Industry Thread

Heatwave and rolling blackouts edition.

104F today, and only one of our AC units is working. A couple guys came in right during our first big push to try to figure out what was wrong, and kept casually walking onto the line and trying to talk to us. In the end their best guess was that the hood fan is sucking in hot air and the AC units aren't able to keep up, which makes no sense.

During our second rush we started experiencing blackouts, with the longest one lasting probably 20 minutes, right when we had a full board and were slammed, and running out of food (it was unusually busy for a Wednesday night). So we pulled out our phones and continued cooking using their flashlights.

Oh, and our nighttime dishwasher called in sometime earlier in the day saying that she had to leave the state and was quitting. And all the servers kept fucking up and having problems with the POS.

Wasn't a fun day. Getting lit now.

Just started at a beer garden since I have been out of work for months, luckily it is inside a mall so I don't have to worry about blackouts as much (work is work).
>be me
>used to working in cocktail bars
>relatively healthty aside so avoid sugary sodas
>ask bartender for a few dashes of Ango
>'ummmm what is that user?'
>'sorry, Angostura bitters.'
>'but isn't that like, alcohol?'
>thought he was joking until he examines the bottle for two minutes as serious as could be
>'yeah if you aren't comfy with that I'm not gonna argue, but you know a 10 year old can buy that at any grocery store right? you can argue that idea with vanilla extract'
>bartender looks at me like I'm a total asshole
>drop it since I'm new and need the cash

At least I get to taste different beers after work. Found some Hendrick's inspired beer that is refreshing as hell.

What were you trying to add bitters to? Soda water?

I talk about how I homebrew, and am into local craft beer, but I keep my al/ck/ level hidden compared to all the servers who come in talking about how hungover they are from having gone out clubbing the night before.

>tfw my chef made an offhanded comment about how I'm always "shaky" the other day

You don't have to be 21 to buy angostura bitters? That's odd because it's sold in the liquor section and I've gotten drunk on it before.

A full ounce our two in your sprite is surprisingly refreshing.

FOH Manager here, nothing more annoying then when you put in a service call for kitchen equipment/kitchen AC the day before and they dont show up until the middle of the dinner rush.

Just curious, how does everyones BOH and FOH get along? I am pretty lucky that most of the people in my restaurant are pretty chill and help each other out.

Had a busboy yell at one of my servers the other day because they saw them pour grenadine into their soda and thought they were sneaking booze from the bar on shift. People are dumb as shit.

Yeah, soda water. It tastes decent and is a normally used as a cure for an upset stomach. On one hand this place doesn't focus on liquor aside from some popular shooters and a well of Aristocrat, on the other I still find it ignorant as shit. But maybe I'm an autistic asshole.

From what I can tell, yeah. Booze normally prompts an ID check especially at self-checkouts and I've never seen it pop up before. When dealing with a cashier I've never been carded and I look relatively young.

Done shots of it and it's decent, but that clove flavor really sticks to the back of your throat.

Lol

Mine get along fine but I've got a great staff overall and very low turnover.

OP here. We've only been open a couple of months, and I'm basically the sous chef, in practice if not in title (or pay - yet). It's a smallish place (~80 seats total), and the chef/owner made a point to interview everyone himself and pick all people who were personable, and wouldn't stir shit up. He's also been in the industry his entire life, and this place is his baby, so he's made a point to make it both the ideal place he'd want to work in as well as his ideal restaurant to go to. Our little kitchen is also in the dinning room, completely open to the view of the customers (I was concerned about that at first, but once we get going it's head down and all business, and I couldn't care less that everyone can watch me). Part of the idea of putting the kitchen in the dining room was to reduce the distance between FoH and BoH - which doesn't really work in practice. Still, everyone gets along really well so far, and the chef/owner is really mellow and easy to talk to (at least for me; our prep cook always runs to me with questions as soon as I come in (as though I know what's going on) because she's scared to talk to him.

