|
Thanks for the support, guys. The kindness of strangers means a lot to me right now. I'm all set in terms of basic needs- I don't want anyone to worry about that. Without going into detail, this divorce is not a surprise. We were married for five years and the problems started when we had only been married a few months. my ex had all the chances in the world to conquer his demons- support from family, friends and work. But he kept making decisions that hurt and endangered me, and last time I gave him an ultimatum that this last chance was really the LAST chance. He knew his most recent bad choice would end his marriage if/when I found out, he knew he had dozens of people who would love to help him stay on the right path, and he chose the wrong thing anyway. Leaving wasn't a hard decision because it was a decision I had already made. But since this is (nominally) not the "wrought drama" thread, let's talk about work! I got a whole day off the morning after I found out my marriage was over! Plus a lecture on how I was a "weak person" and shouldn't let some loser ex stop me from being the best restaurant manger I can be. How generous. The king of backhanded compliments, my boss demanded, "why do you waste your time crying for that loser? You are a perfectly fine woman and you can find someone else. You want to let this ruin your career?" This morning, I had to go in early because my assistant manager called in sick. Or rather, didn't show up at all, leaving the overnight manager to work a 16 hour shift as he had to wait for me to come in, since I turned off my phone to sleep. Also, they're bring back a former GM as an assistant manager. Fine, except he will almost definitely have a problem working under me, and female members of my staff have cited sexual harassment as a reason he left in the first place, and a reason they don't want him back. I figure I'll have a conversation along the lines of "hey there have been changes since you left, so if you see something being done differently than you'd like please come to me before you talk to the staff- there are plenty of things you can help me with, but some of the changes are things I have changed for a reason, so it's important that we give the staff a consistent message about who is in charge." At least I'm never bored.
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2013 05:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:53 |
|
|
Ugh.. whenever someone takes a demotion, ESPECIALLY at the same place, it never ends up well. There's always these thoughts of "I'm gonna get my old job back! Let's see I can either.. be even more awesome than I was before, work hard, eat my metamucil, or.... throw my boss under the bus!!" My GM friend now has an AGM who used to own a restaurant, so he's dead set on keeping all his little quirks and pain in the rear end poo poo. He can't get simple lists of stuff done, he's maybe late 40s early 50s but still hilariously spends like 20-30m trying to find files on a computer (my dad texts and forwards emails from his iPhone, and he's loving 70), and just can't get poo poo done. BUT he's there, he is a breathing soul, and can at least hold down the fort while GM is gone. It's that lovely case that Danny Meyer rightly maligns in his book: too lovely to promote, but too good to fire. Turkeybone fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Sep 6, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2013 09:11
|
|
|
To be fair, Wrought, you also knew when you chose your career path that we all in some way or another end up broken people. To jump on the support band wagon, first the first time in a long while, somebody asked me out! PM me me the name of your place and I'll try to steer the date venue your way.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2013 11:46
|
|
|
Wroughtirony posted:At least I'm never bored. If you ever feel the need to vent about your personal stuff, e/n could always use more good threads.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2013 21:05
|
|
|
Tweek posted:To be fair, Wrought, you also knew when you chose your career path that we all in some way or another end up broken people. For the sake of your possible new relationship, I won't. My place is... kind of strange and inconsistent. I've only been there two months and I have to fight an operations manager who keeps "fixing" all the improvements he hired me to make, a short staff and my poor chef is dealing with insane turnover, so even if you come when I'm there, do the secret handshake (what is the secret handshake?) and I get you a waiter who has been working for me for over a week, I can't guarantee a fantastic experience. Plus my place is a little downscale for a first date. We're more of a "where can we all get fed that has something for everyone on the menu" joint than a romantic dinner spot. I won't/can't do an e/n thread because there are legal and military matters involved. Like I said, I'm well taken care of and I have the resources I need. I mention it here not because I like drama or need help, just because it's a thing that happened and you guys are part of my "community" I guess. Not mentioning getting divorced would seem like keeping a secret, if that makes any sense. Dry cleaning is expensive. It used to be that I wore an easily washable uniform for work and loved to dress up and wear makeup on my days off, but now I find myself looking forward to a whole day of wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and not giving a drat about my complexion.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2013 04:07
|
|
|
Not being able to wear makeup or paint my nail ever was one of the reasons I quite the industry and sort of became an au pair. Well, that and the stimulant addiction and self-loathing. I swear, though. Every time I see you lament you're being short staffed I immediately shout in my head, "Oh Wrought! I'm free and a kick-rear end restaurant worker." Then I have to say, "No, Tweek. Remember why you left: Saturdays." I have super long nails now for the first time ever. Very pretty, but I am so about to rage rip them out; every time I go to grab a pinch of salt it gets all stuck up under there. Date Sunday then I file the fuckers down. As far as secret handshakes go, every time I go to a restaurant I say, "Table for two. No smoking. Do you have stairs in your house?" Nothing but queer looks thus far, but one day...
