Wadda YOU Call It?

A spider is, in and of itself, an unusual thing to deliberately add to a foodservice establishment.   What bugs me is when there are several different “species” on the menu…

Spiders, Spatulas and Speed racks, oh my!  What images do they convey?  If you’re a baker, (AKA a “Dough Hoe”) they might conjure up visions of the fryer skimmers, icing knives and sheet pan racks. A restaurateur could easily imagine them as table bases, burger turners and liquor bottle holders.

Another critter that creeps into most commercial kitchens is the salamander.  The historical one, which originally looked like a metal peel, doesn’t at all resemble the unit that might be a cheese-melter on steroids, or could be a steak-house broiler on a break. 

And speaking of peels, can you distinguish between a make-up and take-out? Aren’t they really a shovel and/or a spatula?

The dough scraper is also a pan scraper, bench scraper, and even a dough divider (although that term may lead us to the mechanical Promised Land).

Does a china cap ever appear in an Asian kitchen?  And what makes a chinoise different from it?  I’m straining here, as I’ve become enmeshed in a fine point.

I’m also wracking my brain trying to distinguish amongst the various wire-rack shelves, bun-pan racks (or are they trolleys?), pot racks, speed racks, wine racks, baker’s racks, raconteurs and racketeers that have been known to rack up hours in foodservice kitchens.  If you’re looking for a drying rack, look no further than an icing grate for a bun pan (sheet pan).

I’ve often tried to take a pass on the window by referring to it as a double over-shelf on the chef’s – er, front – line. The cooking – er, back - line should never be confused with the cook’s line which may or may not be a prep-line.

The multitude of traditions present in our modern foodservice environments illustrates the millennia of cross-pollinations in food preparation and serving.  We shouldn’t be surprised that many common items will have different names, as their usage and ethnic etymology would dictate. It is also clear that the diversity of cuisines has spawned the convergence of terminology in this polyglot environment. 

From classical French terms, to the lingua franca of whichever immigrant ethnic group is currently manning the back–of-the-house, we’ve developed a rich and colorful vernacular in foodservice.

Let’s celebrate the diversity of our culinary melting pot.  Or was that a sauce-pan?