kill it

Definition

To deliberately overcook something beyond the requested doneness, usually because a customer has questionable taste or the cook seeks passive-aggressive revenge. The culinary nuclear option.

Example Usage

Table nine wants their tuna cooked through—yes, kill it, I know it's sacrilege.

Origin

From thoroughly killing any trace of desirable texture or moisture

Fun Fact

Some high-end restaurants refuse to cook certain fish beyond medium, preferring to lose the sale than serve desecrated seafood.

Source: Restaurant kitchen slang

Related Terms

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supreming

The delicate process of removing citrus segments from their membranes, leaving you with perfect naked fruit wedges. Named 'supreme' because you'll feel like a culinary god when you finally master it without wasting half the fruit.

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Palate Cleanser

A small, neutral-flavored bite served between courses to reset your taste buds. Usually a tiny sorbet that exists to remind you that you're eating at a place where meals have 'courses' and your credit card is about to have a really bad night.

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debearding

Removing the fibrous threads (byssal threads) that mussels use to attach to rocks, essentially giving them a bikini wax before cooking. The grooming step that separates civilized mussel dishes from stringy disasters.

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butter

The fatty, churned dairy product that makes everything taste better and your cardiologist nervous—a soft, spreadable miracle extracted from cream through vigorous agitation. The culinary world's ultimate enhancement drug, legally added to virtually any dish to make it irresistible. Also loosely applied to similar spreads made from nuts, because apparently everything deserves the butter treatment.

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86'd

Restaurant code meaning an item is no longer available, allegedly because you've run out or refuse to serve it. Also conveniently doubles as slang for ejecting troublesome customers.

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riesling

A versatile white wine grape that thrives in cooler climates, producing everything from bone-dry to dessert-sweet wines that sommeliers love to pontificate about. Germany's signature variety, it's the wine world's proof that sweet doesn't have to mean cheap, though good luck convincing people who swore off sweet wine in college. High acidity and aromatic complexity make it the thinking person's white wine.

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