What The Heck Is Adam And Eve On A Raft In Restaurant Lingo?

The professional kitchen is a mysterious place. To the uninitiated, it can appear to be complete chaos. The skill of a good cook is navigating that chaos, and over time, the restaurant industry has developed its own vernacular to allow seamless communication in the kitchen. Some of that language, using words like "behind," "hands," or "the Expo" in fine dining kitchens, is pretty intuitive. Some of it, like "cup of joe," has made its way into everyday conversation — some, though, is a little more unusual. If you've ever been in a diner during breakfast, you might have heard someone in the kitchen shout, "Adam and Eve on a raft!" It's one of the more baffling bits of restaurant lingo — and one of the more interesting. So, what the heck does it mean?

The phrase first appeared in the kitchens of American diners sometime in the latter half of the 19th century. Essentially, 'Adam and Eve' refers to eggs, specifically two eggs (usually poached or fried), while the "raft" in question is toast. There's evidence that its use is almost as old as the diner itself – dating back to 1892, at least, when it appeared in print for the first time. Nobody knows its exact origins, so that will, alas, remain a mystery. But as it became a kitchen colloquialism, variations on the term began to pop up across America.

Sometimes, just "two eggs on toast" won't cut it — kitchens are all about the details, after all. So rather than just saying "fried" or "poached" (because that would be too easy, wouldn't it), additions to the "Adam and Eve" slang made their way into the vernacular to help chefs and servers keep track of specific orders. If you're after a perfect plate of scrambled eggs, for example, shout "Adam and Eve on a raft — and wreck 'em!"

If you initially ordered toast but changed your mind, you might ask the kitchen to kindly "sink the raft." Or, if you initially ordered your eggs poached but fancied scrambled instead, you could ask them to "shipwreck that order." Adam and Eve don't just hang out on rafts, either. Sometimes, they can be found "on a log" instead — meaning those eggs are being served with a link sausage.

We're not entirely sure why, but restaurant lingo — specifically diner lingo — is full of biblical references. "Adam and Eve" might be the most famous, but it doesn't stop at eggs! So the biblical story goes, Eve was fashioned from one of Adam's ribs; hence why spare ribs (at least in diners) became known as "a first lady." Apple pie became "Eve with a lid" thanks to her famous penchant for that particular fruit (put a cheesy cheddar crust on top, and it becomes "Eve with a moldy lid"), and "Adam's ale" referred to water, given his supposed lifelong sobriety (probably due to the fact that he never thought to invent alcohol). They're not the only biblical characters to make an appearance, either. "Noah's boy" is slang for ham, named for Abraham, Noah's grandson.

Despite many of these terms falling out of favor with the general public as diners became overshadowed by fast food joints and fancy breakfast spots, much of that history still lives on in restaurant lingo across the country. So it seems Adam and Eve are going to be stuck on that raft for a while longer. Maybe, eventually, someone will get them a boat.