Stuff vanishing from shelves is just how things go now, weird.

I've heard this same story from cooks in every city I've worked. Sometimes the chef doesn't know how to teach it either, they just know when something's wrong. Pork loin is tricky though, it dries out fast if you're not careful. Not saying the chef was right to just send it back, but kitchens are loud and fast and half the time nobody has a free minute to break down technique. Is it really a big deal though? Cooks move around so much anyway, you pick up stuff wherever you land.

Root flare stuff gets passed around like gospel but plenty of trees survive being planted a little deep. Nurseries sell trees in pots with buried flares all day long and most of them live. The girdled root thing is real though, that circle of roots never fixes itself once it starts choking the trunk. Honestly the bigger issue is Boise dirt and how much people water new trees, not a half inch of depth either way. Untangling roots by hand and cutting the worst circling ones with pruners is fine but it won't save a tree that's drowning or baking.