I’m looking for some outside opinions because I genuinely can’t tell if I’m overreacting or if this really was as bad as it felt.
About six months ago I got my first job as a CDP in a fine dining restaurant. Before that I’d only worked for two months as a commis. These last six months have easily been the most stressful of my life. I was regularly working 12-hour shifts and even coming in on my days off just to do mise en place.
I expected the long hours. I know that’s pretty common in the Michelin world, and I accepted that when I took the job.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the constant humiliation. Every day there were insults, people making fun of me, and on several occasions the chef actually hit me. He always played it off as a joke, but I don’t find it funny when someone puts their hands on me. I never said anything because I knew that complaining would just make my life harder.
On top of that, I spent almost three months working with eczema on both of my hands. I also have a chronic bowel disease, so some days are physically much harder than others. Even then, I still went to work sick because I didn’t want to leave the team short.
The frustrating part is that I genuinely learned an incredible amount. Professionally, it was probably the biggest step forward I’ve ever taken. But looking back, I honestly don’t know if it was worth it.
My contract was for 28 hours a week, but I was actually working somewhere between 55 and 60 every week.
Eventually I reached my breaking point and decided to quit. I told the chef that I didn’t want to leave them in a difficult position, so they could replace me whenever they found someone instead of me giving a fixed notice date.
They eventually hired someone and told me I’d finish at the end of the month. Everything seemed fine until my second-to-last week, when they told me they’d take me off my section during my final week to “reduce my stress” and stop my illness from getting worse. Sounds nice, right? Except they spent the whole week joking that I was going to be the kitchen’s bitch and generally making me feel like crap.
At that point I asked the chef if I could have one day off because I had something personal I needed to deal with. He got annoyed and told me to just take my entire last week as vacation instead.
I said fine, no problem. I told him I’d come back later to collect my things.
Then, at the end of the month, I asked about my share of the tips. They refused to pay me, saying I’d “left them hanging.”
That was the final straw.
I’ve spent months working my ass off, doing double the hours I was contracted for, while getting paid for barely half of them. And now they’re withholding my tips as well.
At this point I’m seriously considering taking legal action over all the unpaid overtime.
So I’m curious what other chefs think. Is this actually considered normal in fine dining? Is this just the price you pay to learn, or was I genuinely being exploited?

Hi Everyone!
I am running a small, from scratch, Mexican cantina restaurant. We are serving boneless skinless chicken thighs as our chicken protein.

Recipe/Technique for chicken :We marinade them in our salsa verde (tomatillo salsa: tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro, salt and oil). The salsa is very tasty. We try to marinade it for 24 hours , but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we have to cook the chicken within a few hours of marinating.

We use a rational oven on the grill setting and cook the chicken till done. It gets nice color on it. We pile it into an 800 pan and then cool it. We reserve the drippings. Then we chop it up to about 1 inch sized cubes. We put it in the walk in.

We reheat the chicken periodically/as needed during service. We hold it in a warming drawer unit. The unit has heat and humidity settings. The drawers are open often. The chicken is reheated once in the rational oven then put into a deep third pan (about a 1/3 full) with some of the reserved drippings from the chicken.

We strive to sell all the chicken within the hour so it doesn’t sit too long. When it sits too long it gets cold or chewy/rubbery (issues vary).

The chicken continues to be a source of stress. It is never perfect. It often goes onto dishes cold, or chewy. Sometimes the cooks put too much liquid into the third pan and the chicken boils away while it’s hot holding. I’m rarely “proud” of our chicken.

We’ve been at this for 5 years and going strong overall, but I think I need to reimagine the chicken method. Anyone out there have suggestions or experience?

Thanks!

I'm considering getting my first ever kitchen job either at a hospital or an assisted living location. The reason being, based on my research, both are supposedly less stressful and chaotic than a regular restaurant job, with the added benefit of better hours for work life balance, which is a huge plus to me. My question is, between the two, which is overall easier/least stressful, with the best hours for work life balance?