In a couple of months we've had a horrible time finding extra cooks. I've never seen so many just not show up for their first day, have family issues that cause them to quit after a few days, quit after their first night, or get fired for whatever (good) reason. I just learned tonight that our GM was let go last week, which I thought was a good thing.

There was an incredibly beautiful girl sitting at the bar filling out some paperwork yesterday, and tonight I learned that she's going to be our new cook (we're understaffed as fuck in the kitchen)... I hope she's good, because the thought of working our tiny, cramped line with an angel (there's really only room for two of us on the line, and we're still bumping into each other and constantly reaching around one another) is the best perk I could imagine.

Sounds comfy

Fukkin lovely day today, was meant to do 8-4 but am winding up staying till midnight
Fair bit of prep, have been away for a while so a few new dishes to work on, some ideas from everyone taken on board
40 odd for dinner, should be fun ey
Pic related is a pulse based salad we running atm

Btw, any ideas for neutrally flavoured emulsifying agents that are also vegan?

>(or pay - yet)
For this, read 'never'. If you do the job now without the money, why would they pay you more?

>the thought of working our tiny, cramped line with an angel (there's really only room for two of us on the line, and we're still bumping into each other and constantly reaching around one another) is the best perk I could imagine
She'll quit because of 'family reasons' after her first shift, then complain on facebook about her 'creepy' co-worker.

>when the new cook is a lazy, entitled bitch that gets pissy when told to do something
>worked at the kitchen for ~2 months and still is unable to keep up a passable pace of making three very simple appetizers
>everything is fried, nothing elaborate to note

I swear to God. Dumb bitch be working the fryer, takes everything out as it is ready to be plated then served. Fucks off somewhere else or starts cleaning around the kitchen with the same rag going all over the fucking place, anywhere but a work surface.

Try to give the slut some advice on how to do things to make sure everything is as efficient as possible but nope, dunning mcKruger doesn't care if I've been at that job for 4 years.

If only dropkicking people in their faces and tossing their phones in the fryer wasn't illegal in the United States.

>If you do the job now without the money, why would they pay you more?

if I were to walk into a kitchen tomorrow, with no experience, and ask for a dishwashing position what is the probability I'll get that job

I'm desperate

pretty good as long as you don't look like a complete homeless person / shambling drug addict

>cleaning around the kitchen with the same rag going all over the fucking place, anywhere but a work surface.
every woman I've ever seen working in a kitchen does this, what the fuck is with that

My mom would do this too, just in her regular home kitchen. She had a rag that sat in the sink for days at a time that she'd fish out and wipe down everything with every once in while

Working my first professional job this summer as an intern. Got a general cook position at a Fairmont resort in Alberta. I have limited experience in the field (making pizzas/prep work).
Have any of you started your career at a resort?

Fucking baby boomers, mom does the same shit.

Mine too.

>I'm basically the sous chef
There is no basically son, do the fucking work. I don't mean to personally attack you, I'm more or less asserting that the only way to be a sous chef is to be named such. Each place is going to differ on the qualitative and quantitative metrics of the workload and work ethic of their workers. Just be happy being a chef, a cook, or whatever in the fuck your title is now, and if getting that title is important to you let your head know and if you're good, he will give both the title and pay in turn.

So do me a favor and stop saying stupid things like what I have pointed out.

>being this much of a blowhard

Being a blowhard for 25% of an emotionally fueled rant is pretty good I would say, but then again that's my bias.

>25%
100%

Serverscum trying to transition to BOH.

What are some essential cooking skills I need to work on?

Only kitchen experience I have is cooking at pizza hut/dominos for 2 years

Managers and servers are incompetent.

Also the POS system crashed in the middle of the dinner rush. Fuck Micros.

>What are some essential cooking skills I need to work on?

Proper knife technique, how to sharpen knives, how to deal with stress and not blow your lid along with being able to communicate clearly with other people.

And don't be a lazy faggot