(click through for the interactive project on washingtonpost.com) 
Dance of Life: The Kitchen 

What matters in a pro kitchen: instant reaction, mindless repetition and crisp, efficient maneuvers. Restaurants run on the French &ldquo;kitchen brigade&rdquo; system, modeled after a military hierarchy more than a century ago. There&rsquo;s the chef, a couple of lieutenants (the sous-chefs), and a platoon of line cooks &mdash;the kitchen infantry &mdash; manning stations assigned by menu category: appetizers, fish, meat and so on.
It has to be this way. The restaurant kitchen is a highly p