A Glossary of Restaurant Lingo, Slang & Terms
November 18, 2009 by: Heather Turner
A
* All Day – the total amount. If table 12 orders two orders of salmon and table 19 orders four orders of salmon, that’s “six salmon, all day.”
B
* Back of the house – the back end of the restaurant, the kitchen and storage areas, where the chefs, cooks, prep people and dishwashers primarily work.
* Bev Nap – the little square paper napkin which a beverages rests on.
* Brigade System – the kitchen organization system instituted by Auguste Escoffier. Each position has a station and a set of well defined responsibilities.
* Bubble Dancer – A disrespectful name for one of the most valuable and unrecognized of kitchen staff – the dishwasher.
* Buried – See “In the weeds”. Way behind. Overwhelmed.
C
* Cambro – A large plastic pan used for storage of perishables and non-perishables. The term Cambro derives from the company that makes these containers. Also referred to as a Lexan (from a competing company).
* Campers – customers that hang out at a table all night long and even turning off all the lights doesn’t get rid of them at closing time.
* Can’t cook his/her way out of a paper bag – someone who can’t cook well, usually applied to describe someone thats a terrible cook/chef but thinks that he or she is the greatest. The origin of this phrase is used for many different things. A good expanation of some is found at: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=28317
* Chef de Partie – Station chefs. In the brigade system, these are the line cook positions, such as saucier, grillardin, etc.
* Commis – An apprentice. A cook who works under the Chef de Partie to learn the station and responsibilities.
* Comp – To give something away free. Usually done by owners or managers to get brownie points from important customers. Also used to smooth over problems. i.e. “Table 12’s chicken was raw!” “Comp the whole table desserts and coffee!”
* Cover – A customer, i.e.”It was a slow night, We only did 20 covers tonight.”
* Credits – an amount that is due back to a restaurant from the vendor for a mispicked, damaged or out of date product. See mispicked.
* Cremate it or Kill it – To almost burn something or be very overcooked. i.e ” Table 5 wants his burger cremated” extra extra well done.
* Cryovaced – generally used with meat products, but many dried goods are packed this way to retain freshness. Cryovacing is a process used to remove any excess oxygen from a bag and than the bag is heat sealed to make it airtight. When receiving meat products that have been cryovaced, keep a look out for products that are discolored and brownlooking, this means the airtight seal has been broken and you should send the product back.
D
* Deuce – a table with only two seating spaces. For example, “Seat this deuce at Table 12″ See Top.
* Double – Two shifts in a row. “I’m exhausted, I just pulled a double.”
* Double/Triple Sat – when more than one table is seated in a particular station at the same time.
* Dupe – The ticket/information that gets submitted to the kitchen so the cooks can cook orders of food.
* Drop the Cheque – taking a guest’s bill to their table for payment.
* Drop – Start cooking the accompanied item. “The mussels are almost done, better drop the calamari.”
* Drop Food/Order – the moment at which the kitchen begins to prepare a guest’s food or the moment a server delivers an order to the customers. “I just dropped the drinks on table 4.”
* Dying/Dead – food that is nearly or totally unservable, either due to temperature, appearance, the waitstaff talking to look to pick up from the hot line or wrong ingredients. For example, ‘My shrimps dying in the window because I don’t have veg (accompanying vegetables) to go with it!” Also called beyond in the weeds.
E
* Early Bird – Generally elderly people or tourists who want everything included for very little money. The $12.95 all you can eat buffet.
* Early Bird Special – A cheap meal that is generally available for a limited amount of time when the restaurant opens for service.
* Eighty-six, 86 – “We’re out of Sam’s! (Sam Adams) 86 it!” or the kitchen is out of the item ordered. To remove an item from an order or from the menu because the kitchen or bar is out.
* Expeditor, Expo – Person in charge of organizing food from the kitchen and sending it to the dining room; a mediator of the line.
F
* Fire, Fire it – order given by the head of the line to the other cooks to begin preparation of certain orders, such as “Fire those shepherds pies!”
* Foodie – (depending on context) the bane of cooks and chefs everywhere, a Wanna-Be professional cook/chef. There is nothing more irritating then going to a dinner party or meeting at a restaurant with a group of people and there is always at least one “Foodie” attending who proceeds to tell you all about how he/she made the most fabulous chicken dish. etc etc. until you just want to strangle them ZZZ……………
* Food cost – What a menu item costs to prepare. The cost of a chicken entrée with meat, sauce, vegetables and starch is your food cost. Most restaurants run between a 30-40% food cost, this does not include the cost of overhead that needs to get added in before you start making a profit.
* Front of the house – the front end of the restaurant, the dining room and bar where the customers are served and wait staff, bartenders, bussers and dining room managers primarily work.
