Welcome to Five Course Trivia! Five days a week, we’ll post five questions about something from the culinary world, from soup to nuts and all dishes in between.

Happy Boxing Day everyone! This is now my second year of not doing a quiz about packaging boxes, but now I’m taking care of a subject I ought to know more about: restaurant staff.

There are tons of names of people that work in the kitchen, and this quiz will take care of a few of them. Enjoy!

1. The maître d‘ is the person in charge of welcoming guests, leading the waiting staff, taking reservations, and possibly preparing food at the table. However, the term is an abbreviation. What word fills in the name maître d’_____, which describes the type of facility where you might find the maître d’?

2. What is the French word for “under”, as in “under-chef of the kitchen”, as in the person that serves under the executive chef or chef de cuisine?

3. In castle days, what rank was below kitchen maid, named after the room where racks of pots and dishes would dry after being scrubbed?

4. What name is given to a cool, ventilated area where food and dishes are stored and prepared, as well as the person in charge of the area? This person would be known as a pantry chef.

5. On an episode of “Bastard Chef”, Chet Manley (aka Cyril Figgis) is listed as the garçon de cuisine, which Archer says means “kitchen boy”. While a garçon de cuisine is often in charge of doing menial things like dishwashing and mopping, it also often entails being the communard for the kitchen staff. What task would a communard perform for the staff?

6. In the Brigade de cuisine system developed by Auguste Escoffier, the person that ranks third in the kitchen, behind the chef de cuisine and the answer to #2, is in charge of making what?

 

ANSWERS BELOW:

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

1. Hotel
2. Sous
3. Scullery maid
4. Garde manger
5. Preparing a meal for the staff
6. Sauce (called the saucier or sauté chef)