/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18915601
>chop vegetables or cook at your own pace without a coked out loser screaming in your face, and wrap up before service.

No, it will just be a floor manager in your face instead, because they hired 3 people to do a 6 person job, and if you tell him that's not your problem then they absolutely will fire your ass and it will be down to 2 people doing a 6 person job and they'll be mad at you, not at management.

>>18915611
Do you wish you were important enough to have people hate you?

>>18915601
>chop vegetables or cook at your own pace
Cute, innocent or trolling. Just try it, son. Then realise nothing in kitchen is worth romanizing.

>>18915618
what are you going on about now?

>>18915601
>at your own pace
Oh GAWD, that's not a part of any fucking job.

>>18915601
no such thing as a "comfy" job in a restaurant, except maybe owner.

>>18915621
>romanizing.
Is that code for buttsex?

>>18915601
>at your own pace
Say you've never had a job without saying you've never had a job.

>>18915654
Hostess, maybe?

>>18915654
I don't know man, the Bangladeshi guy in the dish pitt seemed to be pretty content at my place. And as a waiter I got to fuck the waitresses after the shift was done. There was such a great turnover that it never was awkward. I kinda get it if you're going to work with this for life thoughever.

>>18915601
Always gonna be coked out cook screaming at you, you will never prep enough or do enough, as far as wrapping up before service, as long as no one calls out.

>>18915611
Every person who tries to run a business does this shit, they can't manage the job, don't want to pay people to do it, but expects everything to be done.

I had the misfortune to meet them. Wants to run their little hostel, but makes people run it for a shitty bed and maybe breakfast, asks guests to clean, makes all these rules they don't follow and rarely show up themselves, or this lady running a home restaurant by herself and asks people to come serve and clean for free while offering them a bug infested storage room, l mean wtf and if you stand up for yourself they kick you out and threaten to call the police. They aren't even paying you!!!!

I fucking hate everyone who does this but they all fucking fail and fall apart eventually because they can't handle it and can't find enough people to take the abuse for them. Never ever ever offer to work without any pay in exchange for anything, and never access abuse from management, just leave. You will be free, and they will be fucked. I only did it to socialize, learn skills, and save money and I regret it all.

>>18915601
You don't get to cook at your own pace exactly (unless your own pace is pretty quick) since if other people are mogging you by working 2 or 3x faster you'll look like a fool and could actually get fired. I knew 2 prep cooks who got fired for being too slow and poorly preparing items.

That being said it's obviously and easily the comfiest job in a kitchen.

>>18915715
PLEASE tell me you at least got laid along the way.

this guy did, even if he's pretending: >>18915694

>>18915601
You're right in theory but in practice your prep list is usually gonna be 2-3x bigger than you can possibly make in the time you're given

>>18915776
lol, all the chefs I've met severely undersell how long things take to do and in their estimation a job they think takes 25 minutes will usually take twice that long. I'm neither the slowest nor the fastest but I've seen this repeatedly.

>>18915776
Git gud lil nigga.. I was a prep monster and multi tasking machine. It’s all about how many things you can be doing simultaneously without fucking any of them up and being smart about staying ahead and hope to god your station partner isn’t a lazy piece of shit.

Fine dining is really hard and I do not miss it at all but man, knocking out a monster list in four hours while having time to sit down and eat family meal for ten minutes is really satisfying.

>only get unpeeled garlic
>not allowed to use the food processor to mince garlic
>oh btw you need a quart for a busy service lol
>only get unpeeled shallots to brunoise
>oh btw you need AT LEAST a quart for a normal service
>oh and you need a quart of fines herbs
>oh btw also a quart of this other herb mix
>oh yeah also a couple pints of picked herbs for garnish
All on top of the rest of your knife work for the rest of your mise and the four or five big projects you need done daily

My biggest flex on sauté was getting rid of my cutting board and putting my knife away for service. A sous chef got pissy with me one time for not having a knife or cutting board but I was just like well why would I need a knife when I’m cooking food

>>18916028
No way would I get a couple pints of herbs ready. Especially if you have to have thyme with 0% stem bits.

