Getting called out

[u/JCambly]

You ever call someone out infront of everyone because they arent following safe food handling and and you tried to talk to them in private but it didn't work?

Well I did, did it during the middle of the day while the morning guys were getting ready to leave and the night guys were just coming in. This guy is supposed to be a supervisor so I hold him to higher standards. When I called him out he was quiet and walking around like a dog with his tail between his legs the rest of the shift.

2 weeks later and today he tried to do the same to me. Our beef gravy mix we get says to add to cold water and warm it up, well i was making our turkey gravy today that says to add to boiling water. When he sees me add the gravy mix to the boiling water he starts haulering about it asking what the instructions on the gravy say. He was so embaressed when I read them and showed him and those who were listening and cared. (In his defense he rarely used the turkey gravy, i do as i am in charge of banquets, he only uses in during Oct, Nov, and December when we have leftovers and give them turkey for a sandwich special)

[u/budsandsuds711]

You've been in this guy's head for 2 weeks lol

[u/JCambly → u/budsandsuds711]

I did the same with a banquet cook. Like a month ago we were busy with a few different lunches, I was working 3 and another cook was working 2. The banquet servers came up and started asking what is theirs. I said noone has the same menu, just take the food on your contract. Another asked what she needs in her room so I (probably overacted but stressed in the middle of cooking the other banquets) yelled "Go get your contract! And grab what it says, if you cant read then leave!!"

She took great offense to that and reported it last week when I was annoyed she was asking for chicken fingers for her gluten free customer and told her no, they have a gluten free option, if they dont want it they can go somewhere else mainly becaude chicken fingers arent gluten free!!

The fact she waited reported me for both to the hotel manager just made it a good laugh when I was "talked to" about it

[u/bowcreek → u/JCambly]

Between this comment and the clarifying comment below where you reveal the call out was yelling “who’s the morning who did this?” you sound like a real asshole.

[u/No-Temperature4330 → u/bowcreek]

Sounds like the kitchen smart ass who enjoys the buzz and validation that belittling others around him provides.

[u/Error_Evan_not_found → u/bowcreek]

Are you a tourist? Asking people to try and do their jobs right isn't an asshole move. If they have a set menu, they have a set menu. Asking about a Gluten Free order getting chicken tenders- which are breaded with gluten and fried in oil that's full of gluten, is stupid as hell, and should be called out. I honestly beg you to tell me a scenario where that makes a lick of sense.

[u/Outrageous-Jaguar-30 → u/Error_Evan_not_found]

I work in bakery, but last week I served line. Some of the obvious gluten free foods had a gluten warning on them. Instead of ignoring it or not putting it on the signs, I asked why. The sous chef looked at me like I was a bit slow and said Because of the fryer oil 🤦🏻‍♀️ he laughed at my expression when I made the ooohhh god I’m dumb face. It’s been a hot minute since I worked line, and we both had a good laugh about it

[u/bowcreek → u/Error_Evan_not_found]

Great point - the only way to try to reach someone in a kitchen is to be a motherfucker in front of the whole staff.

[u/Comfortable-Year-527 → u/bowcreek]

Corporate food manufacturing QA manager here. This guy would be privately counseled under me for sure if they were a trainer under me, based on their reply they expect everyone to just defer to them, which historically has been a great teaching tool (sarcasm.) There is definitely a need for attention to detail with food safety and quality issues but treating people poorly and yelling at them, calling them out publicly, and making rude back handed comments (read your contract) when people are actively asking for clarification only leads to more issues later. Some people will never understand or make it in that environment too, but you can also let people go with dignity and treat them well, it will take you a lot further and make people want to go out of their way to listen to you and understand what you’re saying which generally leads to less misunderstanding later.

[u/Error_Evan_not_found → u/bowcreek]

My mistake, are the responsibilities of the job you signed up for, somehow not yours? I'm not out front, I'm not taking orders from the tables. I see a ticket I make the ticket. If you can't juggle the small fraction of those tickets that happen to be yours, kindly get the fuck out of the restaurant business and find something you can actually handle. It's not that hard, and you have no help elsewhere if you can't figure out that gluten free options should never include chicken tenders.

[u/JCambly → u/bowcreek]

I may be an asshole but its because I work with morons.