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2013 04:45
|
|
|
gently caress, I should've used that on Garregus. Good idea.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 03:57
|
|
|
Chef De Cuisinart posted:
Who wrapped that third pan? The more I look at this picture the more disturbed I am.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 06:33
|
|
|
infiniteguest posted:Who wrapped that third pan? We keep the linguini wrapped until there's an order, since it's hardly ever ordered. As for everything else, that used to be a steam well that we fill with ice 3 times a day because this place is too drat cheap to just put in a fridge =/
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
To be fair, ice is pretty loving cheap.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 16:13
|
|
|
We turn 4-5mil profit a year, we can afford a new line. They just don't want to close the restaurant for a week.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
Chef De Cuisinart posted:We turn 4-5mil profit a year, we can afford a new line. They just don't want to close the restaurant for a week. You know, at that level of profit, I'd be hard pressed to close the place for a week too, until something major like a new hood needed to go in.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 18:16
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:You know, at that level of profit, I'd be hard pressed to close the place for a week too, until something major like a new hood needed to go in. Most of that comes from banquets, the restaurant has a line to itself, and there's a deadline we could use in theory for a week or so, and another kitchen upstairs that hasn't been used in at least a decade. I honestly have no idea why this place has 5 kitchens total, with only 350 rooms and banquet space for 1500. But the restaurant makes something like 400k a year, we can easily take a 10-15k hit on a slow week for some upgrades, which could come out of capital.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 18:39
|
|
|
Yeah, why don't the cooks offer to take a pay cut this year to pay for it? Profit or not, it's always like squeezing blood from a stone sometimes. At my last restaurant, well, we were a Belgian beer place. Diverse crowd, lots of college folk. Everyone orders fries. Fries and mayo. Steak frites was huge.. more fries. I would wager we sold at least 1,000 pounds a week. So, what was the backbone of this fry empire for more than 5 years? Two dinky loving tabletop fryers. Professional, but tabletop. Both could be filled with one standard fry-oil jug-in-box. One of them was particularly finnicky -- really had minimal heat control, pilot always went out (during service), a couple strange fires, bitches to clean, etc. And like no loving capacity. The grill could would have to spend most of his day blanching fries for service, it was a constant task in addition to everything else. Well finally, FINALLY, by the grace of God or Dr. Fryvorkian, one of those fuckers finally bubbled its last bubble. Then after about two weeks of EVEN WORSE fry life (only one fryer and getting a pot of oil for blanching), they finally arrvied: the wonder twins. Two 3.5' tall fryers, not these dinky 18" things we had before. They had proper oil reservoirs, big loving baskets, and a lot of power. Fries instantly went from the biggest pain in the rear end, scream induced, brick-making GBS threads, bottlenecking task in the whole kitchen, to really no big loving deal at all. Capacity quadrupled. We were some comfortable with our fry throughput now, we would even have other fried foods and such on the menu, which we never had before! Oysters, clams; the potato crusted cod that always was a pain to pan fry on the saute station became a cinch for the grill guy -- and the fish came out more beautiful and delicious than ever. So why didn't we do that poo poo in the first place? Even though we were profitable? And fries were such a lynchpin and equally such a bottleneck? Perhaps it was  , or maybe  . But really I think it was pride from the one owner who was also the brewmaster and resident handyman. He was a great guy, just really intense while working. I respect him totally, and understand the reasons for his ire, because he never had much time to give, so if he had to waste it on "stupid poo poo" like something we broke or THAT MOTHERFUCKING FRYER AGAIN???, he let everyone know. I mean, he must've changed that thermostat 20 times. But he'd still rather fix it than by new ones.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 10:49
|
|
|
Turkeybone posted:Yeah, why don't the cooks offer to take a pay cut this year to pay for it? Profit or not, it's always like squeezing blood from a stone sometimes. We wouldn't actually have to close the restaurant. There's an entire unused line that has 12 burners, 2 ovens, a grill, and a flat top. Which is ironically better designed than the current line because the fryers are actually on it, and not a 5sec walk away from grill/sauté. I'd use that dead line in a heartbeat if it actually had room for cold prep.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 11:54
|
|
|
Alright, let's talk kitchen tattoos! They don't necessarily have to be "porkfat" on the inside of your lip, but let's see some tattoos that we psychos put on our bodies (I'm actually going to a shop today to consult about my first  ).
