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Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Liquid Communism posted:

Beer cheese sauce and pretzels. Bite size rather than whole, so easy to share.

Also, house pickles if you can get away with it. Goes with the cheese plate.

Pickle something cool. My go-tos this summer are watermelon rind and okra, but a mix of red/orange/yellow bell peppers, or beets, or celery, or drat near anything else is also a solid choice. Or if you're going to do cucumber, make sure it's not just a generic dill or B&B. I did some kimchi pickles last year for an event to go with some braised pig tongue and people went loving batshit.

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Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

anyway, my theory about the incredibly poor pay and management in general in the service industry is less that it's capitalism (it is that though) and more that the actual smart people just go into more lucrative fields

That could be said about anyone in the restaurant industry (outside of servers, because let's be real, in the right place they make bank and have super flexible hours). Whenever anyone says to me "Oh man, my [kid/friend/self/whatever] wants to be a chef so bad, what's the best way to start?", my honest reply is "Don't. If they can find anything else they could be happy with, they'll make enough money and have enough free time to cook as a hobby and have a better life for it."

And then I go back to work.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
Is it still importing if it's from earlier in this same thread? Because he's said some pretty loving cringy things just in this thread.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

The Maestro posted:

Maybe I should contact our owners and tell them they should control how we seat our restaurant.

Obviously it's not the owners' direct responsibility, but if your restaurant is being seated in a way that is loving the servers, loving the kitchen, and loving the bar, AND no one is doing anything to remedy the situation, then yeah, that's a failing of the ownership/management team. There are absolutely things that can be done to fix those issues.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MohawkSatan posted:

edit: hell, you want purestrain Canadian law retardation? Our firearms law. I'm a licensed owner. I can't buy a pistol in .32 caliber, but a rifle that happens to be the exact same gun but with a stock is fine. Can't own a pistol with a barrel under 4.25 inches, but I can literally own all the loving artillery pieces I want. An AR-15 is Restricted, and can only be fired at a range, but I can buy a tank with no issues and then go fuckin' deer hunting with it (just gotta pay $90 to register an armoured vehicle for 5 years, $45 for every 5 years after that), or a semi-auto clone of the german MG34, with all the belts I want. An airgun with a muzzle velocity of over 500fps is a firearm and requires a license to buy, but literally anyone can buy a muzzle loading cannon without a license, or even an M203 grenade launcher(muzzle velocity of 250 feet per second? Not legally a gun, no license needed).

To be fair, our gun laws are SUPPOSED to boil down to "is it large enough that it can't be concealed/would be unwieldy to use to murder a bunch of people, and can you possibly in some way use it to hunt? Cool, you good bro", and for the most part they do with some lapses where either the laws haven't kept up with new things on the market or were missed because politicians don't know enough about foreign gun markets to be specific enough sometimes (which for sure, is a problem). Sure, you can buy a grenade launcher or a tank with no license, but the explosive rounds to use with them are generally restricted pretty well, and also it's pretty hard to sneak a grenade launcher into an auditorium. You could blow some poo poo up from the outside with your "legal" tank, but realistically you'd have more luck with a U-Haul filled with fertilizer, so what's the point.

As someone who grew up in Saskatchewan farmland surrounded by a ton of hillbilly hunters and reservation land, and has now spent the last decade living in southern Ontario, I honestly don't have much to take issue with our gun laws from either side.

(As to the poo poo that's going on south of the border, you all have my sympathy, poo poo is hosed up.)

As for carding people for alcohol: guidelines and mandates are not laws, and while some provinces are a little loving ridiculous (for quite a while it was against liquor law to have a discounted "happy hour" in Ontario, and you still can't call it by that name) (also you can't put more than 3oz of hard alcohol [or beer/wine equivalent] in front of a person at any point in time, so you're not supposed to sell a pitcher of beer to a single person, and no one sells yards of beer or proper fishbowls of anything here), most places are pretty reasonable in enforcement.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MohawkSatan posted:

and a fuckwad who is not on shift, but still in the kitchen eating all my loving stock, getting in the way

Tell management to get him the gently caress out of there. If management is for some reason ok with it, they'll probably also be ok with you threatening a stabbing, to get him the gently caress out of there. gently caress that noise.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Coasterphreak posted:

UberEats and DoorDash have tablets and let you handle your own menu administration from a web backend. Not that this doesn't create its own set of problems, since the tablet doesn't care if you're weeded and lined up out the door.

