You can only post in this thread if you've worked in a kitchen

Damn. How are you adjusting to life on the outside?

there are no female dishwashers, FAGGOT
you're a gay homosexual FAGGOT

My first job was as a dishwashwer at a mexican restaurant owned by an Italian. I lied about my age (I was only 15) because you had to be 16 to work at that time. Had to really bust ass when it got busy.

Worked my way through college at a pizza slut. It was nice because I got good enough to where the manager would leave me in charge and go fuck off somewhere. I was banging one of the waitsluts and she would keep a pitcher filled with beer in the walk in so I could keep a buzz going the whole time. Also, even when the manager was there, he didn't give a shit if we went out back and smoked a joint during breaks.

Worked at a little Caesars for almost 6 years on and off. Some of the most fun times and some of the shittiest times were had

I've known 3 out of about 20 that used to work at this big club I did prep for.

What, you put your dick in a hose or something?

>Porting/Dishwashing/Food Prep solo in a popular seafront restaurant on a saturday night, 12 hour shift, feel like death throughout the whole thing, this is a regular occurance
>Get brought tequila, beer and really good seafood during my shift all the time

I don't know if I love or hate this job.

>work in a movie theater diner kitchen microwaving burgers
>get fired and go work in an actual kitchen making $5 an hour more

How do you lie about your age when it comes to a job?

Doesn't the department of labor give a shit? Or did you work under the table?

Shit wasn't networked back then. You had to have a ssn, but they didn't cross reference with other departments to check ages and stuff. As long as I lied on the application, the owner was in the clear. I think he knew I had lied because I didn't even have a drivers license.

I just started work at a restaurant which doesn't have an ounce of french food on the menu, and not a single FOH/BOH member of staff is french, but everyone says Oui instead of Yes in the kitchen. This can't be normal, right? Am I in a kitchen full of role players?

Prep drone/dishwasher here.
It's alright. It's better than landscaping, for me at least.
My boss is a cool dude who gave everyone holiday bonuses.

Those dickgirls were pretty good.

Just a piece of advice for the youngfags here.
If you like working in a kitchen but hate the aspects of getting a homeless-tier salary and being in a stupidly intense rush all the goddamn time you should consider trades.

That is all.

Studying power engineering here. My work term is in 4 months. Can't wait.

That's retarded. Think your in in a fag kitchen

Made food in a family Italian joint long enough to get pizza arm.

My first job at 14 was as a dishwasher in a cafe (under the table, because I was underage).
I've worked every station in the kitchen, sometimes all at once, like when I was the first employee hired in a startup restaurant, and I literally did EVERYTHING, start to finish working 14-16 hour shifts. I also spent 2 years apprenticing to a chef, and another year apprenticed to a pastry chef.
Luckily, I don't work in kitchens anymore, now I'm on the other side, I write about food and teach about food, but on my own schedules.

Because most of them are first generation Mexican-Americans and having a well paying steady job is seen as a huge deal?

Plus you get to stay up late and sleep in?

>I write about food and teach about food, but on my own schedules.

>TL;DR: I'm a yelper

Source.

Rondo Duo

Theyre hit or miss. I have known some really chill ones and total assholes. They are way to proud of what they do though.

I work in a famous bouchon lyonnais in Lyon, France. I'm a cook.

I HAVE NEVER WORKED IN A KITCHEN AND I AM POSTING ANYWAY

ANARCHO CAPITALISM!

Just got let go last night. Feels bad man.

Gotta find another job or I starve anyone know any jobs in Austin?

I fucking hate working in a kitchen, I really do. Just the other day, I realized I fucking hate everyone I work along with.
>everyone dropping food then picking it back up to use
>nobody being accountable for shit
>get hassled for actually keeping good track on ingredients properly labeling them instead of mindlessly slapping FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY on everything
>cocksuckers dropping fucking food, laughing to eachother then picking it back up then proceding to make a big stink of how I cut lemons

Nothing gets me more fired up than some cunt that thinks that there IS ONLY ONE WAY TO DO SOMETHING IT'S MY WAY OR YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG STOP IT.

I've done my time. I've sworn off working for restaurants for life.
No more.

>worked graveyard shift at bakery
best job ever/decent pay

>worked the line for a while
fun/shit pay

>now working hotel
comfy as fuck/benefits

The one thing I remember most clearly from working as a dishwasher and then a pizza slut slinger was the layers of grease that built up on every exposed orifice and hair. I tried to wash it off with my grandmother's homemade lye soap, but that shit was tenacious. It just took the shedding of skin cells to rid myself of it.

Fry cook, standing by.

