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Congrats, Wrought! Hope this one works out better than the last!Chef De Cuisinart posted:It was a chilly 75 in the kitchen all day today. I think I broke out in a sweat at some point, probably when I put away the meat order. I may murder you. It was at least 115 in the bakery again last night (that's as high as my wall thermometer goes), and my AC is out at home. Of course, my roomies all work in nice AC'd offices all day, so it doesn't matter to -them- that it's 95 loving degrees outside all day. My life hates me, but I get to help Chef do a ~45 person meal out in the middle of a strawberry patch at our local berry farm in a couple weeks, which will be worth it. Also, on that article about NYC having a hard time finding cooks : No poo poo? People don't stick around when you pay them less than McDonalds' will in a place where the cost of living is triple what it is in most of the country? Shock and dismay.
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Jul 18, 2013 02:10
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:We have a pastry position open. Clearly you should move to Austin, work 5a-1p, have insurance, PTO, etc, etc. and make ~12bux/hr. Man, I just turned down moving to Texas for IT work because I couldn't afford the move, or I'd talk to you about it. Sympathies on your pending destruction. That sounds like it's going to be an asskicking.
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Jul 18, 2013 02:25
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Black August posted:I don't know how anyone lives in NYC anymore or wants to. I entertained the idea once before I realized I'd be homeless inside of a week. Even Boston is only going to be a short stay, year at best, because it just costs too drat much to live anywhere on any sort of working wage. Honestly, it's one of those things like culinary school, I figure. People who don't really do the math get enchanted by the idea of working in a Michelin-starred place, and don't really think about how bloody expensive living there is. That said : http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Line-Cook-l-New-York,-NY.html Average salary $24k in a city where a 1-bedroom in the outskirts is going for $1500+? No way in hell.
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Jul 18, 2013 03:21
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Cooking in NYC : Ask me about living in a van, down by the river.
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Jul 18, 2013 03:47
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bowmore posted:I just realized I work in the industry. My condolences. 
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Jul 18, 2013 15:14
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Kenning posted:I just started working FOH at a new gig and I met a cook who was talking up Kitchen Confidential and how that was totally the life everyone lived and it was pretty hard to not laugh out loud while I was doing roll-ups. poo poo, if I had the money he talks about blowing on drugs in KC, I'd be set. Too bad kitchen wages have been pretty much stagnant since the days Bourdain was writing KC.
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Jul 19, 2013 10:58
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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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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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Turkeybone posted: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. Having done both, I'll take the oil, thanks. At least it doesn't stick, solidify, and take skin with it when you desperately scrape it off. 
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Jul 22, 2013 07:34
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Naelyan posted:You know how we've all done that stupid thing were you see a knife falling and you either try to grab it or prevent it from hitting the floor with your foot like it's a spoon or a pot? The entire tip of my left thumb isscar tissue from something similar. We bake our pecan rolls in a honey brown sugar smear, then invert the pan to glaze 'em with it when they're done. I was depanning a batch, lost my grip, and grabbed for the pan... just to submerge that thumb in soft ball caramel. I was glad I was alone in here that night, because I swore like a sailor for half an hour straight.
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Jul 24, 2013 09:42
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Wroughtirony posted:Cuts: Ohgodfoilnooooo.  That said, my least favorite cut is actually splinters from a shattered piece of cast isomalt. Those were hell to get out. bowmore posted:Who listens to music in the kitchen? How do you do it? (iphone, stereo, etc) What get's you moving? Dropkick Murphys at a volume enough to shake flour out of the ceiling tiles, out of an old boombox I scavenged from a garage sale. It was cheap, and it works. Probably jinxing it, but one of the two other bakers put in her notice yesterday (she got a better job, I'm super happy for her 'cause she's about to get married), and it miiiight get me off of overnights. I don't know if I'll be able to reintegrate into normal society. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 18:34
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Gogol is great cooking music. It gets you bouncing.
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Jul 25, 2013 22:09
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bowmore posted:What? Who doesn't have drains in a kitchen? We don't. If someone mops too enthusiastically, the neighbor next door complains their carpets are getting wet. :\ The landlord is on my list of people who deserve free beatings.
