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

They stagger the prep by starting the longest cooking process first, then continue prepping other dishes as the “expected” cooking time matches with how much is left on that longest item. Also, most restaurants are going to have an expo area/window that will sometimes have heat lamps or some method of keeping dishes hot if they end up ready before the rest of that same order.