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u/pastramiandpickle May 22 '25
Brunch, like death, comes for us all.
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u/Top-Sleep-4669 20+ Years May 21 '25
Me.
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u/Chuunt May 22 '25
i’m the guy in the back. got my helmet on, got my machine, now we take it nice and slow cause the foods not going anywhere, neither am i, and i don’t get paid enough to push myself past the pace im comfortable with.
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u/MLiOne May 22 '25
As a customer, I’d rather wait a while and get great food rather than a quick service plate of thrown together stuff. That’s why I especially LOVE our local Greek place. Yeah it’s a wait, nothing painful, but every mouthful is a delight.
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u/Metalgear696 May 22 '25
Fuck that, I'm serving plates after 5 minutes lol.
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u/MLiOne May 22 '25
Depends where I am. If you can serve good food in 5 mins, props to you. I come to you when I’m in a hurry!
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u/steal_wool May 22 '25
What am I looking at? A reaping competition? Scythe vs Weedwacker demonstration?
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u/Eber- May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
It’s always the Billy Badass types that came from amazing restaurants that can’t hang.
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u/empire161 May 22 '25
I was just on vacation in New Orleans, and we went to an average breakfast place. Like 9am on a Thursday. Place was maybe 40% full. We didn’t want anything fancy, the kids just wanted eggs and pancakes, I wanted a big platter and my wife something simple like oatmeal and fruit.
It took over an hour to get our food. When it came out the waitress said something like “Sorry for the wait, this bitch in the back just started and still thinks she’s at her fancy ass fine dining place.”
It at least looked really nice and was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had. Wife and kids couldn’t care less though because they were all raging from hunger.
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u/ThatMortalGuy May 22 '25
A long time ago I used to work at a Cheesecake factory in a non big city, my KM came from Chicago and was always talking shit about "back in chicago bla bla bla" until one day he was trying to explain how to be more efficient during rush and saying something like "Back in Chicago we would have one guy doing this, then the other guy would do this, and the other would fishish it like this" and I had to stop him mid sentence and explain that it was just me on that station and I had to also help the guy on the grill when he got busy lol
He was a good guy though, just a little oblivious to how different a high volume restaurant with many cooks is to a one man show slower restaurant
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u/cyrusthemarginal May 22 '25
how many folks work in the cheesecake factory kitchens with that monster menu?
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u/ThatMortalGuy May 23 '25
A lot of people. The one I worked at was in a small city so in bigger ones they would have more people but I remember having about 8 people in the PM line (not counting KMs) depending on the day, 3 prep cooks and about 3 dishwashers. For the AM it would be two less cooks but way many more prep cooks since they would make almost everything in house (While funnily enough having a huge walk in freezer for their cheesecakes that would be made somewhere else and shipped to the store lol)
Add to that the bussers, servers and managers and the number of employees a single store has is huge.109
u/Top-Sleep-4669 20+ Years May 22 '25
To be fair… It’s called the Big Easy. Not The Big Hard Working.
I had a friend who grew up there. He told me they just aren’t in that kind of hardcore work mode that is expected in so many places. They’d rather make great food over getting a ton of volume out in a fast pace. Which is why every place you eat has awesome food. Hell local chain food is dope.
Now this person might have been slow as shit and that waitress might be right, but it’s New Orleans, it’s basically in “Island Time”. You get it when you get it.
Also it sounds like there may only have been one cook.
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u/non-squitr May 22 '25
While there certainly are many places like that, that mentality is not the norm. New Orleans and Louisiana in general have a work hard, play hard mentality and genuinely have some of the best work ethics out there. There are, however, a lot of career kitchen workers that don't give a fuck, but their routine and flow is down to a science. When I moved from LA to Colorado 10 years ago, I interviewed at 3 places in a week and got 3 offers, and they all said "you're from Louisiana, I know you know how to work hard."
