/ck/ - Food & Cooking

I wash dishes, but my actual job title may as well be "all-purpose kitchen bitch."

It seems like I spend more time scrubbing the floors and running the deep fryer than I do actually washing dishes.

"Can you change your gloves, you just touched a tomato and I'm allergic"

If you can avoid it, never work for people whose language you do not speak.

I have learned a lot, and otherwise the job is okay, but this language barrier makes simple tasks twice as hard, and no one talks to me all day.

>>4993882
Asian dude here in CA. The mexicans in the kitch and i are cool. Sometimes i bring sodas or beer. They do nice things for me.

I work at a Starbucks.

Not much to bitch about.

Would like more pay, like anyone else would. A chair would really be nice, but I guess it would like unprofessional if we were sitting around.


I've had a few annoying customers but one is particularly annoying and she comes by often. Always asks what's the white stuff on frappuchinos despite me telling her quite a few times that it's whipped cream. Paid with nothing dimes two or three times at some point.

And then recently she asked me a question

"Are you guys still hiring? You guys seem fun to work with!"


oh god

>>4994218

paid with nothing but dimes*

>>4994218
I hope you told her "no," whatever the truth is.

I cook for an LGBT bed and breakfast/womyn's healing circle meeting spot. The clientele are mostly mean overweight middle-aged lesbians. I store my cum in one of those little pee sample cups with the blue lids that they have in hospital bathrooms and put it in the food.

>>4994234
>LGBT bed and breakfast/womyn's healing circle

>>4994226

I told her she'd have to speak to our manager, but we're likely not actively hiring at the moment.

Wasn't really a lie, but not really the full truth. We are looking for someone to replace a employee left (found a better job, gave her two week notice and everything and she still comes by to visit). I don't mind since I get more hours in, so yeah.

>>4994253
It seems like a lot of people visit the places they used to work. I see former long time employees actually in the kitchen all the time.

>>4994234
I lol'd

>>4993888
you sound like a bitch

>be me
>be sophomore in college
>need monies
>dining hall in my dorm is hiring students
>literally go downstairs to work

Other than the convenience it's complete shit. I work in the dishroom, so I either get to scrape shit off plates and load them in the dishwasher or burn my hands pulling clean dishes out at the other end. My coworkers seem pretty cool but the machine is so fucking loud it's not like I ever get to talk to them.

>>4994613
Dishwashing is not that bad. Gloves might help with the heat, but get good ones, because they can melt with enough heat.

>>4994218
Fellow Starbucks barista. The holidays make me a little more suicidal than usual.

My bosses at the restaurant where I wash dishes keep telling me to only come in an work for like half of the shifts I am scheduled. This adds up to like ten hours of working per week, at minimum wage.

I need a second job, or to get another decent job and just quit this one.

>>4994652
We use vinyl gloves and everyone wears a double layer on the clean end because the plates are always so damn hot, hardly helps though.

>>4994890
Huh. The machines I use do not get that hot. Must be something pretty different. Could you switch things up a little so they have a minute or two outside of the machine to cool?

I manage one of the biggest warehouses in the world that supplies health food stores.
Vegans, people with allergies, the organic fad are making my job like a never ending fight to supply the demand.
Not sure if the stress is worth the money.

I just ended my job as a restaurant host in a hotel. It was just for money and experience cause I'm a hospitality major and Jesus Christ does F&B suck. Greedy Mexican servers who whine and bitch like little girls when you give the other server a table over 4, regardless of how many tables they already had. Can't wait to try different departments

>>4994890
I just grab a clean towel and place it on the hand that will hold the bulk, you have to also know how to shift your grip a bit to let your hand cool.

Most people I know are better dishwashers than me, but at this new job my partner is a gigantic lazy faggot, does nothing, stacks everything in no particular order no matter how much it pisses off me or the head chef, never washes his hands, cares more about his personal discomfort than cleaning anything, never learns anything even if it could make his job easier and involve less work for him, and never scrubs a damn thing, and only sends it through over and over no matter how many times I hand it back to the guy. Every time I think "no one could sink lower than me" reality seems to just pull a complete wreck out of the woodwork.

