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I'm in a similar situation i.e. I work as a waiter/dishwasher at a small place but want into the kitchen. The current chef loves me and I get to help him doing grunt work from time to time but it isn't enough to get any substantial experience and I'm still employed as a waiter. I'll be moving to a different city come autumn and I want to start in the kitchen but I feel like I lack the necessary experience. I'm picking up Larousse Gastronomique to learn some techniques but are there anything else I could do? TLDR: I work as a waiter but love working in the kitchen, how do I get there?
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Jul 19, 2013 19:09
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Boatswain posted:I'm in a similar situation i.e. I work as a waiter/dishwasher at a small place but want into the kitchen. The current chef loves me and I get to help him doing grunt work from time to time but it isn't enough to get any substantial experience and I'm still employed as a waiter. I'll be moving to a different city come autumn and I want to start in the kitchen but I feel like I lack the necessary experience. I'm picking up Larousse Gastronomique to learn some techniques but are there anything else I could do? For me, I ask a ton of questions. Borderline inquisitive toddler style but not to the point of annoying (I hope). My last evaluation had specifically "Is VERY eager to learn and would love to have him as a banquet cook". Any chance you get, be it cutting vegetables to helping plate hors dovures, ask. Just this week chef wanted me to work the outside grill station for a weekly event. Nothing special, I would be grilling NY strip and ribeye to order and general bullshitting with the guests. I asked about identifying cuts of meat, grilling techniques,ect. Turns out the grill was broken so we had to cancel. Still lead to me getting to help out in the kitchen and when I volunteered to cover for the MIA dishwasher. Do your research. I cooked in the Navy, so I know my way around the kitchen and BASIC (in the loosest sense) culinary techniques. Look up a random recipe and make it on your day off. Watch an episode of good eats every now and then, google stuff.
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Jul 19, 2013 20:06
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Boatswain posted:I'm in a similar situation i.e. I work as a waiter/dishwasher at a small place but want into the kitchen. The current chef loves me and I get to help him doing grunt work from time to time but it isn't enough to get any substantial experience and I'm still employed as a waiter. I'll be moving to a different city come autumn and I want to start in the kitchen but I feel like I lack the necessary experience. I'm picking up Larousse Gastronomique to learn some techniques but are there anything else I could do? See if you can pick up some shifts as a prep cook. If you've got basic knife skills (practice at home) and can show up, follow directions, and work hard, it shouldn't be too hard to swing it into line cooking up the road. That said, be aware you'll probably lose a significant amount of pay going FOH to BOH due to not taking tips.
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Jul 19, 2013 23:06
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Liquid Communism posted:See if you can pick up some shifts as a prep cook. If you've got basic knife skills (practice at home) and can show up, follow directions, and work hard, it shouldn't be too hard to swing it into line cooking up the road. I'm asking a whole bunch of questions (as I'm legitimately curious) and the times when I helped our chef (i.e. cutting poo poo for 12 hours straight) he loved me and said he needed me more. That said it seems my problem is that the restaurant I'm working at is too small for this kind of movement, and we usually only have one guy in the kitchen (except those times where I had to step in and help). I'll look for a bigger place with more opportunities when I move. Thanks to both of you for your advice.
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Jul 20, 2013 00:12
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Glad to help some. Got out late tonight, dishwasher broke down while I was a few loads short of being done. Thankfully my Navy days of having a similar machine on board helped, but I ghetto rigged it back together and finished. That and I had two hydroxicut, a percocet and a 24oz Monster in my system. After these last three days I have the utmost respect for the lowest rung on the culinary ladder. I always tried to help the dish guys out when I could, but didnt realize just how bad it could be. Something as simple as how a cook puts a dish in the pit matters, toss a saute pan at me like Im not even there ?! Ill resent your rear end. Scrape out as much as you can from a 4 inch hotel pan, bang that fucker a few times and place it neatly, Ill make sure you get it back drat near brand new.