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May 22 '25
I feel like New Orleans work culture has a level of restraint the rest of the country isn't used to. Like the badass lunch spots that have a line out the door but serve 11-4. In my state they'd get greedy and try and grind it out until 10pm, and if that didn't make it medicore enough they'd add a shitty brunch.
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u/NevrAsk May 23 '25
Bruh I wish that was the case for me
When I was in CO, I had one cook from Louisiana that wasnt a good cook. He tried cleaning the flat top and it was still dirty, how dirty? He went "chef I'm done how does it look?" I was able to scratch grease off the flat with my fingernail, I told him do it again.
Another LA cook was that snobby and pretentious he thought he was cool enough to flirt with my other sous chef to which she was disgusted as fuck. He was also an ass, a creep and a terrible cook who burnt marinara sauce
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u/Remote_Watercress530 May 22 '25
I wish I ate at some of the places y'all did. Went there once. And it was some of most mid food in existence.
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u/PomegranateThink6618 May 21 '25
The ones who talk the most can do the least. Its amazing everyone else has that figured out except them.
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u/Accomplished-Plan191 May 21 '25
My James Beard award chef calls himself "a glorified dishwasher"
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u/MaxMischi3f May 22 '25
“And so you’re asking me: Who does the dishes when the revolution comes? I do my own dishes now, I’ll do my own dishes then. It’s always the ones who don’t that ask that fucking question.” -P. T. Bunny, Wingnut Dishwashers Union (2016)
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u/jancithz May 22 '25
Is that before or after everyone moved to New Mexico?
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u/MaxMischi3f May 22 '25
After, New Mexico was ‘05 iirc.
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u/sh1ft33 May 22 '25
It was also Johnny Hobo wasn't it?
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u/MaxMischi3f May 23 '25
Johnny hobo, wingnut dishwashers union, ramshackle glory were all the same guy. Pat the bunny.
Unless I misunderstood what you were saying.
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u/sh1ft33 May 22 '25
You'll never know the joy I just got from seeing a Wingnut Dishwashers Union reference right before I have to clock in.
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u/LordGwyn-n-Tonic Sous Chef May 23 '25
Hell I'm a sous chef and acting KM, and I will freely admit I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing. One day they'll realize I'm a fraud.
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u/Apart-Link-8449 May 22 '25
Also for some weird reason, every salumiere/meat slicer we hired from Eataly had a nervous breakdown 10 minutes into dinner rush and fled the building to smoke 50 cigarettes
That would be a lame generalization if we didn't hire EASILY 20+ of them over 3 years. Turnaround was 1 month. Maybe our hiring manager was just an idiot
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u/LordGwyn-n-Tonic Sous Chef May 23 '25
We had a guy brag about being a sous chef at a Michelin star restaurant in San Fransisco. We are a small town Appalachian family restaurant, and he's genuinely trying to insinuate he worked with Thomas Keller.
So I go to show him how we make grits, and he says "I know how to make grits."
Proceeds to pour grits straight from the bag to an empty pot, then asks where we keep the milk.
(For context, that's not even how we make grits, and I've never seen someone add grits to cold liquid, let alone put the grits in first.)
He lasted up until, in the middle of the rush when he's clearly in the weeds, he says, "Guess I better get serious," to which our exec said, "Guess you better go home, actually."
Last I heard he's a homeless busker in the big city.
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u/Dr3w_city89 May 22 '25
Had a sous chef one time that thought he was hot shit since he staged at Alinea for a while. He made family meal one day and served everyone undercooked chicken. Luckily I caught it before anyone actually ate any of it
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u/Hefty-Revenue5547 May 21 '25
Every single time 🤣
“I worked for a James Beard winner”
Ok, does he know you crack under pressure ? Is that why you’re here ? Lmao
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u/TheAnn13 May 22 '25
We can all admit that slinging brunch and working Michelin star are different beasts.
Like my dad is an auto mechanic. Can't work on boats. Yes he understands the machinery but it's a different beast.
