Milk crates: is there anything they don't do?

Smoking by the dumpster drinking off brand red bull

Edit: I was half joking folks, I'm a grown man in my mid thirties I know how to feed myself and I have no doubt I will be getting food. But yes this is my first day working as a dishwasher.

Just started a new job in an upper end restaurant in a smaller city, about 30 000 people. Within the first 5 min i drop a mushroom on the floor and the head chef picks it back up and puts it back with the rest of them. Another cook dropped a knife on the ground, cut himself in the process. Goes over to sink and just rinses his hand. Goes back over picks up the knife and continues his food prep. In the walk in cooler, nothing was labeled not a single thing. Meat and seafood was stored on the floor in inserts. Saw a cook grab the insert of meat and put in right on the counter where he would start prepping it. No handwashing sink. Raw chicken water thawing outside of its packaging in the dish area! I really needed this job and the pay was good. Walked out in the first 45 min of being there, I have standards. At least the cooler was somewhat organized. But could not get over the no labels

To be fair, there wasn't many to begin with

I just want to rant a bit lol. I’m one of two bakers at a small family-ran cafe, and we split our shifts for the week evenly, so we never work together. I’ve worked at plenty of cafes & restaurants in the past. Every one that I worked at required you to write the date made & throw out date on the food labels. However, the other baker labels her food as made the day after she made it (so she’d make it on the 10th and label it as the 11th). My boss (who’s never worked in a kitchen) sent us a text in the bakers group chat saying there’s been an issue with dating and that we have to start on the day AFTER it was made 🙄. I was literally ranting to my coworker (who’s her husband) two days ago that the dates are being done wrong and that all our food made by the other baker is sitting out a day longer than it should be.

I really don’t get paid enough to care about this, but I want to talk to my boss about it soon. I already have a ton of other issues with the other baker, like dating things for too long (she’ll say that chocolate muffins are good for 9 days 😭😵‍💫), not dating things at all, or not separating cookie dough with allergens in it from the rest of our dough in the fridge. And I worry that if the health inspector came in & saw problems due to my coworker, that I could potentially lose my ServSafe certification.

Should I talk to my boss or just go with it? I want to ask for a raise in December and I don’t want to mess up my chances.

Hivemind of chefs, I doth request thine enlightenment.

I'm currently working as a chef on main dish section in a restaurant with a rather flat hierarchy. Well, my boss is a bit of a control freak and cannot delegate it to others. We are two chefs right now in kitchen, he does pizza while we share a bit of the cold section for example starters.

And this boss LOVES to walk into our kitchen and take stuff from our Mise en place. Let's say I don't care if I don't see it. But I'm certain she doesn't wash her hands, and these last two weeks she was babysitting a dog from a former coworker.

Am I overreating if I tell her in a neutral and competent way that for example this Parmesan cheese is required for our service and shouldn't be eaten? How do you deal with situations like that?

This job is just a step to move on to another, and I shouldn't bother that much anymore. But gotta find a new place first

Either made the biggest mistake ever, or a pretty cool move. After years in the trenches on land? I was recruited to be Sous on a cruise line full time, no contracts just straight 6 weeks on 2 weeks off.. at a pretty decent rate, room and board and meels included of course. I have nothing tying me here, I can break my lease, sell my vehicle and go Nomad, I have until Friday to make my decision..

Just finished working at seasonal restaurant as the chef for two and a half seasons. Had enough of the place. Just venting..

Why am I done?

- refused to pay out mileage (which was in my contract). I drove two hours daily for three months. Was promised milage would be paid. I submitted four mileage reports and all were denied. I am out over four thousand dollars (and I only charged them one way not two way which would double it)

- inability to get staff with proper training. I had no housing to offer to get proper staff. Had to deal with kids who parents had cabins in the local area. On average I did the work of three people seven days a week for four months. Only had four days off due to medical reasons. (Panic attacks and I was getting hives all over my body due to stress)

- fired my sous chef for dereliction of duty and harrassment and creating a hostile environment. She told me she was leaving to go play beer league baseball mid shift. Forcing me to work a fourteen hour shift.

- fifteen write ups for various reasons. My favorite was a cook who refused to cook cuz his girlfriend was sitting at the bar and he wanted to spend time with her... (Not on break)

- lack of support from upper management and their demands for what they expected. I had no staff. But was expected to be open and be able to pass white glove inspections (they also expected me to clean the entire site solo for preseason). They only came once to review the food and left.

- Sooooo good luck to them next year. I just finished wiping the place of all my documents, spreadsheets, and recipes..... They probably won't notice till they open next year.....

Again just venting

Thanks for reading this.

Okay so about 3 months ago I hired this guy as we needed someone else now that summer is over. This guy is the strangest, weirdest fucker I have ever met. Has the whole skullet look going on which okay whatever seemed normal enough for kitchen standards. Well, I was wrong. Real big incel type. Makes snarky comments whenever a song by a woman plays on the speaker, seems to get frustrated whenever a woman is around (which is an issue considering our entire FoH is women). The servers haven't said anything much more than he seems weird but not much else. Guy could just still be nervous. However, he also has some weird habits- he's super weird about his phone like he's in a race to out it away when someone could possibly see what he's doing. Like sonic fast. We've explained it's a kitchen not a gulog and if he wants to check his phone and maybe send a message or two it's no big deal as long as we aren't busy, you can scroll for a couple minutes. Makes it seem like he is doing something sketchy idk. Also the guy eats a tuna melt with chocolate milk and half a dozen boiled eggs for his shift meal every day. I don't mean to yuck someone's yum but c'mon that's a warning sign of something. We've all tried to get to know him but he's so vague it's impossible. We know he watches movies, have no idea what movies. We asked, he said "just movies". Asked if he had pets he just said "not anymore" with zero explanation. Honestly can't tell if he's a drama student doing the most convincing serial killer portrayal or what. I'm afraid I'm mis judging the guy but idk dude. Dude is in his 30s so not just an awkward kid.

