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Hello fellow slaves. I'm a line cook in New Orleans in the CBD. I have been at my current restaurant for 6 weeks. Before that I worked at a kosher restaurant in uptown Nola, where I worked the line/expo for around 3 months, before that I was food prep for 2 months, and before that I was the dishwasher for 2 months. That's my whole resume. I didn't know how to do any kind of cooking before that and I had no knife skills. I dated a girl here who was an excellent cook who was finishing up her JWU dietetics internship in Nola. She inspired me to get a job in a kitchen rather than going straight to culinary school. We aren't dating anymore, but she is very proud of my evolution  Its been exhausting and I have submitted to loads of bullshit, poo poo pay, working doubles while very sick during 2 weeks of Mardi Gras, taking puke breaks from the line because of no sick days, and even working after finding out that my old army teammate killed himself. I went along with all this simply because I was new and felt that it was only fair for me to earn my way. At this new place, our stations are in full view of customers and we generally have a line going out the door and down the sidewalk. If I'm on the line, I just keep my eyes on the cutting board when the day-long rush starts. The best days are when I not on the line and I'm working the meats case or doing food prep, but thats usually only 2 days of the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I started training with the butchers after my am shift, because that's when the pigs come in. I am into butchering now, even as a vegetarian. Its very quiet, relaxing work, and no one bitches at you. In fact, all the chefs above me are giving me much less poo poo now. Even my sous, who slowly started to despise me, has been giving me the ol' pat-on-the-back for clocking out and staying to learn. The kosher kitchen I first worked at had to close a month earlier than expected for the summer, so I ended up being homeless for a few weeks, showering at friends houses. I thought I would have another month to save money, and my roommate got us kicked out a few weeks before our lease ended. When I staged at my current restaurant I was still sleeping in my car, so needless to say I worked my rear end off so I would get hired. Now the kosher kitchen is opening up again soon, and Chef told me I will get a substantial raise, a laid-back prep job, and she will work with my other schedule down to weekly changes if necessary. I want the extra cash obviously, so I'll work the tough new job in the am/lunch, and then head uptown for the other kitchen. So, anyway, I have been using my first *real* knife for a few weeks now, an 8" Shun Premier chef knife. I have been bleeding a lot lately, but I love having a sharp blade. Anyone else in Nola? Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Aug 2, 2013 |
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Aug 2, 2013 19:37
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Turkeybone posted:Do you have equipment for butchering whole pigs? That blade won't stay sharp for long if you're hacking bones with it. We have various $20 dexter blades and a huge hacksaw. Yeah, there is no way my blade is going near a pig.
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Aug 2, 2013 20:05
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Ha, what a deal!
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Aug 19, 2013 17:13
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BlueGrot posted:Are people seriously doing coke to cope with work? No, probably just methamphetamine and weed. 8^{
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Aug 24, 2013 04:10
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Ughhh, I have to be careful when I drink with other cooks. Why so many shots... Sighhh, yes I'll take another one...
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Sep 3, 2013 20:12
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Do any of you use "merry chef" ovens and have you uploaded new sound files to it?
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Sep 16, 2013 16:48
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Soooo, I left my job as a line cook at one of the best restaurants in Nola. I could deal with the stress, but my army injuries were becoming distracting during daily prep, and I was slowing down because of the intense pain(I was sweating from the pain ahh). Now I am a PM kitchen manager at a restaurant where a year ago I was the dishwasher with no knife skills and no experience in kitchens. I get paid less(but so much more because of overtime), its way less physically exhausting, and I get a lot more respect as a human being than the other kitchen. Its nice being a manager and I like being able to use the organizational skills that I learned from the other restaurant to make everything as efficient as possible(often not possible though due to lack of time). I still work the line for a few hours a day because we're down a few cooks, and I work hard to prep what we need. Still don't want to be a chef though, especially not a salaried sous.
