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Another thing cooking experience translates well to: molecular genetics benchwork. Work with dangerous poo poo, sometimes sharp things, have to do a few things at once so you're not in the lab until forever, gotta be really accurate about things and keep things clean/sterile, and follow what are basically recipes when you're making up reactions. And yeah, definitely still say "heard" and "behind" all the goddamn time and do that half slide thing to get around corners of the bench faster.
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Jul 22, 2013 19:46
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With the roux, you know it's done enough when you can't smell raw flour anymore. That was the foolproof test at one of my old jobs when we would make beer cheese soup. As soon as it starts smelling at all toasted, start ladling in your liquid and you should be good to go.
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Jul 23, 2013 20:51
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I don't think any of my burns were as bad as the time I slammed an oyster knife into my hand so hard that it split the skin without cutting through my glove. None of them took as long to heal, either. Still can't open my hand really wide without the scar pulling and hurting over a year later. Though that one time I got a big ol' splash of oil from the fryer when I was frying chicken thighs was pretty goddamn unpleasant. Funniest kitchen injury story I've heard recently: Dude at the place I worked at when I first moved here is a tall gay guy who apparently decided that he was going to celebrate DOMA being overturned in the gayest way he could think of: skipping everywhere he went that day. This ended in a concussion and stitches, and I'm sure you're thinking that he slipped or caught a mat or something, but no. It's better than that. Motherfucker skipped up and hit his head on the door frame to the kitchen so hard he gave himself a concussion. I mean seriously, what the hell is that.
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Jul 24, 2013 04:03
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Oh my god I literally cringed when I read aluminum foil cuts. Those things are so loving awful. I will say that you should put grits/polenta on that burn list up towards sugar. It doesn't harden onto your skin and then rip it off, but it sticks for a minute, especially cheese grits. Plus that poo poo will pop at you while it's cooking and send a boiling hot missile of grits right into your goddamned eye.
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Jul 25, 2013 00:38
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rasser posted:the tender loving care is why I continue to lurk this thread 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.
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Aug 14, 2013 12:39
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Turkeybone posted:Remember that time when you loved your chef and your kitchen and posted that all the time? Yeah and then remember the time when my only sort of controlled but untreated mental illness put me in the hospital twice in two months? I still love the chefs I worked under (the one who gave me my first job has a pilot on the Cooking Channel next Monday, which is cool), I just underestimated the stress since the cafe I worked in before I moved was really busy for lunch but overall really chill and had a very good staff. Oh well, it's all good, and it got me back into the sciences like I always wanted to do. I do really miss doing the all day marathon of putting on a 6-8 course dinner with pairings, I just don't miss actual service. Oh, and Spilzwarf, that is a terrible idea. My brother and mom both work for the gov't and it is an absolute shitshow with all the budget bullshit going on. Brother got an effective 20% pay cut a few months ago (what's up furlough) and both of them have spent weeks hoping that budgets get approved so that they can go to work the next Monday.
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Aug 15, 2013 14:29
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Black August posted:And why the hell did he hire a 19 year old bartender girl, and a 19 year old busser, have them work one week, then not assign them hours the next week, prompting them to quit and find other work? Was it a passive-aggressive way of firing them? Yeah, this is pretty standard practice by any given scummy rear end in a top hat manager. Cut hours to the point of making people quit if they don't do what you want to or you don't like them or they ask off on a day you don't want to let them have off or you think their shirt is ugly. But yes, go find yourself a new job, that one sounds like poo poo and it's not like bussing tables is a great job to begin with.
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Sep 13, 2013 11:49
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Sometimes a stressful restaurant job and a shaky marriage combine to do things like completely destroy your mental health for months afterwards. I mean, that's how I ended up leaving the industry. Wrought, glad to hear that you dropped the stressful job instead of the marriage. I was in a similar position, though not quite so far along the divorce path, and I'm real glad I ended up dropping the industry and not the husband. Good luck getting one of those sweet, sweet hotel jobs!
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Oct 1, 2013 10:29
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You're right in that trace amounts of gluten won't kill anyone (as far as I know), but even gluten derived stabilizers can cause digestive issues in people with celiac's disease. However, I worked in a vegetarian/vegan coffeeshop and we catered heavily towards the gluten free crowd and we never had problems with the sign up saying that all "gluten free" items are made without gluten but we couldn't guarantee them to be 100% gluten free. In a bakery it'd be a lot different than it was cooking lunch, but I know that our baker would do gluten free and regular stuff on the same day on the same prep table. She just wiped it down with diluted vinegar in between. So yeah, just say it's made without gluten and not gluten free and put a note that it's made in a kitchen alongside products with gluten. People can decide the level of their sensitivity and whether that's going to work for them and you have your bases legally covered while still expanding your customer base somewhat.
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Oct 4, 2013 15:44
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Working for free either as like a working interview or just to get experience and a reference from a well regarded chef or someone with connections. It's the cooking version of the unpaid internship.
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Oct 18, 2013 11:54
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Liquid Communism posted:How do you do that on kitchen wages is always the question. You go spend some time in the free mental health ward and then take advantage of all the free drugs you can get because you're poor as poo poo.
