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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThhfLvR4Wo8 Every time WroughtIrony gets a new job, an angel gets a new thread. Welcome to the Goons With Spoons Industry Thread! This thread is for those of us who work in the restaurant industry to talk shop and discuss industry related topics, and also for newbies who are seeking advice on how to start a culinary career. Front of house, back of house, big chain or level seven vegan brasserie, all are welcome so long as it's interesting. Anyone is welcome to post, as long as the thread rules are followed. Thread Rules *Keep it civil. Bluntness is fine, personal attacks are not. *Please read the OP before posting for the first time, it contains a useful FAQ *Front of House vs. Back of House mudslinging, dick-measuring and hostility is prohibited in this thread. It's not cute and it helps no one. *This is a newbie-friendly thread. That means only that nobody will be ridiculed for not knowing something. Willful ignorance is not protected under this rule. Touchy Subjects *Tipping. Tipping discussion must be fact-based and industry-related. For example; “Is it normal for me to have to tip out 5% of my sales to the owner?” would be an appropriate discussion topic. We DO NOT discuss opinions about tipping. This is to prevent tipping derails which are always a pointless waste of time. Anything that skates even remotely close to perpetuating stereotypes about how different populations tip is completely unacceptable and will be brought to the immediate attention of the mods. *Kitchen Confidential This book is not a career guide. We've all read it, most of us liked it and virtually none of us behave that way. The professionalism issue is discussed in more detail in the FAQ. Check yourself before you post “facts” that come from this book. *Help, help! I'm being oppressed! We all have to start somewhere. There's nothing wrong with being super green and posting here. A lot of our regulars came here asking how to get a dishwashing gig. That said, a little humility goes a long way when you're starting out. Ranting about how your sous chef is a moron won't get you much sympathy, regardless of whether or not it's true. She's obviously doing something you're not, seeing as you're hauling trash until 2AM for min wage and she has a set schedule, benefits and a comma in her bank balance. The traditional kitchen is structured like a military unit. Dishwashing or low end prep is like boot camp. You have to kill your ego and learn to take orders or else you're useless. Unlike the military, a restaurant has no obligation or incentive to hold on to a willful, entitled private. Righteous indignation won't help your career. At best its a distraction, and at worse it will get you fired. What will help your career is to ask lots of questions and to keep an eye out for ways to do your job better, even if that job is peeling rutabagas or cleaning the grease trap. FAQ: I've never had a job in my life and I think I want to be a chef. What do I do? Well, the first thing you do is take a good hard look at your motivations for wanting to work in this industry. Is it because you like to watch Top Chef? Did you read Kitchen Confidential and think Bourdain's life sounded badass? Does everyone rave about your potato salad? If your reason is solely the result of media exposure and an enjoyment of cooking dinner for your family and friends, you might want to reevaluate. A lot of professional cooking is mindless assembly line work at an insane pace. Have you ever stood up for nine hours without sitting down once? Do you need your hands to get up from your knees? How's your work ethic? Bullshit tolerance? Ability to handle heat? The make-or-break qualities that separate those who make it from those who wash out rarely have to do with what we think of as the "culinary arts." We recommend one year as an entry-level cook/dishwasher/porter before anyone makes a hard decision about starting a career in this industry. You may be a hardass, but statistically, you'll wash out in weeks. And you know what? Deciding that you value free time, family, regular work hours, the respect of your peers, money, job security and benefits is a completely sane thing to do. A lot of us who have been ruined for anything other than restaurants probably wish we could go back in a time machine and finish college with a degree in finance. I've been working fifteen years as marketing director of Adidas. I'm ready for a change. How do I transition my skills to the restaurant industry? See above. Should I go to Culinary School? Well, personally I think it bought me about three to five years of basic experience in a kitchen. At no point will culinary school prevent you from having to prove yourself; there are just as many fuckups that come from school as do David Changs. If you need a quick jump on some experience, then maybe you should consider it. But seriously look into the program and the financing! Many, MANY schools are going to gently caress you over, are for-profit, etc. Community college is a cheap and great way to get some experience, especially if the school is respected. Most Le Cordon Bleu's are going to gently caress you over. Please don't go into serious debt for culinary school. I'm already a sucker who works in a restaurant.. when should I look for another job? When you don't feel challenged anymore. When you get panic attacks before service. When your paycheck bounces! NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS! Have at it. 
