/industry/ Thread - Pre-Dinner Rush Edition

>Having a smoke?
>Prep set?
>Banged any servers lately?
>Industry stories/tips in general

Newish cook here (1 year experience on a line) but I have a strong passion to learn and to create something new every shift. My current place isn't for experimentation, but it is a good joint with good pay. Should I look for the ample spots in fine dining around my city and get out of upscale casual?

with your experience they won't let you do a lot of experiments anywhere. Offer to cook the staff meals or something if you wanna dick around with ideas. Cook more for yourself, at home, if you want to experiment.

Employ yourself where you think you will be able to learn the most. Find a restaurant where the exec chef is really fucking good, and lives in the kitchen and learn from them.

I meant experiments by a constantly changing menu/ingredients/seasons. I cook 30- 40 hours a week at home between baking and projects and dinner. Your last sentence decided it for me. My current chef is arguably lazier than me.

Where do you live? Most major cities have at least one restaurant with a seasonal or rotating menu.

Taking a break in the middle of service. 1st year apprentice with no prior experience and I've been at his restaurant for four weeks. Really loving the industry.

user, you're just starting out. Stay where you are if you're getting paid decently, have agreeable hours, and you're seriously learning something. When one of those three things changes, then it's time to look elsewhere, keep trying to go upscale but don't let your reach exceed your grasp. If this is your passion, and it sounds like it is, always be somewhere where you're learning. It's not all about "being able to experiment"; in some restaurants you'll learn a lot about efficient prep, about how servers are managed, about how to write a menu, and about how make interesting and tasty dishes from cheap ingredients.

I've worked in plenty of places from shit to fine dining as a server. I have a lot of sympathy for the kitchen staff, they are often frustrated because they are simply working at the wrong place, or their chef is a dick, or they aren't taking advantage of that environment's learning opportunities.

can no one else smoke during their shift? Everytime i do it like slows me down.

I don't smoke, and I despise my fellow cooks who break several times just to smoke.

Just happened tonight:
>Work at a cheese shoppe/restaurant
>Cheese and charcurerie, as well as grilled cheeses & mac and cheeses
>Fatty customer orders what is essentially a BLT with brie
>Make the sandwich, put it in the window
>Server: "They just told me they can't have butter lettice"
>Roll my eyes and take the lettuce off
>Send it out
>Minutes later, take a peek at the floor
>Whale is staring at their sandwich, hasn't touched it
>Whatever, keep on cookin'
>Server later approaches me and tells me why customer was acting weird
>Complained that their BLT "wasn't hot"
>Server has to explain that a BLT is not a hot sandwich
>Manatee seems satisfied, proceeds to inhale sandwich, then says afterward that "it would have been better hot"

I used to work for Olive Garden, got fired for being drunk and high on xanax. Apparently I burned a few meals and spilled a bunch of shit

I smoke when i get the chance but i dont hide in the pantry looking at my phone every 15 minutes so it balances out

Dartavius is that you?

for me i get call ins once a week.
it's expected
if i have to pull a double out of the blue knowing i open the next day
>a joint, a shot of something strong, and a cigarette
I can tackle anything ahead of me

>having a smoke

Quit fucking smoking you retarded fuck. It ruins your palate, makes you smell like ass, winds you and in general wastes shitloads of time. The rest of us are here to fucking work not stand around with our dicks in our hands while you take your 5th 10 minute break of the day because you're addicted to a street legal drug.

Get sloshed and do your fix on your own fucking time there's tops to push out you goddamn entitled cunts

>Taking a break in the middle of service.
Get back to fucking work you Donkey

Fucking the hot bartender. Been here cooking for a year, the entire staff told me it'll never happen. They all hatin', but IDC because I made it happen.

Are you me?

I just moved up to the line from washing dishes. Problem is my knife skills suck and no one seems willing to teach me anything. Any tips?

>knife skills

Find a copy of Jacques Pepin's "la technique" or one of it's many reprints. Get some cheap-ass veggies and practice.

Oh, and make sure you knife is sharp. Dull knives are not only unsafe, but make your work a lot more difficult.

>a
>singular
not my fault your coworkers spend half their day with those breaks. Go over their heads and have them disciplined if your manager gives half a shit.

And I would work circles around you despite your ignorant, autistic assumptions.

Been dishwashing for a month at a fairly decent place but the kitchen is fucking filthy.We're constantly busy so during a day i will barely get 20 minutes to try to clean the rest of the kitchen. Is this build up kind of normal for the summer season? I always thought a place got all the chefs and KP's doing a deep clean once a week but thats not happening here.

came for stories about fucking coworkers, thanks user

Our place is pretty good, it can get filthy if the chefs are rushed off their feet but generally everything looks neat and tidy before closing.

I think our kitchen has it pretty easy though, and isn't fucked by management. So everyone has the time to do it

literally everyone in the UK who works in kitchens or as servers smokes

One of the faglords in the kitchen threw a hissy fit and walked out of work mid shift today

Why are you chefs such prima donnas?

Butcher nigga here

>Start off with internship at small shop

>Very first day, things are going swell

>Helping the butcher sheet out loins

>Asks me to get the trim together while he goes to the freezer so we can get the block cleared off

>Get all the pieces together and toss them into the garbage, get to cleaning up the block

>He comes back. "Hey user where's the trimmings?"

>He has a tub in his hands labeled "beef trim"

>He wanted me to get it all together so he could put it in storage

>Never kept any trim from the cutting before this point

>He can tell from my eyes what I did

>Want to throw myself onto a knife I'm so embarrassed

It was just a handful or two and he didn't consider it a big deal but I'll probably cringe at the memory until I'm senile

Fucking up at the start is the worst. People don't usually really mind but that makes it worse somehow

How do you burn something at Olive Garden if microwaves have visible timers?

Why would you willingly work in arguably the least worker friendly part of the tertiary sector of the economy

like literally

Because I have a fetish for picking bone dust out from under my fingernails?

desperation mostly

they have to deal with busboys and servers and mexicans which are the most low and unskilled of all the "trades". a stoned 16 year old or a downy could do your job.

I imagine it begins to grate on the only people doing actual work in the damn building. I don't tip because you people are peons.

Because it's better than stocking shelves at any store

...Is it, though?

I've made many bad decisions up till now at age 29 so I have no experience ergo I'm an Unterschicht and I've always been a misfit.

I'm a 30 year old ex-heroin addict with no other job experience besides kitchens. I pretty much have no other option. I'm in a really good kitchen with a great crew, so I don't even give a shit at the moment. I actually enjoy my job and going to work. The pay is kind of shit though.

Got burned by oil at work, you boys wanna see?

>the least worker friendly part of the tertiary sector of the economy

heres your (you)

also, is an ex drug addict/alcoholic with only a high school education working in an affluent area making ~30- 35/hr not worker friendly? I do day trading on my off time and have long term funds securing for my retirement. Can take vacations whenever i want. The only downside is i have to suck customers dick, like any other job. lol can you be more jealous?

cocaine + bartenders = bliss

Foh pls leave