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w4ddl3d33 posted:i just got a trial shift as a prep cook next week, i've never worked in a professional kitchen in my life, i'm a recipe developer, what the gently caress do i do First, you're being paid for this 'trial shift' right? If not, don't do it. Assuming you are getting paid: Come in with an extremely "I'm here to learn" attitude, be confident but not arrogant, read the room as best you can and err on the side of being overly professional. Show respect to everyone including the dish pit people and front of house staff. Don't bother people who are in the middle of something if you can help it. Try to make sure you know the names of everyone you'll need to interact with during service because you won't want to be tapping people on the shoulder or trying to ask someone else what their name is. I would make it my goal to have positive interactions with the people around you above pretty much anything else. If someone takes a minute to show you something make sure you thank them. That's my advice basically but I've never worked in a super professional kitchen either.
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Oct 28, 2022 21:08
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Naelyan posted:If you have any specific questions I'm absolutely happy to attempt to answer them for you, I've bounced around and done everything from pubs to fine dining, artisanal pastry to production baking, to catering, to food styling to recipe development to kitchen build and systems consulting to now being in grocery. recipe development is actually a very odd side hustle for me - i work in the adult industry, i got asked to write for an adult lifestyle magazine, and because i'm very openly enthusiastic about home cooking i ended up being given a cooking column
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Oct 28, 2022 23:41
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Food porn?
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Oct 30, 2022 03:48
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Animal-Mother posted:Food porn? https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/carrot-662026.jpg
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Oct 30, 2022 03:58
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Animal-Mother posted:Food porn? close! anal friendly cooking
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Oct 30, 2022 21:56
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Soonmot posted:I want to believe you're joking, but I've dealt with customers before. There's an IHOP under construction near me. As soon as they bought the lot and the old place had been moved (it was an old, historical location) they put up "now hiring" signs. Months later it's barely more than a wooden frame, hiring signs still up. I can absolutely believe someone has tried to order pancakes there on an app or off something. After all if it's hiring it must have a crew to cook, right?
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Oct 30, 2022 23:31
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what should i wear to a trial shift as a prep cook? are there any blog posts/sites/exposés i should read beforehand?
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Nov 1, 2022 03:33
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w4ddl3d33 posted:what should i wear to a trial shift as a prep cook? are there any blog posts/sites/exposés i should read beforehand? Anything but chef whites, lol. I'd say work pants, non-slip shoes, a clean t-shirt, and an apron. You can always just ask them, too. If nothing else, it shows that you care and you're proactive about doing things right.
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Nov 1, 2022 05:05
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w4ddl3d33 posted:recipe development is actually a very odd side hustle for me - i work in the adult industry, i got asked to write for an adult lifestyle magazine, and because i'm very openly enthusiastic about home cooking i ended up being given a cooking column This is the best thing, I am so happy I asked. w4ddl3d33 posted:what should i wear to a trial shift as a prep cook? are there any blog posts/sites/exposés i should read beforehand? Clean and logo-free work pants/t-shirt, closed-toed shoes (nonslip if you have them). Make sure whatever you wear, you're ok with it getting a little dirty and needing a wash. If your hair is longer than a buzz cut, bring some kind of a hat, even a close-fitting ball cap is fine, just something to keep most of it from falling into food. Take off any hand jewelry. If you want to read something fun, Kitchen Confidential is a classic. If you want to hear honest and true things about what kitchens are like, honestly picking a random page in this thread and reading for a bit a few times is probably one of your best sources. Chef is a good movie to watch. It's not anything like the movie Waiting or The Hundred Foot Journey for 99% of people. If you're going in for prep, make sure you know basic culinary terms especially for cuts - slice vs dice vs brunoise vs julienne, what it means to roast something vs braise vs sear vs poach. Anything beyond that they should be able to teach you (anything you're uncertain about, just say "hey I just want to make sure I'm doing it your way, can you show me one/explain that in a little more detail") or show you, every place has their own ways of doing things a little bit differently. Do things how you're the most comfortable and safe, once you get the job will be when you want to start correcting things like how you hold your knife (you're holding it wrong, btw) or how to fine dice an onion. At that point you can ask coworkers or watch some youtube videos or whatever, but for now just go in comfortable and confident in the knowledge that you don't actually know a whole lot and that is completely ok, they're not expecting you to know everything, or even much of anything. Show that you're attentive, ask questions, make sure to clean your station as you work and after you're done, show that you can take constructive feedback, and once your shift is nearing its end offer to jump in the dish pit for a few minutes to help out if they need it (they'll tell you no but it'll sound real good to offer) and you're golden. Naelyan fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Nov 2, 2022 |
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Nov 2, 2022 01:32
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Excellent advice above, take heed. As former cook who got her start (and always helped out) in dish, let me also add: do not, never, ever, anywhere, just drop your knife off at (or God forbid, IN) the dishpit. If you have a dedicated dish person, ask what the protocol is. Many if not most places I've worked, if you used knives, mandolins, meat cutter blades, anything sharp: you wash that yourself. Every place I've worked: drop a knife into the sink? You're going home (maybe for good), even if you've worked there for years.