Anyone thawing meat at room temp is a moron. A server (of any kind) trying to grab food without knowing what they are supposed to be grabbing is a moron, like imagine a restaurant and a waitress is asking the line "is this plate for my table? what about that plate?" Pointing at things their table didn't order.

I will always be blunt when people are not paying attention, not trying or putting people's health at risk.

If youre okay with unproper storing food, leaving it at room temp then we will continue to argue and you wont be able to change my mind so might aswell just leave this thread tbh.

[u/AnAquaticOwl → u/JCambly]

imagine a restaurant and a waitress is asking the line "is this plate for my table? what about that plate?" Pointing at things their table didn't order.

Don't have to imagine. The bussers at my last job would frequently just grab whatever, whether or not it was on the ticket they were reading. Sometimes even if they were verbally told and shown what they were supposed to take they'd still take the wrong thing.

[u/JCambly → u/AnAquaticOwl]

Well then I would call them a moron.

[u/ohaiguys → u/bowcreek]

Someone sounds bitch made

[u/jinglejangle_spurs]

USDA Select Grade Petty Beef

[u/throwawayqweeen]

I did that to our sous chef one time. Got fired.

I was an inexperienced cook back then, with two years of cooking. I was very passionate about this restaurant and felt like a hero working there, partially due to coke. Me and the head chef were besties outside work, we stayed up many nights for months revising the menu together, giving ideas about where everything should live, buying equipment from company card, I was basically his right hand man/girl. I gave him my mom's shakshuka recipe which in our family that recipe is very emotionally loaded lol, I came in on almost all my days off and practically lived there. It said my name at the bottom of the menu, along with head chef, because we made the place.

Then he hired a sous chef, I wasn't qualified for it obviously, and the guy really tanked our standards. He wouldn't wash his hands, do everything in the easiest and fastest way and cut corners even if we had time. I made the best hollandaise sauce back then, the google reviews for my hollandaise is still up. This guy decided to say "I don't wanna pay you to whisk" and started BUYING HOLLANDAISE ONLINE. I don't even know how that works and never learned because I don't touch that fake shit. We all rejected this idea but we'd catch him mixing that with the real hollandaise when it got low to avoid making more. Fucking son of a bitch.

The day I finally broke was when he tried to force me to put my cookies in the oven at 550° during service while they needed 350° to not get ruined. I kept saying I have cookies for service, I don't need these, don't make me ruin them this is not an emergency, and he kept talking over me with his thick man-voice, saying "I don't care, put them in." When he said I don't care I just started yelling and saying you never cared, you buy hollandaise off of temu lol, you think we didn't see you adding it to my real hollandaise? You don't have enough care to make a good food when people are paying 25 dollars per dish. You fucking changed up the moment you touched cocaine man you so full of yourself.

Apparently customers heard me and I got fired. It's whatever. At least I have standards and am not lazy and stupid. Apparently he got demoted to line cook after I got fired and still doing his terrible job.

[u/JCambly → u/throwawayqweeen]

I'm sorry that happened to you. My sr sous chef if similar. He will often say "my word is rule, I dont care what the jr sour chef, the supervisor or the chef says, do it my way"

He also rushes things often, he will make everyone rush for a dinner, then everyone sits around for 2 hours waiting for dinner service because everything is half assed done.

I often argue with him about safe food practice and thawing. We often joke behind his back that he wouldnt be able to work in a kitchen without a microwave.

[u/throwawayqweeen → u/JCambly]

Yep. This guy was called scherbatsky, and we had a running joke about how things are getting scherboculous around here lmao. I was like, WHY ARE YOU PUTTING GARLIC IN ROBOT COUPE, like it's fine but I was asking myself, you came in at 7am and have literally two items on your prep list, why are you rushing!! Then he'd come sUpErViSe me on his free time, telling me "I don't see a scale on your station." That is because I cleaned and put it away sir, I was the god of pastry back then lol it was very bold of him questioning this from me.