>>4994908
WHy is he still working then?

I have only ever washed dishes alone, doing both cleaning and stacking. But I guess I have worked at pretty small places?

>>4994912
because no one seems to care but the head chef, and he's not really the manager. I honestly don't know why. if I was in charge i would have given that guy an ultimatum weeks ago. I've worked in these kinds of positions for a good 3rd of my life and haven't gone anywhere glamerous at all. I still manage to put in the effort to get things clean and done right. he doesn't even try, so I really wouldn't see the point in having him around.

I'm a restaurant critic.

It fucking rocks. In every single conceivable way.

I like to write, I like to eat at fancy restaurants, I like to get paid those mad motherfuckin benjamins (jk, I only get like $200/week tops)

>>4994234
>I cook for an LGBT bed and breakfast/womyn's healing circle meeting spot
I would put a gun in my fucking mouth after burning that place to the ground, fully packed.

I work a fast food window in a casino. Pays pretty damn well since we're connected with the local government, but holy shit, the customers are so fucking annoying on so many levels. Comp vouchers are the bane of my existence.

>people who make me try five credit cards and act like it's my fault when all of them get declined
>fob azns who just throw comp vouchers at me and yell "chicken wing", act confused when I politely ask them to be more specific
>people who come up to the counter with a $35 voucher, have no idea what they want, and spent the next 10 minutes perusing the menu figuring it out
>how much do I have left on my comp
>how about now
>how about now
>bitch I'm not privy to anything besides middle school addition/subtraction; figure it out yourself
>the asshole behind that asshole who's glaring at me like it's my fault
>the assholes who work other departments that get butthurt when I don't give them special treatment
>etc.

Again, good thing this shit pays well.

while you all break your backs, burn your hands and hurt your feet in the back of the house i make your customers people smile and take their money.

ive done the line cook thing, dishwasher thing, server thing, host thing, and im happy to say i have found the best job in the restaurant.

>>4994903
Eh, F&B is not for everyone. You really have to like making sense of a mess and having a strong team to help you with that. FoH working at your standard tourist trap (including many hotel restaus) tend to be entitled pricks.

Where do you live, by chance?

>>4994983
that looks awesome. what is the name and location of that place?

>>4994894
>>4994908

It's a continuously-running industrial machine, so there really isn't much time to let them cool, and we don't use towels. Most things are essentially dry when they come out, I'm guessing because the rinse is so powerful and hot. We have to get them out of there so things don't get backed up on the dirty end. This is a all-you-can-eat university cafeteria; we probably serve at least 800 meals a day.

Any suggestions for gloves good for a wet environment, good dexterity, and relatively heat-proof?

Driver for Jimmy Johns. Starting wage is 6.25 plus tips. It's honestly pretty dreamy. I have an amazing boss, cool coworkers and I make more money than I used to while working half as many hours as I did as an inshop. Our delivery area is smack in the middle of suburbia so you're either going to the local college, office buildings, or residences all of which are 99% of the time polite and tip well. Before I started driving I couldn't have lived on my own even with a roommate, now it would be completely possible, comfortable even. If you can find one in a similar area and you're looking for a delivery job I can't imagine there's a better option.

>>4995010
wear rubbers over kevlar

>>4994962
You hand out balloon animals? That sounds like a good job.

>tfw customer finds a fucking peeler, yes a potato peeler, in her chicken pot pie

>tfw hours have been cut since summer
>tfw about to get cut again after new year

Also, who /workholidays/ here?

Cook inna Panda Express. Job is super easy, but I fucking hate fob asians now.

>>4995391
>Also, who /workholidays/ here?
>work most holidays
>make time-and-a-half plus holiday pay because muh unions
>don't actually like my family much anyway
>imokaywiththis.jpg

>>4995010
Build up a heat resistance.
Is there really no way you can let the plates sit for 20 seconds?
Is there only enough room for one dish tray on either side of the machine?

My mum works in the restaurant of a high street chain and got a warning for waiting until she had finished serving a customer before going to do some washing up (she was the only person on when there are meant to be at least two at all times). Another time she got a disciplinary over a customer making a complaint about her attitude, even though the alleged incident took place when she was off on annual leave.


