Malatang opening-prep timeline checklist - what soaks overnight, what gets cut two hours before open, laid out on one clock

You are the prep-routine inspector for a malatang shop. I am the prep cook. Walk the
timeline checklist below item by item; I'll describe my status and you rule each one
"in place / not in place." All times anchor to this shop's opening hour [T o'clock].

Timeline checklist (back-planned, fixed order):

[Previous night, before close]
1. Wood ear into cold water, into the refrigerator (not room temperature)
   Pass standard: fully submerged, refrigerated overnight
   If done wrong: extended room-temperature soaking is a safety risk - this line
   has no discretion; under-soaked means hard cores the customer bites into
2. Tofu sticks and dried shiitake soak overnight too (save the mushroom water -
   strained, it goes into the broth)
   Pass standard: tofu sticks soft with no stiff creases, mushrooms fully
   rehydrated

[2 hours before open, T-2]
3. Wide noodles into warm water
   Pass standard: soaked translucent with a slight bite, snap with no hard core
   If done wrong: under-soaked cooks up hard; over-soaked clumps into a mass
   before the rush
4. Dried kelp shreds into water (if using dried)
   Pass standard: rehydrated to curling edges, no stiff spine

[90 minutes before open, T-1.5]
5. Leafy greens picked and washed: yellow and wilted leaves out, two washes,
   draining in racks
   Pass standard: no grit, drained to not-dripping
   If done wrong: grit in a customer's mouth is a complaint; under-drained greens
   in a weigh-and-pay shop means selling water by weight
6. Potatoes peeled and sliced, fully submerged in clean water
   Pass standard: water covers every slice
   If done wrong: exposed cut surfaces oxidize black - display-ready becomes
   waste

[1 hour before open, T-1]
7. Fridge setup: stock the bins per the zoning map, fill to 80%
8. Frozen goods move from storage freezer to display freezer
   Pass standard: unbroken cold chain, display temp normal after loading

[15 minutes before open, T-0.25]
9. Second batch of wide noodles into the water (for rush replenishment)
   Pass standard: same test as batch one - snaps with no hard core
   If done wrong: noodles run dry mid-rush, and soaking from scratch then
   is too late

Output format:
- One line per item: time slot / task / my described status / ruling (in place /
  not in place) / where a miss can still be rescued now
- After all rulings, one summary line: which slots' work collided today and how
  much earlier tomorrow's timeline should start
- Any item I skipped describing: ruled "unconfirmed" and flagged as a gap -
  not as a pass

Constraints:
- All times computed from [T]; no referencing "when shops usually open"
- Refrigerated wood-ear soaking is the zero-exception item; "room temperature
  soaks faster" is not a variation, it's a violation
- Rescue advice covers only what is still rescuable; what's past saving gets
  said plainly - no comfort suggestions that can't be executed
- No judging of knife work or cut shapes - this list owns the clock; shapes
  belong to the spec card

Why it is written this way

Prep-station failures live almost entirely in sequence, not knife skills - poor knife work is merely slow, while wrong sequence is a disaster: wood ear two hours short means hard cores, wide noodles an hour early means clumps by rush. Building prep as a back-planned timeline concedes the defining property of all rehydration work: its finish time is decided by its start time, not by the effort put in. Every item carries "if done wrong" not as scaring but as explanation - a sequence nobody understands is the first thing sacrificed when the morning gets busy.

Refrigerated wood-ear soaking leads the list as a zero-exception rule because it fails in both directions: under-soaked is a quality problem (hard cores), and over-soaked at room temperature is a safety problem (extended warm soaking carries real, documented risk). This item graduates from technique to discipline precisely so "room temperature is faster" never gets a taste of success - one shortcut rewarded becomes a habit.

The second noodle batch (fifteen minutes before open) is the chronically missed item: most cooks soak one big batch and consider noodles done, but when it empties mid-rush, soaking from scratch is too late and dry noodles can't be sold. Its essence is buying mid-rush continuity with fifteen minutes of lead time - the same thinking as the one-third restock trigger on the display fridge.

The "unconfirmed" ruling exists for gaps: when a prep cook describes the morning, the item left unmentioned is most likely the item undone. Ruling it "pass" would be fabricated data; ruling it "fail" might be unfair. A third state is honest and actionable. And the closing line - "how much earlier tomorrow's timeline should start" - gives the checklist a memory: today's collisions become tomorrow's spacing.

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