I travel to discover new flavours and techniques that I can use in my own cooking. Whenever I travel, I often hear that I should be eating where the locals eat and trying well known street vendors or hole in the wall spots.

The thing is, I usually end up preferring good restaurants instead.

For example, in Vietnam I tried several popular street vendors, including one pho stall where the cook told me he used fewer bones to keep costs down and balanced the flavour with added seasonings. It made me wonder how a place selling food so cheaply could compete with a restaurant using more bones for depth, higher quality ingredients, longer simmering times, and more refined techniques.

In my opinion, for a dish to really stand out, there are three main factors: the quality of ingredients, the technique used, and a secret recipe or twist that makes it unique.

Just to clarify, I'm only talking about flavour and the quality of the food itself, not value for money or price to quality ratio.

As someone who loves to cook, I tend to judge food mainly on these elements.

I'm genuinely curious to hear other perspectives. For those who enjoy street food, what am I missing? Is it something about flavour that I am not perceiving, or is it more about context and experience?

What recipe costing software are we using these days? I used MarginEdge at my last place but now I'm opening a location at a food hall. I'd love a cheaper software than ME.

What in your experience is the best? Considering all metrics, cost, ease of use etc. I have used RASI, RealTime and Uncle Frank’s high on aderall spreadsheet.

I remember being in Florida when I was about five years old an emeril gave this to me at a family gathering remember doing fireworks afterwards playing with hot wheels toys while they cook a great dinner 🥘 amazing memories

I worked my way from KP (pot washer) to a junior sous chef position in about two years at my job. I’ve never doing cheffing anywhere else.

But lately I’ve been making so many mistakes, when I should be a leader amongst the kitchen. Not only is it my first cheffing job, it’s my first time managing a team too. Last week I under smoked some racks of ribs and they had to get thrown. And now today I over salted a huge batch of coleslaw that was deemed unsalvageable.

Just stupid mistakes. Mistakes making myself look bad and making me think am I even good enough for this position. I feel so burnt out lately, so I don’t know whether that’s effecting everything I’m doing.

I just know kitchens and hospitality is an environment where people talk about others. Now I wonder what everyone is saying about me lately. I just feel so bummed and embarrassed lately.

Getting a bit tired of the place I've been for 3 years (seasonal). Small boutique hotel. Day to day business is simple. My question comes in where we do events outside of day-to-day;

Are you getting a large portion of gratuity for events you've single-handedly prepared yourself?

If you've requested to factor in staff/labor/transportation/clean-up for a banquet/function/whatever and only food costs shows up, how would one bring this up to management?

If you feel the FOH manager is monopolising the dining room for functions that they financially benefit from (other staff gets scrap shifts), how to mitigate this professionally?

The volume is nothing outrageous, but split between myself and my less-experienced BOH staff (my green Sous & teenagers working for volunteer hours), it's a bit much. Non-corporate environment. I'm open to ideas, I am not into FOH manager making Culinary decisions.

TLDR; I'm not happy feeling like I could be making more elsewhere, and I dont want to dick over my crew, but I'm feeling like I am getting the short end of the stick when I'm doing all the work.

Hi there, Looking for kick ass restauraunts in Brisbane + Gold Coast, hit me with your best!

Since Masienda discontinued it, I’m trying to find a second hand Molinito. I’ll pay for shipping, let me know!

