"Walk alongs" or "Shadowing" in restaurants?

Cafe Society
1

OK, this may seem like a weird question and I’m not sure how to phrase it…

For example, there’s a great cake bakery in town and I’d love to just watch the process. Ditto for a little french place nearby that makes the best croissants ever.

Do people ever ask/are chefs ever open to the idea of people coming in to volunteer in the kitchen or restaurant and learn how things are made? Aside from looking for an actual professional development, I mean. I don’t know the first thing about how busy/small kitchens are, or whether food professionals enjoy sharing the craft or whether that sort of question is highly offensive.

I’ve heard of other professions having “walk alongs” every once in a while, but never the culinary industry. I’ve always imagined how much fun it would be to “shadow”, say, a sushi restaurant, or a french bakery, for a short amount of time, and learn some of the basics. Or are these jobs the 101 roles for people who want to be chefs?

2

I don’t know the answer, but I think some one hanging around to no purpose in a busy kitchen would be a pita and generally in the way. Not to mention an uninsured liability.

3

The Inn at Little Washington, a 5 star restaurant, has a table set up in its kitchen where you can dine and watch the staff at work. I would love to sit at that table some day.

4

At my current job this wouldn’t be much of a problem, since I work in a large convention-style kitchen (at an actual convention facility), and there’s plenty of room.

Most of the restaurant kitchens I’ve worked in, though, have been small enough that having somebody just standing there watching would be a hassle. Restaurant kitchens are [usually] laid out and organized with efficiency in mind, with all of the frequently-used equipment, tools, work surfaces, and supplies within easy reach of the cook. The idea is that a single cook shouldn’t need to be running all over the kitchen to get stuff done — he/she can do everything while standing more or less in one spot.

There’s also the issue of “muscle memory” and "habit’. A professional cook gets used to reaching, turning, and moving in certain patterns, and inserting an extra person into our workspace can end up causing, at best, frustration, and at worst, injury. For example, even in my current spacious kitchen, a constant aggravation is the guy who washes the dishes. He has a tendency to wander into the cooking area for chit-chat and likes to stand close to whoever he’s talking to (standing close is actually a necessity, because the exhaust fans make it hard to hear). But since he’s never actually cooked professionally, he’s unable to correctly anticipate where and when we cooks are going to move, and ends up standing right where we need to be.

Finally, many, if not most restaurants operate on fairly slim margins, and “food cost” is a major consideration. So cooks/chefs aren’t often going to prepare dishes simply for the sake of preparing them, they’re only going to prepare things when they’re ordered by a customer. Even when training an actual new employee, the new guy doesn’t go through training by cooking one of everything on the menu. Rather, they learn the menu by being shown how to do each thing as it’s ordered by customers. And since the customer is waiting, it has to be done quickly. The real learning comes from repetition over time, with an emphasis on “hands on experience”, i.e. doing it yourself. You don’t learn a lot just by watching somebody else doing it once.

Oh, and the “watching” vs. “hands on” part. Unless you’re in possession of a current, valid food handler’s permit, you’re not going to be allowed to actually do anything.

5

Cooking is a hobby of mine and I’m on email list for a very high profile chef in my area (he was on Iron Chef America and beat Bobby Flay). His premier restaurant is closed on Sunday’s so once a month he opens up a class for 16 people to come in. We get teamed up with one of his chefs and we prepare a restaurant quality meal in the kitchen. After most of the prep work is done he brings around wine for everybody to enjoy while we’re cooking (and the glass never gets empty). After a few hours of cooking guests arrive and are greeted with wine and appetizers and then we all get to eat together in the dining area to eat the food we prepared. This is pretty close to what you are asking I think, we don’t learn specific recipes but we learn the techiniques that restaurant uses, the chefs are there and accessible, and we’re working at a time when the staff isn’t trying to meet orders so the atmosphere is casual. The downside is it’s very pricey but I think it’s well worth it occasionally.

6

How much would you enjoy someone hovering over your shoulder when you were hard at work in a hot cramped crowded busy room with an endless stream of tight deadlines? It’s a chef’s job, not their leisurely hobby.

7

It can be problematic to have civilians in the kitchen, especially during the rushes. A bakery might be very different though. Often chefs will teach courses on their specialties or in general, which might be the best way to learn these things. It never hurts to ask the chef at any establishment though. Good ones should be proud of their skills and their venue and at a minimum offer some good advice. I would suggest finding some other way of getting your basic knowledge so that you seem serious and informed about your requests. And never, never, look anything like a health inspector.

8

On top of what everyone else said, I’ll add one more thing. We occasionally get requests for recipes for things we make at our store. I usually reply in a nice way that we can give out the ingredients, but not the recipe (in general). The reason being that if you like it so much and you stop in on a regular basis to buy it…I’d like you to continue to do so. I don’t want you to be able to make it at home with stuff you bought at the mega mart down the road (I don’t say all that though).

For some of my good customers I will give them a sort of dumbed down recipe. That is, the way I would make it at home if I was doing it. But I tend to cook with a pinch of this and a dash of that. So when a good customer asks how we make that really good dip, I might say “Well, we roast the garlic and then we soak the sun dried tomatoes and then mix them with sour cream, cream cheese, basil, garlic and the other stuff listed on the label and run the whole thing through a food processor”. That is the ‘recipe’ to our amazing dip that we can’t keep in stock, but it’s not going to be identical to ours unless you nail the proportions and if you try it at home there’s a good chance you’ll come back for it anyways.

On preview I see the health inspector comment. Health inspectors would identify themselves and probably not be trying to sneak in like that. They usually just show up whenever they want and walk right in. If there’s anyone you want to try not to look like, it’s the media. My local station goes into restaurant kitchens with hidden cameras to see what they can find and then puts it on the air.

9

If this were something I wanted to do, here’s how I’d go about it.

First, socialize. Get on friendly terms with the owner/manager/chef.

Come in on a slower day when you might be able to have a few minutes conversation with him/her and just ask. Phrase it as a hypothetical. “What are the chances I could come in
when you’re not crowded and watch you make my order? I’d love to see an artist at work.”

The worst that can reasonably happen is that you’ll be turned down.

Keep in mind that they may also have to consider insurance/liability/health department issues that would make it impossible even if they were willing.

Goos luck!

10

I’ve heard of such programs for taxpayers to observe public employees like police or EMTs on the job, but don’t know if it’s regularly done anywhere in the private sector.