Kitchen Myths

[whitners]

Eight Myths About Working in a Restaurant

Written by Whitnee Haston

of www.CookingRevealed.com

8. It’s all about the after party. Seriously, after a busy night of cooking 200 plus covers (people served) the last thing you want to do is have to go to a bar with your greasy hair and clothes that smell like a deep fryer.

7. You get to eat whatever you want. Not true at all, in fact in some places if you are caught eating the good product then you are out of there. Restaurants are all about making money and if the staff is eating the profit then there is no money to be made. Also, after making that dish 50 times in row, the last thing you want to do is eat it.

6. You thought you could see the faces of the patrons. Think again! You are stuck in the kitchen. You live in the kitchen.

5. You get to be creative. What you have to realize is that the menu was probably put into place before you began working there. Don’t think you can just come in and tell the chef that such-and-such is wrong with their menu. You will get no brownie points for that stunt.

4. I’m going to be rich. Unless you have been in the game for a while don’t expect to get paid. If you work at an extremely upscale restaurant most cooks come in a little early and work for free, worst of all it is usually expected that you will do that.

3. It’s easy, all your doing is cooking some food. If only it was that simple. Most cooks arrive 3-4 hours before the restaurant opens to do all the prep that goes into each dish. You have to realize that usually each dish comes with at least three items on the plate plus the sauce and the garnish. Prep is the key. And I don’t think you want me to talk about all the clean up.

2. All Chefs scream and carry on like Gordan Ramsey. While you can work with a chef that yells A LOT, they usually don’t end up throwing the food right back in your face. I think most chefs have realized that those antics don’t really work on the younger generation of cooks

1. It is so glamorous. Working in a kitchen is anything but glamorous, unless you are the executive chef who rarely ever gets in the trenches and cooks with his cooks.

I came up with this list for fun one day because I had so many people asking about working in a restaurant so I thought I would give them something to laugh at.

Thanks for viewing.

[Fugu]

This seems like a good place to start with my first eGullet forum post.

My experience, for the duration of my career, was quite the opposite from some of the 8 items listed. Times may have changed and this may now be the new axiom but in my experience:

8. We did have wild parties on a daily basis, even after spending 12+ hours at work. We had split shifts on top of that. But this was in the Bahamas, how could one not join one big party island?

7. We did get to eat anything we wanted back in the 80's and 90's and I've worked in hotels, restaurants and private resorts. A good cross section of a career spanning 20+ years. Perhaps the size of the operation has something to do with this lax restrictions?

6. We did live in the kitchen but I've met George Bush Sr., Ronald Regan, Margaret Thatcher, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Joe Montana, Yul Brynner, Hal Linden and Diana ross. For some reason, guests tend to congregate in the kitchen during my catering services. Whenever he was there, Sean Connery was a common site every morning, riding a golf cart to fetch his morning paper. I am sure I've missed many more, including royalty since I do recieve copies of the monthly function sheets and see the name listings. This was all at Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas. Though I was Kept in the Garde Manger dungeon of the King Edward Hotel in Toronto for several years.

5. As Garde Manger Chef, I was allowed to be creative, doing ice carvings, vegetable carvings, butter sculptures, pates, terrines, galantines, rillets and mousses. I was given freedom develop my own canapes and how to place them in platters as I saw fit. Holiday buffet menus were written and submitted by me to the Executive Chef.

4. Can't say I am rich monetarily but I have a wealth of experience which I feel was a priviledged lifestyle. I am comfortable, not rich. In this respect, I do fall short of my lofty goals. There is still time though.

3. I totally agree with no.3! No, our profession is not easy but the workload is something we got used to. My last job as an Executive Chef, I spent 16 hours at work everyday and I accepted this as the norm. Clean up? Ha, I already did the recieving, the menus, the prep work, why not tack on the cleanup as well? That's Bahamas and the "tommorow mon" attitude. Toronto is no different, union rules rule.

2. Oh yeah, I apprenticed under a German Chef, a French Chef and a Japanese Chef and all of them had Gordon Ramsay moments. The German Chef hurling a salami at an apprentice, the French Chef ragging on you and the Japanese forcing you to eat things he found that were not supposed to be there. Our kitchens reminds me of that BBC show, Chef.