Still fun to watch the new guy drown during brunch when I'm hungover as shit bring 27 drinks to a 4 top.
I also think we all agree, fuck brunch.
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u/wemustburncarthage 10+ Years May 22 '25
I was just a utility cook and someone threw me into the breakfast shift without telling me. I can make nice eggs for maybe me and one of other person. I do not disrespect breakfast cooks ever. I also don't hold it against someone if they baste instead of over-whatever.
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u/ThebuMungmeiser May 22 '25
As a breakfast bitch, I thank you for the rare nod of respect.
I once had a guy who was new to breakfast ask how I can flip all the eggs so perfectly. I told him “flip a few million eggs and you’ll get it too”
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u/wemustburncarthage 10+ Years May 22 '25
No worries. Eggs are fucking wizardry to me. I was mostly a pizza/pasta/pub/diner grunt
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u/GoSuckOnACactus May 23 '25
I’ve been a brunch cook for almost four years now. I’ve seen so many new hires coming from other restaurants, both fancy places and chain, crumble because they couldn’t handle flipping the eggs. I know the techniques for training them, get them to practice, they flip a couple when it’s slow. But then it gets busy and they get 8 over easy along with some omelets and shit, and suddenly they just can’t do it anymore.
Egg station is a monster and not many people can actually do the job.
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u/wemustburncarthage 10+ Years May 23 '25
It is an incredibly subtle art and if you’re doing it by yourself because your idiot stupid fuckface employer is deservedly failing and just using your warm body to prop up their failing shop it is a discouraging experience
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u/FunAd6875 May 21 '25
Yeah it's also because most Michelin's have three chefs for every seat. Throw them in to a normal place with a 250 cover brunch service and they drown because there's no one else to rely on.
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u/TheRealTowel May 21 '25
Most fine dining I've done (as a customer - I've never worked fine dining) has been a degustation only style of offering, with no al a carte.
I've always assumed the kitchen has a station/chef for each specific dish (or multiple copies of such depending on seating capacity) and a sous overseeing it all while an exec runs the pass?
So if there's 14 courses there's 14/28/42/etc chefs each with their own little station just making the exact same scallop dish or whatever all night perfectly, no tickets just a timing of how many you need up next and how long away?
Am I way off or is that basically how it works?
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u/BleedingPolarBear May 22 '25
Wildly depends on the number of Michelin stars and the number of guests.
I've only personally worked at one Michelin star restaurants with about 35-40 guests per service, and the teams varied around 6 to 8 BOH mostly set up around stations (garde manger, meat and fish, garnishes, pastry...)
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May 22 '25
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u/TheRealTowel May 22 '25
... ok? None of that sounds like a $500+ strictly no al a carte/tasting menu only fine dining restaurant?
I know how restaurants work, dude. I was specifically asking about how a certain tiny subset of restaurants work. It's kinda on my mind because I'm going to Vue De Monde soon for my birthday so I've been thinking about it a bunch.
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u/Screechscreamyellahh May 22 '25
Lol bro ignore the Americans here. They don’t understand it, most show specials of pork chops and apple sauce.
Basically in fine dining environments, you like all restaurants have sections. Depending on the size. A section may have 2-3 chefs and they yea basically have a certain duty, so with staggered seating you may have one chef working course 1-2 second and third chef doing 3-4 etc.
Their are also smaller fine dining teams like Amaru that would be one chef, one section, responsible 2-3 courses
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u/TheRealTowel May 22 '25
My face when he started talking about burger sets would have been something, lol. Pity I don't have a photo. I'm just imagining eating at Tetsuya and suddenly they just dump a burger in front of you as one of the courses.
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May 22 '25
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u/Appropriate-Ad-69 May 22 '25
Then why do you even reply to a comment about Michelin stared restaurants. You don't even work in one yourself even though you try to make it sound like it.