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Oct 14, 2013 18:53
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Well well, so I quit my line job at one restaurant, then got promoted to kitchen manager at my other kitchen. Then a bunch of cooks were fired, quit, or were injured, so I was gradually taking on more work and more hours. All while getting paid less than the line cook position! I finally got sick of the unending bullshit a year after my first job in a kitchen, so I quit the kitchen manager position too and I am moving away from Nola and I am going to school! Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Nov 4, 2013 |
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Nov 4, 2013 04:08
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Liquid Communism posted:
 and my chefs knew how lovely I was doing and why, but we were down 3 cooks, so they convinced me to stay, take on more responsibility, longer days... I had a gradual burnout over a month, fueled by an existential/quarter-life crisis. I'm already feeling like a new man though, free from my kitchen cage. I found out the other day that now that I'm gone, my chefs hired 3 college girls to be trained as cooks! gently caress! And that my friend said chef had told him he could get a raise once I left the kitchen(I had been waiting the last month for a raise that chef told me to expect). I certainly learned a lot from this whole ordeal. Anyway, I'm washing my hands of this! Soon I'll be hiking around Colorado, going to school, and living as stress-free as possible.
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Nov 7, 2013 17:08
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A few days after I moved to Denver from New Orleans I googled the most popular restaurants. Then I looked at different yelp and zagat type lists. I printed 5 new minimal resumes, spoke to chefs about getting a job, declined on a stage for a minimum 70hr position, staged at one out of four kitchens that I visited, and now I'm working at the best kitchen in the universe.
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Dec 14, 2013 10:38
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tomkash posted:I've been thinking of making the sound of that machine my ringtone while I'm on holiday. I've had a fair few nightmares where staff haven't turned up or the orders are just piling in and I can't get a single order out while the chef screams at me. I had a pretty funny one where my kitchen hand had eaten some of the lamb cutlets for a function and there was no backup. Haven't had them since my old insane head chef left though, wonder why. You just loving inceptioned this into my MIND!
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Feb 14, 2014 08:58
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I got today AND tomorrow off! 2 days in a row?! Too bad I will be doing adult things instead of fun things. But, at least I won't be plating a million specs.
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Feb 14, 2014 23:15
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I am the main cook of a bar kitchen now. They only see a full crowd from Thursday to Saturday night, and only a select few will order food. This is an important factor in regards to everything else. So far, I can't really gauge my weekly grocery list, and I am not fully in charge of getting the groceries yet. There seems to be some major separation there. But, since I'm working for very cheap, I am quicker to be honest with the owners and explain things accurately and quickly before they can say anything or make bad decisions. There are things I will be slowly working on to bring the kitchen up to standard, but I really need to find my target audience and get them to drive or hopefully bike out to us. We are just on the edge of an urban area with college educated late 20s musicians, artists, and friends type people. Then we have daytime drunks and quiet. I need to make changes under the surface, so that the menu seems basically the same, but everything will be better and more efficient. I will be talking to the owners about the currently small portion sizes(to keep prices down?). I feel very weird selling 1 small taco on a plate. How do you tell the owners, non-industry cooks that will nuke veggies, that the things they choose to not budge on are nonsensical? I'm constantly like, yes you prefer it this way because you don't know any other way. I feel like I could be "grounded" for cutting something on a bias to make it look like it didn't come from them. I am doing this job to help out some friends of the owners, but I would rather have more autonomy. Luckily, its usually just me and the bartender of the night, and the menu is like 5 items with maybe 3 parts each to be heated up and arranged. Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 09:08 on May 6, 2014 |
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May 6, 2014 08:58
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Republicans posted:In my experience the best thing to do is make something and have them taste it. If they like it show them exactly how you made it and give them a written recipe for future cooks to follow. If it isn't too complicated or expensive they'll probably go for it. That's how I got us to stop using straight-up canned marinara sauce for pastas. I'm currently going with this method, but I will have to wait for grocery rights before I can do anything really noticeable. I have been showing how I can prepare every ingredient they use in a better way(roasted veggies instead of microwave, fixing their dry and tasteless meat), so that is slowly getting through to them. The owner didn't want to give up the restaurant depot card(yet), but mentioned he would reimburse out-of-pocket groceries... (me being broke, this smells scammy, and again lowest pay ever). They have had bad experience with cooks, so they say ok to me fairly often, but its usually a "conceptual" ok. Being patient is grating, especially because the kitchen needs to be turned around today, not next month. The owners like me, but I think they are still surprised by my dynamic personality when it comes up. I got a good stare from the owner the other day, after being annoyed with the way he just stands there talking to me while I'm cooking. "-oh, hey we usually just heat the sauce in the microwave, the guy who cooks breakfast on one day of the week is real particular about 'his' nonstick pans" to which I replied without looking up, "well I guess if he says anything to me I'll just slap him across the face." This Thursday, I am considering asking for grocery cash so I can run a sandwich special. Mostly as an interest assessment, and to check on my autonomy level this week.
