Where does one go to learn how to be a Short Order Cook? I doubt you would go to a fancy culinary school… And was is it called “short order” cooking?
You learn on the job mostly, and possibly also by learning to cook simple items at a less busy restaurant. “Short order cook” always makes me think of Waffle House. That guy working the flat top at the one I occasion is fucking impressive to watch when he is busy.
Its really mostly about coordinating your movements and your orders and anticipating busier times where you can cheat ahead by cooking extra items that you know will invariably be ordered most often.
Sorry to be posting a non-factual answer in GQ, but: if I were aiming to be a short-order cook (by profession), I’d first manage to get hired in some capacity in the kind of diner that has a short-order cook; dishwasher, busboy, whatever. Then, in any slow times or whatever, volunteer to help out in the kitchen. Volunteer, if they seem really busy, to stay after shift and help out in the kitchen, etc. Talk up the actual short-order cooks, be as helpful as I can, observe what they do, learn as I go. After a time, I may find myself ‘promoted’ to the kitchen, even if it’s just in an assistant-type position. From there, if I work hard and prove myself, a few shifts as cook (when the place is really short-handed in the kitchen) seem pretty much inevitable. Then I can look for work as a short-order cook anywhere I want.
Maybe not fancy, but several local technical schools here offer a “culinary arts” program that is basically learning commercial cooking. They also put the students through all the food safety certifications, learning basics of menu selection and food cost analysis, pretty much everything you would need to be a useful part of a kitchen team. These folks may get some good jobs in nice places, but the vast majority of them land in chain restaurants like Applebees, Dennys, Marie Calendars, etc. Maybe not glorious but, its a job with bennies and a 401k.
I learned by watching the cook at the Student Union Building, where I was working as a dishwasher. We were friendly and she let me try my hand at it. Pretty soon I was cooking for about half of her shift. Working at a fast food joint would be good training, I would think.
In a past life I worked as a cook for many years. I got into it pretty much like norinew said: started out in the dish room, moved into prep cook, filled in on the line, gradually working more and more there, then eventually becoming assistant chef (or second head cook). That’s as far as I got before my life forked off in a different direction. The process was spread out over a number of years and a handful of different establishments. Everyone I worked with learned it more or less in the same way.
Almost all short-order cooks get on the job training. There are some VoTech programs, and MacDonald’s famous Hamburger U. I think some prisons have skills programs that would cover cooking, and you get free room and board too.
FYI: Hamburger U is a management training center, not a culinary arts school. I’m fairly certain that McD’s cooks’ training is exclusively the on-the-job variety.
Several short order cooks I know were cooks in the military, so that’s probably another way people get into the business.
As for what “short order” means, I’m pretty sure its the same meaning as referring to having something done “in short order” – meaning quickly, on-the-fly. A guy manning a flattop grill at a diner is what I would use the term to mean, as mentioned above; my understanding is, you either have restaurant experience already, or you start as a “prep cook” or other general kitchen staff…and if you stick around long enough, and can demonstrate that you’ve got the skillz…you’re in. Of course, if you DID go to CIA or le Cordon Bleu or something (that’s a cooking school, right?), they’d probably be happy to have you…although the crucial skill in short-order cooking seems to be the ability to multitask, and that may be something thats either innate or requires a lot of practice.
So, in short, I don’t really know, but I’d like to do it, myself, someday. If you want a real challenge…try getting a job as a cook at a Chinese joint. Those guys pretty much all have AGES of experience under their belts, and despite its lowbrow reputation (I’m talking takeout-type places), I suspect a good wok-master has more technique under their belt than many “chefs”. Oh, and they also have a whole spiritual thing going – Wok Hei, I believe its called – wherein the goal of stir-frying is to impart the “essence”, the “Chi” (perhaps?) into what you’re cooking. In other words, they take it very, very seriously.
As long as “chi” doesn’t translate to “loogies”, it’s all good.
(27+ years in restaurants here):
This is right on target. Very few “short order” places are going to hire a line cook with no actual restaurant experience, largely because the actual cooking is only a part of the job (IOW, being an excellent cook at home doesn’t prepare you fully for restaurant line cooking). Organizational skills, i.e. “when to cook what” and being able to pay attention to many things at once are essential, along with speed and efficiency. So you start out in some other capacity, and then, most importantly, show an interest. If you show a sincere interest in becoming a line cook, and are willing to help the cooks and do the little things they ask you to do (“I need diced onions!”) and show a willingness to listen and learn, you can be pretty sure that they’ll mention it to the boss and you’ll be among the first to get consideration when a position opens up.