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Jul 26, 2013 15:44
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crackhaed posted:Do we all need to reread the first chapter of The Devil in the Kitchen? If you start to shift away from working in a constant state of fear then you aren't pushing yourself. This is literally why I'm shifting over to working days in the bakery. Breakfast doesn't keep me nervous anymore, it's gotten routine. I need more challenges.
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Jul 28, 2013 23:50
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:You couldn't pay me enough to work in Chicago. You could pay me enough to work in Chicago. It'd be a very large "enough".
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Jul 29, 2013 06:46
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Shooting Blanks posted:You think Chicago is in the middle of nowhere? poo poo man, if Chicago is the middle of nowhere, I must be off the drat map entirely six hours west of 'em. You people in Denver are clearly on the Moon.
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Jul 30, 2013 06:55
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And somehow Atlanta is more important/relevant? Not to get off track, but...what the gently caress?
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So close. Two more shifts on nights, and I switch to days. 
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Aug 8, 2013 21:27
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infiniteguest posted:There is literally no point to working food service in NYC if you want to cook frozen premade food - do that poo poo someplace you can afford to have a nice apartment and a back yard. You already slogged through your first nyc resume building job, don't gently caress it up by bailing for a bullshit kitchen. Go work at daniel, or lafayette, or another place where the sous team and cdc is loving legit. Or better yet, stop asking for advice from a group of nobodies on an internet forum and ask your chef for advice. I read this as 'get the hell out of NYC, be happier'.
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Aug 10, 2013 18:33
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Dryer Lint posted:I've decided to go into the industry. After volunteering at the food bank's kitchen for a couple months the head chef decided that he couldn't tolerate me anymore and is helping me get a job as a dishwasher in a good restaurant. I have accepted that the next few months/decades of my life are going to be like this. Advice? Turn around now and go back to literally any other industry. I don't care if it's stuffing mice up your rear end for $5 a time, it'll pay better and hurt you less. Seriously, if you have other prospects, pursue them instead and have fun cooking on the side.
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Aug 14, 2013 04:59
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:I had 2 pairs of Red Wings split horizontally on the bottom. I would say not worth the price. Crocs are treating me well atm. You didn't just take them over to the Redwing store and have them fixed? Those guys are serious about their warranty. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 18:52
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Thoht posted:Whereas my restaurant has been getting hammered all week and we're all practically begging the chef to hire a prep person. Opposite here, the only thing that left the bakery today was the scheduled wholesale breakfast orders, we didn't have a single retail customer or dessert order going out all day.
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Aug 20, 2013 02:10
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Tweek posted:Grow your nails to longer than a quarter of an inch. Oh, man. I have a thumb nail right now, because there's a cut in the cuticle that won't heal and I can't trim the nail. It is driving me up the wall.
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Aug 21, 2013 00:24
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Turkeybone posted:So yeah, the general manager loving the executive chef while the EC is going through a divorce, how bad is that going to be? Air raid sirens are going off as we speak. Roll a blunt, pop the top on something malty, and settle in to watch the fireworks. BlueGrot posted:Are people seriously doing coke to cope with work? Welcome to the industry. Drugs are poo poo common. 90% of the cooks I've worked with are on something, be it speed, pot, or just a terrible drinking habit like mine. I try to keep it professional and only drink outside of work, though. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 06:38
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:We turn 4-5mil profit a year, we can afford a new line. They just don't want to close the restaurant for a week. You know, at that level of profit, I'd be hard pressed to close the place for a week too, until something major like a new hood needed to go in.
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Sep 8, 2013 18:16
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Oh, god. Had 30 shiny new students from the local culinary school in earlier. Cue chef talking them around while I try to finish cheesecakes in a 1500 square foot room. They're adorable. One asked why so many cooks have knee problems.
