Rituals in Professional Kitchens

   When thinking about religious reasons for kitchen rituals, it occurred to me that professional kitchens have many rituals as well, a lot of them strikingly similar to religious ones. For this blog post, I talked to my sister who has worked in professional kitchens to make sure I was getting things right. In exchange, she asked that I show off the food she’s made, so all the pictures are of stuff she’s cooked/baked. 

    One way professional kitchens have rituals is the use of certain language that is specific to the kitchen setting. This separates the kitchen from outside of it, making its own little environment with customs only those within it participate in. For example, there are specific words that must be used to indicate potential safety risks when carrying something around the kitchen. For example, when walking behind somebody it is important to call out “behind” and when holding something sharp one must call out “sharp”. Failure to call out these words exactly (synonyms are not acceptable) could result in being reprimanded or even fired from a kitchen job.

   Professional kitchens are also very hierarchical in terms of power and the tasks that get done by each person. This reminds me a lot of the reading, where plucking chickens, for example, is only done by certain people and is often seen as the “dirty work”. In a professional kitchen, the equivalent would probably be cutting vegetables. Nobody really wants to do that task and the head chef almost never will.

   When I asked my sister what about being in a professional kitchen felt ritualistic to her, the first thing she said to me was “the whole thing”. What she meant by this was there are practices and superstitions that she would not follow when making herself dinner, but felt important while she’s at work. This distinguishes a professional kitchen setting from a normal kitchen setting, and I think this is similar in religious contexts. Having rituals makes cooking in a religious context feel special and distinct, therefore leading to a greater connection with the religious aspect of making food.