>>18916051
If it’s soft Id just blast through it with a knife kek but herbs was usually mint, tarragon, etc.. the one herb blend was thyme/sage/parsley so like a cup goes a long way in a quart of the blend.

Peeled garlic was like gold in that restaurant and if you were smart you’d soak it when you got in and peel during service, but I unironically used a Cooking With Jack garlic peeling hack where you put the unpeeled garlic in a bowl or 1/6 pan and put another on top and hold them together while slamming the garlic up and down for like 30 seconds if I was pressed for time

>15 minutes to service, no garlic peeled
>furiously banging my garlic in metal bowls loud as fuck
>chef visibly mad powerwalking in my direction
>still banging my garlic
>anon
>still banging garlic
>ANON! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!
>peeling my garlic chef, I got nothin to start
>she’s pissed
>HERE, we SOAK IT and use a birds beak not whatever the fuck you’re doing
>open bowls and take out a handful of peeled garlic
>yeah this is way faster
>she’s still pissed about the noise but now also visibly annoyed and shocked that I’m right and it works really well
>ugh.. fine dude. but just do that shit someplace I can’t hear it
>step outside to blast my garlic from then on
Dabbing on chefs is based ngl. Thanks jack.

>>18916122
i can haz slommy 2

>>18916122
That garlic trick with the bowl doesn't work for me. I live in a colder climate with all the farms growing hard necked garlic. It's easier in general with thick peels to get it off but it's still a bitch and not as easy as that bowl trick which is great if you have the right garlic.

nice troll

>>18916145
If I’m pressed for time I just hack off the root taking the ends of each clove of garlic off. I got an earful about that one time for wasting 1/8 of an inch or whatever off each clove but again it was one of those times where you’re like look do you want garlic in the food tonight or not and you get an eye roll and a sigh and a defeated “okay.”

Man im feeling all nostalgic now. Chef Pam was my girl, super talented and absolutely mogged everybody on prep when she’d have to cover for somebody’s station if they called out. Absolute gangster of a line cook and hands down best expo I’ve ever worked with (all verbal calls). After like a couple months of being good at my job nobody bothered me about anything anymore and I just functioned autonomously, got away with all kinds of shit but I was always ready and a good chef knows how to pick their battles

>>18915654
No the owner has to run down in the middle of the night when the alarm goes off, pay the rent, and worry about loan payments.
The owner has everything to lose.

>>18916028
>not allowed to use food processor to mince garlic
what? lol

>>18916122
>have to pay 1.5 kg olives by hand for tapanade
>fuck this takes forever and hurts my hand
>the slowest prep cook in the world advises me to make like a fort of trays and then dump a ton of olives on the board and smash them with a tenderizing mallet to get them soft and easy to pit, the fort is so they don't fly all over the place when you smack them
>it works

>>18916186
Kek that’s what I was thinking.. the owner has the objectively worst job
>>18916223
Yeah it was super gay and I definitely snuck it a few times and feigned ignorance when I got caught
>>18916238
If it looks dumb but it works then it so t dumb m8

>>18916028
I don't need to git gud I got into a real profession with a decent salary and schedule and coworkers who aren't crazy retards

>>18916329
Why do seething retards like you always enter industry threads and call people poorfags?

>>18916402
My guess is deep insecurity. A friend of mine does this who is going to med school. He takes literally any opportunity to mention he’s in Medschool or call other poor. The entire friend group is really getting tired of it.

>>18916329
Yeah I’m right behind you brother. It was great for my 20s but all good things come to an end. Covid killed it for me, after coming back I just didn’t have the passion and if you don’t enjoy the work it’s just a really difficult, stressful job with fucked up hours and not enough pay.

College starts in the summer and I’m a boomer in my 30s

>>18916428
Doctors are often complete fucking retarded losers too

theres a ski resort near me that has a restaurant at the top of the mountain (only accessible by pass holders) and theyre looking for a prep cook, 8 - 4 every day no longer cause the employee snowcat has to leave by 4:15. think it might be a decent prep job cause of the weird situation the restaurant is in.

>>18916518
might be fun if you are into stinky snowboarder pussy

>>18916577
now that you mention it im applying and using my best references AND printing a resume on card stock just incase

>>18915601
Pretty much. I am a gerontologist and the only people who seem to be happy and fulfilled at facilities are the kitchen staff.