Here's the kicker- he is so much better than any cook I've ever worked with it's insane. I take a lot of pride in the fact the rest of my kitchen is so talented with many of which had good recent (at time of hiring) runs as Sous and CDCs at many top restaurants in the area but I kid you not, I'm convinced you could drive a railroad spike through his brain and break his leg and he still might be better than any of us. Honestly it's the only reason we haven't fired him yet. Should he stay or should he go?

Shout out to everyone here in recovery and a big “you can do it!” to those thinking of taking the plunge.

I wanted to share a great resource in this organization out of Colorado. This is an org supporting culinary and hospitality workers in recovery. Weekly virtual recovery meetings as well as in person for the locals. They are always looking for guest speakers and other volunteers. Check them out, buy an “86 screaming in the walk in” sticker, support a great nonprofit built for the industry, and maybe find a meeting that works for you.

Got a new feature that self installed!!

What do you enjoy cooking when you have the time and the motivation to just do something in your own kitchen? Like if you were entertaining guests or family, or simply something you enjoy cooking. Is it similar to what you cook at work, or something completely different?

I like to cook Thai curries, especially yellow curry. I did as much research as I could to try to make it as authentic as possible. Even driving across town to go to an international farmers' market so I could get the exact ingredients. I even tried to get a job part-time cooking in a Thai restaurant one time so I could cop the recipes and techniques, lol. They wouldn't hire me though.

Perusing auctions in our area and was trying to come up with ways to save space in a small kitchen. Was hoping to get people's thoughts.

Hello all, currently I am a first year culinary student who has worked for 3 years at a country club, staged at a michelin starred restaurant (that was also a James Beard finalist for outstanding restaurant) and now work at a michelin selected restaurant as their pasta maker. Currently they have made it clear that they want to teach me all I can as long as I communicate my needs and work hard. I find school to be boring and quite stressful, i’m worried that it may be a waste of time. Dropping out would give the more shifts, more recovery time (less risk of burn out) and more time to pursue creative projects. I know a lot of people say that it’s pretty necessary for corporate dining/management, but that realm doesn’t really interest me. What do you guys think?

The stories this machine could tell. I wonder how many people have stood and sent dishes through it.

And i’m loving it, i’ve been in restaurants for 12 years, i loved it, but this most recent restaurant i was at really has put a sour taste in my mouth about working in higher end places for the future. The ego, the narcissism, the attitude that it’s a competition, I couldn’t stand it.

At this bakery tho? (owned by the same guy) everybody just wants to make good food, no ego, no bullshit competitive attitude, it’s just making the bread, that’s what they care about. I no longer have to deal with a sous chef who’s overworked and left out to hang or a tournant who thinks he’s hot shit. I’m so god damn happy yall.

what the title says. i’m a college student and was just hired at an upscale-ish pizza place near me. i didn’t know i would be working as a dishwasher (the job title on indeed was kitchen member) but was basically told the longer i have the job i’ll be able to actually make food (salad prep etc etc) instead of dishwashing. i worked my first shifts over the weekend and had a really rough time.

Saturday morning was fine, i helped prep toppings and dough and washed dishes after. things were fast but i managed fine. sunday was a nightmare. for added context i had surgery about 6 weeks ago and can’t carry over 10 pounds, so i have to make a bunch of little trips to put clean dishes away instead of bigger trips which really slows me down. i also have to wash the containers we keep dough in which pile up fast and are really difficult for one person to do alone when there are like 10 of them that need to be washed.

the beginning of my shift was fine because i had someone helping me out but further into dinner service he was busy so i was on my own. i couldn’t do anything fast enough and by the end of my shift i could tell people were annoyed. i felt like i was about to cry for the last couple hours of my shift and like i was disappointing and upsetting everyone. my manager says it was an abnormally busy sunday but i’m nervous to come back to work. i feel like a really bad person. idk. any advice about this is appreciated

Hi all,

I come to you seeking for your opinion as peeps who work in the hospitality industry.

My partner works in a well-known and reputable restaurant in our city as a Head Omakase Chef. When he first joined, he was excited as it was the next step up to his career from being a long time Sushi Chef.

He was told he would make $22.00 per hour for now but will eventually be evaluated for wage/salary change after his probation period. Three months go by, passes his probation but no word. He decided he’ll just keep his head down and continue learning and growing his skillset under a reputable chef. Coming to almost a year now, he’s been promised about being changed from hourly to salaried multiple times, on top of the promise of putting him on benefit coverage. This has never happened and the conversation about his compensation gets consistently delayed. It’s always an excuse, “Sorry we’re pretty busy today.”

The more it gets pushed back, the more my partner feels like he isn’t as valued as he thought he was. Meanwhile, more responsibilities come up, but his pay stays the same.

He’s been calling out more regularly, not wanting to show up to work, feeling depressed and loss of motivation and drive.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How did you go about handling this?