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Jul 20, 2013 05:43
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Bro Nerd Alpha posted:Glad to help some. Got out late tonight, dishwasher broke down while I was a few loads short of being done. Thankfully my Navy days of having a similar machine on board helped, but I ghetto rigged it back together and finished. Having been both a dishy and a cook it always pays to look after the kitchen hand but not everyone is like that tbh and it can work the same the opposite way round. The kitchenhand I work with atm does nothing but dishes and never tells you when he is behind you so you go to turn around and he's under your feet once again. It bugs the poo poo out of me but theres nothing I can say or do because he's a co-owner of the restaurant. I just try and work around it and ignore how much it annoys me because I love the kitchen I'm in and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else at this point in time really
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Jul 20, 2013 08:41
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Liquid Communism posted:Cooking in NYC : Ask me about living in a van, down by the river. Serving in NYC: ask me about my other penthouse
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Jul 20, 2013 11:00
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Longtiem posted:Serving in NYC: ask me about my other penthouse Is the difference really that big?
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Jul 20, 2013 11:06
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Boatswain posted:Is the difference really that big? it would be if we didn't spend it all on blow and strippers
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Jul 20, 2013 11:13
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Willie Tomg posted:At my last job the owner insisted on an open door to the outside next to the kitchen entrance because why not? The lack of fans and airflow in the space does not make the kitchen any cooler while simultaneously allowing flies and other insects into our area where we're prepping and serving raw seafood. It's a win win! Thats an amazing story.
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Jul 20, 2013 11:15
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:The kitchenhand I work with atm does nothing but dishes and never tells you when he is behind you so you go to turn around and he's under your feet once again. It bugs the poo poo out of me but theres nothing I can say or do because he's a co-owner of the restaurant. This is insane. That's not a "this bugs me" kind of a thing, that's a "hey there, one of these days someone's going to burn you with a hot pan or stick you in the kidney with a knife" thing. Seriously, elbow him in the jaw or something some day so that maybe he'll get the idea that what he's doing could seriously injure himself or someone else, before someone does get hurt. Unless it's a slow kitchen with a huge line or something, I can't believe no one's ever hit him with an elbow or a plate of food or something already.
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Jul 20, 2013 12:15
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Naelyan posted:This is insane. That's not a "this bugs me" kind of a thing, that's a "hey there, one of these days someone's going to burn you with a hot pan or stick you in the kidney with a knife" thing. Seriously, elbow him in the jaw or something some day so that maybe he'll get the idea that what he's doing could seriously injure himself or someone else, before someone does get hurt. Unless it's a slow kitchen with a huge line or something, I can't believe no one's ever hit him with an elbow or a plate of food or something already. Trust me he's been hit more times than you can believe but what do you expect out of a 60 year old diabetic who goes hypo at least once a day. Tonights service was butt hosed by his slowness and I think from now on he won't be doing any more double shifts because he simply cannot handle them that well. It doesn't help that the kitchen isn't ideally layed out with the narrow end containing both the dish section and also cold larder/deserts and all the free space to prep when it's not entirely pumping. I have a feeling that the head chef wants to switch the kitchen around so that all the cooking is done in the narrow part and the dishes will end up in the wide part of the kitchen which'd make things flow a huge amount more easily.
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Jul 20, 2013 15:20
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The first thing, FIRST thing I learned and had drilled into me when I walked into the kitchen on my first day as a busser, was that you always firmly and clearly said "BEHIND" if you were carrying so much as a paper cup with a pretzel in it while moving past the cooks and other back area staff. I can't understand why someone would keep slacking on that, all it takes is one stack of metal pans covered in grease so hot it could melt lead to ruin someone's day and create a liability suit big enough to shut down every restaurant in a mile radius.
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Jul 20, 2013 18:14
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rndmnmbr posted:"A backbreaking physical labor job in terrible conditions with piss poor pay, benefits, and job security, plus a terrible cocaine/heroin habit, and occasionally getting to score with waitresses? I have an erection already!" Every time this thread reboots I like to point out that anyone who can last in a kitchen should be able to hack it as a stagehand and even the most grunt and skilless work will usually pay like $12-15 an hour in or around big cities. It is a really flexible job and would mesh well with kitchen stuff time-wise and will give you a whole nother peer group of shady motherfuckers to complain with, try to nail, and buy drugs from.
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Jul 20, 2013 20:12
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bunnielab posted:Every time this thread reboots I like to point out that anyone who can last in a kitchen should be able to hack it as a stagehand and even the most grunt and skilless work will usually pay like $12-15 an hour in or around big cities. It is a really flexible job and would mesh well with kitchen stuff time-wise and will give you a whole nother peer group of shady motherfuckers to complain with, try to nail, and buy drugs from. It's incredibly transferrable, and if pro cooks made themselves as effective in every part of their life as they are at cooking they'd rule the world. Of course, most of them are drunk the rest of the time, so unlikely.