>>18916123
Slommy for everybodies!

>>18916145
The older it is, the better that method works.
Personally, I'm just cooking for two, so 1-2 cloves, I just mash under a knife or wooden spoon.

>>18916176
>Chef Pam was my girl,
Wait.
"Chef Pam"?
MY "Chef Pam"?
Does she have three nipples?

>>18916585
laminate it

>>18916186
>The owner has everything to lose.
Like any business owner, the biggest thing they have to "lose" is other people's money.
Worst case, utter failure? They have to go back to working for somebody else, like the rest of us.

>>18915664
>I see empty tables everywhere can’t you just seat us?!
>you’re not intelligent enough to understand how important I am but I’ll let the owner know you should be fired anyway
>this is taking too long!

>>18916402
I'm just saying money was shit, which it was.
If you perceive anything else in there that's on you

>>18915654
It's comfy when front of the house staff is feeling you. Or you're neck deep in orders but you're flowing like water.

I really miss some of that stuff. I understand these places have margins and overhead. When any job gets too "comfy" I think the production and professionalism can come into question. But I think a lot of restaurants and other professions have management that passes their own inadequacies on to the staff. They just gaslight and scapegoat when things go well until they return to normal again.

>>18916790
That's why _SHE_ is a hostESS.
No 100% guarantee, but tits and a va-jay-jay go a long way in that kind of situation.
Worst case? Some dude will hold your hand and stroke your hair at the end of the day, and tell you everything will be OK.
Doing the same job as a man must be a living hell.

prep shift is best shift.
if i were to go back in time and inform my younger self about kitchen work, i'd say find a catering or commercial kitchen to work in.
big batches of stuff for events or upscale cafeteria kitchens built like an assembly line is the way to go. semi corporate with a manual. easy simple fundamentals, chilling in a cool kitchen listening though audiobooks all day.

then again, the nightmare kitchen psycho shit i lived through was fun too.

>>18916764
That depends, where are you from? I’ve never seen her nipples but she’s kinda stacked

>>18916903
I’d rather kill myself than work catering or slopping in a cafeteria..

>>18916943
to be clear, a *nice* cafeteria.

>>18916981
Regardless. For me the enjoyment of kitchen work was learning new techniques, working with new things, and getting faster/more consistent at food production. The monotony of doing brainless batch cooking would make me want to die.

>>18916577
>stinky snowboarder pussy
Almost all stinky snowboarders are dudes.
Maybe he's gay (and has really low standards)?

>>18916929
Detroit.
Does she walk with a limp?

>>18917017
OK, honestly I'm just being a dick.
Actual true story: My wife had three nipples, and I once dated a girl with only one. (two boobs, one nip)

>>18917017
>Detroit.
Duh Troit, more like THE TOILET, amirite?

>>18917024
>more like THE TOILET, amirite?
Never been to Detroit, but gotta say: Gary Indiana looks like the world ended in 1975 and nobody told them.

>>18917017
>>18917022
Naw senpai I’m in Nashville.
>wife had three nipples
Did she get one taken off? How big was it? And did the one broads tit look like a mannequin tit?

>>18917035
She never had it removed. It was below her right boob, and didn't have a boob of it's own.
Gotta say though, she had an ass like a cello, tits like a highschool freshman and was 5'11".
PERFECT fucking body. Shame she was a psychopath.

>>18917035
I once had a wife that have FOUR nipples... on her PENIS.
I divorced her because she was a terrible cook and she kept finding a way to make bacon taste terrible.

>>18917050
p.s. long before I met her, she was a drill instructor at Paris Island.
I had to leave her 4 times, but I still have dreams where we're still together.

>>18917054
>kept finding a way to make bacon taste terrible
I believed you right up to this nonsense.

>>18917059
Based. Tall women are the patrician choice, but I’m with a blond haired blue eyed gal from Georgia with a sweet rack so I can’t complain even though she’s only 5’6”

>>18917075
Blue eyes aside, I'm doing the same. She's about 5'6", blonde bed-head hair, green eyes, but they're still full of love.
Life is good.

