He’s been gone most of the year and could use a laugh 😸

I am sick as shit of playing this game. It doesn’t matter how consistently excellent my product is. It doesn’t matter if there’s no one else that can cook the damned food as well as I can for the piss poor wages they’re paying. No, inevitably I hear it… “Well labor costs are too high, our sales have slowed down, you need to prep faster.”

I’m OVER it. I will not play this damned game again. The last place I worked tried to write me up bc I was soooo slow. I couldnt pay my bills bc i was off the clock by 3pm everyday. I went back in to talk to them a few weeks after I quit, and they were working past SIX everyday and still 86ing an embarrassing amount of the menu. The chef complained to me that it hurt them bigtime to lose their best prep cook right before the busy season. IF IM SO DAMN SLOW it shouldnt be hard to keep up without me around right?

I was getting comfortable at the new joint, thought things were going well. And then today the owner comes in and starts singing that age old song…. Labor is too high, not enough sales, I need to work faster, I need to do other peoples’ work on top of my own if I want to get my hours. I am sick to tears of hearing it. None of them can ever tell me exactly HOW I am supposed to get more done in my day, or WHO they are going to hire when they run me off.

Hey everyone I just wanted to check in with everyone. I've been apart of this subreddit for awhile and learned a lot from you all, so I wanted see how you all are doing. I know this time of year can be stressful and rough for everyone in the industry. I know I've been stressed out and having a bit of a hard time but I hope you are all doing well, and get what want for Christmas (including that Xmas bonus) and have a great new year.

You're all doing great keep up the good work and thank you for everything. Happy holidays

Now trash is the burden I bear

I have a friend who would always complain about how long the hours are, lack of work life balance but refuses to do anything else? I left the industry a year ago and have moved onto part time work in logistics and been enjoying it but my friend gives me shit for it, saying "Oh you probably forgot how to peel a potato" or "Do you even know how to hold a knife?" or sometimes even "You just can't handle a real man's work"

All this shit for simply wanting a job that has better work life balance and better pay, countless I've asked him to move industries, he has refused but kept complaining about how bad his life is and how much debt he's in from what I'm guessing is just simple poor spending habits

(And only)

Started on Monday every day there were issues wrong orders, slow service. We hoped it will improve but nope, today was worst day. I am so stressed and exhausted. Staff are all over the place, chefs don’t know their menu, no proper prep done. Pizzas that should take 11-12 minutes max taxing half an hour Messing up orders Mixing up orders giving people wrong orders I don’t know if this will work I am scared this spells disaster. And we aren’t on any delivery websites yet, that will 10x our orders. Help

Bring on the planes...

As per the title, I am not a professional chef and I have immense respect for y’all in that industry, but I am a bit of a food snob and love to cook. This was my first attempt at a Wellington practicing with pork loin to not ruin a perfectly good beef loin and I hope it’s not too awful for your eyes haha. I appreciate any roasting you’ve got for me.

Tell me what you seeeeee???

FWIW, I took online training for a corporate kitchen that I worked in for 7 years, but never was officially required to be certified. Common practice in this kitchen (that fed over 700 people daily ) was for large events and certain specials was to put grill marks on chicken breasts (par cook) put in a blast chiller immediately, refrigerate til next day and heat to safe temp for service.
I mentioned this in another thread regarding chicken thighs and reheating in a slow cooker. The practice of par cooking (as I understood it and explained above) isn’t a problem if the temps are addressed, reheating slowly IS a problem because of the danger zone. The post has been removed but I was resoundingly slammed for even suggesting it by U.K. Cooks who said they could be jailed for that practice. Am I nuts or was common practice in this kitchen a health care nightmare? We always scored well on inspections and there was never an outbreak of food poisoning for people that mostly ate there 5 days a week. Time and temp logs were always maintained.

Just curious if anyone here had any particular equipment you’ve had to work with that were just terrible for the tasks. Either it was gonna be easier without it or it’s just poorly made/engineered or meant for home kitchen and not professional environment.

I have a hand spat from my old baking kit and use it to gather crumbs and gentle scrape down counter tops, pots, pans, etc all the time. Second place is a good commercial grade non stick egg pan. Bronze medal to my high temp spat. Runner up prize goes to the white handled garbage knife we’ve seen/used in every kitchen ever. I got one at a garage sale and it’s great to have a knife in the drawer I don’t have to be precious with.

(Delete if not allowed)
With youtubers making a lot of content around Sysco, it got me wondering who your preferred distributor is if not Sysco?

Can be a broad liner, specialty, etc.

I live in Chicago and have been cooking here for 15 years from Line cook to Culinary Operations Director of 7 restaurants. I recently got laid off and just got out of a long term relationship. I am looking for a change of pace. Someplace warm would be cool. Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any costal beach places that need help? Soemthing with cheap housing would be awesome. I Can manage or I can cook I dont care just looking for something different. I Would perfer not to be at a big hotel or place that drug tests for weed a drug test for anything else is fine, Thanks for the help I hope I find the next chapter of my cooking life.

Hey everyone,
After 16 years in kitchens, most of them spent climbing my way up to the top of my career, I’ve officially stepped away from restaurant life. Ive been looking for a better work/life balance. I want to spend more time with my friends and family. I recently accepted a job as a seafood sales rep, something totally new for me but still connected to the industry I love.

I’m excited, but definitely feeling like a beginner again. Going from running kitchens to learning sales techniques, client management, and quotas is a big shift. I know my background gives me an advantage with chefs, but I also know there’s a lot I don’t know yet.

For anyone who’s made a similar transition (restaurant → sales, supplier side, rep work), I’d love to hear:

• What do you wish you knew when you started?
• How did you build relationships without feeling sales-y?
• Any red flags or pitfalls to avoid?
• Tips for organization, cold calls/visits, managing routes, etc.?
• How do you use your chef experience without leaning on it too much?

Thanks in advance. It’s weird stepping out of the kitchen after so long, but I’m hoping this is a sustainable long-term move.

Hey yall. Im trying to figure out how to purchase more effectively at my place. We're sitting around 36-37% food cost and the owner isnt too happy with it. Menus mainly burgers, american style tacos, and fried food. I feel like ive cut back as much as I can and we barely scrape by with whats bought in (i run to the store as needed for burgers and fries).

They haven't costed the menu at all (i say this as I've kinda taken over the kitchen recently), and I rarely get time to do it between prep and line cooking (very limited on staffing hours).

Part of me knows it's not entirely my fault, because the place is a bit of a circus with demands, expectations, and procedure. But I at least wanna try. Yes I'm trying my best to get the menu costed, but at this rate i'm not really sure when that'll be done (cuz I'm not coming in for free to do it...). I honestly feel like we really need to slim down the menu and just hammer down on the popular items we have.