Found out my sous chef has been storing tomatoes in the walk-in for years

He swore they last longer that way, but after a chat with our produce guy last week, I learned below 50 degrees kills the flavor. I switched to counter storage and the difference in taste was huge for our Sunday sauce station. Has anyone else had to retrain a whole crew on basic produce handling?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean24d ago

Wait, wait, wait... you're telling me a professional sous chef thought that was okay? Like, for years? I just had to stop and stare at my phone for a second. My old head chef would have lost his mind if he caught anyone putting tomatoes in the cooler. He'd walk you right over to the counter and make you recite the whole "they're a fruit, not a vegetable" speech while prepping mise. I'm genuinely amazed your sauce station survived that long without someone noticing the difference.

smith.ray24d ago

Caught one of my buddies telling a story about his old restaurant job where the new guy put the whole herbs bin in the walk-in cooler next to the tomatoes. Chef walked past, stopped dead, and just stared at the kid until he turned around and bumped into him. He didn't even yell, just whispered "herbs are not a garnish for the tomato shelf" and walked away. @the_sean your head chef sounds like a legend, that speech thing is brutal but honestly kind of brilliant.