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May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
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u/samy4me May 21 '25
Not only is it insane, it‘s also not really true😂
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May 21 '25
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u/nelrond18 May 21 '25 edited May 22 '25
That labour is slutty af
Edit: seems buddy nuked his account. Wild
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May 21 '25
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u/nelrond18 May 21 '25
Most places I've been keep their ideal labour between 10-15%.
I could not imagine how frequent the turns, and how intense that volume, was.
Your team has my respect. I'm curious what your food cost is like lol
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u/screaminginprotest1 May 21 '25
Bruh if he got labor to less than 10% he can afford food to be like 40% lmao if he can do 60k a day, his on hand inventory can be like 100k+ depending on delivery frequency. If I ever had labor this low and numbers this big my district manager woulda sucked me and the whole kitchen crew off like a sloppy thot
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u/nelrond18 May 21 '25
Right? I can't imagine the labour distribution to hit <1%.
Did you just have 3 cooks, single seating, 1k guests? Hammer out 1k salads, then rotate to mains, then finish desert at $150 set menu or something?
I would love to be the roach on the pass for that evening just to see how it was done lol
Or maybe half the crew forgot to clock in? 😂😂
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u/screaminginprotest1 May 21 '25
Idk, I just did the math, at .86% labor and 61k for the day, he spent 524$ on labor. Sounds like huge cap to me. At florida minimum wage thats 40 labor hours. That's 5 employees for an 8 hour shift, or 9 for a 4.5 hour shift, at minimum wage. Doing 60k in a shift. Idk thats big if true, but im not sure thats actually doable unless it was mostly alcohol sales and there were some high rollers dropping grands. Lowest labor I've seen in fine dining was when 4 dolphin linebackers came in and spent 45k for a table of 8, but it was like 42k of alcohols and like 3 grand worth of steaks and shit. But even then we had like 25 people on staff cause its a fancy place and people expect super quick service, so labor was at 7% or so for the day. And that was still fucking stupid low.
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u/Vonbalthier May 22 '25
I used to work for a five guys and around Christmas we would get so busy our labor dipped down to like 6-7% for a few weeks. It was a......but much. Never before or since have I fried myself out of breath
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May 21 '25
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u/nelrond18 May 21 '25
Keep it up, chef! A good leadership makes all the difference.
If the team is motivated, that likely means you aren't paying peanuts.
Take care of your people, and they'll take you to the moon.
I'm a little thick on the praise, but I can imagine that hitting those results don't happen by accident 🤘
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u/MikeW86 May 22 '25
Because it's bullshit. 1 to 1 is considered absolutely top end.
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u/CoupDeGrassi May 22 '25
I did the math. If this is true, there is simply no way service wasn't a complete disaster unless your average wage is like 5 an hour. I've moved some fucking mountains in my day, enough to suss out what a day looks like from a glance at numbers.
Make sure you rest yourself. Those are burnout numbers.
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u/Prinzka May 22 '25
So you paid your people less than 100 dollars for a full days work even though they put out more covers than a fast food place does?
You're a real piece of work0
May 22 '25
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u/DadyGrouvy May 22 '25
Doesn't that mean you're taking money from FOH staff to give to the kitchen staff? I'm guessing everyone is making minimum wage. So your restaurant is making money, hand over fist, but you probably have employees that need to work 3 jobs to pay rent, as well as others who have to take government assistance? In actuality, the government is subsidizing your restaurant.
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u/ThirstyWolfSpider May 22 '25
Wow. I'm not in the field (just here to learn and be amused), but someone needs a raise.
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u/DadyGrouvy May 22 '25
Lol. Everyone in that restaurant needs a raise. They paid less than $600 to their employees to make 60k in one day. That sounds like some 3rd world hell hole.
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u/HurricaneAlpha May 22 '25
Three head chefs in a kitchen would be World War III. Three sous chefs in a kitchen with a proper hierarchy would be Civil War 2.0: Turbo Chef Bugaloo.
