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I spent the last year and a half as the sous chef at a brand new, constantly broke, severely understaffed and bullshit buzzwordy loving restaurant that served food that I was proud of about 40% of the time. 60 hour work weeks at $11/hr made me go insane with severe alcoholism, so now I'm doing something I can actually get behind: awesome bar food. sup
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Sep 29, 2014 22:11
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The environment is less toxic and open to collaboration, the chef has more than 5 years in the industry under his belt and knows what he's talking about and isn't a sociopath, the business is actually successful, and I like the food more. And yeah, I'm not drinking the disappointment away anymore, and that's a huge plus.
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Sep 29, 2014 22:18
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Plus, even mediocre BBQ can sell well in a bar (well, it does in Portland. I see you're in Texas though, so the market might be a bit saturated). Either way, if it gets them in the door they'll be more bodies buying the booze and the tater barrels. Win/win? edit: maybe get creative with it? I had some smoked bison brisket recently that blew my goddamn brain open.
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Sep 30, 2014 02:21
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Herr Tog posted:Didn't stay in the industry Generally a wise choice
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Sep 30, 2014 11:13
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Willie Tomg posted:Awwwww yeaahhhh boyyyyyy! I'm hacking up alarmingly orange sputum, can't stay on my feet for more than a minute or so without getting so dizzy I have to sit, we're like five people short in the kitchen and I'm needed tomorrow morning for a capacity breakfast service! Time to play the game that's sweeping the nation: Bosses try to guilt you into coming in and being a giant loving lawsuit while I take my first sick day in a year and a half, or otherwise get the bosses to say in writing "I know you are sick, come in anyway" If your boss doesn't realize how incredibly bad it is for business to have a visibly sick person in a BOH position, then his/her business isn't going to last long, anyways. gently caress em. Stay home and eat pho. edit: I say this knowing full well how exploitative BOH management can be. If you have the insurance for it, go to an urgent care facility and have one of the LPNs or docs write you a "yeah you're too sick to work" note. Covers your rear end in case they try to fire you for it. Radio Help fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Sep 30, 2014 |
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Sep 30, 2014 23:19
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Willie Tomg posted:The baller thing about institutional/corporate cooking is that this really isn't a concern. Even though kitchens are a world of their own, when they're part of a 1000+ organization that level of caprice really isn't a Thing. Yeah, I figured. Haven't really been following the thread long enough to know the styles of places you guys work at (cept for CDC, I remember her from the last thread). I've been hosed over many, many times in the past so I tend to project onto other peoples situations. "Oh you're sick? WELL GUESS WHAT NOW YOU WORKIN A DOUBLE HEH HEH" -The Man, while sulphorous smoke billows from his every orifice Radio Help fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 1, 2014 20:43
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Yeah, definitely don't bother. Sometimes situations like that can change for the better, but I've never personally experienced it. At least you'll have cool horror stories for your next job! Edit: shouldn't the thread title say "There's Very Little Meat in These Floor Mats"? cuz that'd be gross
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Oct 4, 2014 03:52
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lurker1981 posted:incoherent nonsense So as much as I want to laugh at your silly rant, I gotta ask: what was the root cause of this? Is this just normal internet projection or do you sincerely believe that all kitchen management is out to roofie you? (we totally are btw) edit: one of my roommates just started at a restaurant as a prep cook/dishwasher. He was really fed up with being stuck in the pit at his last job (which I got for him), and understandably so, as he had been in there for a year. It was his first actual kitchen job, so I did my best to relate to him at the time, and told him "I've been cooking for years and I had to pay my dues just like everyone else. Keep your head down, bust rear end, don't bitch, and play the politics right and you'll get moved up when the time is right." Instead, he bitched about not getting prep shifts, alienated himself from the management staff (most of which are my friends), and quit right in the middle of summer service. Now at the new job, he's bummed out that some other people who got hired after him (as line cooks) are getting more line shifts that he is and he's being a huffy little dingus about it. I've told him, repeatedly, that he isn't doing himself any favors by whining about it, but that isn't slowing him down. I wanna be supportive of the guy, but I'm getting fed up with his bitching and I don't even work with the guy. tl;dr: EDS is alive and well and is the true killer of greatness. Kids these days. Radio Help fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 00:43
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I'm inclined to agree with you, but I think having a km get fed up and put him in his place might actually help put his poo poo in perspective. Nobody has an awesome station a year and a half into the game. Gotta pay your dues.
