Disclaimer- I don't know what happened here. This popped up in my memories from when I used to be a bakery manger. I came in one morning to a "hey boss, the door to the walk in freezer broke" and handed this. The door shut and sealed just fine until it finally got replaced.

The lock was a kinda wobbly before it snapped so my guess was that it just wore down enough over time. 🤷

It's on the back of a standard sheet pan.

Walk in to work, get told we have three functions today: Cool.

Boss wants me to make the cheese plates cos I'm the only one that's worked at a charcuterie place. "Here's a bunch of block cheese, some crackers and 20 bucks to go buy some garnish." Prepped out six plates like this in between the first two functions and tickets on the line. I think I did alright for an hour, go on and roast me.

Looking back I think the blue cheese could definitely be a bit tidier and probably should have used a little less arugula, or nicer smaller pieces. I should have gotten a second case of black berries. It was hot as fuck today and they're in season here. I fuckin love blackberries.

Inb4: No RaMp

Have about 7 years of kitchen experience as a line cook (mostly worked in French, Japanese, and Chinese cuisine) and know a moderate amount of French. I visited Montreal last year and fell in love with the people & cuisine, now looking to see if it is all possible that I'd be accepted.

So I was working front of house and some dude came in and asked for a sheet of foil. I said NO PROB! and gave it to him with a smile. I resume my work and realize my brother (sous) and the chef just looking at me. I’m like, what? What happened? And they said why do you think he needed foil and nothing else? I genuinely didn’t get it and looked that them funny before they caught on that I genuinely didn’t understand.

Dude was about to go use it for drugs. There was a shelter across the street and he looked homeless af. It’s been a couple years and they still give me shit lol

15 checks on the pass, and the next wave pouring out. No management coordinating with the kitchen, was left to 4 16 year olds. Complete chaos.

9,000 taken in 3 hours 3 chefs in the kitchen and a new trainee 2 weeks in, he smashed it. This is a chain pub I started 3 months ago I leave in two weeks. Quickest job I've ever done. No say on menu, produce, suppliers, no real passion.

Every thought I had about these chains was correct, was sold the job on the premise I would be working with the head chef developing and creating the menu. Arrive and get handed a book of specs. Never used one.

Fun though.

Hi all, I said I'd report back after my first Sunday brunch/lunch shift, which was Day 4 of my first-ever restaurant job, bussing tables. Short version: It went really well!

The restaurant where I work does breakfast, brunch, and lunch exclusively, so I was expecting it to get kind of bananas. But my day started with one of the servers telling me that when I was out of town last week, my presence was SORELY missed. We joked about where they can send my medal, but it genuinely did make me feel good. There was a second busser scheduled for the day, but I did the breakfast hours on my own, and it wasn't bad at all.

The second busser came in around 10:00, and things started to move a little more. And then a little more. And a little more, and then we were busy! The whole place filled up completely multiple times, and I just kept moving. Then, when the brunch crowd and the lunch crowd started to overlap, my boss called me to the back to help with dish. So I stacked plates and racks of glassware and put dishes away and sorted silverware for a little bit when the servers ran out, and just kept moving. Once lunch started to take over the restaurant, I bounced back and forth from dish to bussing for the rest of the shift and just kind of juggled both. And next thing I knew… we were closed for the day! I'd kept half an eye on the clock all morning so I could change out my sanitizer, but once I did that, it really felt like time had flown by. Then I helped with closing dish for a while until they were like, "Yo, you can bounce, we got it from here."

I got a lot of appreciation from a bunch of different people on staff, and it really meant a lot to me.

And just… being in the back, covered in a fine chowder of leftover food and drinks, hearing the human machine pace through its different rising rhythms as the crowd ebbed and flowed, being in all the noise and chaos and grime and sweat, scrubbing egg off of plates and squeegeeing the floor and muttering, "Hot hot hot hot HOT," while I moved plates that were pretty fresh out of the dishwasher… It felt GOOD. I like making order out of chaos, I like using my body while I'm working, I like doing things that have immediate purpose. Fuck, I might like a dish shift sometimes. Who knows, it's early days still. But it felt good. And more than that, it felt Right. I have ongoing challenges with getting overstimulated, but it didn't feel like that, even when things were at their busiest. It wasn't overwhelming. It just was. I lost myself in it without feeling lost. And when I clocked out and started heading for home, I felt really proud of myself.

I did take a shower immediately when I got home, and then ate a bowl of cereal. 😂

I'm working all next weekend, and I'm feeling really excited for it. And I also look forward to having tougher hands that can take a little more heat. I really like stacking the plates, it's bizarrely… "comforting" isn't the right word. But it makes my brain go easy mode instead of hard mode.

Anyway, feeling good about it, and looking forward to more. :)

After 2 or 3 years out of tge trenches, I moved to DFW to be near family.. And took a job as a Pizza guy in a pretty popular place, then I found out they have a concession at the atexas State Fair and wont have a day off for the 3 weeks it runs... nothing like jumping back in with both feet! I need my head examined..

I apologize in advance, this will be a really long text. I dont Even know if this Is the Right Place to talk about It, im sorry I’ve been working in the kitchen for a while now. I just started and wanted to see a professional kitchen and get some training. The owner told me that I should “learn by watching,” and that, little by little, I’d start doing more and more culinary tasks. In fact, I’m always at the sink washing bowls, pans, containers, and so on. Sometimes I go wash the dishes using the dishwasher too. Where I work, there’s a kitchen with a sink for washing pans and everything else, and in the room next door, there’s the dishwasher for washing the plates to be used.

