.

Source: American restaurant industry slang

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give me hands

A desperate cry for additional help with plating, carrying, or expediting dishes when one person can't handle the volume alone. The kitchen distress signal.

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broil

To cook food with direct radiant heat from above, essentially upside-down grilling that gives you the char without the outdoor experience. In American ovens, it's that mysterious top setting you accidentally turn on while looking for convection. The method responsible for both perfectly caramelized steaks and those charred remains you insist are 'extra crispy.'

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Intermediate

Roux

A mixture of equal parts fat and flour cooked together as the base for sauces and soups. It's the foundation of Cajun cooking, French cuisine, and your grandmother's gravy that she refuses to share the recipe for even though it's literally just butter and flour.

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liquify

To transform something solid into liquid form, usually through heat or pressure—or in Photoshop, to warp and distort images like you're melting reality itself. Chefs liquify ingredients, scientists liquify gases, and image editors liquify their subjects' faces until they look like funhouse mirror reflections. The digital version is basically playing god with pixels.

🍳 Food / Culinary

Intermediate

par stock

The predetermined minimum quantity of each ingredient needed to operate without running out mid-service, calculated through mystical formulas involving sales data, prep time, and prayer. When you're below par, panic ensues.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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confit

A French cooking technique where food (usually duck) takes a leisurely bath in its own fat at low temperatures for hours, emerging ridiculously tender and flavorful. It's preservation through decadence, originally invented before refrigeration as a way to keep meat edible for months. The culinary equivalent of a spa day that makes everything delicious.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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