My own personal gripes are merely customers being shitty and changing their order when the food's already prepared, or trying to get free stuff out of you.

>"I don't want this jug (4 pints) of beer, it's cloudy!"
It's condensation - wipe glass, remove condensation, perfectly fine beer
>"there's no head on it!"
It's in a fucking JUG
>"I'm not paying for this!"
Well why drink half of it before fucking complaining?!

>>4994983
I live in the Bay Area
Yeah you def made a good point about having a good team behind your back, it makes all the difference in job satisfaction. For me at least

>>4994708

I work one located at a college. They're pretty nice and reasonable customers overall, aside them occasionally bitching at the price (Why are you upset at me? I can't do anything about the price and no, I'm not allowed to give you my employee discount)

The good thing at my job is that unless I really fuck up, there's little chance I'll get fired since they need me for two hours every other day since literally no one else is available.

>>4993882
>come to new job.
>people are working without to bitch at each other.
>the chef tell them how great they did
>sometimes corrects you and tells you what you did wrong.
>restaurant runs like money milking machine
>calm middle age waitresses the boss hired from red light circle making great tips. all are married and have kids
>Chef is killed by local mob because they wanted bigger cut.
>Mafia takes over and replaces new Chef.
>fuck knows nothing
>screaming like spoiled bitch.
>waving knifes around your face
>most girls are gone back to the pimps.
>restaurant turns out into mob shithole where people are scared to come in.
>most time nothing to do.
>in a week everything is ruined.
>some of mob fuck want you to sell drugs for them
>take you skin and eave this shithole.
>3 month later someone burned it down killing 2 mob fags and crippling their chef.
>police comes in.
>move to other country because no jobs around anymore(mob killed all business in town)
>work as a salad shopper and bread backer in random hotel kitchen.
>

>mfw i work at vegan diner and everyone loves the food all the time and i feel great about being part of a healthy, sustainable food system.

>>4995618
How is meat not sustainable? No offense, I don't care if you're a vegan or not. But the word sustainable doesn't really make sense to me since the other food system is also sustainable.

>>4995506
When I think of Bay Area I think of 4 possibilities of who poster is in order of likelihood. Spoiled NEET from Marin or nicer parts of East Bay, NERDALERT, from south bay, faggot from SF proper, or ultranigger from Oakland. Why can't people just say where they are from? We fucking know the difference between the city and its suburbs. This isn't /mlp/ where everyone is confused yet enthused by basic concepts.

Freshman at college but worked dishwasher and FOH in Bay Area

Got blamed for a BOH Latino fight when I wasn't even working the shift and I'm FOH, shitty bosses, idiot coworkers and power trip managers called asian box if anyone's int

Washed dishes for artisan ice cream store made some ice cream it's called tin pot creamery if anyone's interested best ice cream I've ever had

>>4995629
Haha you nailed it pretty hard on the head
I'm nerdalert in San Jose
However I do my best to hide my power level when I first meet people

>>4995625
well a number of years ago, the UN published a report called "livestock's long shadow." the basic findings were that due to the high levels of methane concomitant with meat "production" on factory farms and the rising demand for it have produced a situation where about 20% of all greenhouse gases are now created by the meat industry. a follow up study revised this figure to include a deep economy analysis which included feed, water, and other inputs concluded that the percentage is somewhat higher. similar studies have found that the meat industry could account for up to 50% of all GHGs. methane is in fact 21 times more damaging than CO2, and newsweek, for instance, famously reported that the water required to grow a cow from birth to slaughter could "float a destroyer." and 18 pounds of grain yields only one pound of beef! fisheries and shrimp farms are another example. i recently read about how the dead zones created by salt water irrigation, piles of fish meal, and algae blooms from nutrient slurries have devastated miles of thailand's coast. there are dead zones in the US, too, especially around poultry operations, where the nitrates from chicken shit contaminate local aquifers and water supplies, making farming or fishing (not to mention just living) impossible. for more info i'd recommend "the way we eat," by peter singer. great book. the point, though, is that the resources in terms of energy, food, and water to maintain our meat-eating habits are prodigious and wasteful, and anyone interested at all in environmental justice or climate change should strongly consider looking at their diet as an easy way to reduce their own carbon footprint. vegan or vegetarian diets require, by comparison, far less resources.
thanks for the question, really. some people would rather just not know. i hope some of this has helped make the issue a bit less opaque.