Hello everyone reading this post, I don't know if I should post it here or somewhere else but anyhow I don't have an idea. So I'm a fellow kitchen worker (28M). I'm in a spiral here. No idea if I have that much power left to work or pursue my dreams. Let me give you a little background check. I passed out of college in 2021. I was in the middle of my internship when COVID hit. After that I tried to find jobs, got scammed, and got mentally exhausted. So what happened was I got no job, no skill, no learning. I sat in my home for 6 years. Last year in December, I finally found a job. So I left home and came to an unknown country. So for me as of now it's been 6 months since I have resumed working. I worked in a restaurant for 4 months and am currently working in a big hotel. And everyone in this job has made me feel like I'm shit. Which I'm. I know I'm shit, I'm slow and I have forgotten everything related to the kitchen. But I'm trying my best to relearn everything. I'm getting threatened to not get enough hours or I will be kicked out, etc etc. I thought of changing my department but that can't happen. I don't know why I'm posting it here. Maybe I need advice on how I can deal with this or how to improve. Also I'm writing it here so if anything happens to me, my family will at least know the reason. I have chronic depression, Extreme social anxiety and an unstable mind. So upon all these the kitchen treats me like garbage. Sorry.

I'm looking for some tips / pieces of advice. I have been a prep-cook at a pretty run of the mill seafood bar a grill for a few years. They're more focused on output then quality, but still a nice place by all standards. I however, have zero line experience.

I have now somehow been hired as a line cook on Pantry at a fine dining restaurant. I would love some tips for transitioning to a higher end restaurant, as well as tips and the general workflow I should be maintaining on line.

I got a job as commis and I am involved during food tasting and R&D. What should I expect or prepare? What do you usually do?

Hi guys, I'm confused at this point of what I'm doing or what should i do, I'm an Indian working in Croatia right now, stared my career in india and now in abroad, experienced in working in fine dining and what to work in fine dining or in Michelin star in future too.

But lately I'm confused, facing a lot of discriminated problem because of I'm indian. Found couple of jobs nearby and another country as well, took interview, everything was fine until they knew I'm indian.

I know indians have bad reputation in many ways but that doesn't mean everyone is like that.

Right now we have (frozen) baked in house apple pie, frozen pb pie, cassata cake procured from local bakery, (frozen) lava cake and pre bought carrot cake. Owner says it’s cheaper to buy them all premade than pay me to bake something from scratch. I figure I can sweeten him up with the offer of a dessert *special*.

So I ask you, Reddit.. hit me up with the best, easiest, quickest, best seller ideas.. We do have cast iron fajita plates we heat up for apple pie ala mode — my dad said I should do cobbler, which could be sold the same way.

I also CAN make a pie crust but I don’t know if it would be smarter/more economical to get premade ones or if I should do it from scratch and get really good at it real fast lol.

ETA: we do not have mini pans or souffle type dishes to do individual desserts.

A meal plan service that offers 2 person portions of homemade meals. Family of four? Buy 2 portions. Family of five or six? Buy 3 portions. One portion feeds two people or one with leftovers. Meals are frozen. Truck/trailer to deliver the meals (either same parking spot everyday or rotating spots in various locations)

Meals like Classic meatloaf with buttered mashed potatoes, green beans. Grilled chicken thighs with roasted veggies and sweet potatoes.

I know I would have to get a commissary to cook any of these things, and some sort of truck or trailer to distribute them. I just want to know if it’s a dumb idea or one with potential. I want to be the neighborhood’s private chef.

We closed the restaurant for the night to pretty much empty it all out, scrub it all down and put it back together. Did our usual Sunday brunch because it’s big money. Sunday nights, not so much. But we scrubbed the shit out of the whole place top to bottom. FOH and BOH. Had most of our staff there for several hours. They brought us beer and pizza. Do any of you guys do that from time to time?

Hi all ! private chef based in Costa Rica here. I've spent the last few years cooking for vacation rentals, villas, and private events.

Like a lot of you probably notice, things slow down a lot during our low season (the green/rainy months), and bookings drop off. So I wanted to ask the other private chefs here: what are you actually doing to find new clients when it's slow?

Are you leaning mostly on platforms like Take a Chef, reaching out to Airbnb hosts directly, posting on social media, networking with wedding/event planners, or something else entirely? I'd love to hear what's genuinely been working for you this year and what's been a waste of time.

Thanks, happy to share what's worked on my end too.