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May 6, 2014 20:06
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That's no good. I know enough to count on the random days people will quit.
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May 7, 2014 08:02
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Benefits... I don't even know what those are at this point. One day...
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May 8, 2014 13:10
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Is there an app for this? I want a bartender to be able to send me electronic tickets from her phone to my phone in the kitchen. Like a POS + receipt system, but paperless. Or, the same phone to phone set up that can run to a standard ticket printer? There might be other ways to do this, like through google docs, I don't really know. EDIT: I'm looking through these: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=restaurant%20pos&c=apps Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 07:50 on May 16, 2014 |
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May 16, 2014 07:43
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Gosh people. We are a small bar, one bartender per shift and one cook for Thursday - Saturday. The kitchen was created with old or free stuff(oven and low boy were free, and need repairs), by someone who has never cooked at a restaurant. I'm trying to make it a 'real' kitchen, because everything felt really weird when I worked my first shift. As of now, the one bartender delivers a 1/3rd sheet of paper with the menu printed on it and numbers written next to the items, sometimes a name. I'm used to tickets and a hanger, so a pile of large illegible pieces of paper taking room on my cutting board is annoying. One of the bartenders knows someone who sells the ipad pos kits, and the owner will apparently spring for them... In the mean time I made a better ticket/menu that makes more sense(to me). Let's talk negotiations. If the owner says he can't afford to pay more than 8/hr, but he says yes to a tabletop fryer, pos system... I mean, I started in order to help them out and to get me out of the house, but I have been acting as a consultant while just dealing with bad equipment during my cooking shifts. I am willing to give it my all, but I should higher pay and I think they can actually afford it. Also, I never seem to be left alone in the kitchen. One of the owners will stay around to help with dishes, which I'd rather just do myself if I can be left alone. The rest of the time they talk to me or prep a few main items, prepared in not good ways, but they don't want me to make certain things. Is this a way to make it seem like I'm not able to run the entire kitchen? How do I explain that I definitely have that capability? If they pay me more and let me take over all aspects of the kitchen, everything will improve and they won't have to step foot in the building. Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 21:30 on May 17, 2014 |
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May 17, 2014 21:17
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Wroughtirony posted:You're not going to get anything without asking. You say you're acting as a consultant, but you also say you want to be running the entire kitchen. You've already agreed to work for eight bucks an hour. Of course they're going to buy a fryer before they give you a raise- a fryer is an investment in the future of the place, where you have put yourself in a position where your mission and commitment are unclear. If you want to commit to the place and change your job description, have a sit-down with the owners and tell them as much. Tell them you want more responsibility and more money. Don't wait for them to read your mind and give you what you think you deserve. As for the owners always being in the kitchen, my suggestion is to stop reading so much into it and get over it. It's their restaurant and their kitchen. That's the type of thing that will eat you up inside if you let it- better to just let it go. s'all good. My plan is to think about it more during my hiking trip for the next few days. I want to basically give a briefing to the owners on some different things that are happening, possibilities, and negotiating a new job title and wage based on the work I already do and the work I could do for them. I spoke to one of the owners a little bit today about changes in the kitchen and how I could make better changes but I need more autonomy to be able to do it effectively(i.e. getting the groceries myself instead of being surprised with what's in the kitchen).
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May 18, 2014 11:23
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Mithross posted:The owner of my restaurant is giving me $100 to quit drinking and energy drinks for a month, in what I can only assume is some sort of weird incentivized torture plan. I'm giving it a shot, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate every minute. Is there a typo here?