Do you cook McChickens???

Currently a dishwasher but my boss want me to being part-time in the kitchen. I have no experience cooking semi-high end food. Any resources to get me prepared for it?

No, overpriced resort burgers.

In your first week you'll realize it's more about copy-catting than knowing how to 'cook'

Please tell more stories. They sound awful.

I went to this shitty restaurant for a dishwasher job and a month later I was a sous chef with the same dish washer salary. Does this happen often?

I would say just bust your ass. That's really all a 'murrican kitchen is. The notion that you're serving high quality food with good prep is completely nullified when you wander over in a slow period and see the fat worthless fucks shoveling in pig trough level "food."

>the jr sous chef keeps making fun of me
>some manlet is full of envy and keeps trying to drag me down
>single handedly emptied the vegetable chiller so it can be fixed
>unpaid overtime
>only one day off
>shift starts in 2 hours but still feel tired
>tfw

My restaurant had some awesome specials for brunch this morning. On my side I had a biscuit with pimento cheese, a brined, breaded and deep fried pork chop, house made ham, house cured bacon (both made my me), a fried egg and then red pepper aioli. Sold this bitch for 16 dollars with a side of skillet potatoes. (which are actually deep fried but whatever)

the other special was pimento cheese, garlic aioli, fries, a fried egg and deep fried country ham.

Christ alive that presentation is shit.

I'm sorry but you ran two specials that are exactly the same? Wtf

That was the staff demo

>plate of fries exactly the same as a pork explosion biscuit

Oh yeah, and bernaise

>unpaid overtime

You mean, hours you get paid for without bonus overtime pay? If you mean you work entire hours wiothout receiving any pay at all then you're a pathetic retard. Why would you ever do that?

Sub carb for starch, sub pork for different pork. Voila, tastes the same. Not saying it's bad food but bad menu design

Dishwasher here.
Some things I've learned:
>Keep your stainless steel surfaces clean and dry, the cooks respect it, and later give you free scraps from the grill
>Try to get all the prep dishwork and cleaning out of the way early in your shift before the dinner rush
>My system for staying clean and relatively dry: keep a clean terry towel on one shoulder, don't be afraid to change the apron before your clothes get soaked, don't use the sprayer unless it's really necessary, let stuff actually dry if you have time
>When you have to clean dirty kitchenware fast the scrubber and brute force is best, not the sprayer
>Hit on the waitresses, esp the bored horny milfs age 30-40, sometimes they'll go for it.
>NEVER just grab a baking sheet or pan that just appeared when you weren't looking
>If it's slow don't get seen standing around, but don't disappear forever either.
>Change out the coiled stainless steel scrubber about every 2-3 shifts, they're actually expensive, but when they get worn out they shred your hands raw
>Avoid throwing liquids out in the garbage bags so they don't weigh 200 lbs at the end of the night
>On Friday/Saturdays you might want to change the trashes halfway through the night
>Never drop a sharp knife in a full sink, cooks should be cleaning their own knives anyway
>If people see that you are reliable and do a good job keep a look out for requests to do odd jobs around the property, maintenance, the lawn, etc, I even helped a cook move once.
>Don't be late, don't steal

and every table got a almond and chocolate ganache macaroon (one per person) at the end of their meal for free.

Thats not how that works at all. I cant help you if you cant tell the difference between the two.

>implying a commis has a say in anything

it's my first time as an actual chef, gotta survive the contract before i can go somewhere else.

I can't help your restaurant for cutting costs by using the same products for all your specials. Lrn2cook more than one flavor

Literally the only same product that was used was pimento cheese and the egg.

Do you seriously not know the difference between country ham, bacon, actual ham or a fucking deep fried pork chop?

Butthurt and boring

all i know is that they're all haram.

Ignorant and trolling.

>allowing yourself to be this badly taken advantage of

Really really pathetic amigo.

Allowing your job to commit straight up wage theft wont get you anywhere. There are plenty of places that you can learn to cook and not be fucked with on a level like that.

Lmao what kind of faggot would want to work in a kitchen? I can barely imagine a more pathetic job.

Slaving away making food for your master customers who just shit it out a few hours later.

You're literally making shit. Shit and piss. Absolutely pathetic.