As far as positions most likely to get promoted to line cook, in order it would go, roughly, prep cook, dishwasher, busser, server. Good servers, though, are unlikely to become cooks; in my experience, being a good server takes a drastically different type of personality than being a good line cook takes (I once described it in terms of Dungeons & Dragons alignments: cooks are Lawful, servers are Chaotic). Also, while working one of those other positions, do it well and be punctual. The other cooks (and the boss) aren’t going to grant your wish to become a cook if they see you’re half-assing the job you were actually hired to do, and there are few things that piss off a cook faster than the cook on the next shift (their “relief”) constantly showing up 10-15 minutes late.
Generally, you’ll be needing to get an order out within ten minutes or so of the server hanging the ticket. Preferably faster.
IME, honest-to-goodness schooled chefs tend to be subject to a certain amount of good-natured mockery from the other cooks in a short-order setting 
Good luck with that. Upwards of 99% of those places are family-owned and practically never hire outsiders, save for maybe a deliverer or order-taker, as most of the family members tend to have a tenuous grasp of English at best, IME.
I was a short-order cook for a while in college and later in a bowling alley. None of the cooking was fancy, and anyone who cooked anything for him/herself could have done it. Neither place was ever as busy as a busy Waffle House can be, and I always had the order slips to go by. Waffle House cooks are impressive- they don’t have those.
I had no restaurant experience- the college one was a student job and I was friends with the bowling alley manager.
When I worked as a short-order cook in the student union in college, there was no experience whatsoever needed, not even dishwasher: They hired me, and put me to work on the grill. On the job training was completed within the first day. Then again, though, I was also working from a fairly limited menu (cheesesteaks, burgers, and fries, plus the occasional chicken strips), which I’m sure simplified things.
I know all about this 'cause I watched all nine seasons of Alice. First thing you do is find a greasy spoon and then you wait for him to put a “Wanted” sign in the window.
Then you take the sign and bring it to the owner, who is instantly is so taken by the fact that you were arrogant enough to assume you’d be hired, that you’d take in the sign…
Well that’s how you get the job 
This should spawn a whole new thread: ‘Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From Watching Sitcoms’.
At least around here there are two kinds of Chinese joints:
The kind where Papa or Mama Chang is in back cooking & the other is out front greeting while their teenage kids are servers.
And the kind where the entire kitchen staff is Mexican and both Mama & Papa Chang are out front dealing with customers while their teenagers serve.
Not sure where the Mexicans learn their Wok-Fu, but the food is usually as good as the other kind. It does sound weird hearing Tejana or Mariachi coming out of the kitchen though.
But I agree that a typical 'Merkin of whatever race might find it hard to get a job at the typical Mom n Pop Chinese joint.
How I got my first non-fast-food cooking job:
In 1987 I was 21 years old, and my previous restaurant experience had been at Arby’s, Godfather’s Pizza, and Pizza Hut. I had taken a job as a shoe salesman, and was discovering that I was not a salesman. However, I had a friend who was working at a well-established, popular, local pancake house, and he mentioned they needed a prep cook. I figured I could handle something like that, so my friend told me to show up on Monday at 6:00AM, knock on the back door, and tell Greg that Jim had hired me for the prep cook job. Note: my friend’s name was Bret, and I had no idea who Jim was.
But, I did what he said. Knocked on the back door at 6:00AM, and told Greg (the morning kitchen manager) that “Jim” had hired me. Greg said, “All right, let’s get you started.” He led me to the kitchen’s prep area and put me to work chopping lettuce for salad. I’d done that plenty at my previous jobs, so had no trouble. Greg showed me the other things I needed to do, and I caught on pretty quickly. It wasn’t all that different from what I’d done before, and over the next couple weeks I settled into a routine and got better as I did it more.
Eventually Greg started having me come on the line to help him out when there wasn’t another cook there, mainly just making toast and fetching things for him, but along the way he showed me how to cook most of the various breakfast items and assemble the plates. Eventually, one of the line cooks moved on and I became a regular full-time line cook. I worked some breakfast/lunch shifts, as well as some dinner shifts (where I finally got to meet the mysterious Jim), so I learned the basics of every shift.
Funny thing was, nobody ever questioned how I got the job
I eventually moved on, and have done well everywhere I’ve cooked.
Short order cook for six years chiming in. You learn mostly on the job, im fortunate enough to be working with several people who have been in the business for a few decades and went to culinary school.
Not to put down culinary school, but in my experience, the cooks that arrive out of culinary school suck! They are so slow, and so meticulous about details. Get a job at a fast paced restaurant, Dennys, Perkins, or even a fast food joint to get your foot in the door.
I myself started as a dishwasher and slowly got trained in.