The restaurant kitchen

A restaurant kitchen is a workshop with a fixed order, and its language is exact to match. La partida is the station somebody stands at, la puesta a punto is everything that has to be ready before the first guest, and el mostrador de pase is the place a plate leaves the kitchen from. Halfway down comes la salsa que no se corta, and behind it is a verb doing four jobs English gives to four different words. Cortarse is what milk does when it goes off — « to curdle » — and what a sauce does when the emulsion breaks — « to split ». Cortarse is also to cut yourself on a knife. And no te cortes means « do not hold back », said to somebody being shy. Four English words, one Spanish verb, and one idea underneath all of them: something that was joined comes apart.