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That is one of my favorite books and put me off ever getting into the industry despite really enjoying cooking for people. His descriptions of the poo poo hours, poo poo people, toll on mental and physical health, terrible atmosphere for anybody with addiction issues, etc are so vivid. I can't imagine reading it and thinking it sounds great unless you are committed to that as a career and having a calling or need or whatever to be that person ans live that life.
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Mar 4, 2023 17:00
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fuckingtest posted:Are you the same SocketWrench who described hopper cars loaded with fermented relish being thrown out because Norfolk Southern can't get its poo poo together enough to have them picked up? That mad me LOL. Yup, the same. Not so much hoppers. We'd cut the stuff in the plant, package it in 50 gallon barrels and load them on freight cars to send to Florida where they decided to set up a dedicated relish setup, that way we could dedicate all the lines inside to regular pickles and peppers and stuff for grocery and food service. The freight cars would end up sitting around a yard somewhere for a month or two and be rotten by the time it got to Florida.
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Mar 4, 2023 17:33
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The free market finds the most optimal solutions
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Mar 4, 2023 17:40
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I worked for years in restaurants and have like, now shocking stories besides the go go dancer one I shared before. Apart from a few fights that were broken up pretty quick and working at one Greek place that served microwaved frozen moussaka for 25 bux, nothing comes to mind. Just chill hangs in between rushes with chill people. The money sucks but you could do a hell of a lot worse than the restaurant biz.
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Mar 4, 2023 17:51
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A lot also depends on ownership. If the guy who owns the place is a cheap piece of poo poo that never wants to spend money on anything and whose “experience” was washing dishes for a couple years in high school, it is unlikely the place runs like a professional kitchen (and the profits reflect it) Or worse, the ones that only were ever bartenders.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:37
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Outrail posted:Doubtful, a food processing plant can't afford to cat scan every batch. Heinz used to be one of the major employers in my hometown, and tomato processing was a big deal in the area more generally. I heard multiple stories from people who worked there that snakes and various rodents regularly appeared on the tomato intake conveyor belt, and that there was a small percentage allowance for, ahem, "foreign material" in each batch. I miss driving past there during tomato season, I always thought it smelled nice but some people would complain that it made downtown smell like vinegar. I spent quite a few years working for a small hippie organic farm and supplying fruit and produce to high-end restaurants, and that put me off from ever going deeper into the industry. It really sticks with you when a James Beard award-winning/Michelin star holding restaurant strings you out for three months over a single box of figs. It was probably a simple mistake on the part of whatever sous chef was picking up that morning, but still, these people are supposed to be detail-oriented, and the margins are pretty bad at every stage of the food business. The prestige gets tarnished fast when you're chasing invoices. The most successful operators tended to be the most ruthless and assholish, with a tendency to string out their suppliers when they could get away with it. "Nice-person" chefs trying to strike out on their own generally got ground up quick. The most established and successful restauranteurs at that level also tended to own their building and have some space to sublease as well; the experience definitely cemented in my head the idea that any successful restaurant is really a real-estate play. I also became skeptical whenever somebody started empire-building; they would get a bit of national name-recognition and a cookbook published and then start opening multiple restaurants. One guy basically singlehandedly tried to make the neighborhood around his first restaurant a dining destination, although last I checked that had turned out fairly successfully. Another outfit was a bakery that got a bit of local name recognition and decided to expand to LA and loving Seoul (??? I don't remember any of the proprietors being Korean), it seemed like the pandemic ended up pushing back on their ambitions rather harshly.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:46
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istewart posted:Heinz used to be one of the major employers in my hometown, and tomato processing was a big deal in the area more generally. I heard multiple stories from people who worked there that snakes and various rodents regularly appeared on the tomato intake conveyor belt, and that there was a small percentage allowance for, ahem, "foreign material" in each batch. I miss driving past there during tomato season, I always thought it smelled nice but some people would complain that it made downtown smell like vinegar. Leamington? gently caress Heinz.
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Mar 4, 2023 19:08
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istewart posted:I heard multiple stories from people who worked there that snakes and various rodents regularly appeared on the tomato intake conveyor belt, and that there was a small percentage allowance for, ahem, "foreign material" in each batch. There was a board on the wall next to the handwash sink at Vlasic where they'd pin baggies with stuff that got returned after it was found in jars by consumers. Mostly random nuts and/or bolts, had a cellphone once, some keys, one of the plastic gloves workers wore, and a plunger the toppers used to pack cucumbers into jars. How the metal got past the metal detectors no one knows. I could see how it made it past the inspectors though. Jars flying past their station at a dozen a second it's hard to catch, and after a bit starts to hypnotize you.