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Jul 20, 2013 21:13
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No Wave posted:Instead, it's just about executing a series of discrete tasks as quickly and as effectively as possible while resetting your station back to its normal state. Cooking is just the execution of a series of tasks - you're not looking for new ways to do things, just to do things that you already know how to do. Speak for yourself, half of my responsibilities are recipe and cost refinement. The actual prep -> cook -> serve is brainless work for the most part that I can manage hungover and on 3 hours of sleep. I need to be awake and alert before I can do my actual job around here.
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Jul 20, 2013 21:38
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:Having been both a dishy and a cook it always pays to look after the kitchen hand but not everyone is like that tbh and it can work the same the opposite way round. The kitchenhand I work with atm does nothing but dishes and never tells you when he is behind you so you go to turn around and he's under your feet once again. It bugs the poo poo out of me but theres nothing I can say or do because he's a co-owner of the restaurant. I just try and work around it and ignore how much it annoys me because I love the kitchen I'm in and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else at this point in time really Why on earth would you co-own a restaurant and work as a dishwasher? Especially if the guy's health is bad. Can't he expo? or wander around the FOH schmoozing? Unless you work in New Orleans and this guy's name begins with W, that's a really bizarre situation.
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Jul 20, 2013 22:45
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Speak for yourself, half of my responsibilities are recipe and cost refinement. The actual prep -> cook -> serve is brainless work for the most part that I can manage hungover and on 3 hours of sleep. I need to be awake and alert before I can do my actual job around here.
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Jul 20, 2013 22:49
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No Wave posted:Instead, it's just about executing a series of discrete tasks as quickly and as effectively as possible while resetting your station back to its normal state. Cooking is just the execution of a series of tasks - you're not looking for new ways to do things, just to do things that you already know how to do. This translates very well to working as an auto mechanic as well. And in both jobs, I am almost always looking for the best way to mesh all the actions of a task, and then the best mesh of tasks, for greatest efficiency. I went caterer -> baker -> short order -> mechanic, and they're all the same job from a certain perspective (although as a mechanic the urge to lick my fingers is greatly diminished  ).Integrated task scheduling and the ubiquitous on-the-fly adjustment might be my favorite part of each gig. It's definitely the most satisfying part.
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Jul 20, 2013 23:06
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No Wave posted:Right, sorry - I didn't mean it offensively or anything, I was just talking about cooking. All I meant was that cooks are pretty much better than anyone at getting poo poo done and that those skills of organization are actual skills that are applicable to other task-oriented professions. Nah, it's fine. I just find issue with the line cook mentality. I'd like to think that that died a good 5-10 years ago. Now, more people are responsible for what they produce, and how they make it. Or maybe that's just what it's like where I work. ( Willie Tomg works here now too, and he can attest to this now!( Or maybe I'm too hungover at work everyday)) Splizwarf posted:Integrated task scheduling and the ubiquitous on-the-fly adjustment might be my favorite part of each gig. It's definitely the most satisfying part. I love it as hard as I do this Knob Creek Rye. Okay, maybe not as much, but really close. Chef De Cuisinart fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 02:33
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Boatswain posted:Is the difference really that big? I have a friend working as a server in (albeit one of the hottest places right now) Manhattan and he is literally going to make 100k. One hundred thousand dollars.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:39
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So, I think I was born to work on a food truck. After years of sweating it out in line jobs, prep jobs, and a banquet/line/prep job that got me hooked on amphetamines for a few years (I'm off and have the weight gain to prove it), I'm making authentic Mexican food with a highly-motivated accomplice. The truck is owned by a savvy businessman who demands nothing but high quality food and at least some kind of profit from his businesses, and my buddy has the work ethic of a Wehrmacht artillery horse. Instead of throwing together hotel gruel for alumni and basketball teams, I'm bouncing ideas off of another cook, making great food from scratch, and serving it outdoors to all kinds of different people. I'm finding that I enjoy selling our food almost as much as making it. Coaxing a gringo into trying their first tamal, then having them immediately buy ten more to take home is so much more rewarding than getting tickets full of snowflake alterations to carefully-devised specials at restaurant jobs. It's tiring, though. We work on the second floor of a bakery, so the kitchen gets about as hot as the shady side of Rigel when I'm dry-roasting tomatillos, and getting people straight-up calling us idiots for not serving crunchy beef wrap supremes gets me pretty twitchy, but it's all worth it when I can for once express to the customer just how much love and effort I put into the food, and having their eyes light up with the same enthusiasm. I realize that serving is not an ideal job; You'd probably see me on the news running around butt-naked with a machete after a few weeks of that. But man, being able to tell the customer straight to their face each little process and ingredient, and oh man trust me, it's great has undone years of stress from "the customer sent this back. They didn't want it." "Well is it something I can fi- hey, get back here." Sorry to sound like kind of a doofus, but man, it's nice to be happy and working in a kitchen for once in my life. I've been doing this since I was 16, and it's just the first time I've ever felt optimistic about career prospects. EDIT: Also, sorry Turkey, for not PMing you. We actually had a long talk about over-producing the other day, and he finally agreed with me. Today, we managed to sell out of everything at just the right moments, with just a few containers of rice and some jamaica left in a pitcher. It was nice to see him go from his lately-sleep-deprived mopiness to straight-up jubilant after we unloaded nothing but dirty dishes from the truck, and only having sent away two customers who were dead-set on having tacos. Plan Z fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 03:49