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May 26, 2014 18:38
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:You REALLY need to care about ticket times and % orders complete on time. Yeah. I'm not in fine-dining right now, but I still think bar patrons deserve their tacos nearly instantly. And its possible, with efficient systems designed for fast plates. Giving customers the best plate possible is implied when you accept their money. Fast, consistent, and pretty plates make the most money.
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May 31, 2014 08:55
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Hay guyz My bar and a bar across the street are hosting some 100 moped riders from around the country soon. I'm a vegetarian, and I assume the mopedders from CA at least will prefer some vegetarian options, and options for people with diet restrictions. What kind of labels can I put on this currently? Gluten free, vegan, etc? Mini veggie flautas: Sauteed peppers, zukes, squash, roasted corn, black beans, garlic, safflower oil in there somewhere; rolled in smallish purple agave corn tortillas; fried in canola oil... or maybe baked; I'll serve like 3-4 of these little flautas in a standard plastic fry basket with thin avo slices over each one, s+p, cilantro, slice of lime, and salsa in a ramekin. Anything I could do differently? Different oil? Or should I just use little sizzle plates for each order and turn up my oven? I am mostly thinking out loud, but I welcome reasons to avoid frying well prepared veggies. I generally use canola oil for frying and safflower for everything else, but I could possibly get enough for this special. Some things, like safflower oil prices, make the owners go noooo! I'm probably going to make red beans and rice too. The most genius, simple, cheap vegan dish ever. A bar in the Marigny in Nola had red beans and rice nights. They gave bowls for tips, which I think is a good tradition to keep.
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Jun 6, 2014 22:41
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Smash up half the black beans to hold everything together, get a little cumin in the veg mix, and make an avocado mousse instead of slices. Just blend in a vitamix or robot coupe with lemon juice and s&p. I'll add some cumin and cayenne, and I like the black beans idea, that will make things more simple during prep. I could make an avo crema/aioli(lime juice, s+p, safflower, cilantro) to take care of the accoutrements. I'll see how it looks today~ The toss-up on that for me is presentation vs efficiency. With what I get paid though, efficiency is the better option. I'm going to ask the owners for a ton of baskets and other lightweight easy to clean plate-things. I feel pretty silly selling a heavy ceramic plate with one small corn tortilla taco on it.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:16
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Uncle Lizard posted:Pet peeve of mine, but if you want to call them flautas use flour tortillas. If you're dead set on corn tortillas call them taquitos. Not to be a dick or anything, I just happen to be partially Mexican ;-) haha, oh yeah its cool, just a memory slip. I grew up in Texas, so not knowing what to call them was confusing me. All day I couldn't think of the right word, it was just beneath the surface. My buddy that bartends reminded me as I was making them and I felt enlightenment, "ohhhh yeahhhhh!" The owner and her son(the bartender) are Mexican, and I'm white, so I am learning about the details. Early in the shift I made some prototypes for me, the owner, and the bartender. We were pretty satisfied. Sauces are essential though. I'm waiting til next week to make the avo aioli. I thought I had some kind of purple tortillas, but I was mistaken. They probably would have looked like turd logs anyway. We did have agave corn tortillas hidden away and they are delicious. I steamed the tortillas like crazy so they wouldn't crack, filled them with veg, rolled them, and then set them on a flat top to seal the edge. Next week I'll prep them, lay them all on a sheet tray so I can seal a bunch at once in the oven, then store them in the fridge. I'll steam them on the flat-top for ticket orders and serve 4 with salsa and avo aioli in ramekins. We have a pot-lid thing that is basically a deep bowl with a wooden handle coming out of the top. I use it like a little steam oven on the flat-top, everything heats evenly. One taquito was fried for science, and it was good, but the other system is more simple and still meets my goals. Smashing half the black beans into the mixture before taking it out of the saute pan helped a lot. The bean mash basically filled in all the open areas, which lead to a tighter roll. Thanks Chef De Cuisinart Later in the shift I was bored so I started on a project I've been thinking about. I want to sell ice cream sandwiches during the summer, so I'm learning how to make ice cream. I'm starting with simple custard recipes to practice. Here's some examples of what I want to make: Snickerdoodle cookies with horchata ice cream Nilla wafers with banana custard ice cream. I would have to make the nilla wafers, so that they can be large enough for an ice cream sandwich. Don't know how to do that... yet. They're basically sugar cookies I guess. Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 10:07