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Mar 4, 2023 20:18
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istewart posted:Another outfit was a bakery that got a bit of local name recognition and decided to expand to LA and loving Seoul (??? I don't remember any of the proprietors being Korean), it seemed like the pandemic ended up pushing back on their ambitions rather harshly. I've heard of a number of places doing this, expanding to some bizarre place for only one extra location. I worked back-of-house for a couple of years at a well-known niche cafe whose owners got rich by being the only Canadian distributor of a particularly vulgar card game for edgelord incels. They announced that they were expanding to the States, and picked Tempe, AZ of all places (I think they have other locations now but that was the only one for several years). Always wondered why that was, my best guess is 'lax labour laws/low minimum wage' because that company was always run by scumbags.
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Mar 4, 2023 20:49
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:That is one of my favorite books and put me off ever getting into the industry despite really enjoying cooking for people. That Toronto restaurant newbie who ran his place into the ground began his article by mentioning his “well thumbed copy of Kitchen Confidential,” and like you said he seems to have skipped over the chapters about not opening a restaurant, how doing so is incredibly hard for experienced folk, and what happens when amateurs try anyway.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:18
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No he was different, you see. Failure is for other people
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Mar 5, 2023 00:21
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Magical thinking and opening a restaurant really seems to go hand in hand.
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Mar 5, 2023 20:51
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Seems like the best way to open a restaurant is to let a schmuck renovate the property, develop a menu, hire staff for you and run it for about a year to see if has any customers. Then you just swoop in and buy the business once he is looking for a way out.
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Mar 6, 2023 02:17
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Space Kablooey posted:Seems like the best way to open a restaurant is to let a schmuck renovate the property, develop a menu, hire staff for you and run it for about a year to see if has any customers. Then you just swoop in and buy the business once he is looking for a way out. Yes and no. See, one of the big reasons restaurants fail is because somebody swiped up a lease/building for cheap without stopping to think maaaaaaybe there’s a reason it was so cheap. A better idea is to find a location that doesn’t suck and go buy his almost brand new kitchen for half of what he paid for it. E: in most major cities there is going to be at least one business, if not several, that do exactly this because the failed owner needs whatever he can recoup before the landlord locks him out. Coasterphreak fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Mar 6, 2023 |
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Mar 6, 2023 02:25
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I think people envision the super yacht set as all young and beautiful, having cocaine fueled suck festivals on the high seas. The reality is that most children of the very wealthy are podgy paste-lords who keep their tshirts on in the pool. And if you do see a boat loaded with bikini clad babes, chances are they're being paid for. Many of the boats I worked on were owned by people in IT adjacent roles and they were just overweight dorks in crocs. The idea that wealthy people are hot is a pretty easily dispelled myth.
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Mar 6, 2023 06:53
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So that must be the reason im poor 
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Mar 6, 2023 07:25
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Well there are some people that are wealthy mostly because they’re hot
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Mar 6, 2023 07:31
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Extra row of tits posted:You don’t get food poisoning in an hour. There isn't one single kind of food poisoning. The particular type you're thinking of may take days to incubate, but Staph can have you exploding out both ends in 30-60 minutes and then once an hour or so for the next day. I've had to rush to the bathroom to puke before I've even finished the meal because of staph. DicktheCat posted:I can't imagine that you're anything approaching normal if you can afford not only a yacht, but to staff it. Eh, even staffing a yacht falls into "successful small business owner" range of affordable in many cases. (Think Dealership owner levels of successful, not coffee shop owner). It's very, very important to understand that most large yachts are operated as a money making charter business when the owner isn't on board. Owners have to schedule their vacations on their own yachts just like any random schlub. They're basically "landlords" renting out their sea-going second home. One of the YouTube channels I follow captained a yacht that chartered at $150k per week in the Mediterranean off season. The new owners charter it for $135k a week in the Florida/Caribbean off season. cynic posted:I can't remember how big/expensive the yachts were, but enough they needed ~10 staff and had a galley that was bigger than my brothers one in his apartment which sounds pricey. The charter I mentioned above for $150k above had capacity for 8 staff. You tip charter captains directly which is an extra $15,000 low end in Europe to $30,000 high end in the US on top that $150k per week. Captain distributes the tips; you don't tip crew directly. Yeah, awesome for the deckhands with no power, right? Another channel I watch has a husband and wife duo building a custom boat to live on, but they're designing it for maximum charter ability* and will crew the yacht on charters. (*Cabin layouts to improve guest experience and lots of technical legal changes to get certified as a charter) MisterOblivious fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Mar 6, 2023 |
