Eli5 how on earth to restaurants get the orders out for each table at the same time despite the dishes taking different amounts of time to cook?

Question

Like, so many different tables, they can’t do each table at a time, so confusing

In: 327

Answer 1

A lot of practice.

When I worked in a kitchen I knew exactly how long each order took to make.

A fish and chips basket required 5min of cooking, so I prepared the food, tossed the fish in the fryer, prepared the basket, added a couple lemon wedges and some vinegar then 2min after I dropped the fish, I dropped the fries.

Then you just pull everything out of the fryer at once, season and assemble.

If I also had a burger and fries on that ticket, I’d start by throwing a patty on the grill and drop a double order of fries in that last couple minutes.

Prep the bun, lettuce, tomatoe as well as the lemon and vinegar while the patty cooks. Then drop the fish when the burger is 5min away from being done.

Once that 5min is up you pull the fryer basket, take the patty off the grill, then season the fries and fish and everything is done at once.

This works for any sized order, and we basically all got off work and got drunk, it’s as stressful as it sounds.