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Oct 6, 2014 01:19
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Liquid Communism posted:Honestly, 90% of 'dues' nonsense is chefs trying to justify getting workers to put up with absurd conditions because the industry would collapse if they insisted on being paid and treated like valuable labor. I was being flippant and I feel like I misrepresented myself here: I don't really believe that you're obligated to spend a year or two in the pit or dicing onions before you get to move onto "better things," but, in my experience, it takes around that amount of time for the average person to go from being a complete newbie to being someone who has a functional understanding on how to work in a kitchen. There are always exceptions to the rule, naturally: I hired this 18 year-old dude a few years back as a zero-experience dishwasher who turned out to be a complete natural and went on to take my place as lead line after I left that job. That guy had the perfect confluence of personality traits: great work ethic, naturally skilled, and fun as hell to work with. I was not that lucky when I first started, and it took a year and a half or so of me being a huge liability until I got to the point where high-volume kitchens actually made sense to me. When I say that new guys should "pay their dues," I don't mean it in the sense that they need to play the kitchen hierarchy bullshit game and obey the pecking order that has existed since that one French guy realized that he had a good excuse to treat his coworkers like poo poo, but that if you can't (or just don't want to) spend a decent chunk of your life being the best dishwasher possible, then you really shouldn't be in this industry in the first place. Radio Help fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 13:03
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Yeah, most places give dishwashers the financial shaft and it's loving dumb. The owner of the place I was lead line at was a weirdly compassionate guy and paid people based on how long they'd been there instead of what station they were in, and back of house split tips equally, and I think that helped the kitchen dynamic function really well. That is never, ever going to be a common thing, though. Nobody in the Stateside kitchen world gets paid what they're worth unless they're in an institutional setting.Republicans posted:Man I gotta break down 50 pounds of lamb leg today for skewers and all this talk about washing dishes is making me envious. Man you're gonna hate the hell out of silverskin by the end of that
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Oct 6, 2014 20:56
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Willie Tomg posted:Arguably not even then. I'll bust dish in smaller places no problem, but I've never seen a dishpit get whomped like at a capacity hotel doing 250+ cover banquet services. Aren't most hotel/institutional kitchens unionized? I've never worked in one, personally.
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Oct 6, 2014 21:59
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Not in the U.S., unions are evil and just want to take your money here! Shoulda figured. I used to get all wino impassioned and rant about how desperately there needs to be a stable service industry union, and even friends of mine who had never worked in restaurants were like "haha there's no way in hell that will ever happen." they were right 
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Oct 6, 2014 22:08
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Pick up some shifts as a dishwasher before you spend the money on culinary school. It'll help you see if it's something you can see yourself doing. Edit: I guess I should expand a bit more. Professional cooking is very stressful, demanding, sometimes tedious, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous work, and chances are very good you won't make very much money doing it. It has a lot of inherent benefits, though: it's a skill-oriented job and after you become experienced, you can do it pretty much anywhere there's work, cooks are generally very interesting crazypeople that are fun to hang out with, and the work itself is very honest and straightforward. Culinary school is a great place to learn to learn techniques, but they don't always do a great job preparing you for the reality of how chaotic and stressful the Friday night rush can be (though some of them are better at easing you into it with mid-term externships and things like that). You won't be treated like a specialist because you have a culinary degree, and some people will actively dislike you for it, especially oldboys. I'd recommend that you try cooking without going to school for a few years, see if it's a worthwhile investment of your time, and then go to culinary school. Radio Help fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Oct 7, 2014 |
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Oct 7, 2014 02:57
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bowmore posted:Aussie Chef cuts and cooks his girlfriend up. I am not very clever so I spent the last few minutes trying to think of a way to combine "girlfriend" and "demiglaze" this is what I do on my days off
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Oct 7, 2014 03:33
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brick cow posted:I really hate working for other people. So, I've been looking to buy a restaurant. I found this place thats a sportsbar near me for $17,000. A-loving-mazing too good to be true price. I call the guy up, his story is that he's had the place but he's only here on a green card and he's can't renew his business license because of it. I make an appointment to go check the place out. He never shows. Do not, under any circumstances, buy a restaurant, especially not when it's the price of a new KIA.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:24
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brick cow posted:If I made enough to take home 1000 a month that would be enough for now. It's not about the money. The happiest I've ever been was running restaurants but I've always been doing it for other people. Fair enough, but there is something very obviously fishy about that setup. $17k barely gets you a functional food cart. Edit: just texted my buddy who is a very successful restaurateur in Portland and asked him if he's ever heard of someone selling a restaurant for $17k (just the IP, the equipment, and the lease takeover, not the building itself), and his exact reply was "hahahaha are you loving kidding." take from that what you will. Good luck man Radio Help fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Oct 8, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2014 04:00
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brick cow posted:That was pretty much my thought but I was hoping I landed in a once in a lifetime situation. Totally understandable. I dunno man, it's entirely possible that you did, but even if everything is on the up and up and you manage to get the bones of a business for $17k, owning a restaurant is still incredibly difficult and financial suicide. I've worked closely with owners opening new restaurants on two separate occasions, and unless you have huge tons of venture capital it's endless streams of suck. Hell, it's endless streams of suck even if you do have lots of VC.
