Courtesy of Pillsbury

Who doesn't love Pillsbury? With its adorable chubby Doughboy and love-handle-inducing cinnamon rolls, it's an American institution. And in search of top baking talent, the kitchen mega-brand is giving away $1 million in a bake-off.

And because Miamians are multi-talented, it's no surprise that a local woman is in the running. Naylet Larochelle was chosen as a semifinalist by the Bake-Off Kitchen judges, and if she makes it to the next round (by popular vote), she'll head to Vegas to compete against 99 other contestants for the big prize. So rep the 305 and vote!

See also:
- Easy-Bake Oven: Hasbro to Release Gender-Neutral Version

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All photos by Laine Doss

Red the Steakhouse executive chef Peter Vauthy presents a Kobe-style steak.

​Red the Steakhouse chef/partner Peter Vauthy invited Short Order into his kitchen to watch the arrival of about 90 pounds of Wagyu beef. We asked him to explain Wagyu versus Kobe and why we should pay top dollar for the Wagyu experience.

Vauthy gets his meat from Lone Mountain Ranch in New Mexico, which has 100 percent pure Japanese bloodlines. Vauthy says many ranches introduce Angus beef or something else into the bloodlines because it's easier. Lone Mountain imprints the nose of each animal to ensure correct identification -- sort of a bovine fingerprint.

The cattle are raised using the traditional Japanese method, which means no stress and free access to grazing. The animals are fed a vegetarian diet, unlike some other cattle, which are fed ground-up beef.

They're shipped from the ranch humanely, not in crowded cars, and are allowed to rest for a few weeks and chill out in Iowa before they're processed. "I want to be one of these cattle -- except I don't want to be killed," Chef Vauthy quips, large knife in hand. How did he learn about this boutique ranch in the Southwest?

"When Japanese Kobe beef was no longer available, a colleague in California said that this ranch was doing something very similar with their small-production cattle and that I should look into it," says Vauthy, who also clarifies the difference between Kobe, Kobe-style, and Wagyu.

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Photo by Ily Goyanes

Murphy's Law control center.

​One of our pet peeves (a polite way to say 'things that piss us the hell off') is when people screw up Mexican food. That's because it takes either a complete nincompoop or someone who takes absolutely no pride in their work to do so. Think about it. How hard do you have to work to make something covered in cheese, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole actually taste bad?

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Jacob Katel

Look at my knob.

​"You see this knob? It's precious to a lineman, especially when it gets real busy, cause you're struggling to turn everything on. They come right off see? One thing cooks will do just to mess with each other is steal em', and hide em'. I remember being in a kitchen where some of the guys had worked together for a long time, and one of em' came in to eat with his girlfriend or somethin'. They made jello for him for dessert with an oven knob in the center. He stuck his fork in to take a bite, and...Clink. Cooks pull a lot of pranks on each other. That one's not as bad as throwing spoons in the fryer. I seen people get all burned up from that."

As told by Gonzalo Rivera, Executive Chef of La Marea at The Tides, South Beach.

Jacob Katel

Chef Jorge Cardenas.

​If you've ever heard a lobster's scream as it's cooked alive in boiling water or recognize the sound of claws hammering at the plate glass and steel of an oven door then you may have worked in a restaurant kitchen.

The last time Short Order saw it happen was at Ken Lyon's Cape Cod Room at the Bath Club on Miami Beach where lobster were being cooked to death with impunity. We asked Executive Jorge Cardenas if he ever felt bad about it. Here's what he had to say:

"I was working at Le Cirque in NYC at the time for Chef Sottha Kuhn. I told chef, hey I feel bad for killing all these lobster. He said, 'Take all their rubber bands off their claws (lobster claws are generally rubber banded shut so they can't fight back). There was a whole bunch of them there all together and I had to pick each one up. They were all there snapping at me, trying to get me, trying to hurt me. After that day I don't feel bad. If they had the chance they would do the same to me."

Jacob Katel

A Halloween kitchen.

​Kitchen pranks go back to the days when cave people pissed on each other barbecues for laughs, and they haven't gotten any less funny with time.

Long time sous chef Kyle Foster from Talula (23rd and Collins, Miami Beach) tells this funny story:

"We cooks joke around a lot in the kitchen, but there was this one server who thought he could joke with us too.

He took some mashed potatoes and put em' in this cook's demi glace, if you don't know what that is it's a sauce that takes three days to make, and he ruined that.

You don't mess with someone's mise en place. Their person, their clothes, their drink, but not their mise en place. So the cook left a spoon on the grill, and when it was good and hot on there they took it and dropped right on the top of his hand.

He got so mad that he punched a computer screen, broke it, and got fired."

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Jacob Katel

Chef Andrea Curto-Randazzo shows her knife technique.

​Chef Andrea Curto-Randazzo and her husband Frank own Talula (23rd Street and Collins Avenue, Miami Beach). They've been working together since they met while working together at Tribeca Grill in New York City.

Here's a story Andrea tells about a fight she witnessed while working as Frank's Sous Chef at The Heights Restaurant in Coral Gables:

This is way back when I was a sous chef in Coral Gables. There was a Haitian guy and a guy who had been in the Sandinista Army when he was like 15. Where are they from? Nicaragua. So it was a Haitian and a Nicaraguan guy and they just hated each other. So one day they're arguing and the Haitian guy pulled one of my knives and was chasing the Sandinista in the lot out back of the kitchen.

None of the guys who worked there did anything. They just stood there and watched. So me, being stupid, I jumped on the Haitian guy's back. I didn't wanna see anybody get stabbed on my watch.

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via volantra on flickr

Sometimes they are your customer, they're drunk, and they're ready to party.

​Short Order has three new stories for you, straight from the mouths of waitresses in a local restaurant kitchen. Here they are, unedited....The ladies requested anonymity for reasons that will become clear as you read the posts. We don't like skipping names or restaurants, but sometimes...

Story 1: Sex In Public -
"Ok, so this guy's got the girl up on the podium toward the corner, by the back bar. She's sitting there facing him, her dress is up, and they were just like f...ing right there.

I didn't even tell them anything. I don't get paid enough to get in the middle of that.

They just kept right on going in front of everybody until they were done."
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Everybody's doing it.

​Sometimes, everything you've ever feared about the drive- thru is true. Careful what you say into that fast food speaker.

Short Order recently met Trew Money, his rap name, in a local bar and grill kitchen where he was working as a dishwasher.

We asked if he had any funny stories from working in the restaurant business and his face lit up, he cracked a smile, and he said, "Yeah...I got some stories dawg."

"I was working at a Steak-N-Shake in Hialeah Gardens that's closed down now. All of us that was working there were young, like 16, 17, 18.

First off, the manager was fu#*!cking one of the servers. Well, then he started fu*#!cking another one, and the first one found out, and that was just drama right there.

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Jacob Katel

Amire - a former strip club cook.

​Short Order has always thought highly of strip club kitchens. Not necessarily the food they produce, just the fact that there is an entire staff of people working them whose job it is to cook at a place where girls dance naked for money.

Late last year we brought you our first ever South Florida strip club dining guide. Today, we're breaking down our top 5 reasons to work in a strip club kitchen.

Each number corresponds to a story told to us by Amire, currently a line cook in two high-volume Brickell restaurants. Amire entered the world of professional cooking in a strip club kitchen at the age of 18. Throughout his career he has worked in the kitchens of Goldrush, Pink Pony, and Solid Gold.

5. It's a crazy atmosphere. The first week that I started working at ******, the manager came to the kitchen and told me to go to the VIP, that the chick that had just won the sausage swallowing contest was back there waiting for me.

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