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Nov 2, 2022 02:08
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After many, many months of desperately needing just one more baker, we finally got one. And he's a really good guy, he works hard, he's learning our poo poo very quickly, and he has a ton of experience. So naturally, our pastry chef has already decided he doesn't like him and probably won't recommend that we keep him. 
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Nov 2, 2022 02:38
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Excellent advice above, take heed. Granted he was also a huge creeper who hit on every guy working there (including me), so they were looking for a reason to drop him, but still
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Nov 2, 2022 13:47
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A little known fact is you can also fire creeps for being creeps
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Nov 2, 2022 14:13
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evilpicard posted:A little known fact is you can also fire creeps for being creeps It's partly why I don't work there any more
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Nov 2, 2022 14:19
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evilpicard posted:A little known fact is you can also fire creeps for being creeps All of the creeps I have worked with got very good at knowing exactly how far they could go without crossing a line that even extremely lazy and conflict-averse management would be forced to deal with.
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Nov 2, 2022 14:36
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The staff in my current business were in literal disbelief that I would fire people for things like, among others, being an rear end in a top hat to their coworkers, or making female colleagues uncomfortable.
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Nov 2, 2022 14:37
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evilpicard posted:The staff in my current business were in literal disbelief that I would fire people for things like, among others, being an rear end in a top hat to their coworkers, or That is indeed, vanishingly rare. Hell, right now I’m pretty sure most places near me are desperate enough to hire Ted Kaczynski if he could get work release.
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Nov 2, 2022 14:45
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evilpicard posted:A little known fact is you can also fire creeps for being creeps Yeah but then you'd have to fill those shifts and it might be at overtime!!
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Nov 2, 2022 16:21
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OKAY I DID MY TRIAL SHIFT and it went alright? did not drop knives into the dishpit, remembered my culinary knife cuts, there were two slight issues - one was that the plain shirt i wore was brown and not black, the other was that nobody had let the duty manager know i was staging - but they were both slight miscommunications and it went as smoothly as i could've hoped
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Nov 2, 2022 20:20
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w4ddl3d33 posted:the plain shirt i wore was brown and not black you ABSOLUTE BUFFOON If their response to that is anything other than "oh poo poo yeah someone should have told you, our bad" then don't work in that kitchen.
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Nov 2, 2022 23:59
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How much did they pay you
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Nov 3, 2022 00:01
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droll posted:How much did they pay you i am not answering this lest i get laughed out of goons with spoons
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Nov 3, 2022 00:05
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Please don't work for free again. It's not just about you.
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Nov 3, 2022 00:09
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Nov 3, 2022 00:39
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Finally caved and started to watch The Bear the other night. It's fine. I actually didn't realize it was so funny; I'd gone in with the impression that it was a straight drama. All of the service industry tropes are a bit heavy-handed though. Maybe it's just that I haven't worked in kitchens in a while, but the level of tension seemed just a bit ridiculous, like maybe it's actually another comedic aspect of the series that they just told everyone to ham it up to 11. I've worked with some loving high-strung, anger-problem-havin'-rear end people, but I've never seen someone so consistently aggressive as Carmy, screamin' CORNER literally everywhere they walk and calling everyone in the restaurant Chef. It's compelling, though. Especially funny to see Matty Matheson in it as the only person who doesn't cook.
