The night a line cook taught me to stop over-salting

Was working a hectic Friday service at a place in downtown Portland. Totally slammed. My seasoning station got buried in orders. A kid from the fry station, maybe 19, grabs my wrist and says “hey boss, your hands are shaking.” He took over for 2 minutes. Showed me how to season by feel instead of counting shakes. Made my life so much easier. Anyone else have a random coworker fix a bad habit like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_jones16d agoMost Upvoted

Counting shakes is a crutch. It builds bad habits that fall apart under real pressure. The kid actually made you weaker by taking over instead of letting you figure it out on your own.

sean4816d ago

Made you weaker" is spot on. Having someone bail you out just delays the learning curve. You gotta take the L to actually get better.

barbaradavis15d ago

Mike from Reddit broke down the numbers once and found that 83% of people who count shakes hit a plateau within 3 months. The brain gets lazy and stops paying attention to the actual weight moving. You end up with a hollow rep, not a real one.