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u/CertainGrade7937 May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
I'm sorry but these numbers you're giving make zero sense.
That's the business a McDonald's does. There's no way you're having that kind of turnaround at a relatively high-end, $55-meal restaurant.
I'm going to assume that by 1100 reservations, you mean 1100 covers (because unless you've got hundreds of tables, you're not pulling off 1100 reservations). But even with that? That's a plate out every 33 seconds all day, every day, for a restaurant open 10 hours. If you're doing half as much on your outdoor seating, that's a plate every 22 seconds.
Unless you're a bar/brewery that serves food and you're lumping all that revenue together and only weighing labor cost against the kitchen (which would be really, really stupid), no one is pulling this off with a team of 6-7 people
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u/Prinzka May 22 '25
Yeah they tried to brag(somehow thinking that not understanding an actual fine dining restaurant is bragging) and obviously for their numbers wrong but are now doubling down on things that are physically impossible
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u/DadyGrouvy May 22 '25
It could be a Hooters or Home Town Buffet type of restaurant in some red state that pays $6 or 7 an hour or it could be $200 per head restaurant that pays the same minimum wage. With a larger % of alcohol than food sales, that is doable. If that labor report is only for the BOH, not counting 3 or 4 salaried employees, then that gives them 12 - 15 people on staff.
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May 22 '25
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u/CertainGrade7937 May 22 '25
I'm not accusing you of lying...but you're reading some numbers wrong.
Nothing you are saying is remotely feasible altogether. You're not pulling off those numbers with that labor cost and holding onto staff. You can't do all of that. Unless you're paying way above industry standard, you're not keeping employees around when they can go do half the work at similar pay. And if you are paying way above industry standard, there's no way you're getting the labor costs you're claiming.
Hell I don't even know where would have a market for 5000+ people a weekend while serving 50 dollar food.
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u/DadyGrouvy May 22 '25
With out knowing what type of restaurant it is, it's impossible to accurately judge this. If his labor report is for BOH(not counting salaried staff), and most of those sales are alcohol then it doesn't reflect the actual overall cost but would still be accurate for what BOH cost had been.
I've worked an event for my current employer that, on paper, looked like it sold 91k, but in actuality we probably sold around 35k in food and alcohol but the rest of the money was part of a package that involved a hefty donation for victims in the Maui fires in 2023.
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u/CertainGrade7937 May 22 '25
No, it's possible to accurately judge this.
If he's doing 1600 covers or so a day (like he claims) with 1100 in reservations every Friday, Saturday, Sunday while serving food in the $40-60 range with only 6 people in the kitchen? With only one salaried sous on hand each shift? And each station having 6-12 dishes you they have to make?
You're not doing that and retaining staff unless a significant portion of people aren't eating. And if that's the case, then it's really dishonest to come in here and claim that your cooks are serving 1600 people a day.
I've worked an event for my current employer that, on paper, looked like it sold 91k, but in actuality we probably sold around 35k in food and alcohol but the rest of the money was part of a package that involved a hefty donation for victims in the Maui fires in 2023.
Which is the kind of stuff that makes me say the person was reading the numbers wrong. Sure, maybe the actual listed labor cost on the screen was insanely low, but that's not actually representative of the sales you were doing.
Guy made a dozen comments where he could have provided any explanation on how any of this adds up and gave us...nothing. if it were just the one comment about 1100 covers, I would have said "that's fucking crazy" and left it at that. But he took the time to tell us what POS system they use, but won't even tell us the basic business model of the restaurant.
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u/DadyGrouvy May 22 '25
The labor report is the only number a KM can manipulate from his end, making it the only labor % that is important to him. But maybe I missed a bunch of his previous posts cause I didn't see the 1600 covers.
The math can however still work out if the hourly staff in the kitchen was at a wage of $6-7 working with 3-4 salaried employees (who can often go uncounted in the raw labor report) This puts the restaurant at 6-7 hourly employees per 6 hour shift. If the food prep is done by a central commissary then you eliminate the need for a large prep crew. That gives you an hourly cook with a salaried employee per station if its a regular 3 station line. leaving you with 1 floater and 2 dish.
