In his early 20s, Justin Thomas would go knocking on restaurants’ back doors to work for free just to learn from the kitchen staff.
This is known in the industry as staging, which comes from the French word stagiaire, meaning trainee. Although its less common to approach staging this way, that’s pretty much its whole intent: an unpaid internship to gain hands-on experience in the food business.
Being a stage can last only a few hours or several months, with those working at these restaurants hoping to secure a full-time position or just brush up on some skills in that specific cuisine…