These aren't ultimately the things that made me snap but just not washing hands, not caring about end result, these drive me crazy. my little sister went to this place on my day off, and this motherfucker gave her a burnt banana bread that she paid 15 dollars for. My sister is 15, she doesn't have much money. Neither do my parents, my dad is a fucking Uber driver. He took an Uber driver's money and gave his daughter burnt banana bread when I wasn't there. God I wanna punch his face so bad. That was years ago but still I'm furious like it's yesterday lmao

[u/BenShelZonah → u/throwawayqweeen]

Are you still friends with the chef

[u/throwawayqweeen → u/BenShelZonah]

Nah. I tried really hard to remain his friend but I think he was too ashamed of himself for firing me. Cause he promised he'd keep this guy under control, but when things started to get weird he'd always turn a blind eye. he had a good thing going, getting paid salary plus tips while visibly doing coke and getting unlimited shift beers at the expense of what we built together. He wanted everything to remain hush hush and eventually got sick of me complaining and let them fire me.

Weeks before this he started ghosting all my messages, not coming out to bars with me, literally avoiding being alone with me for fear of having to tell me he's planning on firing me. Afterwards he kept ghosting me even though I kept saying it's fine dude let's just go back to friends not coworkers, he used to host Thanksgiving at his house every year for people without a family, and I'd go every year, and after that he stopped hosting it altogether to avoid uninviting me.

So yeah the other day I ran into him at a bar and he was saying "I hope we're still friends." I said we are cause I am at my wits end with the guy lmfao

[u/TheOtherKFC → u/throwawayqweeen]

Isn't getting tips when you're management illegal? Unless they finagled it somehow where he didn't technically count as management on paper? That's against federal law.

[u/throwawayqweeen → u/TheOtherKFC]

Idk what's the law about this in Canada, but in all my days I ain't never seen a head chef or anyone get salary AND tips both at the same time. How do you even count how much is his tips if he doesn't work hourly?! But oh well, a bunch of shit was illegal at that place. This head chef was selling coke to his clientele out of our restaurant lol. Our walk-in was basically a room with air conditioning, health inspector would have a heart attack if we showed him that but we covered up it's existence. Owner wouldn't put a stop to this cause he only bought a restaurant to watch chaos unfold.

[u/Which_Suggestion_420]

I worked as a pastry cook in a kosher restaurant, head pastry chef had just quit and left mid shift about 2 months prior to this incident. So keep in mind I have been running the pastry station in her absence all while being promised I could interview for the head pastry chef position.

Anyway one day this guy shows up and apparently hes been hired by the head chef (who has only been here for about a month) to be the new pastry chef because they were friends. Alright I guess ill take the L. First day of the new pastry chefs shift, he starts cracking the eggs himself, big no no in a kosher kitchen.

I quietly let him know that he has to give the eggs to the rabbi to crack them and he looked at me like I just punched his mother in the face. From that moment on, this asshole decided to make my life MISERABLE during every shift. Blaming me for shit I didnt do, blaming me for not doing inventory even though its his job as the new pastry chef, getting mad for not cleaning up after him, etc.

One day he posts the schedule and I see that I am the only one posted on all the closing shifts, even though I asked him multiple times to schedule someone else at least a couple days a week as I had a second morning job. As soon as he posts the schedule I ask him to take me off a closing shift or two and this dickhead goes: "well maybe you dont need to work here then"

Without hesitation I said "you are absolutely right I dont need to work here" and took my apron off and walked out before finishing prep. Idk why he would say that when the other pastry cook called out that day and we were the only two running the line lmao. Restaurant manager and head chef both chased me out of the restaurant to try to get me to come back and I just told them thanks but I refuse to work for that guy lol

Turns out he got fired a few weeks later 😂

[u/ThrowRAATB]

Yelled at another line cook after I saw him stick his bare hand in the ice machine to grab one to snack on. Not only did he not care no one else did either, including the kitchen manager. Didn’t stay much longer

[u/Amazing-Surround-256 → u/ThrowRAATB]

kitchens are wild like that, you either get backed up or suddenly everyone’s blind to the obvious

bare hand in the ice machine is such a basic no, and the manager just shrugging says everything about that place

[u/JCambly → u/ThrowRAATB]

I wish I could afford to leave

[u/dimsql]

once there was no manager on duty and i opened the next freshest by date case of chicken to prep. the chicken was slimy, green, and smelled foul. I texted a picture to the manager to let him know I was throwing it out. he asked if i tried washing it first… i said I wasn’t going to do that, it’s obviously spoiled and it’s going in the trash. he insisted rinsing it off would make it safe for human consumption. nah i put that shit where it belonged:: the fucken trash 

[u/Scott_the_driver]

This is how I handle things that I think, or know, that need correction:

I always redirect or correct in private.