1. Glamorous? So far it has not been all glam and cooking in mega yachts is as close to glamorous as I can get. We'll have to wait and see. My time is not up yet; the next chapter of my career is in the works. There is a big price that I paid to see and experience all this!

Edited July 24, 2007 by Fugu (log)

[Mikeb19]

Eight Myths About Working in a Restaurant

Written by Whitnee Haston

of www.CookingRevealed.com

8.  It’s all about the after party.  Seriously, after a busy night of cooking 200 plus covers (people served) the last thing you want to do is have to go to a bar with your greasy hair and clothes that smell like a deep fryer.

7.  You get to eat whatever you want.  Not true at all, in fact in some places if you are caught eating the good product then you are out of there.  Restaurants are all about making money and if the staff is eating the profit then there is no money to be made.  Also, after making that dish 50 times in  row, the last thing you want to do is eat it.

6.  You thought you could see the faces of the patrons.  Think again!  You are stuck in the kitchen.  You live in the kitchen. 

5.  You get to be creative.  What you have to realize is that the menu was probably put into place before you began working there.  Don’t think you can just come in and tell the chef that such-and-such is wrong with their menu.  You will get no brownie points for that stunt.

4.  I’m going to be rich.  Unless you have been in the game for a while don’t expect to get paid.  If you work at an extremely upscale restaurant most cooks come in a little early and work for free, worst of all it is usually expected that you will do that.

3.  It’s easy,  all your doing is cooking some food.  If only it was that simple.  Most cooks arrive 3-4 hours before the restaurant opens to do all the prep that goes into each dish.  You have to realize that usually each dish comes with at least three items on the plate plus the sauce and the garnish.  Prep is the key.  And I don’t think you want me to talk about all the clean up.

2.  All Chefs scream and carry on like Gordan Ramsey.  While you can work with a chef that yells A LOT, they usually don’t end up throwing the food right back in your face.  I think most chefs have realized that those antics don’t really work on the younger generation of cooks

1.  It is so glamorous. Working in a kitchen is anything but glamorous, unless you are the executive chef who rarely ever gets in the trenches and cooks with his cooks.

I came up with this list for fun one day because I had so many people asking about working in a restaurant so I thought I would give them something to laugh at.

Thanks for viewing.

←

8. We didn't care. We still partied like rockstars, every single night, in between the 16 hour shifts.

7. While we didn't get to eat anything we wanted to, we did eat very well. Also we'd get some very tasty scraps (foie gras, truffles, caviar, etc....) The servers would also hook us up with small amounts of very good and expensive wines. I ate some stuff I never could have imagined previously....

6. We did get to see plenty of them, VIPs and all. Of course I was higher up in the ranks by this time.

5. Again, by the time I worked my way up, my chefs would routinely ask for my opinions, ideas, etc... Didn't mean they always used my ideas, but they sometimes did, they allowed enough creativity to keep it interesting.

4. True, cooks usually remain poor. Of course, we also eat well, and we can make a decent enough living. Plus, there are plenty of 'bonuses' that aren't recorded...

3. Depends, it can be hard, it can be easy. Working in a very small, gastronomic restaurant was incredibly easy for me once I worked my way up the ladder. Once you know how to cook, season food, gain some confidence, then things just keep getting easier everyday...

2. When I first started in fine dining, I worked with a French chef that was at least as bad as Mr. Ramsay. But I was an apprentice, and didn't really know what I was doing. Later on I would get along very well with said chef, and he didn't yell at me anymore... Nowadays, if a chef tried that shit with me, I'd knock him out (I've actually done it before, believe it or not - kept my job BTW).

1. While it's not glamorous, the truth is that very few, if any 'dream' jobs are. And honestly, while I've been away from the kitchen the last 6 months (I had to leave initially due to an illness, ready to go back now though), I miss many of the more glamorous aspects of the job. Composing tasting menus on the spot, special dinners, having cute waitresses think you're the shit, meeting famous people, and making a guest's day...

In some ways I've been lucky. I rose very quickly up the ranks, got to see and do alot of shit no cook my age would ever see or be allowed to do. Got to work alongside some great chefs, not just work under them. Of course, this path caused some physical and mental stress/illness, I was forced out of the industry recently because of it. Ready to go back, but need to take it a little easier...

[HKDave]

[8.  It’s all about the after party.  Seriously, after a busy night of cooking 200 plus covers (people served) the last thing you want to do is have to go to a bar with your greasy hair and clothes that smell like a deep fryer.