>>4995611
The hell man. That is crazy.

>>4995706

tl;dr

>>4995706
Actual person you responded to, ignore
>>4995989

I stand corrected.

>>4996019
Except that pretty much all of what he wrote is bullshit propaganda.

>Global warming!!!
Never a mention that the Sun is a 4% variable star and that 99.99% of "climate change" is caused by its output variations -- which we are utterly helpless to change.

>enough water to float a destroyer!
So what? The water flows whether cows drink it or not. If they didn't, it would just flow downhill into the ocean and evaporate again.

>18 pounds of grain to make one pound of meat!!!
So what? Cows aren't fed exclusively on grain anyway, most of their lives are spent eating grass on scrub land that isn't suitable for grain/corn farming. Whatever they eat in finishing feed lots is paid for, and the "invisible hand of the marketplace" balances the costs.

It's just a bunch of bullshit from the environmental movement, the same bunch that thinks we should all live in caves and 98% of the population should starve to death so that Mother Gaia can be saved from the virus of humankind.

>>4997481
>98% of the population should starve to death so that Mother Gaia can be saved from the virus of humankind.
I agree with the first half of that statement...

But yeah, "research" is so fucking tainted by private interests that I don't believe a goddamned thing these days.

>>4995387

Oh god lol. How the fuck does this happen?

im a line cook at a nice italian place
farm to table style shit where the menu changes every 6 weeks
no michelin stars or anything but we do damn good food
i could bitch about any number of things there but the pros certainly outweigh the cons
the 1 thing thats driving me bonkers lately though is other people complaining at work
this one woman has to have a meeting with chef at least once a week which normally turns into a screaming match
today though she started it up again just as chef came in dinner service & they went down to the office but my chef was stoned out of his mind this time so he just sat there & spaced out while she vented

im a saute/broiler cook at a high volume italian restaurant. it's ok, though i dont really like the turn and burn kind of cooking. for thanksgiving we did 1750 covers, and right now our average for lunch is about 450, dinner is about 600.

i plan on goign to culinary school to have it on my resume in addition to the 8 years of expereince before this gig i have now. wanna someday be an executive chef at bistro/brasserie and once i get too old, find a gig as a culinary schoolt eacher

I'm a "delivery driver" at a small, shitty pizza chain local to where I live. Base pay's okay because I live in Washington state ($9.19, gonna be a little over $10 next year I think), although 90% of the time I work slow morning/afternoon shifts which pulls in half as much in tips as our night drivers. When I'm not delivering (it's usually about 50/50) I'm washing dishes, bussing tables, taking phone/counter orders or doing kitchen prep. Half the time I'm working I'm one of two people there, the other being my boss that I have nothing in common with so I spend a lot of time busying myself cleaning and doing shit nobody else wants to do.

Pay-wise I make about $1300/month on the books (hourly + tiny gas reimbursement), and around $500-700 in tips. This is working 30-35 hours/week, mind you. On the other end, I spend $200-300 in gas every month.

>>4995016
You probably have a pretty decent volume of deliveries. How much do you earn in tips per day/month?

>>4997485
so how do you make decisions? just roll the die? consult the uija board?

>>4997637
Hah!

I mostly look at the results and work backwards.

Or just not worry about things I can't control.

Rolling the dice is what I do when I don't like the odds or factors and have no way of reasonably coming to a conclusion I desire.

>>4997649
but regarding the question of whether or not meat consumption is sustainable, how can you both "look at the results" and also deny the utility and validity of current research? is there any way you could ever find as credible a report that concludes eating meat is not environmentally sound? or are any such declarations unacceptable because all research is "tainted"?

I have to apply for another job. I did not lose this one, and the people are nice. But the restaurant is really really slowing down, and I do not want to be left in the cold if they close.

I have seen the worst things drop on the floor and then be used for customers.