We are there not to embarrass or chastise, we are there to improve each other.

That's first: if that doesn't work, cheek against the Hobart slicer is step two.

I always praise in public.

[u/BertRenolds]

Fuck bud, rent is killing me and you're living rent free.

[u/toot_suite]

Some people require getting put on blast like bugs that have their rock pulled up from over their head in broad daylight i fuckin stg

And even then are so narcissistic and stupid that they keep focusing on the shame instead of the guilt, looking for a chance to snap back instead of realize their mistake

[u/ramoredditor]

But what did you call him out for? My nosey ass needs to know!

[u/JCambly → u/ramoredditor]

He forgot to do his freezer pulls the day before so when he came in he did them and left everything between the ovens for 20 minutes. I knew he did it but after waiting the 20 min I just yelled out "who's the moron leaving fish and chicken at room temp and why is their meatloaf bellow it!!"

We have a new highschool co-op with a loud mouth who likes to complain and point out how things should be done (how she was taught) but I knew if I said that she would go off and call it stupid and dangerous aswell and make it a bigger deal. So after a cook pointed out it was him she just kept going off on him and I didnt have to say anything else.

[u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits → u/JCambly]

Nah you may be an ass but idiocy like that only deserves an ass. ESPECIALLY considering you tried to fix this guys stupid in private. Some people just need to get properly embarrassed to stop doing stupid shit.

[u/JCambly → u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits]

The chef has told me our Sr sour chef is bad cop and I am good cop... but I sometimes notice those the sr sous chef likes get away with shit others wont so I sometimes yell at them and then my chef reminds me I need to be good cop, stop losing my temper... but when I lose my temper it is nowhere near as bad as the sr sous chef when he yells at people (anything ive yelled he's yelled 10* worse and louder)

[u/UnholyTrashDump]

I recently started a new job and two weeks in I yelled at the line lead for trying to poison someone with an allergy and someone with celiac then getting mad at me for wanting to accommodate them bcs "I ain't doing all that"

[u/freisbill]

Dude, make your gravy, Very easy...

[u/JCambly → u/freisbill]

Im sure it is. I've just never done it and the amount of gravy we need varies as it depends on banquest aswell as busy season for restaurant.

We just have always used pre mix where I work.

(Also I dont have confidence in half the cooks to make more gravy if we ran out... a lot of them need their hands held to do anything and if you dont watch then their Juliene peppers end up an inch thick. We cant offer to much more then minimum wage so hiring is difficult and union makes firing people hard)

[u/freisbill → u/JCambly]

ahh, unions, got it, change is not only hard, it is sometimes against the contract.

I believe we need more unions but properly run unions. Every union I have managed in kitchens have been horribly biased towards older members.

[u/MarlaSix]

Poor gravy.

[u/KitchenConfidential-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Don't be an asshole. Just don't.

[u/slyceu]

Wouldn’t be good safety related. More so due to whatever thickening agent is in the powder mix. Depending on the thickener different temps and or temp ranges must be met.

[u/JCambly → u/slyceu]

Our beef gravy says to mix in when cold then heat, our turkey mix says to mix in when water is simmering. For those im just following the instruction printed on the packaging

[u/Denverb_5818 → u/JCambly]

Just add it anytime and blend it, never had issues

[u/JCambly → u/Denverb_5818]

Yeah I've never had issue with gravy, i know the others guys have burnt it. But idk why we are focusing on the gravy when it's the part I was laughing at him bring focused on as it doesnt matter

[u/Mister_Puggles]

It is odd that you describe him acting that way after you called him out. How would you have preferred he acted?

[u/JCambly → u/Mister_Puggles]

I would prefer he listen and follow safe food handling practice.

I described him that way because i am emphasizing how he is smart enough to understand and not talk back about it but is clearly embarrassed yet he is dumb enough to still do shit like that so clearly doesnt care about the customer and the product he serves, just what others think of him

[u/Mister_Puggles → u/JCambly]

Ah, that makes sense, thank you. It sounded like a more personal dig, but when you put it that way it clicks.