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Last thing you want to do, maybe, but it's the first thing I want to do. I can't sleep for hours after quitting time. Might as well have a cold one and chill out. Late night bars are used to greasy cooks coming in after midnight, and in my experience, they treat us well.

A major unsung benefit of pro cooking is how good a cold beer tastes after a shift. Nothing like it.

[Alchemist]

One thing I have nevver been able to understand is after cooking a 10 hour shift the last thing in the world I wanted was to sit down and eat. It was all about the icy beer. Now after a 10 hour bartending shift one would think that I would to sit down to a nice meal and try to pack in some calories that I just sweated out...No it's still about the icy beer. How do we get sick of food when around it but not beer?

[Megan Kathleen]

How do we get sick of food when around it but not beer?

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It's been my experience that a couple of beers works just as well as sitting down to eat after a long night at work, and that a post-service meal can even be detrimental: if I eat, I'll hit the wall, and then I'll have fitful, full-belly sleep.

Instead, if I pace myself through a couple of nice, refreshing brew-tas, I'll get enough calories down the gullet to stay up while I wind down, complete with a swell little buzz. Maximum marginal return.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

One thing I have nevver been able to understand is after cooking a 10 hour shift the last thing in the world I wanted was to sit down and eat.  It was all about the icy beer.  Now after a 10 hour bartending shift one would think that I would to sit down to a nice meal and try to pack in some calories that I just sweated out...No it's still about the icy beer.  How do we get sick of food when around it but not beer?

←

No doubt this is the heart of the reason why everyone can, at some level, relate to Homer J. Simpson.

For me, after a 14 hour shift, and having to get up and do it all over again, the only thing I wanted to do was clean up and get the heck outta there. A beer as you break down your station is a beautiful thing.

Creativity is good when it's within the bounds of what restaurant is all about, and done with respect to the chef. Doing anything you want is not going to fly, in a restaurant or elsewhere.

[thomasdavis81]

8. yes it is all about the after party i always go to the bar reeking of food and fryer oil.

7. i know what i can eat and get away with, some filet tips or chicken breast are always easily accessible.

6. Yea the majority of my time is spent toiling away in the kitchen but i do get to get out on slower nights to say hey to friends that come into dine in the restaurant.

5. I don't mess with reicpes that are in place however i have always been allowed to play with presentation and of course features.

4. defently don't make any money

3. i don't have a problem with the prep or cooking i just hate having to clean the kitchen at the end of the night.

2. screaming chefs or not screaming chefs who cares it comes with the job in the end what is important is weather or not your chef has your back when the shit really hits the fan.

1. i do have to say cooking is glamorous, thats not why i do it but it is nice to see someone out side of work and have them tell you that they ate at the restaurant you work at and loved the food.

[Timh]

The initial #8 post is BS, in all of the kitchens, in all of the different countries I've worked in, its all about the drink at the end of the night, with your fellow workers and those at all the other restaurants. I could also make issue with any of the other points, but #8 was the most glaring BS.

edited to add; this thread was initiated by a non industry person, go figure.

Edited July 7, 2008 by Timh (log)

[phlox]

In my experience, the cooks who work the hardest also seem to party pretty hard. They don't *necessarily* get hammered and they aren't usually the ones who do more than dabble with recreational drugs, but they go out with the rest of the staff and have a good time.

One of the most fun things about smaller restaurants is going out after a hard Saturday night with the entire (down to the dishwashers) staff. Sounds hokey, but it really does help everyone bond and feel like a team.

Edited July 7, 2008 by phlox (log)

[David Chin]

In the Zen philosophy, there is the concept of wu wei, or effortless doing. This does not mean that the task at hand is actually effortless ... it just seems that way because of the practitioner's proficiency.

I think good restaurants are practical examples of wu wei.

Most customers don't see all of the behind the scenes effort that goes into a restaurant's daily operation. They don't know that your hostess called off, that two servers were no calls/no shows, that a prep cook under prepped several products, or that one of your cooks just went home sick.

The ability of a restaurant staff to pull it together despite any problems that may have occurred is a practical exercise in teamwork, training, flexibility, creativity, and leadership.

When everyone pulls together, the customers usually leave happy ... unaware of any behind the scene problems.

Wu wei ... effortless doing ...