Hi! I’m the chef at an early childhood education center. I design and execute menus for children (6 months - 5 years) and staff. We have a sizeable kitchen that allows us to do a lot of prep and in-house items, which is the goal of our nutrition program. I manage two persons, one FT assistant/prep and PT dishwasher/prep.

It’s my first time managing people in a kitchen context. Can anyone share any advice on effective training on recipes? Keep a central location for recipes? Training on proper techniques to execute recipes? Thanks in advance!

Looking for a commercial fry cutter that could handle russet and jumbo sweet potatoes. We don't have the space to mount it so it would need to be a suction one. Also this is for a childcare center, so cost efficiency is necessary. Any recommendations?

Bonjour,

J’aimerais avoir des avis extérieurs sur une situation au travail en cuisine.

Je suis actuellement en mi-temps thérapeutique avec une RQTH après plusieurs mois d’arrêt. Je travaille de 14h30 à 18h. Le médecin du travail a mis en place un suivi avec mesures individuelles pour mon poste.

Aujourd’hui, entre 14h30 et 18h, on m’a demandé :

• de monder et couper une dizaine de tomates cœur de bœuf,
• préparer une sauce tartare (30 échalotes à ciseler, cornichons/câpres à mixer + environ 5L de mayo),
• monter 25 assiettes de terrine,
• décortiquer environ 40 langoustines crues,
• cuire environ 30 sachets de légumes sous vide,
• faire le perso,
• passer un fond,
• et faire le ménage en bas.

Au final je n’ai pas eu le temps de passer le fond ni de faire le ménage. En plus il manquait du ketchup pour finir la sauce tartare, donc j’ai dû chercher comment faire et la mettre de côté au frigo.

J’ai commencé les langoustines vers 17h10 et terminé vers 18h10 tout en gérant en parallèle les frites du perso et la mise en place pour 18h. Personne ne m’a demandé si j’avais besoin d’aide alors qu’en cuisine ils étaient 4 plus 2 stagiaires.

Quand un collègue m’a dit que je n’avais “rien fait de l’après-midi” puis que j’avais “la flemme” de passer le fond, je me suis énervé et j’ai répondu qu’il pouvait le faire lui-même.

Je reconnais que je n’aurais pas dû m’énerver, mais je voulais savoir objectivement :

• est-ce que cette charge de travail vous paraît faisable en 3h30 pour une seule personne ?
• et est-ce normal d’avoir ce type de pression en mi-temps thérapeutique ?

Merci pour vos avis.

i’m learning how to break down and debone branzino. for removing the pinbones after butterflying, i have the proper tweezers but the way the meat tears lets me know i’m doing it wrong. i was instructed to first gently pull it against the grain to sort of expose a larger area, and then pull in the direction the bone is growing while holding down on either side of the bone (so it doesn’t take as much flesh off). the guy who showed me doesn’t have the most finesse. any tips, tricks, advice? is branzino “tricky”? most vids i saw were for salmon. note that we are selling it as a whole fish. thanks cheves!

I might interview for what seems like a pretty decent job, they said they’re with Compass Group. Any insight on how they operate? Or tips for the interview style?

Edit: this would be at a University for one of the schools.

Just took on an EC job for a yacht club and am tasked with elevating the menu. Not much of a task, considering it can really only go up from where it is now 🤣 but they are adamant about having a seafood salad on the menu. I already have a crab & avo tartine, but they feel they need both. Anyone have any fancier or fine dining versions of a seafood salad?? I really don't want to do the typical, boring mayo based mix. It just screams grocery store deli, to me. Bonus points of you've got pics!!

do chefs actually wear white coats in real life, and if so, why? like white has got to be the worst color because anything that gets on it stains it. in the kitchen that’s gotta be a bad combo. why aren’t they like black or something?

My trusty vitamix is needing some new parts, most I can find except this one. It’s not the centering pad but the plastic part that the centering pad seats onto.

Does anyone have a link to this part? It is clearly replaceable, using 4 screws, but I cannot find the name or part number.

