Vegetable Melange posted:

See, I found your problem.

Isaac Asimov posted:

Benefits... I don't even know what those are at this point. One day...

EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:

Be insanely careful about calling anything gluten free, you can really gently caress someone with celiac disease up. It's probably way better to say that, although you've tried to make a thing without gluten, your kitchen regularly works with gluten etc etc

Manuel Calavera posted:

Seconding that. Or find an adult education program at your local technical school, much cheaper.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Looks like I am back in the industry... I resigned from a director position at an IT company recently and decided to open a food truck, which when talking to a bar owner friend of mine turned into me also taking over his kitchen and helping him turn his bar into more of a gastro pub and basing the food truck out of that kitchen.

Suddenly I'm busy again! The new launch should be in September.

Vorenus posted:

I've only zested a few times, mostly for home use, but I've never had issues with a microplane. I did have one place that tried to have me use one of those zesters with the little claw on the end, which led to me pretty much mincing lemon skin because the thing was a piece.

Spoilered because this is a shitstorm three years in the making:

For the past calendar year, I have worked 12-hour shifts every single Saturday and Sunday with the exception of two weekends where I only worked one or the other, and two weekends where I took both days off. I have begged for adjusted scheduling and been told no, because of the other people who work my position, one has his set schedule and the other two suck. They refuse to fire the two who suck, or hire better people, or accept that they will never find a cook who will give a gently caress at $9/hour.

In the same calendar year, I have gone from being unable to handle the core position in the store, to being second-best to a guy who is insanely good. At my annual review, I was given 50 cents and told that I was basically lucky to get a raise for "just showing up on time". I can, and have, literally ran circles around my bosses on this position; I have trained GMs on how to do my job so they have a good perspective for the following weeks when they start their six-figure-a-year position, yet I'm not good enough to be a certified trainer.

If my coworkers somehow had their solemn vows of apathetic laziness and self-centered narrowmindedness carved onto the surface of the moon it could not make it more obvious than their attitudes already do. I have repeatedly caught more poo poo for asking them to do their jobs/asking a manager to step in/expressing in any way, small or large, my frustration, than any of them ever has for not doing their jobs. I can watch my coworker stand around for an hour with no guests, sit on his phone in the office for 30 minutes while a a manager does his job for him, and get paid more than I do, yet if I stop busing my balls for two minutes I get told "find something to do or I'll find you something" by some snotty little oval office who things she's hot poo poo because she wears a polo shirt in a loving barbecue joint.

I have to answer to people who are literally retarded. I cannot go one weekend without being told that I missed these dozen items over the course of ten minutes, being condescendingly told to remake them, and then having ten of them sitting in the window twenty minutes later, at which point I'm told that I'm a bad worker because I made too much stuff I didn't need to make. For the love of Baby loving Jesus I have a boss I have to answer to who literally is loving illiterate and borderline retarded. I have seen hunchbacked geriatric Wal-Mart greeters with Down's who could manage this person's job with more competence.

In contrast, I've had five training shifts and two actuals at my new part-time, and on every one at least one person has expressed their appreciation of my work ethic and attitude. Tonight they confirmed a few things I was unsure of, and I've worked out that depending on the week, I can make the same or more money over there with less than 1/10 of the stress.

So, tomorrow morning my boss gets a two-weeks notice on an availability change. Among other things, no more weekends. I almost feel bad for how completely and totally hosed they are going to be until they find someone else. I'm honestly half-expecting to be fired on the spot while my boss has a fit of rage, but after the weakly-reasoned writeup I got recently I am literally incapable of giving a gently caress. I could never set foot in there again and not lose a single penny over it.

black.lion posted:

It sounds to me like the owner is of the "If It Ain't Broke" philosophy - maybe this is a silly question, but if you're only making 12 muffins a day, can't you just make those 12 and keep your "Promise" and then also make specialty muffins, and after a couple months of insane specialty muffin sales go into this similar convo with numbers printed out? Like, why do you have to sacrifice The Promise Muffins in order to offer The Special Muffins?

Black August posted:

How in the hell does he get away with this? More than a few days left not working after coming IN, and I'd be walking out for good with a passing call to the labor board, or at least local friends in the system to let them know to never bother working there.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Oh God.

I have 2 more weeks before the kitchen reopens under my new business. Menus are being finalized, Sysco sccounts are open and orders priced out. I am starting with a smaller menu then normal to remember how to work a kitchen.

My wedding in Puerto Rico went really well but my nose is about to hit the grindstone.

Hopefully I don't crash and burn.

a var of piss posted:

Many places do it as a community project rather than as a for-profit business. Volunteer spaces primarily designed to help provide a space in the community where they can afford to eat and hang out. Many of the volunteers are made up of those people who would otherwise be unable to keep a job for the long term for whatever reason (eg addictions, mental health, physical health).

Squashy Nipples posted:

Tell me a little about restaurant supply stores?
Does your restaurant get everything delivered, or is someone taking regular trips to a store?

