you did it you secured your stage at uh
one of the restaurants you had on your
list of places you wanted to work more
than anything
you're super excited but you're also a
little bit uh
racked in the nerve section a little bit
of a stressful time
i know i've been there before so in
today's video we're just going to talk
about
how to properly set yourself up get
yourself prepared
adequately for your stage without being
too obtrusive to the other staff
at the restaurant and just kind of talk
to you about what your expectations
should be for your first day at the new
restaurant so
after a word from our sponsors we'll get
right into it
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ah gotcha it's just sharp so if you're
new to the channel my name is gage and i
am the owner of sharp knife shop
before i open the shop i had the amazing
opportunity to work at some really
amazing restaurants
around the world with michelin stars all
of these restaurants require that you do
what's called a stage before working at
them
or receiving like a paycheck for your
time
if you're unfamiliar with what a stage
is it's basically a tryout
you spend anywhere from a day to a few
months at a restaurant
and it's an opportunity for both the
restaurant and for you to get a feel for
one another
and decide if it's going to be a good
fit i
had the amazing opportunity of working
at a three michelin star restaurant
called grace
and a three michelin started restaurant
called mimo in oslo grace being in
chicago
uh and today i thought it'd be fun for
us to talk about my experiences
um doing a stage at both of these
restaurants in the hopes that it gives
you
um a little bit of insight as to how to
better prepare yourself and therefore be
more successful on your stage in the
hopes that you will land
that job at the coveted restaurant that
you're seeking employment at
so first what can you expect on your
stage well in my experience
you are not going to be tasked with
anything too important to the restaurant
typically you are going to be either
picking herbs or doing garnish work
peeling vegetables anything that's
pretty easy
and doesn't require a ton of skill to do
that's likely what you're going to be
doing
it's important to remember though that
[Music]
during these tasks you're showing your
chef
that you can be quick and efficient and
clean and organized during these tasks
and if you can perform these low level
tasks at a high level
they'll trust you to do the higher level
tasks as well so with that said let's
get into what i would bring on my stage
firstly we're going to talk about the
role we briefly talked about this in the
intro but being as unintrusive
as possible is is very important space
is limited in a kitchen
and if you go walking into your stage
with everything under the kitchen
sink your toolbox with every tool you
own in tow
you're going to look a little ridiculous
like i said you're
typically just going to be peeling and
picking herbs and stuff
so you don't need every every tool that
you own
so with that said um this shoulder strap
though very handy to transport my knives
is going to take up space unnecessarily
so if there is a locker space at your
kitchen you are going to remove
your shoulder strap just get things that
you don't need out of the way
cool now getting into our roll here
so first we're going to talk about the
three knives that i personally would
bring on a stage
what i've picked here are knives that i
find to be the most versatile
they can accomplish the most amount of
tasks um while only having to bring
these three so the three knives that i'm
going to bring with me are a 135
millimeter petty knife a 165 millimeter
bunker
and a 210 millimeter kiritsuke
the reason again i've chosen all these
knives because i feel i can accomplish
the most uh a wide variety of tasks um
while only bringing these three knives
their kurtsuke is very similar to a
gyuto but a little bit more focused on
the push and pull chopping motion and
slicing so
if i get any large slicing tasks which
is very unlikely
i'm prepared for that if i have any
larger vegetables to chop up i'm also
prepared for that
keep in mind that if you are doing a
stage you might be tasked with doing
staff meal
in which case you may come across like
some some more
like higher level tasks um so having a
sort of like do it all
larger knife is going to be super handy
mid-range we've got our bunk
this is probably what i would get the
most use out of on a stage
again you're not doing anything too
crazy and having something
nimble compact and easy to use is going
to be really really helpful
i personally use a more up and down
chopping motion push and pull motion
so something with a flatter profile like
this is going to be
really helpful finally we've got our
petty knife again
i would say that your bunker and your
petty will be the most uh
widely used on a stage um your petty
knife again for more