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Turkeybone posted:I have a friend working as a server in (albeit one of the hottest places right now) Manhattan and he is literally going to make 100k. One hundred thousand dollars. ...I should try sneaking my way into doing server stuff if I manage to get hired at an upscale place next.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:50
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my favourite was asking the kids who had their first taste of the restaurant industry as 13-14 year old dishwashers (in a really panicked voice) to rush out to the bar to retrieve the "banana peeler" during a rush. never failed me once 
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Jul 21, 2013 04:35
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SilvergunSuperman posted:my favourite was asking the kids who had their first taste of the restaurant industry as 13-14 year old dishwashers (in a really panicked voice) to rush out to the bar to retrieve the "banana peeler" during a rush. I always did the "corkscrew sharpener." It's a bit more well-known of a prank, so you can sometimes get the kid passed along a lot. I think we set the record one time with one dishwasher. He asked our sister restaurant upstairs, who sent him to another and eventually another. It worked to the point where he was about two blocks down at a Chilis before he gave up. He got a free meal and we helped him finish out his dishes, because he seemed genuinely frazzled by the whole thing. He turned out to be a pretty good line cook when he got bumped up.
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Jul 21, 2013 04:43
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bacon stretcher, bucket of steam, left handed blueberry peeler.. Also a story about some guy having to bring a fish to a restaurant, who sends him to another, to another, then another.. so he's out five hours with some stank fish in his hands. Also, my friend worked pretty hard to get to where he is, he's no fluke or gently caress-up for sure. Culinary school, bachelor's in hotel management, worked as a manager in NYC for about 5 years -- basically it was the owner, owner's nephew, and him, so he pretty much hit the top. Then he left that place, took this current job, and doubled his salary. There went his plans for Harvard Business School. 
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Jul 21, 2013 05:09
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Always ask new hostesses to run across the parking lot to the next restaurant and get "Ice Mix" because the ice machine is running low. Never failed.
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Jul 21, 2013 08:16
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Waking up a little tipsy from last night and stumbling out the door to work is like one of my least favorite things.
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Jul 21, 2013 12:09
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The joke around the kitchen was that I did my best work hungover; I think it was because I was always moving so as not to notice the room spinning.
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Jul 21, 2013 12:32
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Black August posted:The first thing, FIRST thing I learned and had drilled into me when I walked into the kitchen on my first day as a busser, was that you always firmly and clearly said "BEHIND" if you were carrying so much as a paper cup with a pretzel in it while moving past the cooks and other back area staff. I can't understand why someone would keep slacking on that, all it takes is one stack of metal pans covered in grease so hot it could melt lead to ruin someone's day and create a liability suit big enough to shut down every restaurant in a mile radius. Wroughtirony posted:Why on earth would you co-own a restaurant and work as a dishwasher? Especially if the guy's health is bad. Can't he expo? or wander around the FOH schmoozing? I learnt that one the hard way Black August. I had a chef when I was a dishy threaten to debone me with a full explanation and then he was going to fold up my skin to cook me in the dishwasher. All I did that was wrong was walk past with knives and not say BEHIND Knives rather than just behind. The way this kitchen works wrought is that my head chef owns the place with both of his parents. The business is partly his inherintance but it was also a way of keeping his parents in work when the global financial crisis hit Australia which was more of a ripple than a crash. He hadn't worked in a kitchen before they bought the business so even 18 months down the track he's behind the 8 ball in a major way. His wife acts as the matre de so FOH probably wouldn't work all that well for him tbh. Today was a very nice change though as he didn't work and because we where quiet the apprentice wasn't on so the kitchen was a much much calmer place and instead of just prepping all day I got to do service and get my prep done on the side. There's only really one other kitchen in my area that would push my technical cooking more which is why I won't move. The closest places that would push me are all in Sydney and there's no way I'm moving back down there and living on a kitchen hands wage or even a chef's wage. If I ever do move back it'll be as a high school teacher which is what I'll be qualified in by the end of the year.
