Hit my 100th perfect plating score last night after 8 months of practice

I started plating seriously back in January. My first attempts looked like a toddler dropped a salad on a plate. But last night during a busy service, my chef actually stopped and said "that's the one" after I sent out a seared scallop dish. It took me over 200 plates to get 100 that he liked. Has anyone else tracked their plating progress or am I just weird about numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_thomas7317h ago

Have you thought about how this tracking habit changes how you see your own growth? I used to keep a notebook tallying up my knife cuts - perfect brunoise vs. sloppy ones. That little number crunch made me notice patterns like how I'd nail plating every Thursday night but struggle on Mondays. It turned out I was rushing through prep on Sundays and that carried over. You're not weird, you're collecting data on your own craft in a way most cooks never do. That chef's compliment probably felt huge because you had the numbers to prove it wasn't just luck.

karenw9015h ago

Wait, you actually kept a tally of perfect vs. sloppy brunoise? That's intense but also kind of brilliant, @felix_thomas73... I bet that Thursday night pattern was wild to discover.