If this was a Buffalo Wild Wings in Georgia, that number would make total sense.
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u/CertainGrade7937 May 22 '25
But maybe I missed a bunch of his previous posts cause I didn't see the 1600 covers.
You did. Because he was not talking about a BDubs in Georgia.
This was a place that did 1100 covers in reservations every weekend day. The menu is on the more expensive side with $40-50 entrees. Prep was done in-house every morning, and there were only two sous total (one in the morning on prep and one in the evening on line), so no, it's not a bunch of of salaried employees. I mean how many salaried cooks do you think a Buffalo Wild Wings has?
And the median wage for a line cook in Georgia is like 14 bucks an hour. There's no way you're doing that kind of volume with a high-skill menu and retaining workers while only paying them minimum wage. Fucking Chipotle or McDonalds pay more.
The math does not work. At all. In any way. The only way to make the math possibly work is, again, if a fuck ton of these people aren't eating. At which point, not sharing that information is just being dishonest
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u/SlothBling Grill May 22 '25
1100 covers a service? Do you have sub-15min table times or is your dining room just gigantic? I would bet serious money that the only restaurant in my entire city seeing that much foot traffic is the college campus’s Cookout on Halloween.
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u/Euhn May 21 '25
bro I do 150 with me and another chef. I envy you. obviously not at a starred restaurant but still
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u/neep_pie Chip Boy May 22 '25
So if they have 20 tables of 4, 80 seats, they have 240 chefs working? I don't think that sounds right
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u/rasteri May 22 '25
Presumably exaggeration for comic effect
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u/neep_pie Chip Boy May 22 '25
I could see one chef for every 3 seats... maybe?
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u/mjt110 May 22 '25
It use to be the norm 1 customer = 1 member of staff (Or very close to). So you could have 40 people in the kitchen, 5 KPs, 5 prep chefs, 25 chefs on service, 5 chefs to manage service, do menu development etc So 1 chef for 3 seat is about right, although there is no rule of thumb in michelin and it wouldn't surprise me if there hasn't been a time when somewhere has had 3 chefs for 1 seat
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u/JedediahCyrus May 22 '25
Worked with a guy who had worked at a three-star. The chefs loved him simply because of where he came from, but they were never around to actually see he could not even scoop a burger consistently and he had been working at this place for a few years. Nice guy, but his performance was nowhere near the other guys in the kitchen. Sometimes it's about who you know and how much you can talk about sports, apparently.
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u/JediMasterZao May 22 '25
I mean, not for most 1 stars. For 2 stars and above then yeah sure, they tend to have massive and very specialized brigades.
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u/bushmanofthekalahary May 22 '25
The picture reminds me of the chef I'm currently working for. The poor guy doesn't want to be there, I constantly see him walking around the restaurant doing nothing or on his laptop fucking up the order.
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u/subtxtcan 10+ Years May 21 '25
As my old chef used to say to anyone with that kinda attitude (Michelin junkies, Culinary School Grads, anyone with an ego that needs to get taken down a peg):
Chit Machine don't give a Shit.
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u/ChefMoToronto May 21 '25
See that Michelin Junkie in the weeds? Chit Machine doesn't care. Chit Machine doesn't give a shit!! EWW!! It just eats that Michelin junkie.
Like a honey badger. https://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg?si=SfsWRvK-APe4c_d-
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u/subtxtcan 10+ Years May 21 '25
Honey badger, giving no shits, ever.
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u/ChefMoToronto May 21 '25
It's got broad shoulders and loose skin. It's skin is...loose. EW! What's that in it's mouth? A mouse?