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 14:02
|
|
|
Turkeybone posted:Alright, let's talk kitchen tattoos! They don't necessarily have to be "porkfat" on the inside of your lip, but let's see some tattoos that we psychos put on our bodies (I'm actually going to a shop today to consult about my first My old boss had an awesome burn scar - probably 3 1/2 inches long - on the fleshy side of his lower left arm that sorta in a cloud-scape kinda way looked a bit like a duck and some blob with legs. He had the outline of a duck chasing a pig tattooed around it. I think I have a pic of it somewhere, I'll look.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 14:20
|
|
|
Back in the early nineties, I got a tattoo made that I found in a cookbook. It was a Hell's Angels owned shop, I learned later. I also heard a story years later from the same shop about this young guy who got a tattoo from a loving cookbook. The idea remained too weird for them. And no, that greenish piece of ink deserves to be forgotten and the motive unmentioned.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 16:04
|
|
|
Dane posted:My old boss had an awesome burn scar - probably 3 1/2 inches long - on the fleshy side of his lower left arm that sorta in a cloud-scape kinda way looked a bit like a duck and some blob with legs. He had the outline of a duck chasing a pig tattooed around it. I think I have a pic of it somewhere, I'll look. Haha that's interesting -- I just had a first brainstorming with an artist just now, so hopefully I can contribute in a few weeks. That being said I do have some gnarly scar tissue on my other shoulder, so that could be a fun muse later on.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
Turkeybone posted:Alright, let's talk kitchen tattoos! They don't necessarily have to be "porkfat" on the inside of your lip, but let's see some tattoos that we psychos put on our bodies (I'm actually going to a shop today to consult about my first My brother, who is still in the industry, has a knife up his left calf. Me, I'm planning on getting a stylized 1 (possible with a chef knife as the base) on my forerm on my one year anniversary of being done treatment.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 17:59
|
|
|
Turkeybone posted:Alright, let's talk kitchen tattoos! They don't necessarily have to be "porkfat" on the inside of your lip, but let's see some tattoos that we psychos put on our bodies (I'm actually going to a shop today to consult about my first M I S E written across your knuckles is always a good choice.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
And "true" on your other hand. Nothing beats bartender tats, since they either have to be discreet or else inspire confidence that you should not gently caress with someone who has no fear of being on the inside.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 20:20
|
|
|
Worked all three days at the restaurant during Raleigh's annual music festival, Hopscotch, and made around 400 tacos during those three days. That is approximately 398 more tacos than I have ever made in a restaurant before. They were our best seller by far and are good enough they are probably going to go on the regular menu. They were a Korean pork taco that had pork in a korean bbq/chipolte glaze, pickled onions, pickled bok choy, jimica with lime juice and some spices I forget and greens and cilantro. We did almost 1000 people in those three days which is a lot for us.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 20:53
|
|
|
Oh, god. Had 30 shiny new students from the local culinary school in earlier. Cue chef talking them around while I try to finish cheesecakes in a 1500 square foot room. They're adorable. One asked why so many cooks have knee problems.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 21:53
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:They're adorable. One asked why so many cooks have knee problems. Gotta get that promotion somehow! 