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Nov 9, 2013 16:21
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Flexeril is just made out of tiny bugs that burrow into my skin, so I don't take that poo poo. Any pain medication, sleep aids, or muscle relaxers lose effectiveness before too long, though. loving sucks when your body hates sleeping sometimes and you've already worked your way through everything on the list that you can afford and the one thing that worked is goddamn $10/pill without insurance. loving medication. At least my back and knees don't hurt as bad as they used to, haha.
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Dec 7, 2013 15:43
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Ugh, that sucks. I've gotten egg shells under my fingernails and that was bad enough.
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Jan 22, 2014 01:34
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:I cut my knuckles on plastic wrap all the time. More often than anything else, I think. This and cutting yourself on tin foil are miserable. They just sting no matter what you do or what you use to cover them up, I swear to god.
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Jan 22, 2014 06:07
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Liquid Communism posted:God, tin foil cuts suck. My least favorite ones are sheet box cuts. The waxed cardstock they use for full sheet boxes is sharper than the Devil himself. 99% sure that Satan is actually afraid of waxed cardstock. oh man and I just remembered: When you have cheap quart and pint containers and you're trying to get the lid off real fast so you can garnish a plate or whatever the gently caress you're doing and then the edge of the lid cuts into your finger and it stings so goddamn bad.
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Jan 22, 2014 20:51
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tomkash posted:Edit: actually something unrelated I was wondering, has working in the industry actually helped anyone else cut down on drinking? I used to binge daily on my own or with friends before I worked line and getting the shakes, getting slammed while extremely hungover/still drunk just made me cut down significantly. Drink maybe once a week other than my nightly one beer, I think a big part is losing weekends but I don't even have the urge to drink alone like I used too. This work has surprisingly toned down my anxiety, boosted my confidence and stopped me relying on booze to get me through stress. Has hampered my ability to empathise with 9-5 workers and tolerance for lovely service unfortunately. Are you sure you aren't a robot or alien of some kind?
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Jan 28, 2014 14:34
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GigaFool posted:If you lie or are thrust into a new position you aren't completely prepared for, getting other people to show you something once without realizing they're actually teaching you how to do it is a good way to catch up. Also just plain faking it. Common sense can cover a lot of situations. And the tried and true "I just want to be sure I do it the way you guys do it here" lie, too.
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Feb 13, 2014 15:30
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One of the reasons I totally quit smoking (I was only smoking a few times a year, never was a big stoner) is because I didn't have health insurance and I sure as gently caress wasn't gonna be on the line for a couple grand in hospital bills if I hurt myself bad enough to go to the ER. Totally not worth it to smoke. But hey, do whatever and if you get hurt don't file workman's comp and you'll be fine.
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Feb 17, 2014 17:43
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bunnyofdoom posted:Me too! But only in the bedroom! (Cause I am pathetically single). I assume you don't talk to anyone who is/was in the industry, haha. Also, I just show them my gnarled hand from being told to shuck oysters (that like to shatter and are really hard to get into the hinge) really fast, never having done it before, and mention health insurance and vacation days. I would mention the health of my liver, but I'm starting grad school in the fall, so obviously I'm just planning on trading out for a new one once I hit 45.
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Mar 1, 2014 12:28
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breadingbutter posted:personal update - well i ran a few computer simulations and found out how to boost my productivity in the dishpit substantially. i know i'm making the house money, and i've kept my mouth shut for these months, listening to the cooks mouth off and biding my time. new restaurants have been casting lines, looking for this talented dishwasher (more skills are more important to me than a $1/hour raise). Are you literally a robot?
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Mar 6, 2014 17:31
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Danskos and crocs are good shoes that I liked a lot when working in kitchens, but my crocs are gathering dust in a corner while my Danskos are still my go-to shoe that I wear most of the time. A note on crocs: Washing them in your home dishwasher set on pots and pans will make them shrink. Like, at least two sizes.
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Mar 21, 2014 14:07
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Why do you want to buy a restaurant? You're not going to make any money.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:14
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"I'm sorry, ma'am, but since we prepare foods with several of those components and do not have a separate, sterile kitchen, our chef does not feel comfortable preparing your meal. I truly apologize for the inconvenience, but we cannot risk your health. I hope you understand."
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Feb 19, 2015 03:52
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A place I worked got docked 10 points because the sous had the gall to finish off his bottle of orange juice while standing in the kitchen. Another place in town used to dump quarts and quarts of their really, really good house made ice cream anytime the call went around that the inspector was out and about because it's a pretty big violation to mix cream and milk without repasteurizing it (which requires like a million dollars in equipment to meet code or some stupid bullshit). Health code is loving stupid 95% of the time.
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Feb 22, 2015 03:57
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Crocs aren't that bad, they're just kinda ugly. I keep my old kitchen crocs at the lab now so I don't have to tromp around in snow boots and can wear sandals in the summer.
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May 11, 2015 14:38
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gently caress, now I really want a boulevardier.