Context: I'm fooling around with starting a meat pie business on the side. The girlfriend is a chef, but she is having some foot surgery, and can't stand all day. I figure she can sit at a table and roll out pastry. My buddy has a pizza shop that only operates from like 10-10, so I can get in there in the morning and use his ovens to bake stuff. He has a pizza supplier, and a beverage company, who both deliver, but he buys a fair amount of his food from Restaurant Depot. He gave me his card so I could go buy some stuff.

I've never been in one of these places before, and I was shocked to see that it was geared towards restaurants that don't actually cook much; the vast majority was pre-made food and convenience items. The only decent selection they had was meats and cheeses. The spice selection was terrible; I do better at the Indian Market in Quincy.

And the prices weren't great? On things we could directly compare, the prices at Restaurant Depot were pretty much exactly the same as at CostCo or Marketbasket. Even on bulk items!

Sir Spaniard posted:

I... What? What kitchen (outside of cooking at home) is 'for funsies'? Or is that what it is? Cook what you want as long as you cle... wait, what? Yeah, I can't even finish that because that's still just 'do it at home', essentially.

Squashy Nipples posted:

I've been back a few times now, so I know the layout better. It's a brand new one, laid out exactly as you described. Again, good selections of meat and cheese, but there were a few things I was expecting to find and didn't. I guess I just wasn't expecting such a strong emphasis on take out supplies, which take up about half of the building.

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

http://m.sfgate.com/business/article/Yelp-can-give-paying-clients-better-ratings-5731200.php

Lol yelp.

Simoom posted:

old prep cook comes in halfway through a job, pulls out a head of lettuce the other guy threw out from the half-full garbage can, the garbage can, the literal trash bin, "what, theres nothing wrong with this" and puts it with the clean ones. today was my last shift and this will be my last post here as i am going to go lift things for pay. fare well industry thread keep on doing your thing

the loving garbage can

Naelyan posted:

While there was no garbage can involved, I had a bartender that would walk through the prep area every once in a while (if he smelled pork) and ask for a strip of fat cap off of our braised pork shoulders. Dude would just eat like 8oz of fat, multiple times a week. He was still skinny and played a mean game of rugby. English people are hosed.

Trebuchet King posted:

So I'm going to a costume party next weekend and the attendees are almost entirely restaurant staff.

I salvaged some bits from an ancient PoS and am going to have a PoS screen mask and a micros printer on my shoulder. Does this make me evil? I'm debating shouting "86'd!" anytime someone asks me something to complete the illusion.

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"

Radio Help posted:

Man you're gonna hate the hell out of silverskin by the end of that

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

If you're serious about culinary school, absolutely do not go to a franchise school like LCB or CIA. J&W is better but it's still culinary school and this kind of a waste. Work in the industry for a few years so you have a knowledge base and then go stage and train in Europe. Better, more meaningful education, you get to travel and make contacts/connections based on whom you worked for.

If you think you're going to be some celebrity chef, you're wrong, but also if you read their bios you'll notice how very few of them go "well I really got my start in that culinary school advertised on late-night infomercials..."

I never understand the fools that drop the money to do CIA Greystone here to become a Somm... I have the same certification as them for the cost of the exam and some time studying, as well as a BETTER general background in Enology from the four winemaking/viticulture/vineyard management classes I took at the community college. Unless I want to move to Vegas or work for a hotel chain, I make better wages as a Somm than standard FOH but not by much and it's still much less than as a high-end or high-volume bartender.

Thoht posted:

Hey me too, when'd you graduate, just out of curiosity?

bunnyofdoom posted:

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't ghee clarfied butter essentially?

Wroughtirony posted:

Someone mentioned work shoes so I have to post about DANSKO BRAND SHOES because it's in my contract.

(I wish.)

(No seriously, check them out.)

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Yeah yeah yeah but what else aside from purple and green sprouts and flowers makes pizza look so loving pretty?

Che Delilas posted:

For all of you considering going into IT, be aware that it is largely the same situation there. If everything is going well, probably because you and your team are working your butts off to deal with problems before they become catastrophes, clients and normal users barely even know you exist. Meanwhile executives bitch and moan because your department is costing them money and you don't bring any in yourself*, and "they don't even do anything!"

When a catastrophe does happen (and it will!), oh man does the blame come flying. Meeting after meeting to find out "what went wrong" (read: who to blame so their head can be handed to them) and either massive overreaction and spending money unnecessarily, or resuming the ostrich strategy that led to the catastrophe in the first place.

That's not to say it's not worth doing. Solving the problems of technology can be really satisfying for its own sake, and based purely on what I've read in this thread it's likely much better money for your time and effort, even in relatively junior positions. Just don't expect your efforts to be appreciated by most of the people outside your department.

*You know, ignoring the fact that you enable them to operate on a scale they would never be able to achieve without computers and knowledgeable people to maintain them.

Senior Scarybagels posted:

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Welp I just finished the prep for the 100 person party tomorrow. Well at least the prep I could do the day before. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.