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2013 22:54
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:They're adorable. One asked why so many cooks have knee problems. Last batch of school kids I had in a kitchen, they were in their second year. One of them saw me making caramel, and went all "  YOU CAN MAKE CARAMEL?!" In his second year. Yeah, man, it's loving cooked sugar.And then we showed them how to make stock for the first time. loving schools, man.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 00:39
|
|
|
Naelyan posted:Last batch of school kids I had in a kitchen, they were in their second year. One of them saw me making caramel, and went all " Let me guess. Former cops or accountants or desk-jockies who decided mid-career they wanted, "a change of pace"? Back in culinary school we called those people, "The folks who subsidize our tuition". Most of them dropped out before reaching the half-way mark.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 03:51
|
|
|
I've always wanted to get a semi-traditional "man's ruin" tattoo with the pinup in the cocktail glass, but she's holding a chef knife and she's well dressed. At the bottom of the glass above the banner are my favorite hold'em hole cards. :-) I've made money slinging cards, drinks and food, so I figure I'm entitled.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 04:10
|
|
|
Hi Guys, I haven't posted in here in a while. Looking for some advice, i've been cooking in Paris for the last 6 years and i'm considering making a move to Toronto. If there is any Canadian cooks on here that that could give me some advice it would be greatly appreciated. Obviously I could google "chef job market in toronto" etc. but I guess advice from real people working in the industry would be much better. I might also buy you some beer if I eventually make it there so please help!
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 17:06
|
|
|
Tweek posted:Let me guess. Former cops or accountants or desk-jockies who decided mid-career they wanted, "a change of pace"? No, I've had my fair share of encounters with those people too, but this particular group was all younger kids who entered culinary school right out of high school. snolliemonsters posted:Hi Guys, I haven't posted in here in a while. Looking for some advice, i've been cooking in Paris for the last 6 years and i'm considering making a move to Toronto. If there is any Canadian cooks on here that that could give me some advice it would be greatly appreciated. Obviously I could google "chef job market in toronto" etc. but I guess advice from real people working in the industry would be much better. I might also buy you some beer if I eventually make it there so please help! I live about an hour away from Toronto and am often in the city to dine, to run catering events, or just to do random poo poo. Do you have any specific questions? The job market there is like anywhere else in the country, good if you have the experience and the skills necessary to be better than the next guy. It'll pay better than those horror stories you read about in this thread of people living in NYC (or to be honest, most of the U.S.), but Toronto is a drat expensive place to live and you're certainly not going to be making a ton of money working as a cook, even a sous or something. Livable, for sure, but you won't be buying any yachts or vacationing 3 times a year. There are definitely some good fine dining restaurants (and they're only getting more plentiful and better as time goes on) if that's your style, and an absolute TON of casual-fine restaurants/pubs/cafes where you can definitely be proud of what you're putting out or learn some management without having to deal with all of the fine dining poo poo. Toronto also has a pretty decent food truck scene and I personally know a few people who run one full time and easily live off of it. In Ontario, you make overtime if you work more than 44 hours a week on an hourly wage, I've worked salaried positions where anywhere from 45 to 70+ hours a week was expected of me. I understand France used to be all about 4 day workweeks and taking 2 hour breaks and poo poo, I think the culture has changed in that regard? and I have no idea what kind of hours you're used to working in the culinary industry, compared to the rest of the country. So yeah. Hit me up if you have any specific questions. If I don't know the answer myself I can probably fire off a text to someone that does know. PM me or email me at hanoskij@gmail.com. Naelyan fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Sep 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 20:32
|
|
|
Naelyan posted:No, I've had my fair share of encounters with those people too, but this particular group was all younger kids who entered culinary school right out of high school. Thanks for getting back to me! I'll write you a proper email in the week to ask some more questions. In the mean time I might as well answer some some stuff about working in Paris incase anyone else is interested. Seems quite a few things work differently over there than in France. Over here everybody is on salary (no one get's paid by the hour) and by law if you work in the food industry you are not allowed more than 41 hours per week which means you are never going to earn cent from working over time. That being said this is still the food industry and when your 41 hours is over and the work isn't done you pretty much have to suck it up, do it and not expect to get paid extra for it. I would say realistically I do between 50 and 60 hours a week as sous chef. I have heard some horror stories about the amount cooks get paid and the hours they working the US. What would a cook earn on average in Canada? In Paris as a commis you could expect anything from 1300 -1450 euros a month, as chef de partie 1450 - 1900 euros and sous chef 1900 - 2500 euros. These are all net amounts after your (not so) free health insurance, 5 weeks paid holiday, staff food, pension, transport etc. have been deducted. Anyway after 6 years i've had enough of this place and I want to go somewhere where they speak English and where I can buy decent bacon and cheddar cheese in the supermarket  If anyone has questions about working in Paris feel free to ask!
