That time a line cook asked me why my pasta water looked like tea

Working a Sunday brunch shift in Austin maybe 6 months ago. I was at the stove dropping fresh tagliatelle and this new kid comes up looking real confused. He points at my pot and goes 'uh chef why is your pasta water brown?' I told him it's from the squid ink in the dough. He stared at me for a solid 10 seconds and then asked if he could taste the water. I said no obviously. But he grabbed a ladle anyway and took a sip right in front of me. The look on his face man. He just said 'oh it's salty' and walked away. Has anyone else had a trainee do something that made you wonder how they got hired?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.daniel17d ago

Had a prep cook once try to dry fresh pasta with paper towels because it "felt wet." We were making pappardelle for a special and he lined up these damp little strands on towels like he was drying lettuce. I told him to stop and he looked at me like I was the crazy one. Asked me why we couldn't just microwave it to speed things up. That was the moment I learned to give new people the simplest possible task first and watch them do it before trusting them with anything important. Letting them taste things is fine, just keep them away from anything sharp or hot until they prove they got basic kitchen sense.

verap5217d ago

So is this kid still working there or did he get promoted to taste tester? I had a trainee once ask me why my stockpot was smoking, turns out he didn't know you had to put water in it before turning on the heat. That's a real special kind of stupid, the kind that makes you wonder if they hired him from a talent pool of half melted garden gnomes.