That's not everywhere. DoorDash in my city (Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario) seems to be run by one guy who has a farm of people somewhere ripping menus off of websites and setting up businesses without their knowledge. Apparently wherever the data entry farm is, they're paid bonuses based on how many restaurants they can "sign up". There are a whole lot of people who are super loving mad about being listed on a takeout app without their knowledge, with possibly outdated/incorrect menus, with drivers who don't show up/show up 30 minutes late/pick up food and don't deliver it, so customers leave lovely reviews on social media. Or they're a restaurant that doesn't normally do take out food at all so they're not set up for it. It's a bit of an issue.

Naelyan fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jul 6, 2018

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
My sysco rep is pissing me off and not getting me the glass bottled Coke (and diet) that I need. "2-3 week special order" took 7 weeks last time. I want to email him a screenshot of that poo poo and just be "bruh, what the gently caress".

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

Jesus christ, you people serious buy things from Sysco and call it food?!

I buy AP flour (they carry the stuff from the local mill), sugar, paper towels, and Oasis pineapple juice from Sysco, and yeah, it's just as good as anywhere else. Except for when they gently caress things up, but my Sysco rep has been good buddies with the guy who owns my restaurant for like 22 years or some poo poo.

edit: as for the person asking about a Coke rep, no, that's not a thing here. Also I'm Canadian so I don't have to differentiate between Coke with real sugar and Coke with corn syrup, because that garbage just doesn't exist. I could get it through my other non-alcoholic beverage supplier but we generally only do orders from them every couple of months and I go through (barely) too much coke to want to keep 15 cases of it sitting in my basement at a time.

Naelyan fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Aug 3, 2018

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Trebuchet King posted:

here's a question--if you were gonna do an omelet-to-order bar one day a week for six hours, what kind of hourly pay would you think is appropriate for the person working it? let's say a tip jar can be factored in.

infinite money

omelette bars are the loving worst, people are the worst, and people ordering omelettes are worse than everything

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Skwirl posted:

I can't imagine a more hellish experience for a cook.

crepe bar. it's like an omelette bar, but people stand in line for way too long fawning over you spreading loving batter OOOHHHH MY GOOOODDDD YOU JUST LIKE DO THAT SOOOOO NIIIIICE HOW DO YOU DO THAT CAN YOU COME COOK FOR ME HEHEHEHEHEEEE

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

bizwank posted:

Pro tip: if he's the one paying you he already knows how much/little you're making.

Sure, doesn't mean they know what that actually means.



edit: to contribute, JD: You do deserve better. 100%. Please ask for better. How exactly you decide to do it is your call, but do it sooner rather than later, because you deserve it. If it were me, I'd just say the realities. "Hey, you promised me a raise, and while I appreciate what you've done so far, $2.25/day works out to basically $0.25/hour raise [sidenote, that's like 3%, which is a completely bullshit raise], and less than $500/year after taxes. It doesn't feel sufficient for my increased responsibilities, especially when they're being asked of me when I'm not the only lead in the kitchen. I feel like I'm worth $X to you, and that my work reflects that every day."

Get in there and fuckin' get 'em, JD. Show 'em who's the boss (hint: you're the boss, they gave you the title, they should give you the pay too).

Naelyan fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Aug 20, 2018

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

virinvictus posted:

I’ll take any advice you can give.

Move the gently caress out of your bumfuck northern town (I think I remember you saying you're somewhere up in the lovely part of Ontario?) and move to Kitchener, come work at my place. Quick, before I have to hire one of the people I interviewed today. They're not bad, they're just not... good. I pay above the median wage for the area but a tech-backed restaurant just opened a month ago and is throwing money around, hoovering up all the talent. It is poor timing that I have to send off my sous to open our new property and also my full time closing cook broke his hand last Friday. All the poor timing.

Back on track here though: loving come move to Kitchener and make fried chicken with me.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Anyone here been a barista, esp in VA? My place is shaving hours like mad, and y'all keeping up with this thread know about the stupid situation regarding my "raise" for being a shift lead. I'm looking for a second job. The coffee joint two blocks away from my house has a sign in their window saying they're hiring. Their website says barista, and they'll train. But they also just started doing lunch, and I've got experience in that in spades.