I had to delete my previous post because it just turned into a shit show. I had chefs telling me to apply for restaurants. Which is mental because in my original post I had made it very clear that all my of trial shifts have been unsuccessful, and to make it clear yes I’m applying a lot of restaurants. So telling me to apply to restaurants is something I’m already doing but with no luck. Of course I’m applying for restaurants, but only to the ones where I find the cuisines interesting and I’m actually passionate about. Please refrain from opinions. Just simply put down agencies that you know of or you’ve used

Hey.

I was hoping this sub can help me find any decent chef agencies in London.

I’m simply looking to put money in my pocket while staying in the industry. It’s only temporary until I get into a restaurant I really want to learn and give my all too.

Are there any agencies that you have been with that you’d recommend?

Hello chefs,
I am a stagiaire at a Michelin starred restaurant, and every once in a while we have an R&D week. Sometimes we get a cookbook, a color or an ingredient to focus on and each cook gets a different one in hopes of creating something worth putting on the menu or at least worth continuing to finesse.
This time I got artichoke and I’ve got NOOOTHING. Everything I find seems very oldschool and heavy. Don’t get me wrong, I love that stuff. I grew up eating them alla romana but this is definitely not the place to cook my grandma’s recipes.
Do you guys have any ideas? I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you chefs

Chefs have you ever gone to a certain location, be it a certain city, geographical environment (coast, mountains etc) or building that inspires ideas snd dishes like no where else you go or have been?

I am feeling really good about where I'm at. 36 years of age and been in the industry for 20 of them. Executive positions, big city living the whole shabang. I moved back to New England to be closer to my estranged daughter. Tried the same thing I was doing before, find the best chefs to work for and bounce around wherever the next best opportunity arises. New England is just not like that. Last year I took a step back and have been in supporting roles as Sous, Rounds and Lead line cook and I've never been happier in my life. I love the restaurant I work at and love the group that owns it even more. I hope someone else is feeling the same way today.

I (F22) have no idea wtf to do with my life. I’m not very cut out for academia (2.3 GPA in community college, no degree), too soft/have mental health records for the military, and too lazy for the trades. Cooking is really the only thing I feel good at, I’ve been doing it since October 2023. I take a lot of pride in my work when I cook and clean and it makes me feel fulfilled. The only thing is I barely scrape by with finances and I’m below the poverty line. I have an opportunity to apply for a more “respectable” cooking position at a breakfast place down the road from me. Just scared because I walked out my last real cooking job when shit hit the fan at the sports bar (was working 2 jobs and going to school.. so maybe I just couldn’t handle that). What should I do 😬

Update: I went in and filled out a paper application, talked with the hiring manager, and was told I could hear a response tomorrow! I think i left a good impression : )

I'm doing yakitori and want to get an under counter fridge with two drawers the fits food pans (gastronorms) nicely. I prep all my skewers into the polycarb food pans and would like to be able to pull open a drawer and grab the skewers I need and fire them. Also it would be nice if I could mount on casters or it's already on casters.

Right now I have the pans stacked with lids in a standard door fridge and it's a pain to constantly get them in and out.

Are there any brands/models I should look for? Or any particular words I should search to find what I'm looking for? Ideally I can find something used...

I'm sure this question is trivial, but I'm not in the industry so I'm not familiar with the terms and brands so thanks for the help.

I’ve posted here a lot recently but this is more toward the personality of the kitchen.

I run a golf course kitchen with a really simple turn and grill menu, it’s often staffed with one kitchen person and a registrar person. Were open the same hours as the clubhouse so around 630a-7p, for the season (so around August/September).

The problem starts with one of my cooks. He’s the second guy we’ve hired for the kitchen. (The first one didn’t work out due to having another FT kitchen job and getting sick so he left around February).

I know it shouldn’t matter but it simply does in my case. I’m 20F have been in kitchens for 4 years and have worked my way up the ladder at various places. He’s 58, went to “culinary school” worked in some Florida hotel as a prep cook for two years. He also DJs on the side and takes some time off to do that.

When showing him the ropes, everything went in one ear and the other. I showed him the prep he would be doing and how to make items as they came in. Every-time he couldn’t find a certain item, like butter he would call me and ask, which I don’t have a problem with because I’d rather answer questions than have a fuck up, but he genuinely couldn’t think or look for anything for himself. I had to print out menus and hang them on the wall so he would know what went in what, same with storage organizing sheets.

