(laughing)
- The five second rule applies only at home.
Never in the restaurant.
(upbeat ragtime music)
- Hi, my name is Jed.
I am a pastry chef.
I have been in the food industry for about five years now
and just started working at a French restaurant.
- My name is Joe Sasto, I'm a chef.
At the moment, I'm doing pop-up dinners, private events.
But coming from San Francisco I was working
at Lazy Bear, Quince, and number of other places.
- Today, I am going to share some insider knowledge
about the kitchen and food industry.
- About 99% of the time, the specials are actually special.
Very rarely, in my experience that I've seen,
is it like something leftover
or something that they actually wanna get rid of.
- Most of the time there are leftovers
that are being repurposed so that there's less food waste.
That process is actually dependent
on the type of restaurant.
So the higher end the restaurant, you might have specials
that are they creativity purposes.
- If you're at a hole in the wall,
maybe there's a chance that special is something
that might be going bye bye tomorrow.
- A lot of food gets thrown out, unfortunately.
Even like a little bit of a wilt on the lettuce
will get thrown out.
If it's like a meat product,
then it will probably be repurposed for a special.
- A lot of times leftovers will go into family meal
and that's when the staff will come together,
eat everyday for lunch.
And rather than it getting thrown away or serving something
that's not as fresh as best possible product to the guest,
we'll eat it as cooks in the kitchen.
Does the five second rule apply?
(laughing)
The five second rule applies only at home.
Never in the restaurant.
- It's actually kind of embarrassing.
It depends on the chef.
- I don't think I've ever worked anywhere
where it's, five second rule, it's fine, no.
It's like, even a one second rule it's dead.
Probably not even for family meal in that case.
- Personally, if something drops on the floor I will toss it
but I have seen, unfortunately, some chefs
apply the five second rule.
And if I catch them, I'll make them toss it.
- Biggest customer pet peeves as a chef
are people that have allergies
that don't really know the details of their allergies.
- Chefs hate it when customers order a steak well done.
We will judge you silently behind your back.
(chuckles)
- Well someone may say they cannot have gluten,
they're allergic and then you ask them if they're a celiac
and they have no idea what that word means.
Celiacs can't have any trace amounts of gluten.
Sometimes someone may actually be a celiac and I'll know it.
Sometimes they may just not wanna eat gluten
and say they have an allergy when they really don't.
- I will never order a sandwich or a burger.
You don't know how long that burger meat
has been sitting there.
Even a slight tinge of gray
can still be cooked and served to you.
Certain salad I will also not order
unless I know that it's a seasonal vegetable.
- I think about what it's like in the kitchen back there.
What makes the most sense to where I'm at.
If I'm at an Italian restaurant,
definitely going for the pasta.
If I'm at a sushi restaurant, I'm gonna want the fresh fish.
Kind of basing my orders on where I'm at and making sure
that I'm ordering what the chef wants me to order.
- The joy I find in cooking is that
it's extremely therapeutic for me.
During the times that it's stressful,
it still a good kind of stress
where if you have a good team, you're all working together.
- I love watching people's reaction
when they eat something that I made.
There's like this sense of nostalgia and you can immediately
see the memories coming back to them
of maybe the last time they had that dish.
And being able to see how that evocation of emotion
is incredibly joyful.
- A lot of work definitely
goes into preparing your food.
If you scarf it all up, that's great, it's a compliment.
But also, take some time to ask or listen to the server
explain how the food was made, where it came from.
Because that's all part of the process
and it's not just behind scenes,
it should be for you as well.
(gentle pop music)