um garnish-y type work off the board
trimming stuff
doing like little tip work so a pedi is
super handy to have
it's also easy to leave um on your
station and keep it accessible if you
ever need it so all three of these
knives are
made from a carbon steel called algami
super which is my favorite carbon steel
because of its
amazing edge retention and ease of
sharpening i also find it to be slightly
less reactive than some of the white
carbon steels out there
these knives also have a stainless
cladding on them so
just past that wavy line is the only
part of this knife with exposed carbon
steel
so that's the only part of this knife
that could possibly rust
but i definitely want that good edge
retention and the ability to bring that
edge back to life really quickly
should the need arise so i'm happy to
put up with a little bit of extra
maintenance but i would uh be hesitant
to bring an iron clad knife on
a stodge because i feel uh like that
you're gonna be focusing
too much attention uh mind power on
keeping your knife rust free
rather than keeping your mind power on
the task at hand
if you disagree with any of my choices
leave a comment down below i would love
to hear
from you guys what knives would you
bring on your stash it'd be a super
super
fun thing to learn in addition to my
knives i'm going to bring with me a
peeler
this is probably going to be your most
utilized tool
on astage uh so make sure you got a good
sharp peeler i would always go out and
buy a brand new one of these
anytime i was going to do a stage and
in most scenarios i got a lot of use out
of these on my first few days so make
sure you got a good peeler on hand
um a microplane is always a good thing
to have
again um zesting citrus is not something
that most cooks want to spend their time
doing so if there's an extra set of
hands there
that can do it for you you'll probably
get tasked with that so having your own
microplane is definitely
a good thing to bring a holding rod of
course is super important as well
if you do get tasked with any knife work
having a sharp knife and having a tool
to
maintain the sharpness of your knife is
super super important
um this guy is a ceramic rod which is
really really great for your japanese
steel as it
is harder than the steel that you you're
holding which is important to getting
good honing results
almost as important as your peeler is
going to be a
pen and a sharpie make sure you go out
and get a brand new sharpie you want a
nice crisp
tip on here so that when you're asked to
label things
you get a nice crisp uh label nice and
legible
so it sounds kind of funny but the way
someone writes a label
can provide a lot of details on how
organized they are
in other aspects of their cooking
profession
so um good easy way to get someone off
your back is just make sure you do the
labels right super easy
you also want a pen on hand so that at
the end of the day when you're writing
your
prep list for the next day you have a
tool that you can do that in
and we don't have one with us here but i
would also say a notebook is super super
important
um asking questions on astage is
encouraged you want to ask
too many questions but you want to make
sure you have a good understanding of
all the
all the techniques that are used and how
and why we're doing certain things
so having a tool to write those notes
down super important so in conclusion
basically what we're trying to get
across today is that you want to be as
prepared as possible
uh while being as unobtrusive to the
kitchen that you're going to stage in as
possible
you are there to show them how you're
going to provide value to their kitchen
so taking up space making things
inefficient
or generally just being a pain is not a
good way to get
hired at one of these restaurants coming
in with your giant knife roll
throwing it on the table taking up all
this space um
showing off all the cool stuff that you
have not super important what you're
trying to show off at this point
is how hard a worker you are how amazing
your attitude is
and how willing you are to learn those
three qualities in my experience are the
most important
to getting a stage chefs just want you
to be
sponges they want you to soak up all the
knowledge
they don't want you to fight back with
them or give them any trouble
so just be an easy guy good cook stay
focused and you'll
land that job at that restaurant that
you've always wanted to work at
so thank you so much for watching guys
if you have any uh questions about my
personal experience
i'm happy to share with you guys again i
i staged and worked
at grace in chicago for two years and i
staged for three months at a place
called mimo and oslo
both amazing and amazing experiences and
i would highly recommend
putting yourself out there into
uncomfortable situations because
those are the times that you will grow
the most and learn the most
so again thank you so much for watching
and until the next video
stay sharp
