snoop

pure, clean, beautiful? I guess no one wants to discuss the rampant disregard for the laws and complete dishonesty involved in labor issues. It's absolutely disgusting to me that this goes on.

I make $10 an hour in a well known 3 star restaurant. The highest salaried worker is getting $13. He has been cooking for 8 years and is amazing an amazing worker. The salaries are bad enough, but what is terrible is the total disregard for labor laws in the restaurant industry. You simply don't get paid for the hours you work. Your checks are always short. This happens in every single high end restaurant in the city, and every cook knows it. I know someone who works in a certain tavern in the gramercy area whose checks are at least 10 hours short every single week.

When you are looking to get into restaurant work with no experience, I suggested working for free in a previous post. But not for a week or two. I worked for free for 8 months. 2 weeks isn't enough time to know if you want to give up a normal life for cooking. After that amount of time, I was treated like a normal employee and when I asked to be paid, I was hired. So the restaurant gets an employee to work for free and you get invaluable experience. But after only 2 weeks, I wasn't cooking. Just observing really. So the restaurant isn't worried about being sued since you are just "hanging out" and are not working. Once they feel comfortable with you and you with them, then maybe you can peel some potatoes. But you won't be "cooking" for some time. Unfortunately, the restaurant world still has an old school mentality when it comes to employment law. I was working 70 hrs a week in one place and only getting paid for 40. There is a sense of fear to report them because you don't want to be "blacklisted". It's funny how an industry can be so glamourized in the media and such, but actually piss on the people that hold it together. It's absolutely amazing.

inventolux, are you still cooking somewhere?

The man can cook, and that's what the review is looking at. Whether or not he stands on a cutting board and "raises the roof" is absolutly, completely irrelevent to anything regarding the food in his restaurants. If anyone thinks Bobby Flay is any more of an arrogant prick than any other top chef in NYC, you obviously have not met many. And I work with a few people that have worked at Bolo and Mesa Grill and they say he is a consumate professional.

I don't think anyone said it was a bargain. The restaurant is entitled to a profit, it's just not as large as you might think. And I don't run a restaurant. I'm the cook making the potato. And I'm not going to do your math for you either. But I work in one of the most highly rated restaurants in the city believe me, we don't make as much as think. The owner of the cheap place with the shitty food down the sreet makes more than our owner. He makes money from outside ventures that he can put into the restaurant. P.S. your a little sensitive about restaurants for someone who doesn't work in them aren't you?

Baruch, wow, what can I say. Oh I know, get your head out of your ass and your foot out of your mouth. You are completely wrong in a lot of your statements. To the people in this business you are coming of as completely clueless and just embarrasing yourself. Let's take your so called $ .10 potato. You want to make mashed potatoes? Well, put the potatoes in the expensive pot and fill it with water that obviously needs to be paid for. Throw in some salt that you purchased. Put it on the flame that is run by gas ontop of the enormously expensive range and let it simmer. You did pay the gas bill right? Drain them in the 5th colander that you just bought because those things just have a way of breaking, don't they? Oh, you wanted cream and butter in the potatoes? Well go into the massive walk in refrigerator that runs constantly and pick some up. Mix it all together in a bowl with a spatula (why do all those spatulas keep getting lost? guess I'll have to buy some more) and your done right? Oh yeah, you'll probably want to serve them to someone in an air conditioned dining room sitting on expensive seats, served on a plate of some kind. And a fork might be nice, too. You did purchase these thing right? Oh, I forgot, robots aren't ordering the food, putting it away, cooking it and serving it. You mean these people cost more money than you might think?! You mean I can't pay them as shitty as you assume because then all my good cooks will go to another well run 3 star kitchen and learn just as much for more money?! I can't believe it. Oh , I hope the weather isn't shitty and we aren't slow tonight, because then all those potatoes will have been wasted. That's a lot for a cheap potato. What about the porterhouse steak that didn't sell?

If I were you, I'd definetely go to a top restaurant kitchen and work for free in your spare time. It's a crazy life and it's not for everyone. I work in a 3 star restaurant here in nyc and it is absolutely exhausting. The money is terrible, the hours are worse. You won't get to see your significant other, and when you do you'll be too tired to care. Getting to the top in this industry is like a high school basketball player wanting to be in the NBA. The odds are tiny. At my restaurant I see people who have been cooking for years on end, who seem to have their shit together, and are simply amazing cooks, yet they still don't have what it takes to be a great chef. You need to sacrafice your entire life for cooking. Oh yeah, you will have no insurance, so don't hurt yourself or get sick! I find I can't afford to go out to dinner in nice restaurants anymore, and buying a cookbook is a luxury. You will sweat, stink, and do more physical work than you ever thought possible. And the heat! You wouldn't believe the heat behind the line. Your hands will be bright red and sore from the ambient heat off the flattop. It's not glamorous by any means. Enjoying food and cooking for yourself is great, but when you have to do it everysingle night for 150 people it's completely different. Don't fall for the commercials for culinary schools where the students are wearing gleaming whites and fawning over beutiful produce. Sure, in school there is plenty of time for that. But in the real world that doesnt happen. You simply have too much work to do. This may sound harsh, but it's reality. I loved food and cooking to the point of obsession before I got into this business, but you will quickly see that it's not fun and games. It takes an odd person indeed who wants to live a life like this. So work for free. See what it's like in the best restaurant that will take you. I would hate to see anyone put so much money into school before they knew what it's like.

I have been following this post and I have to be honest. Steve P, you are a pompous ass. I have worked in many 3 and 4 star restaurants and found that on a busy night when somebody orders a special meal, the staff have an attitude of " who does this fuck think he is?!" Oh, the chef will of course have you believe that it is their honor and they will love nothing more than to prepare something special for you , but in the middle of service they look at you like more of a pain in the ass than anything else.

Can I ask what restaurant that was at? I had a wonderful meal at Clio and am a big fan of Oringer.

I meant culinary school. At FCI the average age is older than 25, as is Kump's. At CIA it 23. But also it's a general question, as a lot of well known chefs have started later than their teens. Wayne Nisch, Michael lamonico, Alfred Portale, Matthew Kenney, Ken Oringer, Jonathan Waxman, Jeremiah Tower, etc. I have a few friends who went to CIA in their late teens and said it was a party school, not a lot of maturity in the student body. I don't find this hard to believe as they are still just kids away from home for the first time.

I wonder what the average age of the line cooks are at some of the top restaurants. Bobby Flay once told me that the avg. age in his kitchens is around 27. I wonder about Daniel's or Jean George's kitchens.

This was brought up in another forum and I found it interesting. It was said that 25 was old to start a chefs career in america and I wanted to know what the suitable age would be. What were the ages of some of our best chefs today?

25 is old in America? What would be the average or prime age to decide to embark on a chef's career?

Does anyone know where Joseph Fortunato will be going? This restaurant was one of my favorites. I was never disappointed.

How's Cub Room? Henry meer's other establishment. I heard it's rather enjoyable, but I've never gotten around to eating there.