So far, I’m losing my mind. I already knew this sector would be a bomb of physical and mental stress. Yesterday, I lost my temper over something maybe even stupid. Then I went to the back to rest for five minutes and let out all the emotions. Honestly, it helped. At least I wasn’t nervous anymore.

I also hate that everyone thinks dishwashers have an easy life or that they don’t have to worry about anything. Every day, I come home with fingers full of scratches because of boiling water, half-broken pans, or sharp objects from the pizzeria. “Oh, but I just wash dishes,” as if no one cares about what someone like me — a so-called outcast of society — goes through, just washing dishes all day.

Every now and then, they let me do something other than washing dishes, but it’s just small things like cleaning mushrooms, parsley, rosemary, or peeling potatoes. Just to clarify, I know peeling potatoes is totally normal at the start — I’m not complaining about that, I’m just saying.

Yesterday was the last straw. There’s this person I’ll call Alexa for privacy. She always says that at closing time, we finish everything together in the kitchen — which is fair. I went to take out the trash, thinking I was done because the pizza maker had told me he’d take care of things; I just had to grab a good squeegee. Then they had already washed the floors.

I asked Alexa: “Should I start heading out?” Her: “I am going" Then I asked: “Is there anything else I need to do?” She made a face like “I don’t think so.” When I went to change, the pizza maker got mad at me because I didn’t stay to help him. Maybe there was some miscommunication between us, but that’s not what made me angry.

When I went to the owner for payment, he told me: “When you need to close and clean, just ask Alexa.” She hadn’t told me anything, and then she was already leaving. That’s what pissed me off — you’re the first to say we should finish together, and then you leave first.

She’s not the head chef, to be clear, because I know the chef has a certain level of autonomy. I don’t like her much, but whatever. Luckily, last week, I had the guts to tell the owner I didn’t want to come anymore. He suggested I work fewer days, so now I only do weekends. But I think that sometime this week, I’ll tell him that after Sunday, I won’t be coming back at all.

I don’t understand how people manage to do this job for years — the physical stress, the mental stress, working every single day, even during holidays. Clearly, this is not my field. And if you think I’m wrong, exaggerating, or anything else, just remember that work isn’t everything; there might be other problems going on, and above all, not everyone handles stress the same way. Some handle it better, some worse.

With this post, I just wanted to share my experience, my frustration, and hear your opinion. Please comment constructively. Thank you.

Found this monster in my punnet tonight 😱 🍓

Today is my last shift behind the stove before I move to a new job. The new role is going to be better money, consistent hours, less stress, and just better for the family, especially with my daughter starting nursery.

But fuck me am I going to miss the buzz of a busy service, the weird and wonderful cooks ive had the privilege to know and work with. I'm really going to miss the pride you get after those shifts where you just rocked the station and sent everything out in time and on point.

Yeah, the job is going to be better for me in practically ever aspect. Ill even have time to do more with food at home. I'm going to miss being a "chef" though.

Cheers to the industry for a wealth of stories, stress and learning. All the best to the rest of you, I'm now 86'd 🙏

I tried buying a few specifically designed kitchen shoes from compamies like birkenstock and such but those european shoes don't fit my big american feet. I have good non-slip shoes but I need good insoles for them. Any recommendations?

Alright so I’m working in a place that claims to be good, and we do things that proper chefs would most likely not approve of. This is my first cooking job, so I can’t speak to other places, but the fries don’t seem all that nice to me. They come in big bags in a box.

I’ve been working the fryers for a little bit and I’m wondering if there’s anything I can personally do to make these things taste or present better. For reference, I have a big ol bus bin full of fries beside the fryers, I reach in, grab a couple handfuls, deep fry em, throw em in a bowl with some salt, and they’ll usually sit for about one to five minutes in that bowl. We’re busier than hell and my chefs don’t seem to mind this approach, but if I can make these things better generally, I would certainly like to. For example, I’ve seen videos of people putting a rag in a bowl and dumping the fries on top of it, salting, then pulling the rag out to get a better salting of the fries. Dunno if this works because I haven’t actually tried it yet, but that’s kind of an example of what I’m talking about- methods that will just generally improve this product I’m making all damn day long.

Got these beautiful W.Hutton & Sons silver spoons at a roadside stand earlier (10$ each!!) and it seems whoever had them cut them at an angle, not sure why though.

I can’t seem to find any similar designs other than a roux spoon, but silver seems like the wrong materiel for scraping the bottom of a pan. I’m gonna fool around with them tomorrow at work but if you guys have any idea how best to use them on the line, I’m all ears.

Thanks!

We have an open top burner/oven combo and the rail over the knobs has a bar that slides out and acts as a shelf extender or ninth pan holder (like in the photo). This is the only photo I'm finding online of this slide out shelf and it's driving me crazy.

What is this thing even called?

I started making a chimichurri before I found out the "authentic" way doesn't have cilantro and also isn't blended. So now I have 2 day old, blended cilantro, garlic, olive oil and salt in the fridge. Thinking of adding cumin and using it as a chicken breast marinade.

The problem is that the mixture is solified. Can I sit it on the counter until it liquifies, put the chicken in it and put it back in the fridge overnight without causing botulism?

Any suggestions or ideas on what to do with my solidified slurry are welcome.

Anybody else collect extra cutting edges? This is not my work btw, just happened to spot it in the kitchen.