[shaded-enmity]

This all depends how much product are you expected to produce. Your "don't chop things beforehand" works if you're cooking for 1 or 2, but if you need to cook for 4+ you absolutely need to plan your steps and prepare your ingredients so that you merely combine them. This is evermore important if you want to have some sufficiently consistent level of quality, which I suppose is implied.

[zeroonetwothree]

I cook for four (my family) and always just pipeline everything. Sometimes I make up to 4 dishes at once. This feels a lot faster to me. So at least for that number I don’t agree.