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Oct 8, 2014 04:27
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Yeah, I got about two or three more years of line cooking left in me till I make the switch over to the supply-side. Won't be as "fun" or "interesting" or whatever, but I know I can do it and it's an actual career.
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Oct 8, 2014 12:59
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Splizwarf posted:I think you're all overlooking several hilarious possibilities, like perhaps the building is condemned and filled to the windows with sewage, or a rental location whose landlord is in foreclosure/deported/dead. I was thinking maybe the dude doesn't own the restaurant at all.
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Oct 8, 2014 21:53
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Simoom posted:I refuse to do what is good for me. Pan frying panko-crusted calamari in ghee is loving delicious. Take people who use definitive terms like "never" or "always" with a grain of salt.
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Oct 9, 2014 02:08
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CommonShore posted:I saw "all-vegetable ghee" in a store the other day. Not sure what that is. Probably some sort of margarine with caramel flavoring in it. Gross.
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Oct 9, 2014 05:15
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Alobar posted:My last job before this one was working as a prep cook. I'd been doing that for almost a year, after spending a year in the dishpit, when I told them I needed more than 9 dollars an hour or it'd be my two weeks. They said the ultimatum made them uncomfortable and fired me over some bullshit, loving me out of my last 3 shifts (aka 200-230 bucks). gently caress 'em. The job I landed this past week is paying me 9.50 to start and I've already got more hours than I did at the last place. For some reason they didn't want me on the line, but they were pushing the lovely new dishwashers onto the line (who then ended up getting paid 9 dollars an hour) with no restaurant experience. I was told that what other people were getting paid was none of my business. Wrong. Jokes on them, I'm starting on the line at my new job and making more money! Ok, let's break this down. 1) Never give your employers an ultimatum like that. It's very, very poor form, and is probably why you got fired. Politely ask for a raise, and if you don't get it, put in your two weeks and find somewhere else that will pay you what you feel like you're worth. All that you did there was burn a bridge. 2) What other people make is none of your business, and asking about it puts managers on edge and will probably get you ghosted or fired. 3) Maybe your previous job used can beans because the labor they saved on not having to soak/cook raw beans offset the cost of buying canned beans. 4) Ricola called you out because you're presenting yourself like the kind of entitled, know-it-all dick that a lot of us have had to work with in the past.
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Oct 10, 2014 00:10
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The best part about working on the line again is a feeling of "Oh hey, I can still do this poo poo!" Also I've never worked somewhere that's this fancy, so it'll look good on my resume if I can make it through a year at this spot.
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Actually, knowing your coworkers wages is very beneficial and only became "inappropriate" in the work place as efforts to bust unionization became more common. I think that depends on the situation. I don't like telling people how much I make, and I got the impression that the dude from earlier was asking his boss what other people make.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:03
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In a big picture sense, yeah, people should be talking about wage disparities. I even said like a page or two ago that I would love for there to be a stable service industry union. If someone is in the same station as me or has been there for roughly the same amount of time/puts in the same amount of effort as I do, I'll gladly tell them what my hourly wage is. However, nearly every time I have told some 18 year-old college freshman dishwasher/prep guy how much I make, they shoot me shade over $1.50/hr when I have many more years in the industry than they do, and my skillset is vastly greater than theirs. That's just my experience. It isn't really a workers rights debate at that point, it's a "I don't even want to deal with some dingus disliking me because I make more money than them" thing. edit: listen to mindplux cuz he's my brain bro also I love cheap wine also I'm really not used to getting off work at 3:30am Radio Help fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Oct 10, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2014 13:42
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:I completely disagree with this, knowing what other people make is important to make sure that nobody is being grossly taken advantage of, and it's super illegal for an employer to prevent employees from discussing their wages. again, yeah, I agree with this when it's in the right context. That guy set off a knee-jerk reaction. I got scars, bro deep scarz
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Oct 10, 2014 14:11
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Knowing what I know about the profitability of small restaurants, I'm just happy that the owner of mine can make payroll every month.
