Grammar girl here. I'm in yon Fog Fog your friendly guide to the English

language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

Today we're going to go through the origins of some fun kitchen jargon,

and then I answer the question,

was I wrong to refer to the good people of Michigan

as Michiganders?

And we'll talk about these denas and labels in general.

If you've ever worked in a restaurant or even dined in a restaurant

with an open kitchen, you've probably noticed that the staff has its own

lingo. Consider this statement, one killed, two orders of

Pomfreet, one salad, 86 the mushrooms all day. And we're waxing table 11, so

fire this ticket now. I'll give you the translation at the end.

But for now, let's explore Restaurant Lingo

and how it came to be.

Lingo is a way of speaking shared by a particular group of people, like family slang or the family like

examples you hear at the end of every show. It could also be a unique set of terms and

phrases used in a particular field. And you might also call it jargon, which is language used by people in a particular occupation,

and often includes technical terms that people in that field would understand.

Jargon can actually be very useful for people

who are in the know, so to speak. Restaurant work is demanding and stressful and using common language can make communication easier and speed up service.

As Nathan Dubay, executive chef of restaurant strategy, deployment and coaching firm, K-R-G, says, quote,

A busy kitchen can be a hot, intense, and stressful environment.

...