My question: when filling the application out, I got stuck on the "salary desired" part. I don't wanna shoot so high that they'll laugh and throw out my app, but I don't wanna undersell the fact that I have kitchen experience and could be more than just an espresso jockey. What do?

I have no clue what baristas make, are they $2.13 + tips like FOH here in Virginia, or do I ask for more?

Unless I'm wrong, the 2.13 server wage is tied to alcohol sales - if it's just a cafe/lunch spot that doesn't do alcohol, I don't think they'd be allowed to pay you that? Or maybe I'm confusing American and Canadian laws in my head. Either way, as just a straight up barista, you should be paid at minimum, regular minimum wage. Assuming average cooks in your area make $2-3 over minimum wage, I'd put in a range from $1 over minimum to $1 over whatever the average cook wage is, and hope for the best?

edit: Yeah, your tipped minimum wage doesn't care if you serve alcohol or not, it can apply to any position that makes more than $30/week in tips. Realistically as a barista you may not make that, and you should still ask for your regular minimum wage at the very least.

Naelyan fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Sep 16, 2018

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

mindphlux posted:

yeah, that's really not a bad suggestion.

when I was a kid I'd always get the 'vegetable tempura' from my favorite sushi place. it was like $6, and in retrospect, just a heap of matchsticked sweet potatoes, onions, and zucchini, all tossed in some batter and fried. like it came out as one cohesive chunk of battered vegetable, kinda like a bahji. I feel like you could refine that slightly and sell it pretty easily for like 10% food cost.

Bhaji is on my rotation of Thursday night 'appetizer platter' specials, and I'm a loving soul food place. But it doesn't even matter what else is on the platter, throw some "Cajun-style onion bhaji" on that poo poo and I sell a dozen of them, no problem.

Eat all of my cheap fried vegetables, you stupid idiots.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Plan Z posted:

My last job I had I worked with a bipolar friend I had known since middle school and when he would hit lows, I would write messages to get him to laugh like "SUCK BUTT" or draw goofy faces (stuff would get put on it, so customers would never know).

Are there any classes out there that teach you how to draw a dick with a creme brulee torch?

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

That’s why you bone the people who work at the bar around the corner instead!

I've been having luck with other regulars at the bar around the corner rather than the staff, but I feel you.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
I also have an equipment question. I have waffle makers running 10-12 hours a day every day, because we serve chicken and waffles. That's not going to change, unfortunately. We get the good Belgian style ones from Cuisinart, and they work great until they die, but that's just an inevitability that I'm not too worried about. In the meantime though, they're a pain in the rear end to clean after they're 2-3 weeks old and most of the nonstick has worn off of them. They still don't have waffles stick to them just fine (as long as we spray them before every waffle), but they end up with this black buildup that I assume is just charred on carbon from the pan spray/waffles. I'm using just a regular Sysco soy-based pan spray. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a different spray I should be using or a cleaning procedure that's easy? Right now I basically wait until they've cooled some and then use a soft plastic pick/scraper thing (that came with a panini press we used to use) to clean between the waffle pocket things.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

JacquelineDempsey posted:

What up, chicken and waffle buddy? That's part of my station on Sunday's. Our newest seasonal version features an onion bacon jam, it is the tiiiiiiiiits

We only run our waffle maker (also a Cuisinart) on brunch, so not nearly as much as you, but we use a butter...ish? liquid we get from Sysco and brush it on. Cleans up easy peasy, never had to pick crap out. Waffles lift right out.
A quick googling brought up a PDF of their "liquid butter alternatives", and nothing looked exactly like the bottles we have (could be an out of date page). I'll make a point of checking the exact name, if you think that's an option.

Edit: just looked again, the bottle's not the same, but I'm 99% sure it's "Grill-On" we're using.

I'll check into Grill-On, thanks. Also, I have a caramelized onion bacon jam on my Chorizo Scotch Egg dish right now. Get out of my head.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Shooting Blanks posted:

Holy hell this is true :o You don't even have to negotiate that well if you're moving enough product.

Unless you negotiate really badly. Motherfuckers can't even get me beer merch shirts for my kitchen staff. I swear my bar manager is either hiding thousands of dollars worth of merch in his garage or actively refusing it when they offer.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

JacquelineDempsey posted:

What say ye, thread?

