What is a Station?
Believe it or not, there was a time before stations in professional kitchens. Without having been a chef in the late 1800s myself, it’s hard to say firsthand what it must have been like when the “brigade system” was initially introduced.
The historical accounts share stories of chaotic environments that lacked structure and organization, leading to a myriad of inefficiencies and ultimately inconsistent food.
It typically looked like one “chef” with a slew of assistants. If you could be a fly on the wall, you would observe the same person confusingly handling everything, bouncing between roasting proteins, pastry work, and assembling cold salads.
The context switching alone sounds exhausting, but a lot of the cooking back then was described as largely “improvisational” as opposed to following any systematic technique. Pre-brigade kitchens would suffer second-order issues, like lack of cleanliness, duplicated work, poor coordination, and even violent abuse.
Enter Auguste Escoffier
As the son of a blacksmith born in 1846, Escoffier’s father pulled him from school and sent him to work as an apprentice at his uncle’s restaurant in Nice, France. At just 19 years old, he was hired at Le Petit Moulin Rouge in 1865, which he later described as a cruel and unclean kitchen. Not long after, he was called into obligatory military service, which interrupted his restaurant career and resulted in a seven-year stint as an army chef—and a revolutionary insight.
Being surrounded by military operations rubbed off on him, serving as a stark contrast to the unruly kitchen environments he was used to. The army was efficient, coordinated, and had a clear hierarchy where everyone had a specific job, knowing exactly whom to report to. I can imagine it was a “cannot unsee this” moment for Escoffier, and infusing these two together was the breakthrough. Upon leaving the army, Escoffier would return to kitchens, and the brigade system was born.
What is the Brigade System?
Escoffier decided to name and isolate specialties in the kitchens he managed across fish (poissonier), sauces (saucier), vegetables (entremetier), cold dishes (the “pantry” or “larder”, called garde-manger), and even fried items (friturier), allowing chefs to focus on perfecting techniques and maintaining quality, while supervisors (sous-chefs, chef de cuisine, etc.) kept the overall kitchen running smoothly.
It worked so well that it fundamentally changed high-end cuisine.
Messy kitchens became elegant establishments, championing cleanliness, which allowed focus to shift to improved customer service.
That disorderly “improvisation” I mentioned earlier was replaced with consistently repeatable techniques, which could be documented and shared in the form of standardized recipes.
Even the style of food service itself was transformed. Previously, all dishes in high-end restaurants were prepared and served at the same time (à la française). Although the presentations were large and opulent, food often reached your plate cold, and some guests even missed certain preparations.
Just like an army completing a mission, Escoffier’s brigade took advantage of this newfound efficiency, allowing them to portion dishes and present them to diners in a series of courses, called service à la russe. Now diners could not only try everything, but the food would at the table hot and freshly prepared.
Don’t get me wrong, certain kitchens still fall victim to elements of the old ways of operating, which I’ll touch on in future Essays. However, in the highest-caliber kitchens in the world, you’ll still find this structure and language being used today because it works.
Station, Defined
Line Cook. Chef de Partie. Section Lead.
Working solo. Tag-teaming with a station partner. Split-shift with another coworker.
Hot apps. Garde-manger. AM prep. Roast. Pasta. Snacks. Pastry.
In a professional kitchen, a station might include any number of these (and more).
For the context of Total Station Domination (I’m a big fan of defining terms so that we’re speaking the same language), I’d like to define “Station” in a professional kitchen as the responsible party in charge of transforming inputs into outputs.
Responsible Party
I say “responsible party” because it might be you and a “Station partner” who work the “Hot Apps” Station together—or it might be just you on the “Pasta” Station, working solo.
Inputs and Outputs
“Inputs” are raw products before you handle them.
Your job is to use these inputs to inform what you’ll transform and ultimately create-the “outputs.”
As tickets print on a busy Saturday night, a “Raw Bar” station needs to turn raw oysters into cleanly shucked, ready-to-slurp arrangements on ice.
The tablet lights up, showing a six-entrée to-go order; the “Wok” station turns vegetables, proteins, and sauces into packaged meals ready for a delivery driver.
An expeditor shouts “Fire four tasting desserts!” which springs the “Pastry” station into action-freshly slicing fruit and scooping just-spun gelato.
This even holds true for a dishwasher, whose “Inputs” are dirty plates that enter the dishwashing area after guests have finished their meals—the lessons in TSD still apply.
What Isn’t a Station
Notice, I didn't cover:
What to make — ideation of what the inputs and outputs are. We’ll assume that you’re being told what to make on the station you’re working. Dish creation is not discussed in TSD.
What to charge — financial management of inputs and outputs. We will not talk about pricing in TSD. Food cost, inventory, waste, marketing—they all matter, but each is incredibly context-specific and relies on a myriad of factors outside the scope of most stations.
How to manage people — we will discuss communication, interpersonal relationships, delegation, and how to begin leading from your station, but TSD focuses on being a high-performing individual contributor. These skills may improve your ability to manage people, but that is a separate topic that deserves its own deep dive.
You might do the above on your Station at work—and that’s great; you’re getting valuable experience! Just know that for the context of TSD I’m not talking about your station.
With Station defined, certain questions start to arise:
How does one take responsibility?
I’m struggling managing my inputs…
I don’t know how to consistently deliver high-quality results…
I can turn inputs into outputs, but not fast enough…
My inputs and outputs just changed with a new menu that the chef just introduced…
These problems (and more) are what Total Station Domination focuses on.
If you’re working a station and want to increase your performance, you can get your Station Score to evaluate where you are across nine Station Standards.
If you have feedback on this essay to help inform my book on Total Station Domination, I want to hear from you—please send me an email.