The Stig
07-22-2012, 03:09 PM
Occasionally I'll watch old re-runs of Hell's Kitchen. I like cooking shows and listening to Gordon Ramsay destroy people is oddly amusing.
It dawned on me last night that there are lessons embedded in the show that we can use in the midst of SHTF events, whatever they might be.
1) Perform under pressure: If you are familiar with the show, a bunch of cooks are thrown together to run a real live restaurant. They cook as a normal restaurant would with everybody on a given station (fish, meat, appetizers, etc), orders coming in, etc. In addition to the pressure of being on a TV show, cooking to order they have Ramsay screaming this and that at them. It's instructive to watch someone wilt and fall apart under the pressure. I've been there at various gun schools. It's amazing how I can muff a mag reload when I'm on the clock and the rest of the class is watching. Golfers see it when they tee-off in front of a group of people.
This isn't a ground breaking concept but people do tend to go to shit under stress. Knowing this, what are you doing to prepare for operating under stress?
2) Work as a team: Again and again people cook exceptionally well by themselves, at home. Again and again they fail when working as a team. Many times while cooking in a restaurant your dish is dependent on someone providing an element at an exact time. For example, the guy cooking the steak is counting on the dude cooking the side items to get everything done as his steak is coming out of the oven. So both people have to communicate when their dishes start cooking, how they are progressing, give a countdown when they are almost done, etc.
How well do you and your spouse communicate? If you have other people you'll be working with do you have established communication protocols? Have you practiced them out? Does everybody know their roles? Are you the meat station or cooking fish? Can you work with other people?
3) Prepare - Every year on the show one team seems to focus on knowing the recipes before the first dinner service while the other team seems to goof off. Guess which team usually does better that first night?
4) Leadership - I worked my way through school as a cook in a restaurant. While nowhere remotely close to the same level as a commercial kitchen, it did highlight how complex and confusing things can get. One position in the kitchen is called the "expediter". They are responsible for calling out the orders, assigning responsibilities, coordinating the timing of everything, handling any orders that are returned, and generally driving the ship.
Every season and every episode, the teams that don't have someone guiding the movement of the kitchen fall apart into chaotic messes. You can see it unfold to the point where there's a bunch of people doing stuff but nothing's happening.
If you are part of a team, do you have someone tasked with leadership? Are responsibilities understood? Does someone "drive the ship"?
5) Rebound from mistakes: One of the things Ramsay stresses is that everybody makes mistakes, but whats important is how they recover from it. Do they put their heads down and get back to work, or do they shut-down and fall apart?
Same applies to SHTF events, no matter what the size. If you suddenly realize you forgot item X do you freak out and run around like a nut or figure out some way to improvise? If your plan A, B and C fall apart do you calmly go on to plan D? (You do have multiple plans right?)
----------------------------
Nothing earth shattering here but it's funny where you can find lessons to apply to prepping/dealing with SHTF events.
It dawned on me last night that there are lessons embedded in the show that we can use in the midst of SHTF events, whatever they might be.
1) Perform under pressure: If you are familiar with the show, a bunch of cooks are thrown together to run a real live restaurant. They cook as a normal restaurant would with everybody on a given station (fish, meat, appetizers, etc), orders coming in, etc. In addition to the pressure of being on a TV show, cooking to order they have Ramsay screaming this and that at them. It's instructive to watch someone wilt and fall apart under the pressure. I've been there at various gun schools. It's amazing how I can muff a mag reload when I'm on the clock and the rest of the class is watching. Golfers see it when they tee-off in front of a group of people.
This isn't a ground breaking concept but people do tend to go to shit under stress. Knowing this, what are you doing to prepare for operating under stress?
2) Work as a team: Again and again people cook exceptionally well by themselves, at home. Again and again they fail when working as a team. Many times while cooking in a restaurant your dish is dependent on someone providing an element at an exact time. For example, the guy cooking the steak is counting on the dude cooking the side items to get everything done as his steak is coming out of the oven. So both people have to communicate when their dishes start cooking, how they are progressing, give a countdown when they are almost done, etc.
How well do you and your spouse communicate? If you have other people you'll be working with do you have established communication protocols? Have you practiced them out? Does everybody know their roles? Are you the meat station or cooking fish? Can you work with other people?
3) Prepare - Every year on the show one team seems to focus on knowing the recipes before the first dinner service while the other team seems to goof off. Guess which team usually does better that first night?
4) Leadership - I worked my way through school as a cook in a restaurant. While nowhere remotely close to the same level as a commercial kitchen, it did highlight how complex and confusing things can get. One position in the kitchen is called the "expediter". They are responsible for calling out the orders, assigning responsibilities, coordinating the timing of everything, handling any orders that are returned, and generally driving the ship.
Every season and every episode, the teams that don't have someone guiding the movement of the kitchen fall apart into chaotic messes. You can see it unfold to the point where there's a bunch of people doing stuff but nothing's happening.
If you are part of a team, do you have someone tasked with leadership? Are responsibilities understood? Does someone "drive the ship"?
5) Rebound from mistakes: One of the things Ramsay stresses is that everybody makes mistakes, but whats important is how they recover from it. Do they put their heads down and get back to work, or do they shut-down and fall apart?
Same applies to SHTF events, no matter what the size. If you suddenly realize you forgot item X do you freak out and run around like a nut or figure out some way to improvise? If your plan A, B and C fall apart do you calmly go on to plan D? (You do have multiple plans right?)
----------------------------
Nothing earth shattering here but it's funny where you can find lessons to apply to prepping/dealing with SHTF events.