>>4999866
When pulling product from the freezer, the managers always tell us to pick up stuff that falls on the floor and keep it.

first year apprentice at a sourdough bakery. rly official bread, a lot of stuff coming off the peel. I work pastry a few times a week too, but the stuff i make is pretty simple

i'm looking for other work cause a few of my workmates are intolerable neckbeards//actual fedoras. it's tolerable but i know somewhere down the line i will snap, so i'm sending resumes out to other sourdough bakeries. I think having a shitty co-worker is kind of like living with a bad housemate, like on paper it doesn't seem that bad, but dealing with people you would be happy to never see again on a daily basis starts to stack up nah mean

Stop coming to my place of work t 1:45 in the morning and trying to order everything on the fucking menu you prick pieces of shit, my grills are cleaned and i do not want to scrub them again

>work as cake decorator at wal-mart
>people constantly complaining about color schemes and such not being right
>give away free cakes daily

Pro-tip, if you want a shitty cake for free at wal-mart... just lie!

>>4995706
You know what else creates harmful methane that destroys the ozone layers? Vegan farts from eating all those damn garbanzo beans and other shit beans.

>>5002207
We have this happen at my job, and you know what I say? It's your fucking job to keep serving until 2am, tough shit. I am so tired of the complaints that are essentially, "ugh, these customers are making my job so hard." If they're exceptionally annoying customers, okay, yeah, but it's almost always about how you don't want to fire tickets because you want to get prep done, you don't like how people order dinner items in the morning, customers stay too close to closing time, you don't want to keel track of an order called in.

>tfw you go into the walk-in cooler and realize you have no idea what you needed to get

>>5002346
Every fucking time

>>5002329
Nah bro, my job is to close my restaurant and go home. If you're up at 2 in the morning and can't cooks something you need to go to bed hungry.

Fellow /ck/ooks, its OK to curse in the kitchen, yes? Do you guys cuss at work and hear it often? My new as fuck assistant manager tripped out bigtime when I jokingly called a coworker a motherfucker earlier. It wasn't even in front of customers, it was in the kitchen. Apparently she didn't appreciate my excessive profanity one bit and planned on bringing it up with the store manager and even the district manager when she sees them. It took all I had to not burst out laughing in her face.

>mfw this girls been here a week
>mfw I've worked with store manager almost a year and am certain no fucks will be given
>mfw I've worked with district manager two years and certain no fucks will be given
>mfw this girl is so new she doesn't even know yet that the district manager has a fouler mouth than I do

I respect that she's my superior and all, but if your going to complain about foul language in a fucking kitchen then maybe this isn't your line of work. I've been in some other kitchens, she should really just be thankful I speak english and show up sober. Just saying.

>>5002393
I swear all the time in the back. Needs to get the stick out of her ass.

Im a chef for high end music tours. Wont say specifily who but all are grammy winners. Life is amazing.
pic related. its me backstage at a gig

>>5002400
Thats what I was thinking. Its one thing to cuss in front of customers, which I'd never do. But cussing in the back? I really hope she actually brings it up with the district manager, shes gonna get laughed at hard. Me and the big boss used to jokingly call each other bitch and whore like its nothing.

>>5002393
It was like that when I worked fast food, not sure why. Not that anybody would really get in trouble, but it was interesting how nobody would swear just out of peer pressure or something.

Now where I work, we swear in front of customers and nobody cares. Kinda nice working at a 21+ place. I'm also know lots of creative Serbian swears now, lawl.

>>5002393
I'm out of food service now
But when I was in it, the kitchen was one of the most foul places I'd ever been.
Occasionally a manager would come in and tell us to, direct quote, "shut the fuck up" because "the fucking customers can hear you in the dining room."

>>5002458
Maybe she came from a place with stricter rules and isn't used to it, I dunno. I've been at my place awhile and swearing and jokingly insulting each other has always been in the culture. I just told a girl earlier I was about to bitch slap her whore face back to Los Angeles if she didn't stop her bitching, everyone thought it was funny as fuck. I call the mexicans frijoleros refritos and they crack up. I guess I can come across as offensive to somebody whos new and doesn't know how we interact yet, its all good natured and tongue in cheek joking though.