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Nov 3, 2022 01:00
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Is the calling everyone chef a normal thing in high class restaurants. I was front of house and the two higher class places I worked (not Michelin started or anything, but you were expected to recommend wine pairings and people dressed nice and if they drank the check for a table of 2 could quite easily hit 3 figures) those kitchens were small enough the chefs called each other by name.
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Nov 3, 2022 02:53
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It's a power thing that also serves a purpose as an acknowledgement. Relaxed kitchens you'll never hear "yes chef" except sarcastically, but you'll hear "heard" a lot.
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Nov 3, 2022 03:11
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cowboy
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It's in the same vein of vocal signals like "sharp!" when walking around with a knife, when things get busy it needs to be clear that messages are getting across. "Yes chef" signals "I heard you and I will chiffonade more basil as you've asked" and that way the sous chef doesn't throw a fit in 3 minutes when they need to garnish a fancy soup for a food critic or whatever stringless fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Nov 3, 2022 04:57
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I've said "corner" while walking alone in my apartment.
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Nov 3, 2022 05:27
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Skwirl posted:I've said "corner" while walking alone in my apartment. I was mostly bar side, so "behind" was the common refrain for us - and continues to this day, 15 years later out of sheer habit. I don't see calling "corner" constantly as being unrealistic, same for behind - as soon as you get knocked over once (or knock someone over), you build the habit pretty fast. It sucks running into someone, it really sucks running into someone when one of you is carrying a half dozen drinks that then get dropped and need to be remade.
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Nov 3, 2022 05:31
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It's hard to describe. I'm obviously not saying that these are kitchen habits I didn't have (I still say 'behind' a lot too in social situations) but the way it's presented on the show feels inauthentic to me, like it's almost a subtle in-joke when Carmen goes to sulk in the office and screams "BEHIND, CORNER, CORNER" on his way there.
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Nov 3, 2022 05:44
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Mostly front of the house, but Behind was our most common shout. Caliente, Sharp, Heard were all common, and Yes\Heard Chef only to exec\sous when they were particularly cranky.
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Nov 3, 2022 13:58
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Mister Speaker posted:It's hard to describe. I'm obviously not saying that these are kitchen habits I didn't have (I still say 'behind' a lot too in social situations) but the way it's presented on the show feels inauthentic to me, like it's almost a subtle in-joke when Carmen goes to sulk in the office and screams "BEHIND, CORNER, CORNER" on his way there. It's a TV show.
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Nov 3, 2022 18:51
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My first day, I called our production manager Chef and he said, "Thank you for using that word. But we do not say that word here. Some people get real weird about it, so we 86'd it years ago." Yesterday a rather annoying new kid asked me, "Whatcha makin', Chef?" I gave him a WWE-level dramatic glare and said sternly, "We do not use that word here." He was confused and a little frightened and left me alone for the rest of the day. We say pinche jefe all the loving time though.
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Nov 3, 2022 20:44
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i didn't get the job, but the only thing they had me do during that shift was chop lettuce, which begs the question: how the gently caress did i mess up chopping lettuce lol
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Nov 4, 2022 03:24
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By doing it for free
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Nov 4, 2022 03:27
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evilpicard posted:By doing it for free this might just be that i'm inexperienced, but i'm in the uk and i've never been paid for a trial shift in any industry, bar one time when i was trying to become a sign spinner and they gave me £10 for four hours. is this the norm in the food service industry? afaik the staff at the restaurant are all union members and are all paid a living wage too, but again, i've never been paid for a trial shift
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Nov 4, 2022 03:43
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It's a horrible practice that needs to end is illegal in many states, but loving lol at labor laws being enforced. If paying someone minimum wage for one shift to see if you want to hire them is too much of a financial burden on a restaurant than the restaurant is gonna fail anyways, or it's something they do so often that the vast majority of the people they use for it never had a shot at the job anyways.
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Nov 4, 2022 03:48
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w4ddl3d33 posted:i didn't get the job, but the only thing they had me do during that shift was chop lettuce, which begs the question: how the gently caress did i mess up chopping lettuce lol They don't really need another worker, they just used you in as a free extra hand because why not
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Nov 4, 2022 04:46
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w4ddl3d33 posted:bar one time when i was trying to become a sign spinner and they gave me £10 for four hours. I feel you though, hospitality is full of prick managers and owners who think nothing of tricking people to work for free covering a shift
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Nov 4, 2022 05:01
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