How to work more faster and efficiently in the kitchen?

kill yourself or change job

How long you been at this? Fact is you have to go slower at first until you can do it perfect, then work on picking up the pace.

Aside from the experience question, you really need to start thinking critically about each of your tasks, and look at where you can shave seconds off. I find the big thing is the turnaround time between tasks. A lot of people waste time breaking down and restarting. It's important to be thinking not only about the task at hand, but also what you're gonna do next. A good prep list is important.

Less than a month. I am the fry cook.

I struggle with multi-tasking and prompt customer service.

I'll give you an honest answer. Keep calm. Losing your shit is like the #1 thing that will fuck you over in a busy kitchen and you'll wind up going down like a kamikaze every dinner service. Learn to maintain your cool first, the fundamentals come with time.

imagine being so retarded you chose to become a chef

right?

oh but I love cooking! but working in a kitchen isn't even cooking at that point. You might as well get a job in an office processing data because that's what you're doing
pre measure, pre weighed, pre determined cook time, systematized order of steps.You don't even need to know how to cook to work in a kitchen, you just need to be able to follow steps

Not everyone can be picky about their work. People take what they can get and try to make the best of a job that they're doing well at.

This is pretty much me. You get in pretty far quickly too if you have your shit together. Eventually, you just end up with a bunch of qualifications that earn you a pretty shitty salary to KM in a lot of places, but you're always eyefucking the F&B position that is out of your grasp until you hit your late 30s or 40s or something. I don't even fucking know.

How many years have you been cooking and where at? If we're talking a pizza joint, you should have it down by now. Casual dining and above? Talk to your coworkers, especially the older cooks, ask questions and shit.

If this is your first year, you'll get better and managing your station. From there, you can pretty much use that as a jump off point for entering other kitchens. Once you get a decent amount of experience at casual and above cuisine, show up on time and ready, and keep whatever habits you have under control, you'll end up being a valuable asset.

Just showing up is half the battle these days. This isn't the 80s or the 90s anymore. Most core staff want to build you into something they can rely on because the industry is FUCKED for cooks right now.

Fuck that one guy talking shit on becoming a chef in here.

*try to make the best of a job that they aren't doing well at

>because the industry is FUCKED for cooks right now.

How come?

Wages and lack of benefits. I work as a KM at a hotel and I got into serious shit for starting out a kid at $11/hr. He's back from college, leave in September, and fucking picks up on everything. He'll cost us fucking NOTHING because I won't have to give him enough hours to keep him off partial-unemployment in the off-season. If I use the excuse that Wal-Mart starts people out at $10/hr, my GM pretends like he just isn't hearing me. It's bullshit. My guys who have stayed on deserve their wages/hours, but how the fuck am I supposed to get any kids interested in doing this shit if I can't get them a wage better than night-stocking? For the shit I'm asking them to do? There's no way.

In the way of benefits, I have another recent example. I'm starting to feel like I lucked out because the place I work at now meets me at 50% of my healthcare costs, still paying $150 a month though. Another restaurant wanted to pay me 4k more a year, with consistent/non-seasonal hours, but would only meet me at 10% on health insurance, and then 10% annually to a max of 50%. Like what the fuck is that?

I say this as one of the more competent cooks where I live. The alcoholics and junkies are a bit more fucked, even if they're hardworking.

>work at a panda express
>get told im slow at making chow mein
>boil the noodles instead of trying to cook frozen noodles in a wok like they want me to
>takes half as much time as their way and the quality is better
>get told not to because "thats not the panda way"

Multi-tasking and working fast is hard. Even in fast food. Many restaurants are understaffed and there can be a lot of pressure on a fresh hire who has to take on 2-3 different roles once training/orientation is over.

honestly?

a drag or two off a bowl of /DUDEWEED/ helps me get focused enough to do shit without getting too tired and spacey

Firstly, think about what you're doing, and why.
Focus on being gentle and deliberate with ingredients when cooking and plating
Organise your self and your section; all the MEP you will need for a service prepped and accessible; group things by dish and type (meat, sauce, garnish ect.)
Always get ready everything you can; there is no such thing as nothing to do
Work on timings, and let your expediting staff/grill know how long things will be
Keep in mind; if others can see you are pushing yrself; they will be more inclined to help
Don't do things other than caffiene until you have the ability to work decently without them
This is 50/50 for me, as channelling the stress of line work can work wonders
You wanna know why yr still dishwashing kiddo?
One of the most important parts of being a chef is problem solving. If yr senior asks you to stand on the ceiling, you'd best start whipping up cement or running to the store for radioactive spiders. Cleanliness is seriously difficult at first, but make good habits and work on being proud of your section.
This is key; do all the same thing at once, and take 5 mins to work out how to do properly and efficiently; it will save hours over yr time
Keep a MEP and order list by yr side all the time

Best of luck kid

ps never give up

>horrible at customer service and working front

The front kinda sucks cause you have to deal with piece of shit customers

how the fuck do you have enough experience to suck down a nox charge yet still pass out?