Meh, creative trade where you can work anywhere in the world. I'm never rushed and make $30 an hour

Dude imagine if you went home 2 hours early and then billed your boss for the time. He'd be fucking furious right? Well, that's how you're being treated when you work for free.

the plate of fries:
>potatoes
>aioli
>fried egg
>pimento cheese

the biscuit:
>potatoes (on the side)
>aioli
>fried egg
>pimento cheese

the other guy was right, you used way too many of the same ingredients in each dish to call them separate specials.
>inb4 garlic vs. red pepper aioli
dude, unless you're making true catalan aioli, it's fucking mayonnaise. "garlic aioli" is a redundancy anyway.

you also have deep fried pork products in both dishes, so that user was not far off the mark in stating that they were (practically) the same.

aaaaand i just noticed you're a new tripfag, so none of this is going to penetrate your thick skull

changing those things took me a little to get used to, i'll blame the fact that somehow every single one of the plastic points on the pumps is broken

i know i know
but to me this is more like a training camp than a job, so once i finish my contract i'll at least have a resume with 2 years experience.

only 6.5months to go before i get a month vacation, then it's only 10 months after that.

Thank you, if I was a customer here I would be very disappointed. It's a blatantly lazy way to beef up a special menu

hoooly shit, how are you not addicted to speed and/or smack yet? most cooks in your shoes i know do both: adderall on the clock, tar at home.

I mean, the flavor profile of both were completely different. Ratios count too. Also yes garlic aioli and our red pepper aioli are two totally different sauces just with the egg yolk/olive oil base, not fucking garlic and mayo or red pepper flakes and mayo. Also, a sprinkle of deep fried COUNTRY ham vs a brine for that pork chop which is totally different than youre probably thinking, actual ham which I personally make as well as house bacon that I also personally make. Plus the the bernaise on the fries. Theyre two totally different dishes even if they share some similar properties.
I mean, it wasnt lazy and they were marketed as new years hang-over specials at a southern contemporary restaurant for brunch. Those are perfect specials for that kind of restaurant.

because he is not a little dopamine addicted hedonist

Ill also note that we sold the shit out of them.

please tell me this is fine dining

Dude the only way I would take that was if I was at some michelin starred or equivalent restaurant.

Yeah, you're definitely speaking truth. Of course I was a dishwasher when I was 15, but everything you say rings true. I never got the hang of not being caked with grease from head to toe, though, although the MILF waitresses never seemed to mind ;)

I feel like people are missing the point of specials.

Which is to use up ingredients you have a lot of/are about to go

Of course they're fucking similar

it's a 5 star restaurant and serves some of the most overpriced stuff in my city, so yeah.

That sucks man. At my place Im certainly lower on the totem pole but I still get 13/hr but then also full benefits and PTO and shit. Are you at least making more than I am?

it's minimum wage for me.
but it's better than nothing,my first job after graduation.

Lmao what a fucking dumbass

Ok that makes it slightly better

if nothing else thats invaluable resume shit, write your own ticket. Hopefully. Just make good use of it.

Was a dishwasher in a hotel kitchen for a couple months.

I don't think I'd ever what to cook professionally.

Holy shit, no, fuck that. If youre making minimum wage you are NOT at a good restaurant.

Do you have your own knives or are there house knives?

Dude thats right on par with the industry at my level AND I get benefits which is almost unheard of. How is that retarded?

He's a prep bitch, not a chef.

>fresh out of college
>under contract
>does the bitch work

Do the math. Either A. He owes them loan/college money from CS, B. He's in an internship with them that extended out post grad, or C. The restaraunt has an arrangement with the college to pad their 'hire out of graduation' numbers. Very common unfortunately - many colleges will make arrangements with local businesses to give their grads short term bitch jobs so they can jot them down as a successful hire statistic. They then use this statistic to sell the college as a great place to get an education to pursue a career, not realizing it was engineered. Never trust any colleges self published graduation/hire percentages.

>Dude thats right on par with the industry at my level AND I get benefits which is almost unheard of. How is that retarded?

Not that user but the sad fact of the matter is for the work kitchen staff does just about anywhere, you work much harder for substantially less than almost any other job. It's really not a good career, financially speaking.

Its a hard as shit job where you have to keep track of multiple things at a time, work in a dangerous environment without getting injured, keep tabs on inventory, and do it fast as fuck.

And dont tell me "the customers!" It's not that fucking bad. I've worked in airline customer service, and telling someone they wont make their daughters wedding or fathers funeral because we cancelled your flight due to weather and you have no alternate way of getting there in time is a lot more difficult than hearing someone bitch that their burger was a little undercooked.

I don't have anything to match that but I work in a hotel and once I had to inspect a room a guest complained about (they had just checked in), look them in the eye, and apologize for the fact that apparently their sheets and mattress were soaked in fucking urine and the housekeepers had somehow missed it and I had no other rooms to give them.

At least I was able to walk them to another hotel (pay for their nights stay somewhere else)

Not this guy but those are all solid tips.