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Jul 17, 2013 23:33
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:49 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yvLEKQSBHc I'll start off with some kitchen antics. This was us having fun with chef testing some pizza crusts. I'm neither of these people.
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Jul 17, 2013 23:36
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My kitchen in Baltimore was "amazing." In hot weather it would be 20 degrees hotter than outside, and in the cold, 20 degrees colder! It felt like the walk-ins were broken in the winter, because they'd be warmer than the kitchen.
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Jul 18, 2013 00:29
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My buddy lives in Astoria (a suburb of NYC, basically Queens) for like $850 a month (with roommate). Granted, he makes $100,000 as a server... 
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Jul 18, 2013 03:07
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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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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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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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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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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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I was going to counter with pictures of people getting burned with fryer oil, but instead I read some articles about kids dying from turkey deep fryers. 
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Jul 22, 2013 04:58
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The Midniter posted:Wrought I think that has to be some sort of record for you. Congratulations! Time for a new thread? Haha, the only constant is change.
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Jul 22, 2013 18:44
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Wroughtirony posted:Nah, this is a promotion, not a new job. And it's probationary for 90 days. They haven't had a GM last that long all year. I think there have been 5 or 6 this year before me. I'm in restaurant management Thunderdome. I'm pretty sure the servers are taking bets on how long I'll last. So uh, what's so wrong about this place?
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Jul 22, 2013 21:22
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Vegetable Melange posted:Jobs I've been offered this month: I truly have no idea what you do currently anyway.
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Jul 23, 2013 00:32
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Haha even with loving long sleeves, I'd use the long-handled black steel pans which would go UP IN THE SLEEVES TO BURN ME. Xanthan gives a hot jism/boogery consistency which isn't always desired. I think more of the traditional starches should be fine. That being said, I would cheat sometimes on saute.. if a sauce was on the verge of breaking I would mix in a pinch of xanthan and viola! For my chili dog, we also engineered an unbreakable* cheese sauce that used xanthan, agar, velveeta, and cheddar. It was amazing.
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Jul 24, 2013 04:24
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Invisible Ted posted:
De leche.. it's latino, not french. I'm an rear end in a top hat.
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Jul 25, 2013 01:00
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bunnielab posted:I still dream of that dog. I never make it to Bmore much anymore sadly so I haven't been to BA in like a year and a half maybe. Dream on, brother. I haven't been at BA in a few years; the exec chef left a year after me, and so did the chili dog. RIP
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Jul 25, 2013 01:01
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Fun cuts more me include star tips and ice. Like.. ice.
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Jul 25, 2013 01:05
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The ice was actually more like a frozen piece of meat: I was trimming up a pork butt for carnitas and the inside I guess was still partially frozen and I actually drew blood on a little sliver of ice. I really didn't get too many cuts in the kitchen; I cut myself with a serrated knife cutting croissants for bread pudding like 13 years ago.. then pretty much a boring/dry spell. I've had a couple good mandoline cuts, and the one where the other kitchen gently caress booby trapped me and I had to get stitches. Burns? Like every loving day. I gave no fucks, and I never yelled out or said anything like a bitch.
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Jul 25, 2013 06:23
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We would always listen to Manu Chau when doing our weekly powerwashing. When this song would come on, we would all stop what we were doing and do this loving bizarre dance in unison which I can't even begin to describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZny1Zs8ypE
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Jul 26, 2013 00:41
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It's not that odd, "cold side" is a pretty typical setup for a restaurant that doesn't have a dedicated pastry person during service. Hope you enjoy getting DP'd; you'll get hit with desserts from the first turn and first courses from the second turn.