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Mar 6, 2023 12:03
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Mister Speaker posted:I've heard of a number of places doing this, expanding to some bizarre place for only one extra location. I worked back-of-house for a couple of years at a well-known niche cafe whose owners got rich by being the only Canadian distributor of a particularly vulgar card game for edgelord incels. They announced that they were expanding to the States, and picked Tempe, AZ of all places (I think they have other locations now but that was the only one for several years). Always wondered why that was, my best guess is 'lax labour laws/low minimum wage' because that company was always run by scumbags. Ok, so this post is on topic unlike the last ramble. One of the better BBQ places in the Minneapolis metro was traditionally a chain way the gently caress out in the suburbs. It's a bougie suburb full of corporate headquarters and regional office branches. A bunch of people from Texas that had to fly into Minnesota for regular meetings and they got so pissed about the lack of Texas BBQ anywhere near the MN office that they pooled their money and bought a franchise. https://bakersribs.com/our-story
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Mar 6, 2023 12:10
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Coasterphreak posted:A lot also depends on ownership. If the guy who owns the place is a cheap piece of poo poo that never wants to spend money on anything and whose “experience” was washing dishes for a couple years in high school, it is unlikely the place runs like a professional kitchen (and the profits reflect it) yeah also, a lot of the kitchen confidential-type stuff is very new york/big city specific too in that sense as well. opening a restaurant in a small town or different city goes completely differently I guess? my in-laws ran a well-loved and profitable bento shop in taipei for like 30 years and the wildest thing to me is that they started the restaurant before they even learned how to cook. back to bourdain real quick, in that roadrunner documentary, it sounded like he kind of regretted writing those memoirs because it pretty much changed his life over night and not always for the better, sadly.
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Mar 6, 2023 12:20
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Poohs Packin posted:I think people envision the super yacht set as all young and beautiful, having cocaine fueled suck festivals on the high seas. Misconceptions of wealth and what's best abound. Lobster used to be a throw away catch only good for the ultra poor, prisoners and fertilizer.
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Mar 6, 2023 12:23
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Coasterphreak posted:A lot also depends on ownership. If the guy who owns the place is a cheap piece of poo poo that never wants to spend money on anything and whose “experience” was washing dishes for a couple years in high school, it is unlikely the place runs like a professional kitchen (and the profits reflect it) At least 3 of my former coworkers from back when I bartended started their own restaurants at some point in time after they left. None of those places lasted a year. One of the two brothers who owned the restaurant my mom worked for when I was a kid smoked an insane amount of cigarettes' to deal with the stress of keeping the place going when they first were getting started, the other dealt with having to dedicate 15+ hours a day to the job by putting a cheap mattress in the basement and loving half the waitstaff at one point or another during slow times. They were pretty successful and the place is still going strong even now but the lifestyle almost certainly was why one of the brothers died in his early 50s and the other has no relationship with his kids or ex.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:23
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Deki posted:One of the two brothers who owned the restaurant my mom worked for when I was a kid smoked an insane amount of cigarettes' to deal with the stress of keeping the place going when they first were getting started, the other dealt with having to dedicate 15+ hours a day to the job by putting a cheap mattress in the basement and loving half the waitstaff at one point or another during slow times. I'm sure this contributed to the harmonious working and stress free working environment.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:30
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SocketWrench posted:Misconceptions of wealth and what's best abound. Lobster used to be a throw away catch only good for the ultra poor, prisoners and fertilizer. Not to mention lack of effort to keep it fresh.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:40
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Outrail posted:I'm sure this contributed to the harmonious working and stress free working environment. My mom thought they were really good bosses even if the one was a sleazeball who took way too long to realize she wasn't interested. She was pretty broken up when the younger one died.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:52
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NoiseAnnoys posted:yeah also, a lot of the kitchen confidential-type stuff is very new york/big city specific too in that sense as well. opening a restaurant in a small town or different city goes completely differently I guess? my in-laws ran a well-loved and profitable bento shop in taipei for like 30 years and the wildest thing to me is that they started the restaurant before they even learned how to cook Is that really that much of a surprise? People who open restaurants because they think they cook real good crash and burn immediately most of the time, so cooking ability evidently isn't the important factor here. If anything I would expect they'd have a leg up over the home cooks trying to start their own restaurants, since they wouldn't have to unlearn bad habits picked up at home.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:54
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COPE 27 posted:Leamington? Yeah, that was my guess as well. Is the giant tomato-shaped information booth still there?
