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Hey thread, I guess I should start posting here. I’m actually enjoying my life in the industry now, I spent a little over 8 years at a corporate Italian chain restaurant that, when I started, was actually a nice gig (focused on quality food from a scratch kitchen) and slowly became more and more soul crushing as both the restaurant changed and I kept moving up in management. Long story short I jumped ship from there a year ago after getting an almost miraculous opportunity to help open a higher end “American brasserie” style place inside one of the larger local/regional breweries here in town. It really is a unicorn gig, hours are reasonable, I have a lot of room to experiment and be creative (and the deep pockets to bring in specialized equipment to do so) great benefits, decent pay, free beer, and I’m usually off by 6 every day. ApolloSuna posted:Has anyone made butter for use in a restaurant kitchen? At what level is making ranch etc from scratch not worth it? It all depends what you’re going for, and what your market is. If you’re making butter or ranch or whatever to use as a basic commodity, then yeah, it’s absolutely a waste of time and money. If you’re making it to feature as a nice, house ingredient, it can be worthwhile from both a cost and marketing perspective. At my restaurant, we bring in basic rear end butter for cooking and baking, but we also do our own house cultured butter (which we do in the wild/barrel aging room of the brewery we’re attached to) to feature alongside our bread (which we bring in from a local bakery we’ve partnered up with) We charge $7 for the 6oz sourdough boule and maybe an ounce of butter. Our food cost on the dish is about 20% (with about 30min of active labor a week) and people eat that poo poo up. Same thing with ranch, if you’re going to use it as a dip or whatever people use Hidden Valley for, making it from scratch is a waste. If you’re doing a simple greens salad with an “herbed buttermilk dressing” then hell yeah, make that from scratch, make it tasty, market/sell it well and charge a premium for it. Never, ever make your own ketchup though. Merkin Muffley fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Oct 5, 2018 |
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Oct 5, 2018 00:35
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ptkfvk posted:anyone know of any spots opening up in south western ohio? Are you close to Cincy and what sort of thing are you looking for?
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Jan 20, 2019 01:28
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Cant Ride A Bus posted:Bonefish Grill lol. Thanks for the advice, I know they typically don’t make as much as the servers (especially where I work) and the only reason I’d even consider it is because I hate my Current Day Job (insurance, dogshit salary) and I don’t think I could bring myself to go back to serving/bartending full time. I can't speak for Bonefish specifically but I worked for Bloomin' Brands (Carrabba's) for about 8 years and I would assume they've been on a similar trajectory. You will absolutely take home less money going from FOH to key, and you will make vastly less money per hour going into management. I was offered a managing partner position around 3 years ago and I quit instead of accepting it. Ever since the company went public it's been a downward trend of profits/revenue over people/food at all costs. Everyone I know that still works (management) for the company is overworked and miserable. I'm not making near what I would have if I had accepted (still decent, just not the 6 figgies of MP) but the work I've been doing since than is infinitely more fulfilling, and I've actually had a sane schedule. Currently working for a small restaurant group that has me splitting my time between my favorite restaurant in the city (a very established, super creative, heavily local focused highish-end dining) and helping open a cafe/food market concept with the same local focus. I'm salaried but have a strict 4 day work week, I never work more than 45hrs, and usually just 40. It's heavenly. Quitting a BBI concept was the best decision I ever made. I -will- say that everything I learned about running a profitable restaurant while working for them has proved to be invaluable, but you can learn that anywhere if you pay attention. Oh and their insurance plan is dogshit too.
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Apr 14, 2021 22:09
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Even though I haven't left the industry, I just want to say that there -are- fulfilling, well-paying, sane-hours gigs out there. They're not in every city, and they're the minority of gigs, but they do exist. If you can leverage yourself creatively and professionally its possible to stay in a kitchen and not get sucked back into the typical spiral. I have a passion for food unlike anything else I've delved in to, and kitchens are were I've always felt at home. I have a degree in mechanical engineering but I work as a chef. This is the work that I want to continue to do until I retire. My folks pushed me into the engineering path but it just wasn't for me. The transformative process of bringing in ingredients and sending out one of the best plates a diner has ever had scratches that itch in my brain like nothing else can. The biggest lesson I have learned in my career is to know what I'm worth. If my employer doesn't know it, then gently caress 'em. There's always another restaurant that will treat you better. If my employer doesn't know what the other people that I work with/for/over, then gently caress 'em too. I understand I'm in the minority here, and might as well be preaching "naw dude, you can totally use heroin responsibly, you just gotta know your limits." I've been lucky in the city I live to find like-minded employers after I jumped ship from the corporate world. Loyalty and taking the bait are all too common, I wish I knew how to verbalize what to look out for but I can't. Maybe I've just been obscenely lucky. I dunno, I just love making good food made from good ingredients provided by good people. It's a passion I never expected to have when I was younger but here I am. I'm happy and healthy and fulfilled. I'm sure the brain drugs and therapy are a big part of that but whatever, I look forward to going in to work every day. There's always something new to create and always something new to learn. Anywho, don't get sucked into management without a full career plan, don't do too many drugs, keep at it if you truly have a passion for food, volunteer at soup kitchens, say hi to your neighbors and bring them tasty treats, take care of yourself, take care of your friends, if you work for a publicly traded restaurant group know that they don't actually care about you, try not to dip your pen in the company ink, eat vegetables, exercise a little, wear sunscreen, i dunno thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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Apr 16, 2021 05:54
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