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Oct 10, 2014 21:26
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Splizwarf posted:I dunno, finding out that one of my co-workers makes 7 times as much as me per hour for performing the same tasks was pretty loving demoralizing. There's valid reasons he's earned a higher pay rate than me, but the actual amount was a real kick in the balls. I don't think it hurt my employer. I don't want to call bullshit on you but saying someone makes seven times the amount that you make for the same job screams hyperbole. Even assuming you make the federal minimum wage, that other person is making 50.75/hr. My mom has been an LPN for 30 years and she doesn't even make that. What style of kitchen do you work in, what do you do there, and what's the other person's position?
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Oct 11, 2014 13:06
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Dude was probably nervous cuz he had to interact with the wedding planner. Those people are loving insane. I've only catered a few weddings, but each time the boss man was constantly getting screamed at (no exaggeration) by the wedding planner, even though everything was going smoothly and everyone loved the food.
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Oct 13, 2014 21:27
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WanderingMinstrel I posted:The chefs at my place make me so happy I've never been crazy enough to get on the line and stayed FoH. Two guys working doubles every day, 5 days a week, plus coming in for private events, and on on of the days off to do ordering and prep, also there's no backup other than the owner which both of them would rather come in deathly ill than let him on the line (which has certainly has never led to 60% of the staff getting the flu so badly that we almost had to close down during the holiday party season). We used to have 3 people, but the owner realized he could just work these two poor bastards to death and not pay them any extra. Now the girl who worked the cold station left, and he's expecting them to pick up all kinds of her prep in addition instead of having the new guy he hired do it because he doesn't want to pay the hours. Of course they're salary. Poor bastards. I'm amazed they haven't killed him and hidden the body in the walk-in. The lovely thing is that I probably make more slinging pseudo-fancy burgers at a bar than they do. I know for a fact that I'm taking away $7/hr more now than when I was a salaried sous chef selling $30 steaks and pulling 50-60 hour work weeks. This loving system is broken. It takes the hardest-working motherfuckers I've ever known and beats them the hell up, obliges them to become alcoholics, pays them slave wages, and explains it away with a casual "ah poo poo well that's just part of the business dude" and "well check out this one really driven motherfucker, he does this poo poo for 14 hours straight, seven days a week and now he's staging as the third-in-command dishwasher at Noma!! Dude's going places! And he does pop-ups on his days off!!" And yet, here I am, still doing it and with no plans on stopping. poo poo, I'm gonna start taking classes at OCI in the spring, and I'm excited as hell. tl;dr: I'm a masochist.
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Oct 15, 2014 13:14
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Willie Tomg posted:Douche woes How loving ignorant of restaurant dynamics do you have to be to think that alienating foh staff right off the bat is a good idea?
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Oct 20, 2014 12:42
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I like my birkis. Makes me feel like a duckman :3 also they're comfortable and last a long time, but it's mostly the duckman thing.
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Oct 24, 2014 22:13
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Your Danskos are fine for walking, dummy. That sounds like a loving nightmare. I worked with a foh lady that would complain to me that her back and feet were killing her, she's too old for this poo poo, needs actual service shoes, bla bla. I told her to check out Dansko and Birkis and whatever and she poo-pooed it, saying "that poo poo is fine for kitchen people, but servers have to wear stuff that actually looks good." It's ridiculous that that expectation (even if it was imagined on her part) exists. I enjoyed the hell out of Ratio. Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" is another fantastic tome of culinary knowledge.