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Mar 6, 2023 17:41
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:That is one of my favorite books and put me off ever getting into the industry despite really enjoying cooking for people. that book completely changed how i approach work and creativity and i'm a musician who's never had any inclination of becoming a chef (though i do cook as a hobby). so many of the same things apply, the poo poo hours, the exploitation, the constant presence of drug and alcohol abuse, etc but really it's his mentality that really sunk into me and made me commit to my work.
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Mar 6, 2023 18:13
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Really any job you can do hella drugs at and gently caress all ur coworkers if ur sneaky about it
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Mar 6, 2023 19:46
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Nooner posted:Really any job you can do hella drugs at and gently caress all ur coworkers if ur sneaky about it Paging SA's cleanroom workers
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Mar 6, 2023 19:52
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Extra Large Marge posted:I worked at a seafood market/takeout place in High School and College. It's funny comparing High School, where no one was trusted with anything more dangerous than safety scissors, to my High School job, where I was given immediate access to professionally sharpened knifes and a restaurant deep fryer. As a second job I worked at giant eagle seafood counter in pennsylvania. A lot of the flatfishes like flounder and halibut have worms that midway through the shift start coming out so you ahve to keep your eye on them and pull them out throughout the day. Kinda gross.
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Mar 6, 2023 20:02
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ManBoyChef posted:As a second job I worked at giant eagle seafood counter in pennsylvania. A lot of the flatfishes like flounder and halibut have worms that midway through the shift start coming out so you ahve to keep your eye on them and pull them out throughout the day. Kinda gross. Have you thought about collecting the worms and selling them as “spaghetti of the sea”?
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Mar 6, 2023 20:03
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I was under the impression that various types of worms get ground up into food on purpose anyways
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Mar 6, 2023 20:06
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Klyith posted:It's also very much not all of them though. My sister and many of the people she knows / worked with kinda hate the book because there was a whole wave of assholes who read it and showed up to the kitchen like "here I am, where's my cocaine and fuckbunny waitresses?" and they were not Anthony Bourdain. (She worked for a chef who won a Beard award, so yes this was upscale high pressure cooking. Though not NYC level.) This is extremely true. So many people that couldn't boil water thought they could walk into any kitchen and just be a chef and that it was exactly like the book. They would generally leave when they realized it is a lot of hard work and you need to actually learn how to clean first by washing dishes. Then they would have a hard time maintaining speed at prep. It really freaking sucked because every time we had a position to fill you would have a bunch of these fucks applying just assuming that it was easy. I'm pretty charismatic and have definitely partied with the waitstaff on many occassions but seriously you learn early on that you don't poo poo where you sleep because if it goes south oftentimes it makes work a struggle not to mention people find out and then the other servers think there is some favoritism going on.
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Mar 6, 2023 20:11
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SocketWrench posted:Misconceptions of wealth and what's best abound. Lobster used to be a throw away catch only good for the ultra poor, prisoners and fertilizer. same with chicken wings. Its actually an interesting story. There are two competing bar/restaurants in Buffalo NY that claim they created the recipe for fried split wing pieces covered in 30 second sauce.
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Mar 6, 2023 20:20
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ManBoyChef posted:same with chicken wings. Its actually an interesting story. There are two competing bar/restaurants in Buffalo NY that claim they created the recipe for fried split wing pieces covered in 30 second sauce. Back in the early nineties, all the bars I hung out in had ten cent wing specials and dollar draft domestic pints. I sure miss those days.
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Mar 7, 2023 02:30
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I can’t get over that guy who assumed that because he was a decent home cook, opening his own restaurant would be easy. He burned through every line of credit available to him and got family and friends to put their own money into it. He just started turning a profit and was on the verge of turning it around when he decided to celebrate by closing the restaurant for a week-long break. They lost all the momentum they’d spent months building up and closed their doors not long after. I’ll link the article here when I can find it. It was amazing, watching someone make every possible mistake, learn how to succeed the hard way from bitter experience, then poo poo the bed at the last minute anyway.
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Mar 7, 2023 02:48
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Its been linked in the thread
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Mar 7, 2023 03:09
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poo poo how could I miss that
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Mar 7, 2023 06:39
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TotalLossBrain posted:Paging SA's cleanroom workers there was a confined space next to the Getinge dry heat oven that cooked glass at the last plant I worked at that I know, for a fact, at least 3 children were conceived in while I worked there. The other side of the wall was the aseptic core.
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Mar 7, 2023 07:52
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