Another one: nut up and dont wear gloves, not only will they slow you down but if you do get burned by something out of fatigue or stupidity you wont have melted plastic in the wound.

What theyre doing, which what a ton of high end restaurants do to drive down the cost of labor, is hire someone without a degree so that they can teach them to cook how they want but cant command the price of someone with a degree. Its a super standard practice and its exactly what Im doing at my restaurant. This dudes place is just being unethical as shit and that also probably means its run poorly.

The times did a story on it about pastry chefs.

nytimes.com/2016/10/14/business/economy/pastry-workers-restaurant-job-training.html?_r=0
>Not that user but the sad fact of the matter is for the work kitchen staff does just about anywhere, you work much harder for substantially less than almost any other job. It's really not a good career, financially speaking.

Yeah but I genuinely enjoy it and Im good at it. Im at an entry level position making nearly 30k a year without a degree or the associated debt of having said degree. My bills are paid, I live in a nice apartment with my girlfriend and I have a decent used car that I pay for. Im happy supper happy with all of that. So, you know, to each his own.

Ya, thats pretty embarrassing I would not want to due that either. Even though thats an crazy story, tourists/travelers can be the fucking worst customers around.

Oh i'm not saying it's a SHIT career, just as far as service industry goes, it's barely above professional cleaner. Really hard job, hard to get respect, low pay considering the stress and risks. It's great for people without education or who have a criminal record.

It still astounds me how stupid, childish, and self absorbed travellers are. Or the crazy shit people will do to try and scam you.

Navyfag cook again with more tales of the damned.

>Only 4 cooks, myself included, to work during the New Year's holiday since we got Christmas leave
>We're split into two sections. So it's two people in each, with someone being in charge of their section (galley watch captain, kind of like a head chef)
>Team Alpha consists of myself and my CS3 watch captain
>Team Bravo has the worst two cooks on the ship
>A cocky 19-year-old kid that is only useful for doing paperwork and either burns or doesn't even season anything he makes. He gets an attitude with everyone and even threatened to kill our Chief for using the grill after he had just cleaned it
This is Jimmy.
>Another 19-year-old that's booksmart but can't figure out even the basics when it comes to simple shit. Always throws pasta in cold water and waits for it to boil, causing it to become gummy and fucked up
He will be known as Billy.
>We do blind turnover. Meaning the previous group does some prepwork for the other guys so their job will be easier the next day, and so that the section doing preps doesn't have to show up to work every other day
>Myself and my watch captain had this past 3 day weekend
>Jimmy and Billy left us with no preps except for desert, which was a week's worth of brownies
>They look okay, so I guess we'll just let it slide
>Lunch time comes around
>Slide a knife into the center
>Absolutely liquid save for the very top
>Fuck
>They didn't even throw it in for more than ten minutes
>My watch captain comes up to me
>"Oh fuck. What happened user?"
>"Billy didn't check again, I'm sure."
>Watch captain looks at it
>Jams his fucking finger in most of the middle pieces
>Licks to chocolate off it
>"Yeah, fuck it. Just serve them assholes brownies anyways. Just give them the edges"
>The edges are no better
>I can't serve this shit to people in good concience, they're going to get sick
>Toss it all out instead
>Get called an insubordinate piece of shit for not obeying a direct order from a 3rd class

>>Never drop a sharp knife in a full sink

mfw flashbacks of cutting my finger to the bone because some subhuman tossed a knife into the mountain of dishes half-submerged in the dishwater sludge

Supermarket delis are like the most unsavory elements of normal kitchenry combined with complete masters of sloughing off responsibility because the manager is too busy with departments that actually matter to review/fire anyone.

We had this dude that stayed in our 1000 a night king suite for like a straight up month. He made us buy smoked salmon and canadian bacon. Fucking every single fucking morning he got a portion of smoked salmon, 3 pieces of canadian bacon and 3 eggs cooked perfectly over medium. If I over or undercooked that fucking yolk even a little he'd send that shit back. Fucking how much money do you have to have to stay in a room like that and tell a high end restaurant what theyre making for you?!

>Really hard job, hard to get respect, low pay considering the stress and risks.

Im not sure if you mean like, at the job or from other random people. But maybe because Im in a mid-sized city at probably the highest profile restaurant in town, usually when people ask where I work and I tell them, I gain instant respect. Now at work, my executive chef is extremely on point on making it a positive environment so all interactions are professional if you dont like someone and your standard kitchen abuse from top to bottom simply doesnt exist. Its nice AF. And the hard work is worth it if you enjoy it. I.E. Ive got a super sweet gig for what Im trying to accomplish for myself.