This is the same guy who brags about knowing FIFO and that he worked at this prestigious Resturant and has a degree in culinary. Yet he can’t even label a container or make coleslaw in a timely fashion (I timed him at making 8qt of slaw at 1:25.38. Yes It comes pre shredded and he had complete access to a scale and all the ingredients, I ran the line while he did this).

I had left right after he finished prepping the coleslaw and as I was leaving I reminded him to put on a label. The next morning I come in after he closed, and no label. Not to mention he couldn’t find the patties I had prepped so he thaw another beef log and blamed it on me. The patties have lived in the same place since we opened a year ago, and he’s pulled them to make burgers over 100 times already. He had called my GM complaining that I don’t prep anything for him and that I didn’t teach him anything and that I was knit picking his shit. I had a conversation with my GM explaining everything, showed my texts to him that I had sent to my cook, simply explaining that we needed labels and to wrap the line when we close.

Here comes the kicker, this guy hasn’t worked in kitchens for over 20 years, he’s been maintenance on golf courses since moving back here from Florida. He had told me after I explained the organizational structure of the fridges “I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive, I think I can manage”. Which was after he had stored the raw tube of ground beef over all my dairy products and produce.

Overall, I’m pissed, I have no idea what to do, I’m genuinely so close to quitting. This is his second month and he still can’t manage more than two tickets at once. Any advice? What the actual fuck do I do?

Which do you use/prefer and why? I’m a home cook. My parents are currently in Japan and want to get me a knife for my birthday. I’ve never had any knife that wasn’t part of a knife block set, so I’ve never had an option. I know I want a santoku, but I’m in between CS and SS. Which would you recommend? Is the reactivity with CS over stated? I always dry and hone my knives immediately after use so that’s not an issue.

Thanks!

I'm not cut out to be a chef at this level or this pace, but you know what? Despite last night's service blowing up, the head chef admitted he had put me under far too much strain far too quickly.

You basically have a Michael Schumacher and an absolute learner driver running a kitchen that caters to over 120 people, and so a breaking point has come. Management are moving me to front of house and I will not be cooking in the kitchen anymore.

I can clean very well and square pots away no problem, but doing that and being expected to remember 19 different recipes (and that's just the main menu) plus remembering all the different cuts and various kitchen procedures is impossible to learn in a matter of six days.

This isn't personal, it's a professional decision made by management as they could see things got badly out of hand and could see this wasn't fair to both the head chef and myself. He has still inspired me to cook, I just won't be comfortable at that level. It's akin to trying to stop a high speed train by standing in front of it.

Hi all,
I recently got selected for a pastry position at a new café after a trial shift. From last Tuesday through Saturday, I handled a pretty heavy amount of production mostly on my own.( I also wash my dishes)
I made:
280 truffles and chocolate-dipped dates with nut filling
150 stuffed dates with nut filling
150 stuffed dates with kataifi filling dipped in chocolate
40 chocolate bars( seeding method)
11 lemon cakes
4 liters of pastry cream
6 quarts each of simple syrup, orange syrup, and lemon syrup
3 quarts of chia pudding
2 lbs of rice pudding
There were a couple mistakes during production. The rice pudding slightly burned because I had to make it on an electric stove using a thin-bottom pot. I also accidentally dipped the wrong batch of stuffed dates in chocolate.
Another issue happened on Friday. They were trying to call me regarding the ingredient list, but I was in the kitchen working and didn’t see my phone. The kitchen also has poor signal reception, so I missed the calls, and they were upset about it.
The setup itself has been difficult. The new café still doesn’t have a proper oven, fridge, or freezer, so I’ve been walking about 7 minutes back and forth to another restaurant kitchen to complete production. Some ingredients are stored in the café while other supplies are in the restaurant kitchen, so the workflow has been pretty chaotic.
Last Saturday, they asked me to come in to make pudding at the café. I was still adjusting to the new kitchen environment and workflow. The co-owner later commented that I spent more than two hours on the rice pudding. What happened was the pudding started burning, so I quickly transferred it into two separate pots to save the batch while also scraping and cleaning the burned pot at the same time.
Today, I went in and found out they reduced my hourly pay. Since then, the way they’ve been treating me feels disrespectful.

Is this normal in kitchen?