Operations & service
The Kitchen Brigade System: How Escoffier's Hierarchy Evolved
Escoffier's brigade gave every cook one job and one boss. Here is where it came from, what each role does, and how modern kitchens have bent it to fit.
Posts about kitchens
17 posts.
People & careers
Culinary Techniques Every Chef Should Know, and Why They Matter
Techniques are ways of controlling size, heat, water, fat and time. Here are the essentials, from knife cuts to tadka, and how a kitchen should teach them.
Menu, food & drink
What Is Food Design? A Guide for Chefs and Restaurateurs
Food design is the intentional shaping of food and everything around eating it. Here are its branches, its pioneers, the research behind it and how to use it.
New formats
Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Brands: What Still Works in 2026
Stand-alone ghost kitchens struggled, but virtual brands cooked in a restaurant's quiet hours still make sense. The difference is whose costs the order has to cover.
Operations & service
Commercial Kitchen Layout: Principles for Flow, Safety and Speed
A kitchen plan works best as a map of paths rather than a drawing of equipment. Trace four of them, count where they cross, and find your layout problems before you build.
Operations & service
10 Ways to Cut Restaurant Food Waste That Pay for Themselves
Food waste has four sources, and each needs a different fix. Weigh it by source first, then work through ten changes in order of effort, starting with the ones that cost almost nothing.
Operations & service
The Pass: How Great Kitchens Communicate Under Pressure
Kitchens say 'heard' and think the loop is closed. It is only half closed. Here is how the pass works, and what to borrow from hospitals to fix it.
Operations & service
Sustainable Restaurant Operations: Energy, Water and Waste
Start with the bin, then the tap, then the meter. A practical order of work for a sustainable restaurant, with the published evidence on what pays back.
Menu, food & drink
Food Cost Percentage: Formula, Benchmarks and How to Lower It
Food cost percentage tells you how much of each sale goes on ingredients. The useful number is the gap between what it should be and what it is.
Menu, food & drink
Seasonal Menus: A Calm System for Changing Dishes Without Chaos
Seasonal menus fail when everything changes at once. A slot-based system lets ingredients rotate while stations, prep and costs stay steady.
Menu, food & drink
How to Develop a Signature Dish: A Chef's Process from Idea to Menu
The idea is the easy part. A signature dish is the one a guest can describe to a friend and your kitchen can cook the same way a thousand times. Here is the process.
People & careers
How to Become a Chef: Training, Experience and the Honest Timeline
Culinary school, apprenticeship or straight into a kitchen? A realistic look at the routes, the years of experience employers expect, the pay, and the shift from cook to chef.
Technology & AI
Restaurant Inventory Software: What to Automate and What to Count by Hand
Software can do the sums, reorder lists and invoice entry. Only a hand count tells you what is really on the shelf. How to split the work and what to count weekly.
Property, design & sourcing
Commercial Kitchen Requirements: Ventilation, Utilities and Layout Checklist
Commercial kitchen requirements differ by country and council. Here is a checklist of what to ask authorities and engineers, and the order to ask it in.
Property, design & sourcing
Commercial Kitchen Equipment: What to Buy New, Used or Lease
Buy new, used or lease by asking what each machine does for the kitchen, not what it costs today. Here is a decision rule by category, with the compliance checks.
Property, design & sourcing
Architects, Chefs and Operators: How to Brief Each Other
Most design disputes come from three people using the same words differently. A shared service scenario, written before drawings begin, closes the gap.
Places & perspectives
Top 10 Food Cities Every Chef Should Work In at Least Once
Ten cities worth a season or a year in the kitchen, ranked on stated criteria with counts from Michelin and the 2025 World's 50 Best, and one thing each teaches.