Like most school, you get out of culinary school what you put into it. You, for instance, will learn everything they teach you and it would for sure be valuable, if I had to guess. If you ever decide to move into hotels/conference centers/want a cushy job running the kitchen at a retirement home, having that degree will get your foot in the door and at least put you in the running for upward mobility.

So yeah, as long as it's a decent program you'll definitely learn and improve. Whether or not the letters will help totally depends on what you want to do in the next few years.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
I don't know anything about setting up gofundmes, but I'm definitely in once it's up.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
Not getting free meals in a restaurant (especially one with a loving buffet) is bullshit.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
Hey everyone. I quit my job. I'm not gonna be a chef anymore, I'm going to be a Purchasing Manager for a medium sized catering company! I'll still get to play in the kitchen/go do events a day or two a week, but 90% of my job is going to be 9-5 office work. With a decent pay increase. And almost-benefits. And the owner is 100% against her salaried staff working overtime.

And then in a year when the current Purchasing Manager gets back from mat leave I get to decide if I want to be a chef again (of a new space we're moving into in 6 months that will have a restaurant space attached to it), or a GM of a restaurant, or maybe the GM of the entire fuckin' company if I decide that office work is my life and I show that I'm competent.

I'm going to have to find hobbies and start cooking at home again, and I'm scared.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

ApolloSuna posted:

Save money by working all the time because you have nothing joyful to spend money on. Ive been fuckin around on bumble and i got asked what I like to do for fun. I drew a blank.

"You?" winkyface

JD, so glad to hear about that car, that's awesome. And for deliveries, yeah, 15-21 day terms is the standard in my area (hi from Canada), though some of my smaller local retailers (my bakery, my temeph guy, my ice guy) do CoD just because it's easier for them, and we're a cocktail bar so we always have enough cash around to just pull $60 or whatever out of the till.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Liquid Communism posted:

Go to your boss, tell them you can't do your job if you're going to be second-guessed and overruled, and have a backup plan to pull the ripcord if they don't have your back.

This is almost exactly why I'm at a new job this week. 1) boss just handed me a menu and told me to launch it the next day, having never seen it before (when normally I make the menus), 2) boss gave me poo poo (in front of my staff) for sending home an employee for being maliciously insubordinate, 3) boss started telling my staff to change menu items/run features/do whatever other poo poo, without keeping me in the loop. I shouldn't have to find out from my opening cook that now we're running lunch features for the first time in our restaurant's history (also it's a bad idea). Three strikes, I'm out. gently caress that noise.

If your responsibility and authority is being taken away without a conversation or any reasoning that you can find, and they won't tell you why, it's probably time to start looking.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
Sounds like your steam table is a bit too hot, as well as what everyone else has said. Beans will dry out, that's just a thing that happens, just make sure to hit them with a bit of hot water (or stock or whatever you cook them in originally) and give them a stir every once in a while. Gravy splitting and cheese crusting (provided you're keeping a lid on them) is likely just due to too much heat.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Animal-Mother posted:

So here's maybe a weird question: Should cooks with terrible hearing go find something else to do for a living or should I spend the rest of my working life apologizing porque no escucho bien? I'm not an idiot. I just can't loving hear you. Kitchen environments can get very noisy and some people habitually speak very softly. No esta bien para mi.

Know of any successful half-deaf cooks?

There are places that are quieter. Most catering companies I've worked for have less noise/more space so noise is less of an issue. Same with if you go work in a hospital or a retirement home or some other more institutional place. Barring that, just smaller restaurants where it's you and another person rather than a line of 8 people.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

kittenmittons posted:

Like is it possible for a mildly autistic person to be an expeditor / line cook.

Yes.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

If it's a big enough place that they have an 8 person line on a Tuesday, a big menu isn't necessarily a terrible thing. It usually is, but it doesn't always mean the place is a trailer fire. If there's only 80 seats and two guys working Friday night dinner rush, then 100% half the menu is frozen and thrown in a microwave to order and you probably don't want to deal with that?

There's no harm in checking it out.