>>4993897

oh my god. a few months ago i had just cleared my throat into my elbow right before this woman orders a sandwich. i make the sandwich, and she waits until i'm finished with the fucking thing to bitch at me about not having changed my gloves. because i cleared my throat. into my arm.

manager even let the bitch get a new sandwich. other one was thrown out.

so this huge woman goes to use the public bathroom right? she's in there for about thirty minutes. later when i need to use the bathroom i walk in to behold an open can of olives beside the toilet. i just use the men's room, tell my manager about it and she goes in there and finds the tampon box stuffed with paper towels, blood, lettuce, and tomato.

I worked one fucking day out of a scheduled five this week.

>>5002393
Were allowed to swear, as long as it isnt too loud, since we have an open kitchen. The chef doesnt want guests to hear us.

>>5004282
I know the pain.

Had 4 shifts in a row cut due to how slow its been. When you live in a mountain town that relies on tourism, things really fall off in the winter.

>>5004429
HAve you thought about applying for a second job somewhere? Because I worry that I am going to have to, but I guess anywhere else you work in town might have the same problem?

And as for swearing, the last place I worked they did not swear much, but the chefs in general seemed to be really angry people. Like, they would laugh and joke around and stuff, but it was a very dark sort of humor they had. Is that a chef thing in general, or just that one place?

>>4994234
gods work anon

>>4993882
I'm an systems/database consultant and have been since I was a little kid, meaning in high school.

The trechery of the japs will never be forgotten or forgiven!

12/7

Remember.
I don't have to bitch about being in the food service industry.

So it began.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/roosevelt-asks-congress-to-declare-war-on-japan

I work as a waiter for a family restaurant that my friend's family opened up. Shit usually gets too stressful with personal bullshit from everyone since everybody wants to relive highschool or some other sick shit.

Staffs getting too involved with their employer's private lives. Customers that are family members of employers and just downright nonsensical drama over the stupidest shit like missing keys or misplaced smartphones. I usually am the fucking referee so eventually people think I'm responsible for solving every single problem they have in life.

Besides from telling everyone what they should know as adults their age, I've been slowly losing my sanity and I tink I'll foil my cool composure soon too if I don't quit tomorrow.

>>5004596
Family and business is a dangerous combination.

Server.
Biggest fucking pet peeve is when people show up 3 min before the kitchen close, I've been working 12+ hours already, and they are happy they "just made it in time!" and proceed to keep you there an extra hour while all your sidework has been done and you stare at the walls until they fucking leave.

Also people not asking for multiple things at once, and instead make you make 3 or 4 separate trips while other tables are flagging you down.

Occasionally funny shit happens, like when I watched another sever spill a bowl of potato soup all over a customer's back/fancy coat, but overall fuck this job.

>>5004614

It really doesn't have to be. Maybe it's just this place and what seems like a dramawagon that everyone jumped onto. Family and business can be like one of those great success, like how the German-Jewish bankers strived as a family because they didn't hand important jobs over to people outside of their family.

And I just found some pubic hair on our prep table this morning. I'm expecting slut drama and meltdowns soon.

>>5006606
How do you know it was a pube? could have been an arm pit hair.

Still gross.

>>5004619

I'm a late worker so I usually make those kind of "JUST IN TIME" trips to Circle K stores. I've made friends with the cashier and employees that worked the nightshift there and they're total bros. I'd always make them something special with spare food from the kitchen and they'd always have my meals and drinks all ready with a smile every day. Once they even waited 30 minutes for me in the 15?C rain and wind. It's basic mutualism and it feels nice to have a connection that works perfectly.

Just... Why can't we make things better for ourselves AND everybody else?

>>5006621

Because shaving your pits is easy than shaving your crotch. Plus, we have sleeveless uniform for our ladies here. They kinda have to shave.

>>5002474
This.

The tiny mexican on staff is named chollo porquito.
A female line cook has been called the fist since a month after she started because we assume she likes a good fisting
Fat bitch sous and her room mate are called the Gordita dykes
A kid named BJ has been dubbed jibber