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2013 22:22
|
|
|
I just realised that I hand roll 250 * 48 = 12000 meatballs a year. I had to tell someone that. Have a nice day.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 00:55
|
|
|
I'm revamping how we ring in drinks in Aloha. Suggestions? Right now I'm thinkingcode:Thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 03:17
|
|
|
Unless you run a restaurant with startlingly good server loyalty (most of ours end up staying at least three years) you want something you can teach to a new group of idiots in a few seconds.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 03:38
|
|
|
Dunno how Aloha works, but MicrOS lets us automatically append a surcharge for adds and subs. So if someone orders a Manhattan but they want Bulleit, it adds 2.50 when you pick Bulleit. Is it possible for you to do that?
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 04:32
|
|
|
My place has a page with house drinks, plus standard martini, manhattan, and gimlet buttons which then prompts you for the liquor brand, and a second prompt with standard drink options like olives, dry, twist, on the rocks, up, etc There are separate category pages for vodka/ gin, whiskey/ bourbon/ scotch, tequila/ rum, and liqueurs which, when you press a brand, pops up the standard drink options, but it also includes a rocks pour for extra $. The is also a separate category page for standard named bar drinks like Long Islands, bloody Mary's, etc which are in alphabetical order and also pop up a brand prompt. This system works pretty well for making servers upsell because to get a gin and tonic you have to ask which kind of gin.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 04:55
|
|
|
In from vacation to find a legal letter on my desk. A cook brought up that he was upset that he worked a 14 hour shift without break, a long string of such incidents. While I was gone, they cut his full time hours to 20, which happened to be two 10 hour shifts without break. The last night we had three cooks call in, so he was doing the work of them. The rest of the cooks left the place a mess, and the manager clocked him out about two hours before he was done closing. He left a note calling the guys who left shitheads, so the manager fired him on the spot. He's never even had a writeup before. He's now suing for wrongful dismissal and pressing the department of labor, and head office doesn't see the problem with this despite my suggestion that we should probably either take him back or settle. Welcome back!
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 06:11
|
|
|
Chef De Cuisinart posted:Dunno how Aloha works, but MicrOS lets us automatically append a surcharge for adds and subs. Same idea in reverse; you can set your buttons by item and then modify, or have buttons for call drinks/liquors/apps and have modifiers pop up. If you have to train a lot, it's easier to say "ring the booze then the modifiers" than it is to say "what kind of drink/what liquor/how do they want it"? Essentially, think backwards from the steps of service, and you'll make fewer mistakes at the POS.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 06:26
|
|
|
King Chicken posted:In from vacation to find a legal letter on my desk. You know, I know it's your business, but I really hope the Dept. of Labor comes down on them like a ton of bricks. That poo poo is not acceptable. You do -not- mess with someone's clocked hours. If that manager was so worried about not billing overtime, they should have had their salaried rear end in that kitchen helping close. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Sep 12, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 13:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:53 |
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:You know, I know it's your business, but I really hope the Dept. of Labor comes down on them like a ton of bricks. That poo poo is not acceptable. Agreed. That manager should be written up, potentially suspended or fired himself.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 16:00
|
|