Also, happy holidays (or lack thereof) industry goons. I think I told the thread that I'm catering now. It's so loving easy. Everyone should either cater or go work in IT. My job is basically half and half those things and it's nice. Real nice.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
True stages are illegal where I work (Ontario) as well, so when I have someone come in for a trial shift, I just pay them. I personally like having people come in over a lunch that's not Friday so they can see the line in action (and I can see how they are around it) but it's also not crazy busy, so the shifts are usually 12-3 or so. Then I just hand them $45 on their way out, whether I offer them a job or not. It's such a small cost to be a decent human being and not break labour laws. And the places that get things done by having two people in 4 days a week working for free under the pretext of "staging" need to gently caress off and die already.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
I'm also of the opinion that if you're doing anything that can benefit the restaurant, you should 100% be paid for your time. If someone is working a small part of the line, doing a batch prep job, or helping plate food that goes out to guests, you're making money off their labour, and they should be compensated. About the only time I haven't offered someone compensation for putting on a coat and spending time in the kitchen is when I've got someone interviewing for a senior sous or higher position, and I bring them in on a Sunday (when we're closed) and give them free reign of the kitchen to make 2-3 plates worth of "show me what you'd do for a Friday night feature". Something like that is a legitimate part of the interview process (IT/CS gives coding tests, etc) and the restaurant is not financially benefiting from it. Otherwise though, how bad does that restaurant really need $45 or $80 or whatever worth of free labour?

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
What does the book say about how well specific racial groups tip? :can:

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

That is so loving weird to me, because why the gently caress not just focus instead on making all the tables in your restaurant "good tables?!!?"

I get what you're saying, but to some people, some tables will inherently be "better" or "worse" than all the other ones. The corner booth next to the window > the four-top in the middle of your restaurant next to the service stand. The two-top three tables in > the two-top closest to the door. That kind of poo poo.

The 'giving the better table to the Japanese businessmen (who care about these things!) rather than the American executives (who are too stupid to notice these things!)' poo poo is racist and classist and lovely, but realistically probably makes these people money sometimes and doesn't really harm their bottom line the rest of the time.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

MAKE NO BABBYS posted:

I eat out literally between 250-300 nights of the year for work and I don't have emotional feelings about the table that I am sat at and really don't understand how anyone does - any remotely decent restaurant will just do the best to have all tables be good tables.

While I agree with you, I know from personal (anecdotal) experience that my oldschool farmer-turned-cityfolk grandparents were not ever ok if someone tried to seat them at a table anywhere near a washroom or door to the kitchen. This included (one time I remember vividly) a table at least a solid 15-20 feet away, but since it was still the closest table to the hallway the washrooms was in, that was unacceptable and my grandma threw a fit until they put us somewhere else.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Field Mousepad posted:

This is really what it boils down to. Restaurant owners are greedy as gently caressusually barely making ends meet or making a profit because this industry is still super hosed and they'll squeeze money out of anything possible.

Sometimes it's just greed, sure. A lot of times it's that seating an extra 8 customers a night means you can for sure pay your bills.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
I hope that outing some dude who may or may not be cheating on his wife (polyamory/open relationships are a thing) is worth your job I guess, because whether or not that guy has any personal repercussions, at a country club he's 100% telling your boss that you're loving with his personal affairs and you're 100% getting fired for it. I don't have a whole lot of experience with private clubs like that, but I know that members pay good money so they can go to a place that makes their life easy and enjoyable. (this isn't aimed at the person who originally posted, it's aimed at all the internet heroes who would Protect The Lady From The Bad Man)

I'm also super against cheating and affairs, I think anyone who engages in that kind of lovely behaviour is a lovely person. That said, I've got a couple restaurants that I go to fairly often, but not often enough to be personal friends with the staff. I go to them with lots of different people, including both my primary partner and my girlfriend (who are two different people and who both know about each other). If a staff member at a restaurant tried to "out" me in front of my girlfriend about me being there the week before with someone I was obviously loving (or whatever), she'd laugh about it and tell them they're a moron, but I'd be pissed that someone went out of their way to try to gently caress with my personal life in a place where they're being paid to provide service? Just another perspective I guess.

Naelyan fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Jan 2, 2019

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Shooting Blanks posted:

Install a shitter next to every table.

Turn every seat into a toilet so you don't have to stand up to poo poo. Every table is now the best table.

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Discendo Vox posted:

OP, seduce his wife.

Does the wife Get Down?

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Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe
If people start fuckin' on the table, the woman is a mistress. If they go to the bathroom to gently caress, it's a wife. Note: in all scenarios, wives never cheat, because then we'd have to white knight for men and that's just gross.

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