To my recollection, many Asian dramas (and anime), even if the restaurant is supposed to serve cuisine that doesn’t really have fried rice as traditional repotaire (eg: western), ended up using fried Rice as a way to demonstrate the new guy’s skill (at least, being acceptable to the restaurant). Why is that?
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I saw a chef once say he liked to test new people by asking them to make a fried egg.
For a chef that’s not a particularly difficult dish to make. It’s something they tend to do at least once in culinary school and it’s a good breakfast. There’s lots of ways to make it and depending on their focus they may cover many different ways.
Thing is this chef isn’t looking to get floored by something innovative. They want to see how this new person approaches something very basic. If their technique is sloppy or, worse, they fail, it says a lot about whether they’ve practiced their fundamentals. Doing badly at something basic means you’re probably not going to be great at the complex things.
That’s probably the idea here. Fried rice isn’t very complicated to make, but a lot can go wrong and it shows off a lot of different skills. If the new guy can’t pull off fried rice, they may not be so hot.
Fried rice is deceptive, if done right it’s amazing if done poorly it is terrible. It’s one of those dishes that is almost all technique too.
It’s like testing a drummer by asking him to play just a half note beat. Anyone can do a crazy solo or a signature dish, but can this guy do a basic thing well?
I’ve seen that some Continental restaurants use *cacio e pepe* the same way. It’s just spaghetti, Pecorino Romano and black pepper. You can’t fudge on the ingredients so it’s a test of technique.
if it’s cooking in a wok, then it’s because fried rice shows off your mechanical skills the most. it’s harder to mix up a large batch vs just regular stir fry. also since it’s a dry dish, you have to know how much to season and can’t really taste it on the fly.
Former kitchen manager here.
Many restaurants that have some reputation or high star rating need to have a way to test their new cooks. Its one thing to see a wonderful resume and solid references but even if you call their references and say they are the best, you still have to do your due diligence and make sure they are up to the standards that your restaurants decided on. The higher rating the restaurant, the more important this test becomes.
Gordon Ramsey, a very well known and respected chef, says that he asks any potential new cooks to cook him a scrambled egg. He let’s them do it any way they want and like many people have described here, the new cooks technique will be quickly shown if they understand what makes a good scrambled egg.
I imagine that he looks at how they handle the pan, whisk, flame control, proper oil, salt and milk ratios to see how they handle what most would see as a simple task. This test shows how they will handle all kinds of layers of being in a kitchen from listening to instructions, prepping the ingredients to even the plating of the food to present to the Head Chef.
This is the western version of the Asian test.
Rice is a staple in Asia and has been for longer than most countries have been around so knowing how to cook rice is not only expected as an Asian chef but how they cook and integrate other foods into it as well.
Some additional information: Fried rice is usually made with day- old rice and leftover ingredients. If done right, this is a wonderful way for restaurants in Asia to use the leftover ingredients without letting them go to waste. Its difficult to mess up fried rice so its a perfect way to test incoming chefs.
Same reason French cooks test you on eggs, or italian cooks test you on carbonara or cacio e pepe. It’s all the technique.
The recipe is actually very simple for all these foods. Usually only 2-4 ingredients. So how good/bad it is depends almost entirely on the cooks technique.
Western cooking emphasizes a lot of creativity, lots of showmanship (becomes more of an art piece than food), extravagant (or crazy) ingredients, and other things that hype it up.
Asian cooking looks at your typical fried rice (what seems to be the most basic type of dish) and cook it. You can say it’s also a test of psychology: what are the judges expecting, what is the best fried rice, what determines the best?
The underlying goal is to not be creative but test your basics and fundamentals in cooking. In this test, you are under pressure to make a well-known and simple thing the best it can be in a situation where anything and anywhere can go wrong.
It’s a simple dish on the surface, but there are a lot of different techniques that can be used when making it. So in terms of skill there’s a lot to showcase and an experienced chef can analyze your work as you make it.
The same reason western chefs will test their new guys by asking them to make an omelet. It’s an absurdly simple dish, a regular omelet is literally just some fat, and then eggs with some garnish on top. As simple as it is, a perfectly made omelet is heavenly, but a poorly made one tastes like trash so it’s all about the technique.
Most untrained cooks like home cooks can’t even fold an omelet and most of them will probably overcook the eggs.
The same thing applies to fried rice. Very simple with few ingredients so it’s all about the technique.
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