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May 20, 2015 12:03
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I have absolutely no problem with anyone (esp servers) not being allowed smoke breaks while on the job in a restaurant. I say that as someone who until recently smoked half a pack to a pack a day for close to ten years. Get a loving nicotine patch or something if you need it to get through your shift.
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May 23, 2015 15:06
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pile of brown posted:Out of curiosity, how many of those send backs were ordered at not - real temperatures? I've noticed an epidemic of "between mid rare and medium" lately as if that's a real place Mid rare plus/medium plus or whatever is a temperature and gets ordered sometimes, yes. It's not like it's any harder to cook than any other temperature.
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Jun 6, 2015 14:09
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Birkies suck, crocs 4 life. Red Wings split on me, Danskos don't fit properly, and birkies wreck the top of my feet. Crocs are the vest shoe, use them. Agree. I like my Danskos but they're heavy. I still keep my old crocs at the lab for when I don't want to wear snow boots all day or if I feel like wearing lab-inappropriate shoes.
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Jun 9, 2015 12:23
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JacquelineDempsey posted:DOD contractors. All black, no open back, no open toes (I'm assuming the holes in crocs are verboten? no one in my area wears them), no steel toes, etc etc. We actually have a dress code for socks. Good thing I favor black socks to begin with because I just learned yesterday that that's code, too. Bistro crocs don't have holes, otherwise they'd be dumb as gently caress to wear in a place where boiling oil can splash on your feet. Makes sense though that DOD contractors are that detailed in their specifications.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:59
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Shooting Blanks posted:Who is it that has a place in San Antonio and can anyone pm me what it is? Wound up here for an emergency river trip, wouldn't mind trying that for dinner. Are you thinking of Luke, John Besh's restaurant? It's pretty good and has a totally decent happy hour during the week. You should go.
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Jun 30, 2015 00:25
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Oh my bad, I totally forgot about that. I think you're right that it's EGM.
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Jun 30, 2015 00:31
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Google apparently fails at understanding what I meant then apparently this reads backwards to google, since something that's $17/lb would be $37/kg
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Jul 13, 2015 21:47
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Thumposaurus posted:If you're female and you look like you "get down" you get better tips obviously. I worked alone at a coffee shop and decided to do an experiment. On my usual Sunday shift, when most of my business was a church crowd, I wore a low cut shirt one week and a crew neck t shirt the next week. About the same amount of business and all the same regulars (lots of middle aged women, tbh) and I got probably $10-15 more with the low cut shirt. So yeah, put your tits out and you'll get more money. It's science.
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Sep 10, 2015 14:00
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WanderingMinstrel I posted:Feel that. Tonight was apparently some kind of "yes we're going to split a salad and full order of pasta. Yes we know you offer half plates, but we're just going to split the main size thank you. Oh? Drinks, no thank you we're fine with water" night. Ahahaha, my husband and I do this all the time at this italian restaurant near our apartment but we never ask for them to be actually split and we drink a shitload of wine so I figure it works out. Grad school is making me want to go back to food service real hard, you guys. Better the devil you know or some poo poo like that, I guess.
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Oct 8, 2015 14:34
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Stretching is a really good idea in general. I've also found in the past that my hip flexors will get tight and gently caress up my back, so if hamstring stretches don't quite get you there as far as lower back pain goes, stretch out your hip flexors by doing poo poo like the cobra pose or whatever when you get up/before you go to bed. I went from unable to walk upright when it would get bad to doing pretty god drat okay all the time. Another thing that can help with foot pain is strengthening your arches, especially if you're flat footed. Just sit in a chair on not-carpet (or on the toilet in your bathroom) and put a towel on the floor. Put your bare foot on the towel, then stretch it out as far as you can, keeping the heel on the ground, and try to grasp the towel with your toes and pull it towards your heel. It's weird as poo poo at first, but it really, really, really, really helps with foot and ankle pain and can help prevent plantar fasciitis, in my experience.
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Nov 26, 2015 16:59
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Safety Dance posted:Speaking of which, the owner of an Athens, GA bistro took everything of value and ran. http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2015-12-01/east-west-bistro-downtown-athens-closed-after-owner-walks-out Oh Athens, never change.
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Dec 2, 2015 19:36
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One time I dumped like 15 soft drinks off a tray while working at a hibachi place. Would've sucked way more if I hadn't managed to dump it 95% into the dishpit without getting it all over the guy working it.
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Jan 7, 2016 21:36
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Manuel Calavera posted:No idea since I won't be there. It's my weekend off. Mine used to get so dry the backs of my hands would crack and bleed. Ask the nurses at work what they use for their hands and get that.
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Feb 12, 2016 18:05
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bunnyofdoom posted:The plastic one I got from loblaws hasn't yet. You're not trying hard enough. It's easy as all hell to break those lovely plastic juicers. Guess who's about to get back into food service after a brief foray into academia~ turns out dealing with trying to get funding for research and the bullshit politics associated with all of it is more soul crushing than making coffee and cooking lunch for people 30-40 hrs a week. who knew?
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May 6, 2016 13:48
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