Prep is the workhorse of the kitchen. The biggest issue is you need to bang everything out (and if you work in a from scratch kitchen you will basically never be able to 'finish' what you need to do in a day; it's all about triaging what is important) and ideally it comes out EXACTLY the same way every time. Plus this isn't like fucking up a lamb or bruschetta that you can refire and have in the window in a realistic time. Some of things you're making taking hours to days to make and in huge volumes.
Rolling into the kitchen at 5am and getting 6 hours to yourself is bliss though. Make some bomb coffee. Put on your music. No ticket machine going off or expo yelling for shit. No delivery app shit jingling. Plus you get to peace at 2-3pm and be like "k bye have fun getting spitroasted during the rush". Plus if you really enjoy using a knife you'll like prep more. I genuinely love cutting 10lbs of onions or banging out a 50lb box of carrots or peeling a metric fuck ton of potatoes.
But it's a completely different beast than working the line. Nothing on prep is comparable to running the line during an insane service. Running a 300 cover (or whatever cover number is inane for your place) night and everything going perfect is a sublime feeling. Plus the daytime servers are usually older and not nearly as flirty and fun as the night servers and flirting with servers is one of the best perks of the job. Also, depending on the restaurant, prep can be really isolating. Even more so than working closing shifts 6 days a week. For me I'm the only prep person. At most I see one other cook, the day time 'prep' who mostly just portions and helps the line, and the single server that runs brunch/lunch service. Compare that to running with 6+ people on the line, having an expo to shit talk with, a dishie to joke around with, and a gaggle of attractive early 20s servers most of whom are definitely keen on riding the cook carousel.

>>18915657
Yes

>>18917606
see, when i read shit like this i get an urge to say "fuck it," quit my middle class white collar job and make a go for the restaurant life

but i know better. i know better.

>>18915601
You a dumbass OP

>>18915601
the first qualification to being a prep cook is that you should be hispanic and speak very little english. If you got that going for you, you already have a foot in the door

prep can be nice, but also tremendously shitty
friday/saturday/sunday mornings will always be at least a bit hellish, crossover is a dice roll on being fucked, and depending on if your place has a daytime service/brunch then your life becomes infinitely harder because you will never have the extra body or two needed.
it can be very nice to start on your own, work with your own music, and just bang out your list faster than anyone else.
back when i was doing prep, i would get in at 6, get all my sauces going, make some coffee, break down chuck and pork shoulder for the 8am guy to grind for burgers and sausage and then just rock and roll on knifework and sautee jobs till it was time to punch out. pepper in some flirting with the eastern european waitresses/bar staff and it was a pretty good time

>>18915715
The only ones who don't do this are the incredibly rare breed that worked their way up from the bottom. I worked in an event bar whose owner began working as a glass collector in night clubs on weekends, and he basically understood that the only way to get stuff done is to hire more people, or delegate tasks to the most competent people.

The other co-owners had always been owners or managers and had the attitude you're describing; they'd want to pay for a skeleton crew of staff and somehow expect them to handle massive numbers and turnover every day.

>>18915630
kek

>>18915601
Is that Steven segall on the left

>>18915715
>I only did it to socialize, learn skills, and save money and I regret it all.

i almost went this route, thought about doing a volunteer thing in a hostel in seattle for a couple of months that i had stayed at. the workers seemed reasonably happy and not stressed. ultimately i decided against it and just went back home, got a few food service jobs before getting muh office job. i spend a lot of time thinking and regretting not trying out a hostel/hospitality job.

>>18917742
should have worked during college and gotten it out of your system

>>18915654
the pastry chefs in Kitchen Confidential seemed pretty comfy tho

>>18915611
>tell them it's not your problem
>walk out when they give you lip
>now the manager has to chop onions or man the dish pit
few feelings more satisfying

>trying to do prep after lunch but boomers keep coming in at 3pm to eat their slop


I RAGE

>>18915601
10/12/15 hours on your feet on you wont break a grand after taxes but hey free family meals (in some restaurants)

>>18915601
>a prep cook job sounds incredibly comfy

>>18917742
Pick up part time somewhere just for s&gs. If you can it can be the right amount of exposure. You'll come in fresh and firing and they'll get a good deal on smart labor.