“The best way to cook fish is to have a slow waiter walk it through a hot kitchen”

Some diners insist that food not be overly cooked. There is an old saying that the best way to cook fish (or meat) is to put it in a plate and have a slow waiter walk it through a hot kitchen.
 
The New-York (NY) Daily Tribune published on September 16, 1859:
 
“There are those who hold that canvas-back ducks are sufficiently cooked by being carried through a hot kitchen on their way to the dinner table.”
 
     
Food-FAQ.com
How long do i cook fish for?
(...)
I hear the best way to cook fish is. Put the fish on a plate and enjoy a slow waiter walk through a hot kitchen. That process don’t over cook fish.
 
Chronicling America
16 September 1859, New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, “New Style of Financial Cookery,” pg. 4, col. 4:
There are those who hold that canvas-back ducks are sufficiently cooked by being carried through a hot kitchen on their way to the dinner table.
 
31 May 1875, Quincy (IL) Whig and Republican, “Meat” (New York Times), pg. 2, col. 3:
if cooked, except by being slowly carried through a hot kitchen, as some epicures like their beef and game, it is very much consumed by the process, and it is therefore unprofitable as well as unhealthy.
 
Google Books
Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery
London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Company
1883
Pp. 1125-1126 (Wild Ducks):
It is often said that a wild duck should be allowed only to fly through a hot kitchen bofore it is sent to table; and though this is scarcely the case, still lthe bird is considered to be in perfection only when it is crisp and brown on the surface, and so much underdone tht the gravy flows into the fish when it is cut.
 
Google Books
October 1903, The Boston Cooking-School Magazine, “For Cooking Game” by Mrs. E. M. Lucas, pg. 164:
The old axiom, “Dress your duck, and allow a slow cook to walk through a hot kitchen with it,” gives the idea it is intended to do, that a duck well done is a duck spoiled.
 
Chronicling America
27 February 1913, Bemidji (MN) Daily Pioneer, “Underdone,” pg. 2, col. 6:
“Indeed, these fellows have an axiom that the best way to cook a snipe is:
 
“‘Let it fly once through a hot kitchen.’”
(Gustav Zorn of Bad Nauheim, studying American cooking.—ed.)
 
Yahoo! Answers (2007)
I heard the best way to cook fish is. Put the fish on a plate and have a slow waiter walk through a hot kitchen. That means don’t over cook fish.
Mister Bald
     
Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel
Chef shares seafood secrets
By Nancy J. Stohs of the Journal Sentinel June 21, 2011
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COMMENTS
GradyTheBadger - Jun 24, 2011 4:10 PM
You should never cook fish! Just give it to a slow waiter and have him walk it through a hot kitchen.
   
New York (NY) Times
Consider (Cooking) the Clam
By TAMAR ADLER DEC. 9, 2015
Clams, unlike oysters, do not go from delicious to terrible in a mistaken extra minute of cooking. (Still, I find a good rule in my correspondence with a South Carolinian gastronome on the subject of edible mollusks: ‘‘What’s the old joke?’’ he asked. ‘‘Best way to cook fish is to have a waiter put it on a tray and walk it very slowly through a hot kitchen.’’)