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Jul 27, 2013 06:53
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Why do you have to yell at them? Are they literally children?
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Jul 28, 2013 17:51
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I didn't mean for my comment to come off like that, I really wanted to know more details about this gig. I was asking more of "What is(are) the behavior(s) that would be cause for yelling?" not "HOW DARE YOU SPANK YOUR CHILDREN!" e: I will say my exec chef rarely yelled, it was more like a sports dad just tearing me down: "I'm 10 years older than you, why am I moving faster than you," "You need to get your poo poo together if you want to be in charge here," "I'm really embarrassed at how this kitchen is working," "how many times are you going to gently caress up risotto?" on and on. And it was never me in particular, just whoever managed to catch his eye/was going slowest. This was only when he came on the line to help out/expo.. he got flashbacks of San Fransisco in the 90s and would just go full rear end in a top hat. If anything, it made us work harder. On a concert night with just me and the grill cook on, I would start our pre-shift peptalk with "no matter what happens, chef is NOT coming back on THIS loving LINE TONIGHT!!!" City chat: What's wrong with Chicago? It seems like a great "2nd tier, if not 1st tier" food city? How would you even group the big food cities, anyway? In my mind it's like 1st tier: NYC, LA, SF, Chicago is somewhere inbetween here and the next level 2nd tier: Portland, Seattle, Philly, DC, again Chicago?? 3rd tier: Baltimore, Atlanta, um... Sacramento? I will be the first to say that it's really just familiarity that helps me categorize these, and not really and kind of "X is better than Y." Like, "There's tons of awesome places in NYC, there's a good number of places in DC, there's some interesting things in Baltimore, and New Jersey is a loving soulless cesspool." But please, I really have no idea where some cities belong. Like is Atlanta really this amazing food scene that I don't know a loving thing about? Where does Austin fit in? Please discuss. Turkeybone fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jul 29, 2013 |
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Jul 29, 2013 04:47
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So, if you didn't do a tasting, why was it a hard interview? What did he ask?
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Jul 31, 2013 18:02
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Word, it sounds like a reasonable behavioral interview. This is for some medium to large chain hotel (not that that is a bad thing)? Typically the interview stuff is standardized across franchises, if not the entire brand.
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Jul 31, 2013 18:24
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I really did enjoy running the line, that part was fun. When I was in the groove, I was off Tuesday-Wednesday. Thursday was pretty much just a prep day. Friday Saturday I would do prep and come on the line when it got busy, Sunday/Monday were chef's days off so I ran the show and prepped/worked saute. Sunday was supposed to be a whatever day, but it grew and grew and grew each week-- the catch-up day with skeleton crew and powerwashing, ugh it invariably ended up being the shittiest day, always. But Friday Saturday, we had all hands on deck, I would spend the early day on some big project (the poo poo that we can't afford to gently caress up, like gnocchi/seafood/giant batches of pickled stuff/sauces), then would help other stations get ready for service. We opened the bar at 4, the dining room at 5:30. Invariably I'd have to help saute mount sauces, or grill to make his bearnaise. If there was time, I loved being the little Red Bull gnome and sneaking off to the store down the road before service. It was really one of my favorite things to do. Half the time I even paid for them. Then we would get the reservation breakdown, and figure out when our lovely times were going to be. Then I'd do final checks on each station, go change my apron (and maybe jacket) and put on side towels like a bandolier and head in between the two stations. I became the air-traffic controller, calling out orders and putting tickets in front of each station (arm's length away). The grill was designed to be pretty self sufficient, but I made sure to watch stuff on the grill (which was directly behind me more or less) and also help pass pans back and forth (to heat grill's sides). The "middle" as I was called was definitely more skewed to the saute side. I would do almost all hot apps (pork belly was in and out of the "hot oven," the down-low 500+ convection, so the saute guy did that start to finish), and I would pass proteins to him as well (proteins were under the grill in a fridge-drawer; since I knew the count this made things easy, he cooked what