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Sep 9, 2013 21:53
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King Chicken posted:In from vacation to find a legal letter on my desk. You know, I know it's your business, but I really hope the Dept. of Labor comes down on them like a ton of bricks. That poo poo is not acceptable. You do -not- mess with someone's clocked hours. If that manager was so worried about not billing overtime, they should have had their salaried rear end in that kitchen helping close. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 13:15
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I made just over 30,000 muffins last year. God, I'm glad I'm not on breakfast shift anymore, but I will forever be able to throw muffin batter across the room into a pan in my sleep.
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Sep 13, 2013 01:49
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I have a scar that covers my right ring finger from the first to second joint... from the sprayer on our dish sink. It has a lovely handle, so I got in the habit of using that finger to hold it locked in place... and wore the skin off of my finger last Christmas season in the unending mountains of dishes. The skin that grew back over it is thinner, and dries out and cracks easily.
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Sep 14, 2013 05:13
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Wroughtirony posted:Reached over a boiling tea kettle on the stove to grab a pot handle. My forearm went right over the spout. What's worse than a steam burn? An infected steam burn. Oh, god. I get those all the time from foiling dessert rings for cheesecakes.
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Sep 15, 2013 14:56
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Trebuchet King posted:Job application question--for two years I've been front/middle of house at the same joint. I'd like to get into baking/pastry somewhere else (not specific, just somewhere else). First, are there any smart things to do resume-wise, particularly in terms of spinning what I've done? Secondly, would bringing in samples of my own recipes to interviews be a bad idea? I've got a couple I'm proud of and I think it'd illustrate my capabilities better than any paper could, but I'd hate to be seen as attempting bribery. For most of the bakers I know, they're less interested in what you can do at home, and more interested in knowing if you're trainable. The biggest thing the pastry chef I work for says he looks for when hiring is someone he's not going to have to train bad habits out of in order to get them to cook his recipes the way he wants them done. If you've got decorating samples, bring a portfolio, but as far as actual baked goods go I know we're a lot more concerned if you can follow instruction. I got into the bakery business by responding to a Craigslist ad and being a trainable monkey.
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Sep 16, 2013 04:42
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Splizwarf posted:If I were staging for a bakery, I'd bring two things with me and nothing else. Those two things would be a large and a small heatproof solid-core flexible spatula (the bowl-scraping kind, not griddle-flippers) that I was really comfortable with. Everything else, the kitchen will likely have something serviceable, but if you aren't comfortable with their scrapers then you've got fumbling awkward trouble at the most crucial times. Oh, man. If someone messed up my good offset spatula or my scraper, they'd never find the body. Never. Also, bring a pen and a notebook. Take copious notes as to how they want poo poo done, and any specific recipes they want used, so you can reference them without having to go looking all the time.
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Sep 17, 2013 01:07
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Edit : Double post!
Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Sep 17, 2013 |
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Sep 17, 2013 13:35
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Liquid Communism posted:I don't mean to scare you... no, wait, I totally do. Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:My husband right now is a cook in the military. He has ~2 years left on his enlistment. We're trying to decide if he should get out or stay in. I absolutely despise being a military spouse for so many reasons--among other things, we have been restricted on travel, have live in a town where I make terrible money for my career (teacher, and we are now in the 6th year of a statewide pay freeze and they just did away with master's degree pay so I dropped out of grad school). and worst of all, my husband has terrible hours. Like sometimes he will work 14 days in a row including the weekend for 12+ hours. They also never give him a schedule so that we can plan around work for things. It's always day by day "come in for early shift" or "come in for late shift" but it's a crapshoot as to when he will be off. Early shift means he's off anywhere between 2-5 PM and late shift means anywhere from 7-9 PM. Lately it's been closer to 9 PM. They were going to put him on nighttime baking and prep, but then they changed their minds. He used to do that last year and the best thing about it was he went in at a set time every day, worked shorter shifts than the daytime people and had every weekend off. Honestly, make sure he's aware that staying in the kitchen is going to be a very hard row to hoe. The hours don't get shorter and the pay is abysmally worse. I can count the number of full-time cooks I know who actually only work 40 hours a week on my fingers, benefits are mostly unheard of unless you're in a hotel, and taking time off is almost as bad as the military because it's often seen as not being a team player. The pay's poo poo, too. If he's served a full enlistment, he's got GI Bill. If he had an overseas deployment, he's got Post 9/11 GI Bill. Tell him to go to school and get a real bachelor's in something useful, not a culinary degree. It's essentially free, hell they'll pay him to go to school, and he'll go a hell of a lot farther getting a degree on Uncle Sam's dime and a real job than turning into a kitchen burnout. Especially if you're planning to stay in the teaching field, which is pretty much paid peanuts everywhere. Veterans get hiring preference a lot of places as well. That way at least if he still insists on trying to cook for a living, he's got a backup plan to get a real job.