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u/Bredda_Gravalicious May 22 '25
worked at a sports bar with a guy who always said "i was the Saucier at The Phoenix!" (a fancy event hall).
this guy was functionally illiterate... he couldn't make wing sauce the same way twice.
we always joked "i was the Saucier at Frisch's!"
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u/bagmami May 22 '25
I'll be honest, I worked at a 5* hotel kitchen ran by a 2* Michelin chef. The restaurant of the hotel itself didn't have stars. I don't think I could handle a brunch rush either. We're a bit spoiled in establishments like that. There's a whole support team for the kitchen and everything works like clockwork (most of the time)
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u/Civil_Bill6013 May 22 '25
As someone who managed the front end for one of these restaurants, and then went to a hotel, less structure can break your brain.
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u/cynical-rationale May 22 '25
I'm not a culinary student but I act this way towards so many fresh culinary graduates hahah. Especially towards the ones who have little to no experience and for some reason went to culinary school fresh out of highschool with little to no real world experience.
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u/HTOY30 May 22 '25
Had a grill cook like this.
At the time I was a kitchen manager (basically a glorified shift lead) for a Topgolf. In his interview he insisted that we takes pride in his work and only sends out fresh food.
We say cool, after a couple days he gets his first dinner rush. Mind you, we have over 200 seats with 3 floors. All the burgers were smash burgers and followed a similar set. We even typically have one person plating and one person on grill.
Typically during the rush, we often drop a couple extra patties down since we know the volume will be non stop for the next 2 hours. He insisted on making every patty to order.
We had multiple orders die in the window, ticket times were over 45min. He didn’t last too long
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u/PapaSmurphy May 22 '25
My wife came home yesterday to tell me about a guy who came in to stage. Supposedly tons of experience, worked on a couple cruise ships, has interned (his words) at multiple restaurants across Europe, has a fancy book of culinary stuff written in French filled with his handwritten notes (also in French), big talk about how much of a foodie he is...
He spent four hours on two attempts at making some particular soup he wanted to show off, and she said the final product was just OK, definitely not worth adding to the menu.
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u/Down_To_My_Last_Fuck May 26 '25
The new Exec just got a degree from Johnson and Wales. Country club service for 120 three courses and dessert trays. We were about 30 plates in when he realized he didn't have enough soup. (first course). So while they were walking the first tables, I was trying to put together a crab garlic bisque to serve the last tables, and we heard him squall tires out of the parking lot. Never to be seen again.
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u/sideshowbvo May 22 '25
Also, pretty much anyone who says they went to Le Cordon Bleu can suck it
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u/dojisekushi May 22 '25
I went to “Le Cordon I needed a job at 15 and now I’m the chef” school in Miami
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May 22 '25
As someone that spent over 10 years in Michelin 1-2 star dining, I couldn’t disagree more but it’ll always be case by case. When I left Michelin and tried a regular kitchens I found that they were usually dirtier and unorganized. Ugly, torn tape left on containers, leaving the dishwasher with shitloads of dishes throughout the day without helping them, dirty unchanged fryers, menus that lacked creativity and were just geared towards turn and burn.
Don’t get me wrong. I got friends that own restaurants that are all about turn and burn, and their line cooks can do hundreds of covers a day in extreme service settings but they would fold under Michelin pressure. I’ve worked everything from country clubs as a line cooks to CDC of 2 stars and I have seen turn and burn guys that can’t even make basic pickling liquids or brine proteins. Guys with 20 years experience that can’t break down ribeyes because all they did was cook brunch 500 covers a day for their careers and never learned fundamentals of cooking or prep. It’s honestly two different sports entirely.
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u/spandexvalet May 23 '25
We all have stories like this. My favourite was a new executive chef who came in to “fix things” Michelin background (apparently). He put popcorn with our sashimi. “For crunch”. it’s been well over decade and I still have no idea where his fucking head was.
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u/1PantherA33 May 22 '25
That guy has been picking, drying, ironing, and carving peach skins into a 3mm flower 200 times a day for two years. He needs therapy and deprograming.