I passed him). I would organize tickets into flights as they fired.. I did what I could to make those guys not look at tickets and freak out, but just "let me handle the tickets, all you have to do is cook what I say, easy." I would constantly repeat what was down and what was on fire: "from you I need two chicken, three halibut, and a pork belly, and from you I got two veg and four steaks, 1 rare 3 Mid-rare." Just over and over, so nobody would get distracted or lost. This was all fluid, of course, so I'd also do whatever they needed to get food in the window. I pretty much lived in that 3'x3' square of line for the night. We typically had two, two-and-a-half turns.. sometimes more (and that's when poo poo got fatigued). The first turn would get into full swing by 6. The second turn, well.. every mother fucker in Baltimore apparently wants to eat at 7pm, so honestly that's when we had the LEAST reservations, as we would always try to push people to 6:30 or 7:30. So the second turn would ramp up around 7:30. Then we would have turn three-ish. Sometimes we would get hosed at 8:30, and sometimes it was too nice or too crowded or who knows. It would trickle until 9:30 or so, then we would be "off" and I'd go back to prep and we would start thinking about breaking down. It was around 9:30 when I would cook myself some scrap of something, and head off the line to go into "breakdown" mode. I'd take this little scrap and go sit in the beer cooler, tucked away on a milk crate and eat my little dinner, letting my feet out of their shoes to rest on the cold concrete of the cooler. This was my cigarette break, being in the minority who didn't use any drugs beyond alcohol. Then I'd go up to the office to get some new prep sheets to fill out, passing by the bare walls of the elevator shaft on which we wrote the names of employees who had left this fair restaurant. Then an hour checking stations and pulling stuff from the freezer (we prepped and froze tons of stuff, so a big job was pulling items and sauces and organizing that loving freezer.. loving fishtubs stacked six feet tall.. say what you will about freezing product but we made it work and it was all great), then clean up, either drink there or go to one of the other typical hangouts, sometimes we would take over the rear dining room after service and awkwardly hang out with the front of house. Haha, here I am 1:30pm on a Friday where I typically would be stressing so hard.. that seems so far away now.
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Aug 2, 2013 18:41
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Do you have equipment for butchering whole pigs? That blade won't stay sharp for long if you're hacking bones with it.
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Aug 2, 2013 19:49
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Not while he's on the slicer!! What the gently caress, seriously. Maybe that dude had some horrible French nightmare life, made to watch videos of his wife being murdered while he was tied down and mechanically masturbated in some Clockwork Orange type scenario, and he was now scared shitless of cameras and lived a solitary life in kitchens because the only way he could find a woman sexually attractive was if she was being murdered, and this prick is making him relive that poo poo six times a day. Also, he's clearly a low guy on the totem pole doing lots of prep and cleanup, like seriously, gently caress you. Those kinds of guys are the loving lifeblood and morale of any kitchen.
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Aug 5, 2013 06:17
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Well it looks like six months and I'll be out in the real world.. will I turn into a pretty pretty butterfly or go back to the old flame that we all love/hate? Tune in to find out!
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Aug 7, 2013 07:58
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Not to get all internet sleuthy, but what state? I'm sure there has to be a mobile food vendor somewhere. You won't generally be able to make them in your kitchen and sell them on the sidewalk, but if you were serious about it you could investigate a stand or fairs and the like.
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Aug 9, 2013 00:57
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Skinny King Pimp posted:Same here, and to motivate me to get through the massive amounts of studying I need to do to never work in a kitchen again. Gotta get that health insurance. Remember that time when you loved your chef and your kitchen and posted that all the time?
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Aug 14, 2013 15:34
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BEEF TENDON CHIPS? 
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Aug 15, 2013 17:12
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No seriously come back in here and talk about beef tendon chips. How do they taste? What's the method? Give me some now!