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Oct 29, 2014 07:12
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Nitram2.0 posted:The fancy wood-fired pizza place I work at intentionally does not offer ranch. That doesn't stop the customers from ordering a side of caesar. You know, because you gotta dip your $15 12" pizza in something, right? If you make your own and charge like a dollar for a two ounce portion cup, it's a pretty easy way to make some bonus money. Components for homemade ranch are fairly cheap, it's generally way better than FSA or Sysco brand poo poo, and it keeps for a good while. Of course, average America pizza customer will punch you in the face if you have the gall to charge for ranch. Senior Scarybagels posted:So I hate to come in, ignorant and all, but I gotta question, I have always wanted to become a professional baker, not a pastry chef, but an actual honest to goodness baker, what would be a good career path for that and recommendations on how to get started in that line of business? Try picking up dishpit or prep shifts at a restaurant. The hours are more reasonable and the money is about the same, plus there are more options for advancement. Liquid Communism would be a better person to listen to about this, but most of his posts from when he was working in a bakery were along the lines of "I have the worst job please kill me." just sayin Radio Help fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 01:19
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Safety Dance posted:Who the hell dips pizza in loving ranch? I've been all over this great land of ours, and I've only seen like one person do that ever. An overwhelming majority of American pizza consumers. I'm not endorsing it, I just know how to profit off of it.
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Nov 9, 2014 10:31
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The owner of one of the bars I'm working at is (gently) freaking out because apparently our food cost is at 110%, which seems completely absurd to me given how much product we're buying and what we're pushing out. I'm only at this spot part time, and I'm new enough that I'm not close with the numbers, but everything that I've seen makes it seem like a clerical error. The owner spent a week or so running numbers and he's telling me that it's looking fairly right, and this guy has been running bars for over a decade so I'd like to believe that he knows what's up (bonus: I've known him for a while and he's a very ethical, principled dude who's proud of his spot, so I don't think there's any shady poo poo going on there). Shrinkage looks normal, and the owner and KM are both telling me that they cost all the menu items out at around 30%. Some of our component ingredients are fairly pricy wholesale (mostly cheeses and charcuterie), but I honestly feel like we're being smart with utilizing all the product that's coming in. It's a super small operation and the other guys on board are pretty competent, so I'm having a hard time placing where the BOH could be loving this one up. They're having a bookkeeper keep track of the numbers, and I suggested that maybe this person is accidentally factoring in durable goods into food cost but I have no real way of knowing if that's what's going on. This is my first time working in a bar scenario and I'm not doing the paperwork myself, so I'm at a loss. Any suggestions on where I should be looking?
Radio Help fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 15, 2014 15:28
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Liquid Communism posted:Food cost or overall cost of service? 110% with overhead included would make sense, but unless you're literally giving away food I'm not sure how you make 110% on food cost alone. Just food cost. Supposedly liquor and all the rest of the overhead is totally where it needs to be. That's why I'm baffled, I've never heard of this poo poo going over 40%. Willie Tomg posted:Whether it's because they goofed on one of the most vital statistics in a food service business, or because they accurately parsed some really fuckin' critical information that they probably all have written down in one place, a friendly chat with that there bookkeeper is Priority #1A. Definitely, I just hope this bookkeeper is an actual bookkeeper, but I've got this weird suspicion that it's just a guy they know who's good at Excel. This place is less than 6 months old at this point. Part of me just wants to say "not my circus" but the KM is a good buddy of mine and I don't want to see him out of a job.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:02
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:loving burn it to the ground. Goddamn amateurs don't know how to food cost. Yeah the owners have only ever run bars before, not gastropubs. (edit: i hate the word gastropub) PS: they found the glitch. Food cost is actually at 33%. there were a few big invoices from Cash and Carry that had durable goods and a lot of our opening canned product on it so that was skewing the numbers. our numbers guy is an idiot, but crisis averted Radio Help fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 22:09
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M42 posted:Ayyyyy. Not quite restaurant industry, but I've got a barista job in a hella busy upscale cafe. I need good "standing and running around for hours" shoes (for women, no heels tho) but they can't be too hideous like my BOH danskos, cause we gotta be ~classy~. Any suggestions? Worked with a FOH lady that wore Keens, and she said they were great work shoes. I like their street shoes a lot. An old chef swears by Mozo. Seems like their service shoes have a very similar thread to Shoes For Crews but without their horrible crap bullshit CHUCK WAS TAKEN posted:Last night I told these two knuckleheads to check the beef I had been braising right before they left and put it in the walk-in if it was done, or if it wasn't to call me so that I could come back later and get it out... I came in this morning to find that what they had in fact done was to drain the liquid off, but then put it back in the 325 degree oven and leave it there over night? anyway, it wasn't a total loss because I got to overhand slam dunk a giant roasting pan into the dish sink and then go on a hulk like rampage through the dining room for the first time ever which felt pretty good common thread I've noticed among people who make this kind of mistake: they seem to spend a lot of time bragging about how fast they can flip a line / how fast they can close. just sayin
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Dec 23, 2014 06:50
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