It's far from hard
Just smile, don't be a super autist and make sure to manipulate the customer into thinking you've done everything in your power for them
Alternately, be a cute young girl in semi-conservative clothing with no tatoos

>coholics and junkies are a bit more fucked

that's a lot of numbers in your post for an al/ck/ like me.

"kiddo"here...

I'm still washing dishes because you can't cook food good enough that people actually want to clean their plates for.

Get minions.

Front is hard at first because:
-you don't have the menu memorized yet
-you don't know how to fully utilize the cashier yet
-you don't know how to make all the drinks yet
-you don't know how to properly restock anything (drinks, condiments, milkshake, toppings, straws, napkins, cups, etc) yet
-you don't know how to properly bag items yet (knowing which items to fill a bag first and memorizing which customer it goes to)
-you need to remember your script (greeting, special of the day order taking, order confirmation, announcing total , transaction, change, etc)
-you don't know how to deal with input error, coupons, discounts, or custom orders
-you don't know the secret menu

If you don't have someone by your side at first cashier is superhard. Customers expect you to input the order as soon as they say it.

Honest to god if you want to be a cook find a spot somewhere else, if you work at a corporate casual chain like I do the whole advancement through gumption thing is bullshit and they'd rather just offer a cooking job to any jackass looking for work than offer it to a dishwasher already there with some idea about how the place works.

t. Jackass who had no restaurant experience before October of last year who's currently the senior non-Mexican in his kitchen.

TY for typing my resume. I'm applying to a four star gourmet this season.

A good dishwasher is more dificult to find than a good cook.

how do I even get good at properly sanitizing dishes while also removing all the stuff that gets stuck to plates?

Co-workers say I wash things too slow.

>wash dishes

"user, why aren't these dishes dried yet?"

organize everything. keep one sink full of really hot water and soap to soak the worst of it in.

>on a food and cooking forum
>"haha chefs r dumb right guys"

fuck off retard

How are you supposed to to garbage bags to bin?

*tie garbage bags to bin

how long do you usually work until you get a feel on how to do your job without help?

I started paying this kid at like a full rack of busch/hr.

If you're serious and in the industry, you're probably great too, man.

My brother did this and kept busting his ass at an Outback in Miami. Eventually, he wasn't even cooking anymore. He got a corporate gig going to places out of left field, Nebraska, BOTH Dakotas, Wyoming. Get this, though, his job became restructing kitchens. Literally just fly in, work a shift, tell people where their fryer units and grills should be, and fly out. The boredom eventually made him quit and he went back to line work at a pretty decent local place, then made KM, and worked his way into a sweet 40 hr/wwk+benefits KM spot at a breakfast spot. He made like 10k more doing the corporate racket. If you can stick it out and stay competent, it doesn't seem like the worst job ever.

>try to work faster
>make mistakes because stressed

I hate having butterfingers.

>more faster

Kill yourself.

>there's no manual you can look over at home

have you tried getting a real job you kitchen bitch, you ever notice how you make food for people with real jobs all day?

How is that different from any other job? Even a well-respected one like a doctor, lawyer, or engineer?

>doctor
ever notice how all you do is fix other people all day?

>lawyer
ever notice how all you do is get other people out of legal messes all day?

>engineer
ever notice how all you do is design things that other people use?

All jobs, by definition, constitute doing work for other people.

And no, I'm not in the industry myself. This just seems like such a retarded thing to say.

To work faster, work more. You'll be faster a year from now, to a certain extent, until you meet your ceiling.

As long as your technique is correct, at least.

I'd just chip away at your extra duties while things are in the fryer.

>want to help wash dishes, but don't know how to properly clean equipment in the sink

-there's 3 sinks
-left most sink has a faucet that can rotate and pour water in 2 sinks
-there's a hose that shoots out sanitizer fluid . the temperature can be adjusted with 2 valves

If your hands don't already know how to move, if your mind can't focus on many things at once then there's no hope for you.

good job being shitty at an already back-breaking low paying job with extremely high competition.

Because wages haven't gone up in 11 years, yet inflation has gone up like crazy. No one wants to work that hard for nothing anymore. I'm stuck doing it because it's all there is on my resume and it's all I'm good at. I'm not qualified for anything else.
It's impossible to live as a cook. At least here in Canada where everything cost ten times the price. I was forced to move back in with mommy. It's embarrassing. It's impossible to live off of a cook's wage.

...

Bruh let the machines do the work for you

Man this thread triggers me. It just reminds me of what it was like being a dish washer and man I fucking hated every second. Genuinely the most miserable I've ever been in my life. I was already depressed and on the edge of suicide and that shit almost pushed me over the edge.

I will die before becoming a dishwasher again.

Anybody willing working in a kitchen at some greasy spoon is the real retard. If you actually enjoy cooking then do it for yourself.

100% same here. Never felt worse than when I was washing dishes.

Some people really need the money or experience. Not everyone drives or is willing to drive more than 20 minutes to work. A person looking for work probably got rejected over 50 times before they found a restaurant willing to hire them.