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Aug 16, 2013 00:29
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hhehehe, ewwwww. I'm sure if your rage was really such an issue, if you went to your line cooks all humble and said "hey I need some help with this," they'd be able to cover your station for 3 minutes while you had a cig/rubbed one out/ whatever you need to do to get your head on straight. That'd be much more preferable to your wrath.
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Aug 22, 2013 16:15
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Drank and Redbull: the poor man's speedball.
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Aug 23, 2013 03:16
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Welcome to the industry. I mean, of course nobody on an internet comedy forum would do drugs, but it's been known to happen in the business (I'm one of the crazy ones who didn't even smoke cigarettes, though).
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Aug 23, 2013 15:21
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No there are plenty who are loving losers that get shitfaced drunk while running a beer dinner, and then somehow three months later the GM starts dating this rear end in a top hat and you get to live with all the PBR and used condoms in my house.
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Aug 23, 2013 20:10
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So yeah, the general manager loving the executive chef while the EC is going through a divorce, how bad is that going to be?
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Aug 24, 2013 06:02
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Warmachine posted:
It's Britney, bitch!
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Aug 26, 2013 03:54
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So as I mentioned, my friend (ex) the GM and the exec of that restaurant have been.. well they might say dating, but really he just fucks her and then goes away. I, in a calm a rational manner, explained all the things that I thought were hosed up with the situation: 1) They work together, like quite closely -- if (when) poo poo goes down, it's going to be terrible for the restaurant. 2) This dude is still married, loving hello! There's nearly infinite wife and child drama there.. couldn't you wait until it's over? 3) While he is the exec, he acts like a loving line cook; childish and petulant in the kitchen, lots of drinking and drugs. 4) DID I MENTION THE DRINKING? He's been drunk during beer dinners and stuff, when he is supposed to be running things, and poo poo is going down. loving unprofessional. He's part owner, otherwise he'd be loving toast by now. 5) DID I MENTION THE DRUGS?? Smoking pot at work, growing pot in his house at home.. just a bad situation waiting to happen. 6) The GM cannot handle these things, even though I know she'll just loving go along with it. More than one cig and she practically loses her voice; she's on (of course) mental meds, so more than one drink and she is blackout bad-decision drunk. 7) He totally treated her like poo poo in the past in typical FOH/BOH fashion. Like, talked down to her, embarrassed her, wasted her time. Her coming home and crying kind of poo poo. How is all of that poo poo all of a sudden loving forgiven? I assume that they pretty much gently caress and that's it. He is living the dream: show up at 10pm, gently caress her a few times, leave by 10am. Not like, coming over making breakfast, going out places together -- seriously my fellow goons, if he was a cool guy, I would be totally happy (that she would stop bothering me). So I laid this all out to her, and the response was pretty much, "well thanks for the concern, but I wont talk about my relationship with you. I can take care of myself." Which pretty much means she's loving delusional. She's getting older and desperate to not be alone, and he is desperate to escape the shitstorm that is his marriage. Sorry if this is more e/n than gws, but it's been weighing heavily on me -- a loving cautionary tale of how the restaurant life makes you do hosed up things. I made my case, so now I'll just have to keep my head down when this time bomb explodes.
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Aug 28, 2013 00:08
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:49 |
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I mean we're still very good friends (or we were), even after I broke it off I still helped her put on her farmer's markets, helped her move, etc etc. We don't work together anymore, so it's been zero work and 100% friendship. It really came down to she wanted to settle down in this town, and I didn't. When it first began with the exec, I mean I was literally stunned because I'd only heard nothing but her complaining about the hell he made the job.. she asked me my opinion, and I just held my hands up and stayed silent, but it's been a rapidly declining situation. I realizing being the "ex" automatically clouds my judgement and taints my credibility, so there's that too. It will be a poo poo-show; I said my piece, and that's about all I can/will do.
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Aug 28, 2013 01:35
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