G
* Garde-Manger – pantry chef/station. The postion responsible for cold food preparation, including salads, cold appetizers and plating desserts.
H
* Hockey Puck – A well done hamburger.
I
* In the Weeds – Can have meanings for both the front and back of the house. The kitchen being in the weeds can mean having only one 2 ft by 3 ft grill and having 40 people order medium well steaks in the space of five minutes. In the front of the house, it could mean one server just had two parties of 15 seated at the same time and they all want separate checks.
J
* Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune Crowd – Early bird diners. Need to be home early or looking for cheap meals that include everything.
K
* Kill it – To make something very overcooked; see Cremate it.
M
* Mispick – An item that is ordered from a vendor that has a label on it that does not match the product it contains.
N
* No Call/No Show – Employee who does not show up and does not call or a Reservation that does not show up and does not call.
* Nuke it – to Microwave.
O
* On a Rail or On the Fly – Something needed quickly, like yesterday. “I need table 2’s salads on a rail!” Or, “Give me a well done tender…on the fly.”
* Overhead – The added in factors when you are costing out menu products to make sure you are making a profit. Overhead may include electricity costs, paper and chemical products, employee salaries and any additional costs that may be relevant in serving an item.
P
* Paddy Well – A term used very frequently in Irish Pubs and Restaurants, which means to cook it until there is no possibility of life remaining. The next level above Cremate it.
* Party – A group of people at a table.
* Pittsburgh Rare – Burnt outside, rare inside.
* Pump it out – Getting food out quickly.
* Push- “Sell” it. Put it in the window or “We only have two orders of sole left, push it.”
R
* Redneck – The non-tipping public, not related to a rural type person, meaning a cheapskate. See stiffs.
* Rollup – Silverware rolled into a napkin, usually linen but can be paper.
S
* Sacked – fired, usually employees are considered sacked after a major screw up, like serving a banquet of 200 people the $100.00 bottles of Dom Perignon champagne instead of the $12.95 bottles that they were supposed to get.
* Saucier – Sauté Chef/station. The chef de partie responsible for all the sautéed items and their sauces.
* Server – the preferred term for waiter or waitress, for example, “Could you find my server, please, I need a refill on my Pepsi.”
* Shelf life – The amount of time in storage that a product can maintain quality, freshness and edibility.
* Sidework – Work performed by front of the house staff (e.g., refilling salt and pepper shakers, polishing silverware).
* Shoe – a slacker cook/chef. Someone who doesn’t cook well. The only origin for this word that I know of was told to me by a European Chef I worked for. The term Shoe came from the fact that in Europe most Chefs in the Northern regions wore wooden clogs in the kitchen. A bad or clumsy chef/cook used to stumble alot and was made fun of by the other cooks and chefs.
* Shoe Chef – (The Sous Chef) see Shoe, sometimes accompanied by the phrase “The Shoe Chef at (my restaurant) can’t cook his/her way out of a paper bag.”
* Shorting – an unscrupulous method used by some vendors to charge a restaurant for more product than they actually receive.
* Sizzle Platter – Heavy grade metal oval plate that is used to reheat or cook something in a high temperature oven.
* Skate – Leaving without doing sidework.
* Slammed – Busy. See “In The Weeds”. Perhaps not as out of control as “in the weeds”.
* Sommelier – Wine Steward or wine waiter.
* Sous Chef – Generally the second in command in a kitchen; there can be an Executive Sous Chef, generally found in a larger kitchen with a lot of staff. The Sous Chef runs the kitchen when it’s the Chef’s day off or he/she is not available.
* Starch – starch can be potatoes, rice, grain or pasta, the other accompaniment besides the “Veg” to an plated meal.
* Station – the set number of tables waited on by a particular server.
* Stiffed – a customer has left the restaurant without tipping the server.
* Stiffs – non-tipping customers, see redneck.
* Still Moving or Still Mooing – Ultra rare, “they want the tender (tenderloin) still Mooing.”
* Stretch It – To make four orders of hollandaise sauce last through an entire shift by “stretching it” with whatever is available and edible.
T
* Table Turn – number of times a table has had the full revolution of service from being seated to getting the check and then reset for the next group of customers.
* Tare – the weight of a container that the product from a vendor is delivered in. This weight should legally be deducted from the actual weight of the product. See shorting.
* Tender – a tenderloin.
* The Man, the Boogie Man – Health Inspector. “Wash your hands, The Man is here!” “Better mop the walk-in, the Boogie Man’s coming in 10 minutes.”
* Top – the number in a dining party. For example, an eight top is a dining party of eight. A three top is a party of three.
* Toss – An unscrupulous method used by some vendors to make a box look like its full of product.
