Restaurants

How Stage Shifts Help Restaurants Hire Staff By Alexandra Fay Oct. 13, 2025 5:00 pm EST

In high-pressure kitchens, hiring isn't just about resumes; it's about how someone moves, communicates, and holds up when the tickets start flying. That's where stage shifts come in. A stage (rhymes with lodge) comes from the French stagiaire, meaning trainee. A cheffy word added to the dictionary in 2023, it is defined as "a usually unpaid internship in a professional kitchen that is part of a chef's training" (per Merriam-Webster ).

If the term sounds familiar, it might be because you heard it on Season 3 of "The Bear" when (spoiler) Richie does a week-long stage at the real-life Chicago fine dining spot Ever. There, he learns how to properly polish forks as he absorb

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