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Simoom posted:alright time to go in for trailing at a kitchen i am seriously underqualified for...got my winning smile on Good luck. I got better at cooking by staging at places that expected better. That's pretty much the only way to improve, unless you have money for a poo poo ton of groceries and equipment, or if you have money for JWU or CIA. This is kinda late for your interview, but just be honest about your goals. Your Chef will always know what your weaknesses are and you will be trained by the other line cooks regardless of your skills. I usually say this in an interview, "My goals are to learn how to cook, and I need money." Most of my stages were set up after walking in to a restaurant, asking for Chef, and saying, "Hi Chef, I'm a line cook and I need a job, here's my resume. When could I stage? I have my knife and a hat in my bag." Most of the Chefs I have worked with can relate to being broke, and they always tell me to never go to culinary school. "We'll just teach you everything" has been said to me a few times. My best advice for you in this time of new kitchens: Take notes on everything they teach you. I have never worked with someone who took notes. This means they think they are smart. They aren't smart, they're stupid. I can memorize most of what I've learned, but I also get to review the notepads I have been filling out since my dishwasher/smoothie days 2 years ago. When I was a kitchen manager, I made it mandatory that new hires carry: a pocket-sized waterproof notepad(provided by me), 2x perma pens, 2x perma markers. Then I told them to go to the recipe binder and write down *these* recipes so they'll have a quick reference guide. The first time they forget their notepad I call them out on whatever I can, "oh man, you mean you can't even remember the three ingredients of this thing that I told you yesterday?" If I was a mean person I would say, "You know we're an 'at-will' employer right? WRITE EVERYTHING I SAY DOWN." ha Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 22:10
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Do Hilton hotels drug test? In Colorado?
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Jun 10, 2014 00:12
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Vegetable Melange posted:Almost certainly, with a high risk group like the kitchen. Alternatively, if you don't get high at work and plan on keeping it that way take the test and if you pop hot deny everything. If your roommates smoke it could trigger a false positive (" "), but don't be the shitbag who smokes in the alley for obvious reasons. Cool, gonna go with this plan. Its tricky having a red card here. edit: I mean, I would have to stop for like 3 weeks to pass anyway.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:11
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giacomo posted:We started doing brunch last week. Over the last two Sundays, we've lost ~40% of our kitchen staff, including the assistant km. I warned the GM it would happen when they over worked their cooks (leaving at 1am, being back at 8am) but he seemed to believe in the willpower. I know the extreme hours and long shifts are normal for the industry, but given that there's a decent market for good line cooks and chefs, this isn't too surprising. They start with gas lighting. They had it worse, no you don't get the day off because you're "vomiting every 20 mins", etc gently caress owners/chefs like that. They don't deserve good cooks. Clo-opens at Butcher were more of a necessary evil, and I only got one every week or two. We were paid well and tipped out though. Isaac Asimov fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 20:39
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Errant Gin Monks posted:For those of you who went to culinary arts school I have a few questions. Drawing from what my ex-girlfriend's capabilities were after her JWU dietitian program: 1 You could probably jump right into Kitchen Manager or Sous positions. Or a high-paying line cook gig easily(>$12/hr). 2 Yes definitely. My ex made a menu for my birthday once in like 5 minutes after asking me some questions. 3 Totally depends on your motivation and your systems really. Being a line cook can be pretty demanding and stressful. 4 Salary, not sure... google? 5 The only limitation my ex had was that she didn't have money to open her own place. She grew up working in a cafe where she had free reign, but she didn't have experience as a pro saute line cook. So that was new to her when she got a job at a big restaurant. She is smart though, and highly motivated. Most people are only one of those or neither!
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Jun 13, 2014 22:40
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