* Totes – plastic containers that are usually used to deliver fish. They are frequently rectangular but sometimes square or round. Totes are horded by kitchen staff because once washed and sanitized, they make excellent airtight storage containers for just about anything.
* Tourne – Vegetables that are cut to resemble a small, slightly tapered cork, but instead of being smooth they are cut to have seven equally large facets. Generally root vegetables, potatoes, carrots, but sometimes zucchini or other soft vegetables are used. Traditionally, they are boiled, steamed or roasted.
* Turn & Burn – Turn a table quickly (usually because there is a long waiting list for tables). see Table Turn
* Tron – Old 80’s slang for a waiter or waitress.
* Two second rule – The amount of time between when a piece of food hits the floor and when it’s picked up and placed in a sauté pan or on a plate, generally accompanied by a guilty look to see if anyone else saw it.
U
* Upsell – To suggest a higher priced item. “I’d like a glass of merlot, please.” suggesting Iron Horse at $6.00 a glass as opposed to the house vino at $4.00 a glass.
V
* Veg – The vegetable accompaniment to a plated meal.
* VIP – A very important customer, perhaps well known and deserving of extra special treatment. Food critics fall into this category. Generally accompanied by many Comps.
W
* Waitron – Coined in late ’80’s to avoid using “sexist” terms “Waiter/Waitress”. Was replaced in the ’90’s by Server.
* Walk-in – A refrigerated room for cold storage of perishable items.
* Walked – A customer has left without paying the bill or a employee get fed up and just left in the middle of their shift.
* Window – A shelf, usually heated and connected to the kitchen, upon which the food is placed after preparation and awaiting delivery to the table.
* Well drinks – “Well” drinks are made from the inexpensive house liquors on hand. i.e. If you ask for a unspecified gin and tonic you will get whatever gin they serve as opposed to a Tanqueray and tonic.
Add your restaurant slang terms in the comments below!
Thanks to Heather Turner, Chief Log-roller at Forfeng Designs, a company who specializes in the hospitality industry, also blogs about the foodservice and lodging industries, for contributing these terms!
Other ones from my days:
Dobie – The ubiquitous yellow mesh sponge in every kitchen. Can scrape any sort of dried food particle off of any dishes.
Hokey (noun or verb) – The non electric vacuum used to clean up after children who smash every cracker on the floor. In more casual restaurants, hostesses hokey during dead periods as part of their sidework.
Bleeder – When a ketchup bottle has been sitting in a hot kitchen undisturbed for too long, and the contents ferment. When you open it, the gases cause the ketchup to splatter upward, all over you.
Those are some good additions Erin… Thanks!
Wow, it is a whole different language! I worked in the front of the house as a hostess and I was familiar with many of these but this is a pretty comprehensive list! Now I will be more aware when dining out for some of the new ones though.
Nice list. Here’s some additions.
How about steam table (or prep station) pans being called by the fraction of a full hotel pan that they are, as in “Can you grab me a 6 pan”, or “There’s a 9 pan of it over here.” Or even specifying deep or shallow: “I have half a deep 6 of sauce left”
“I needed it yesterday,” or “last week” when you need something in a hurry.
Verbalize: to tell customers about an option that’s not printed on the menu. “I’ll verbalize the special until we’re out.”
Kitchen equipment and appliance slang: spider, china cap, rondo, robot coupe, reach-in, lowboy.
SOS–sauce on the side
Hold–to leave something off
Sub–to substitute one menu choice for another
Use first–inventory that needs to be used next so it won’t go bad. “The use-first eggs are in the walk-in”
Thanks for making some great additions to the list Seth!
some of this is redundant, but some of it is different. this is a version of the same idea i posted recently to a waiting tables livejournal community. notably, it includes foreign-language slang such as people often wish they knew when they get a job in a restaurant, but does NOT contain standard foreign-language words that can be looked up in a dictionary, such as standard french culinary terms.
86: verb. to be out of, or to deliberately put a stop on / get rid of. “We are 86 the special.” “The spinach tastes funky, so chef is 86-ing it.” “He was caught drinking; he’s been 86′d.”
a la mosca: adjective. Idiomatic Spanish. literally “of the fly.” On emergency status, immediately.
all day: adjective. in total. Used to note the total quantity of an item on multiple tickets. “fire two filets medium rare, one salmon. fire one filet medium rare, one filet medium. three medium rare all day!”
big-top: noun. Table of a lot, so many you lost count. Variant on the terms “two-top” “three-top,” etc. Like a “bajillion,” an unspecified large number.
