This past summer, I packed a bag and flew to New York for three weeks to intern at Gastronome Catering in Queens. I didn't really know what to expect — I'd been baking out of my kitchen in Dallas for a few years, but working in a professional catering kitchen is a completely different world.
I was placed under Executive Chef Alex Grunert, who runs a tight, focused operation. The kind of kitchen where everything has a reason and nothing gets wasted. I spent most of my time doing prep — breaking down proteins, preparing fruit or vegetables, learning the rhythm of a kitchen that's cooking for hundreds of people at a time instead of dozens of cookies.
Here are two things that stuck with me:
Organization is everything. I thought I was organized at home. I was not organized. Real prep means anticipating every step of the process, including slight errors, ahead of time.
Kitchens have a language. After the first week I started understanding the shorthand — when someone calls "behind," when a dish is "in the window," what it means when the chef goes quiet. It's a whole communication system built for speed.