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Jul 21, 2013 14:04
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Turkeybone posted:The joke around the kitchen was that I did my best work hungover; I think it was because I was always moving so as not to notice the room spinning. I just generally try to keep moving so I don't fall asleep.
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Jul 21, 2013 15:33
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:I learnt that one the hard way Black August. I had a chef when I was a dishy threaten to debone me with a full explanation and then he was going to fold up my skin to cook me in the dishwasher. All I did that was wrong was walk past with knives and not say BEHIND Knives rather than just behind. No offense but this is a pretty serious thing; I mean obviously he went over the top so you would never forget  , but I always would make sure to denote when I was behind vs hot behind vs behind sharp. In three different languages. Also, it would take awhile for people to realize that when I say behind, I mean DONT MOVE. If I say something like "coming down," it's like because I'm holding a giant loving stockpot and I am going to run you the gently caress over. We had one loving kid in our kitchen who just couldnt understand that knives were dangerous, apparently. One went in a sink and hosed up a dishwasher when he was collecting stuff to wash, and I have a fun story that I've told before and I'll write again sometime about how I got three stitches in the "flap" between thumb and pointer, but could have easily gone into my loving chest. Same loving kid, 
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Jul 21, 2013 20:56
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Turkeybone posted:Also, it would take awhile for people to realize that when I say behind, I mean DONT MOVE. If I say something like "coming down," it's like because I'm holding a giant loving stockpot and I am going to run you the gently caress over. People have the worst habit of thinking that "Behind" or "Behind giant boiling stockpot of doom" means "Turn around immediately with hands full of food/tools as quickly as possible and cross to the other side of the aisle".
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Jul 21, 2013 23:15
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:People have the worst habit of thinking that "Behind" or "Behind giant boiling stockpot of doom" means "Turn around immediately with hands full of food/tools as quickly as possible and cross to the other side of the aisle". Four bakers in a tiny bakery has taught me that "Behind" means "Freeze on pain of maiming". I usually have the place to myself, but come Christmas my overnights start lapping over to help out the day folks, and the sheer amount of hot pans, boiling sugar, and other wonderful things that you can get hit with is amazing.
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Jul 22, 2013 00:02
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:I learnt that one the hard way Black August. I had a chef when I was a dishy threaten to debone me with a full explanation and then he was going to fold up my skin to cook me in the dishwasher. All I did that was wrong was walk past with knives and not say BEHIND Knives rather than just behind.
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Jul 22, 2013 01:21
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You guys really are like stagehands. I am so used to "behind", "hold", and "heads" that I yell them out in public all the time. Its kinda embarrassing at times.
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Jul 22, 2013 01:34
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You can tell the kitchen folk at school because they say "Corner!" around the blind corners in the buildings.
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Jul 22, 2013 01:59
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Turkeybone posted:You can tell the kitchen folk at school because they say "Corner!" around the blind corners in the buildings. I say "heard" all of the time when given commands in World of Tanks. One clan member said it was like watching Hell's Kitchen.
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Jul 22, 2013 02:23
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I did that when I played WoW seriously. I had half the guild replying with 'heard' so I could guarantee they heard whatever I said.
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Jul 22, 2013 02:25
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bunnielab posted:You guys really are like stagehands. And yeah, I use behind and corner a lot in public too which is dumb and embarrassing. I worked in theatre & film before I ever worked in a kitchen, so I also used points/hot points in the kitchen at first and people would ignore me.
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Jul 22, 2013 03:36
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