campers: noun. customers that remain sitting at a table for no apparent reason, having completely finished eating and drinking,
Chef: Honorific. The respectful form of address, equivalent to “Sir,” for the person of greatest final authority on duty at the moment. The Expo may only be referred to as “Chef” in absentia of the actual Chef de Cuisine. Sarcastically, anyone who presumes to give orders. “Chef says this is how we’re doing it today.” “Yes, Chef!”
clopen: noun. two shifts with less than eight hours between them, specifically, a close followed by an open.
comida: idiomatic Spanish. Literally “food.” Specifically implies pre-shift staff meal. “They made chicken for comida again.”
comp: noun, verb. to give something away, to take off the check at a financial loss. short for “complimentary.” NOT the same as a void. Usually combined with a reason for the giveaway, eg, “Comp no like,” “comp b-day,” “comp spill.”
cover: noun. a guest as a statistic, used for end-of night head counts. “I did 50 covers tonight.”
deuce: noun. table of two.
double (or triple): two shifts in a row on the same day. a triple is only possible in restaurants that are open through three meal periods, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner, or that have a “late night” or “graveyard” shift, such as 24-hr diners and nightclubs.
dragging: verb. taking a long time, very backlogged. can refer to a course, a drink, a person, or an entire production station. “the bar is dragging.” “my entrees are dragging.” “my busser is dragging.” “dessert station is dragging.” dragging is usually the result of being weeded.
drop: verb. to present a customer with. “drop the check.” “entrees have been dropped.”
dying: adjective. for food or drink to lose quality due to sitting around waiting to be picked up, such as ice melting into a drink and causing it to be watered down, or food drying up for sitting under the heat lamps for too long. “are their apps clear? their entrees are dying.”
expediter, expo: noun. the person who coordinates all orders in the kitchen. on a staff too small to have a full-time expo, a chef de cuisine, sous chef, or head food runner may fill the role. sarcastically, refers to a person who stands around giving orders rather than actually working during a task that does not require an expo, such as making drinks or moving tables.
filler: noun. a menu item, usually savory, that can be produced on the fly to “fill the gap” when a course is dragging. Often a cold pantry item (pre-rolled maki, guacamole, spring rolls), soup (if kept on warmers rather than made-to-order) or the amuse-bouche.
fire: verb. begin to cook. “fire course three on table seventy four!”
line: noun. the workspace of the entree cooks, so named because of how it is usually shaped. in a large enough operation, other food stations may also form a line. “hot app line,” “cold app line,” “dessert line.”
no call / no show: noun. a person who does not show up as expected and does not give notice, also the act of doing so. almost universal grounds for dismissal if the no call / no show was an employee.
on the fly: emergency status. immediately. taking priority over all other things.
resos: noun. abbreviation for “reservation.” Can refer to either a literal reservation, eg “I made the resos for 7:30″ or people who have made reservations, eg “we have 350 resos on the books tonight.”
run: verb. to bring something to a table. “run this food.” “run my drinks.”
sarapiar: verb. Spanglish. To set up, as in, a table. “sarapiar la mesa.”
skate: verb. to run out on something. an employee can skate without completing sidework, a customer can skate without paying.
stiff: verb. to leave without tipping, but after paying. a specific insult to the server. “i got stiffed.”
turn: verb. to replace a finished party with a new party. “We have a lot of people waiting, you need to turn your tables.” noun. a round of guests. “It’s slow, I’ve only had like one turn tonight.”
two- three- or any number – top: noun. table with the specified number of people. “Your two-top is looking for you.”
upsell: verb. to convince a guest to choose a higher-quality option that costs more, eg a drink with top-shelf liquor instead of well.
VIP pass: noun. a signature or “reserve” hor d’oeurve or amuse-bouche not found elsewhere on the menu that is standing ready to send to VIP tables.
verbal: verb. to list off menu modifications that are not printed. “We’re 86 the Gewurtz, menus haven’t been changed because we expect it back in house on Friday, so verbal it.”
verbal tipper: noun. a very enthusiastic guest who will praise you to the skies in lieu of tipping you actual money.
void: verb. to take off the check with no financial loss to the restaurant. NOT the same as a comp. “It was a double-ring, stopped the extra at the bar, void no waste.”
walk-in, walk-ins: noun. customers who showed up without a reservation.
walkout: noun. to leave without paying, not after paying and without tip. “i had a walkout.”
well: the polite word for the cheapest liquor of a certain type. opposite of top-shelf. “Well vodka neat? That’s disgusting!”
window: noun. the shelf or platform between the workspace of the cooks and everyone else. Sometimes an actual window between two rooms, sometimes just a long shelf with heat lamps over it. Where the cooks place the food for pickup.
weeded, in the weeds: to be backlogged, overwhelmed, behind in your duties. “I am in the weeds.” “hot app line is weeded.”