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Comment by newaccount74 | Hacker News Reader

> A martini only has two ingredients

I think that's the point :)

Just like you'd test an Italian chef by ordering pasta al pomodoro.

Or just like you can test a software engineer by discussing basic data structures and how they behave both in theory and in practice.

Or fizzbuzz

Or test a bartender by ordering a fizzbuzz and see if they're a former software engineer who got fed up with the crunch and left to go work in a bar (something I think all of us have considered at least once).

It's been a long time since I heard a jwz reference.

I think I'm going to start calling a gin and tonic a "fizzbuzz".

Maybe more appropriate for the vodka soda which is literally nothing but fizz and buzz.

buzzfizz, I think.

I've had so many people tell me that it is unreasonable to ask in an interview "What's the difference between an array and a set?"... Then I ask how they'd feel about reviewing PRs from a person that does not know the difference and they mostly of change their minds about it.

To be fair, it does depend on the question. Yours is fine.

I've also seen things like "Why would you specify the # of elements when initializing an ArrayList in Java?", and you just know the person asking is the guy that sprinkles magic constants all over his code. And gives negative reviews when you don't put random (often relatively small) numbers in yours too.

Instead of hardcoding, you can specify a million configuration variables to be determined at runtime, and shift the responsibility to SRE to draft a deployment plan for that :P

You can learn a lot about an engineer by asking them to implement a linked list.

I had a relative who owned a restaurant. One of his tests when interviewing a new chef was "Make me an egg."

What sort of response were they looking for with that? "How would you like it - boiled, poached, fried, scrambled or turned into an omelette? Or a meringue maybe?"

GP said a restaurant, not a road-side 'caf'/'diner'. They'd be looking to be given something good, whatever the candidate wants/comes up with/thinks they can do well. e.g. a bad candidate returns literally just a fried egg on a plate, a good candidate returns a devilled egg neatly presented, say.

So it's just guessing what the interviewer wants?

As a restaurant customer, I would prefer a fried egg over a deviled one.

The restaurant owner is interviewing a chef, not a cook. Part of the chef's job will be to innovate -- new dishes for the menu, small changes to existing dishes when customers ask for it or particular ingredients aren't available, something completely different when a coeliac vegan turns up.

It's doing something technically impressive which a fellow domain expert can appreciate whether they'd personally order it from a menu or not.

Exactly. If the chef said "What kind of egg would you like?" the chef didn't get the job.

I guess that makes sense.

It's weird how different industries work - even if they're both creative ones. If a customer under-specifies what they want, and I just make what I think will wow them rather than what they were thinking of but didn't think to tell me, that's a bad job on my part for not engaging with them and finding out what they actually desired.

Not a customer though, an interviewer who asks you how you'd go about designing the architecture for an IoT-controlled fleet of egg-cracking robots.

You might talk in great detail about SoA design, and the interviewer might be hiring for a monolith, but still respect the acumen, you could still be a great fit.

It doesn't mean the chef's only going to be cooking tasting menus any more than it means the engineer has carte blanche over greenfield design or to rewrite an existing project.

Think if you’re good at cooking the answers become obvious. If you’re excellent at cooking even more so.

If this were a software engineering interview question, it would be five paragraphs long and start with:

"Assume a female Gallus gallus domesticus lays a capsule containing an unfertilized ovum..."

Ha yeah and if the 20 year chef asks "what?", then push away from the table with a shocked look: "um how long have you been cooking again?"

"How can you pretend to make a steak when you don't know the first thing about protein folding??"

Writes: "Did not prepare for interview, strong pass"

And the candidate would respond with a Dockerfile that says "FROM egg".

That's supposedly common, but as a non-chef I have no idea what the expected outcome is :D

Eggs are versatile and require special handling, so egg dishes are good for showing both creativity and technique. There's a lot to pay attention to: cracking eggs, picking cooking vessels and utensils, seasoning, plating, texture, how fast you move, etc.

Efficiently making an egg dish that can be served to customers would be a pass. The standards depend on the restaurant and the chef that does the interview.

Eggs are also extremely easy to overcook (I'm far from a professional, I think around ~70C/160F, and the temperature tolerance band is quite small), so there's a lot of techniques in controlling the temperature.

Rumor has it that every fold on the top of a chefs toque signifies one of the ways to cook an egg.

>In 1903, Auguste Escoffier wrote the essential book for French cooking, Guide Culinaire, and outlined 143 ways to cook eggs.

https://www.thepaseoclub.com/blog/the-magic-of-eggs

https://archive.org/details/cu31924000610117

A French omelette is a classic interview test for restaurant cooks, as touched on here:

https://www.seriouseats.com/classic-french-omelette-recipe

An egg perfectly over-easy is quick and super impressive. I've never been able to do it at home without breaking the yolk.

That’s table stakes for a cook. While it has been years since I was a line cook, even I can still consistently make over easy without issue.

Throw the entire egg in a blendtek blender on high for 10 minutes until it is a frothy soup with no indication of the egg shell.

Microwave for 3 minutes.

Add chocolate.

You're hired. Welcome to Chili's.

My imagined reply - as I am not a chef: "What do you think I am? A hen? If you want an egg dish, ask for it. An extra word won't hurt you. I can't work with tight people, I'm outta here."

> "Make me an egg."

I'd be reaching for the polystyrene, spray paint and duck tape. Possibly, a 3D printer to show my technique is up to date.

I suspect I'm far too literal minded for this kind of test but then I'm an engineer.

The man wants to be an egg. The customer gets what he wants.

It's just domain-specific language. This would be clearly understood as "prepare me an egg" by anyone receiving the question in context.

off-topic, but since we're talking about chefs, please take a second to remember Frederic Forrest, who died yesterday. Among numerous roles, he played 'Chef' in Apocalypse Now, an amazing, iconic, memorable performance. "Never get out of the boat."

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