#141 | Underbelly
Greetings, Melody here. Back with a little taste of things to come.
UNDERBELLY: SF EDITION OF KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
A new series very near to my heart. After many years of exposure to San Francisco’s restaurant trenches, I’m showing you what’s on the other side of the kitchen door. This isn’t about celebrity chefs or clickbait content, it’s about the real backbone of this city’s food scene.
Like the hungover line cook that saved your $42 entree or the walk-in refrigerator hookups after service — it’s the underbelly of the magical world of the restaurant and hospitality industry.
Every industry has its own language — a battlefield shorthand where efficiency meets secrecy — and these are their own brilliant artform. It’s a reflection of a culture that thrives under pressure and accepts all walks of life, so nothing is off limits.
I’ve collected these from kitchens and back-of-house sources who have insisted on anonymity, but here’s a taste of this subversive dialect:
“Rate my pit” : A major flex for dishwashers to show-off their station cleaning prowess
“All in” : Hostess sat a full dining room
“85” : “Very little left of a dish/ingredient in kitchen, will sell out in 2 minutes”
“86” : “We’re officially out of dish/ingredient — take off the menu ASAP”
“68” : "Just kidding, another chef found it — put it back on the menu ASAP”
“69” : “Very nice”
“Naked” : No sauce or bread available
“Baby hands” : New chefs unaccustomed to handling hot plates
“Hero cook” : Single chef carrying the load of the entire kitchen
“A little tired” : Hungover AF
“Watch your nuts” : Pardon me, the cabinet you’re adjacent to needs to be accessed
“Chef Mike is on it” : Cutting heating time with a microwave
“Clicky-clacks” : Tongs
“Stabby-stabs” : Steak knives
“Reggae” : Short for ‘regulation’, a dish that’s served with no sides or modifications
Ready to keep speaking kitchen? Want more raw stories behind the line? Deeper cuts from the industry that feeds you will come in every EAT.DRINK.THINK newsletter. Stay on top of it:
THE HEAT MAP: THIS WEEK’S INTEL
🍽️ Under pressure: The Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) is calling out Congress to oppose the new tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico. Set to impact more than 500K independent bars and restaurants throughout the US — directly hurting farmers, food producers, and workers across the supply chain — is devastating news for an industry still reeling from the economic effects of the last five years.
Small business owner? Take their survey and be heard.
💡Brain food: Food Tank’s two-day “All Things Food” Summit at SWSX was held this week and is worth watching. Over 100+ brilliant speakers and visionaries from the food and agriculture industry converged with a collective message: our food system is simultaneously failing people and our planet, but the solutions are within reach when we’re united by purpose and possibility.
Some interesting data points I encountered:
There are 33,000 edible plant species we know of today, yet we have an understanding of less than 2,000 of them.
Most food composition tables — the data that lists the nutritional content of foods — measure only 25 to 150 molecules in a particular food. The average human diet has over 20,000+ molecules. This means we measure and understand less than 1% of the molecules we put into our bodies.
Potential trend alert: Medically tailored meals and produce prescription programs (also known as the “food as medicine” movement) will become a reimbursable medical benefit.
You can view the entire livestream on Food Tank’s Youtube — it’s a thought-provoking behemoth clocking in 6-8 hours per day: Day One | Day Two
INDUSTRY PULSE
🥃 Getting soused on sprouts: Bailey’s is expanding into vegan oat milk liqueur. The Whiskey Wash
☕ Saint’s marching in: Saint Frank’s specialty coffee shop is taking over Inner Sunset’s old Starbucks location on 744 Irving. EaterSF
🔬 A close-up on pork: SF’s cultivated meat company Mission Barns made history this week by being the first in the world to receive regulatory clearance for cultivated pork fat. On a related note: Italian restaurant group Fiorella will begin using their meatballs (mostly of pea protein and 14% pork fat) on their menu.
OFF MENU THINGS
🤖 Why do we hate robots making our food? A slice of tech hubris. We’re not ready to surrender the intimate act of food preparation to cold metal hands. The Expedite
🍳 Stretch your eggs: Scramble your next breakfast with hummus. Have you tried this? the kitchn
🐟 Protein pasta: Mippeudong, an old school eatery located in Seoul, South Korea, boasts a signature dish of cold tomato broth and long strands of salmon sashimi noodles. I’m equally parts intrigued and mortified. If you’re an overachiever for gains, this is it.
🦢 Sweet artistry: Eldrflwr is a romantic baker and poet at heart. Her divine swan meringue creation swimming in crème anglaise is beyond ethereal. Anyone up to the task can find the free recipe on her Substack.
WHAT I MADE THIS WEEK
🥦 Back on my one-sheet: I can overdose on this broccoli caesar tahini salad and die happy. Recipe by Abby.
🍲 So glassy: Miến gà (aka Vietnamese Chicken Glass Soup) was a big dose of comfort. Simple, limited ingredients, but a whopper in flavor. Best part: all made in an hour. Recipe by gnochgnoch.
Signing off for the week,
—Melody
PS Got restaurant kitchen stories, slang, or BOH/FOH secrets to share? Drop me a line. Best submissions will be featured, anonymously of course.
Love this new column! Excited to see the relaunch of the print edition too. Congratulations!
What happened to the poems?