The Kitchen Protocol

Before Auguste Escoffier, professional kitchens were chaos. Orders shouted into a void. No acknowledgment. No confirmation. Food emerged or didn't.

In 1888, Escoffier borrowed something from his military service: the chain of command. But the real innovation wasn't hierarchy.

It was "Oui, Chef."

Every instruction requires verbal confirmation. Not obedience — acknowledgment. The information completed a round trip before anything moved.

This is TCP/IP's three-way handshake, invented 100 years before TCP/IP. Send. Acknowledge. Proceed.

68% of fine-dining kitchens still use Escoffier's brigade system. Not because tradition is comforting. Because unacknowledged information is noise.

You've sent the email. You've made the request. Silence. Did they receive it? Did they understand it? Did they agree to act?

That's The Illusion of Clear Communication — the assumption that sent means received. Escoffier understood: without the return signal, you're just hoping.

That same principle now saves lives in hospitals. The Shift Change shows how I-PASS forces acknowledgment before handoffs complete. Same mechanism, different kitchen.

Escoffier's kitchens reduced service times by 40%. Not by working faster. By confirming before cooking.

Information without acknowledgment is just noise. The Information Flow shows why the handshake matters more than the message.