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Sep 17, 2013 13:44
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WanderingMinstrel I posted:Kitchen work probably will exacerbate his back problems as well, that's something to keep in mind. And how. If he's got back problems now, a few months of 8 hours straight on his feet doing manual work is going to make him with he hadn't done that. 
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Sep 18, 2013 04:21
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Don't remind me. One month until Christmas Cookie Season starts.
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Sep 23, 2013 07:00
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Mu Zeta posted:I have no experience at all. I'll PM you if my current gig doesn't work out, I just started. If you were out Iowa way, we've got an opening right now on my old shift. Doing 12a-7a six nights a week baking off and delivering breakfast, in a scratch bakery with locally roasted coffee. My replacement decided he couldn't handle the stress after a few weeks in. Don't blame him, it takes a special sort of madness to pull it off. After two years, I couldn't do it anymore myself.
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Sep 26, 2013 05:08
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Tig Ol Bitties posted:If this isn't the appropriate thread to ask in, I can move to the Chat thread, but I have a question for you restaurant folks. If someone is going to review a restaurant known for a specific meat item (burgers in this case), one would expect the reviewer to be talking about said burger. Come on, man, that's like going out to a fried chicken joint and gushing about the cornbread with a little side note of 'oh, and they sell chicken'. Or sending a gluten-intolerant reviewer to check out a bakery. It just isn't of interest to the general reader. If you were writing for a vegetarian or vegan magazine? Then you'd be in business.
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Oct 4, 2013 04:17
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Tig Ol Bitties posted:I completely agree. I guess I just got too selfishly excited about a new restaurant and didn't think about the reader's experience. I'll stick to reviewing chicken and vegetable-based dishes for now, then hit the new BBQ joint. Thanks for the honest input. No worries. Don't take it as harshing on you, I've got frustrations right now. Per what we've been told by the inspectors lately, to make something we can call 'gluten free', we'd have to shut the whole place down for 3-4 hours to let the flour dust settle, clean and sanitize the bakery top to bottom including the ductwork and ceiling tiles, and -then- we could start production of gluten free items. It's not worth our time in any way. But we still get people all pissed off because a tiny scratch bakery doesn't cater to their special snowflake dietary preferences. We'll bend over backwards to work with vegan stuff, or nut allergies, low carb sweetners where possible, or even dairy allergies (this one is rather difficult). But while I can happily make someone a flourless chocolate torte (basically a modified brownie recipe with ganache icing) that has no gluten in the -recipe-, I can't guarantee a lack of cross contamination by the sheer presence of flour in the air. Not to mention that I'm covered in it as well while I'm talking to them. Laminating croissant dough by hand gets a bit floury.
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Oct 4, 2013 05:37
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Enderzero posted:What kinds of software do you guys use to organize and communicate with your restaurant/team? I immediately thought of something like BaseCamp, but I'm wondering if there's more specific software for the restaurant industry, like Shift Notes. Anyone have any suggestions? Umm, a whiteboard, a few dry erase crayons (screw markers, they rub off too easy), and word of mouth? Of course, there's all of four of us, so it's pretty easy.
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Oct 11, 2013 04:57
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Welp, looking like I'm going back to night shift. We struck out three times trying to find someone who could handle the solo night shifts, and chef wants me to take 'em back over until at least after the holidays because we're too drat busy doing desserts during the day to be fixing problems. Good to be needed, I guess, but I was getting used to sleeping at night. Think this is a good time to hit him up for a raise?
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Oct 16, 2013 06:33
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