Early Jobs in the Food Biz

[weinoo]

I'm starting...

 

I think my first job in the world of food was in about 1969-1970.  At a fast food hamburger joint called Carrol's.   No inside seating, from what I can remember.  In the idyllic town of Franklin Square, on Long Island.  Carrol's became Burger King, and though Carrol's itself petered out, Burger King's parent company is called Carrol's Restaurant Group, which is now owned by Restaurant Brands International. Perhaps had I stuck around I'd now be a big macher...but I didn't, as that job was short-lived.  When I worked in that ill-fated Carrol's, on Franklin Avenue in Franklin Square, one could buy a burger, fries and shake...and get change from $1!!!

 

I moved on to work in the various food departments for the Hills Supermarket Chain - also no longer extant.  But I worked in the butcher department ( those days called the meat department) which had real butchers and counter service if necessary, the fish department, which also had a counter for service and the deli department, which had the same.  I was a "floater" going to stores which were opening or needed help.  I worked in various Hills, located in, yes, Franklin Square, Malverne, Lawrence, Island Park, and maybe one or two others - all on Long Island, and all serving the demographics of their local population.  Like in Lawrence, a heavily Jewish neighborhood, the deli counter had all sorts of smoked fish, and I learned to slice lox/smoked salmon there.

 

That was the job I held until leaving for college - which didn't last that long.  Moved to Miami for 8 - 10 months, where I got in a job in a classic Jewish deli on South Beach. Finally saved enough, after moving back and driving a cab in NYC, to move out to Santa Barbara and go back to school.  I worked in another deli, as well as a 7-11, which was probably (still) the worst job I ever had, because the clientele on my overnight shift was somewhat scary.

 

No more food jobs until I moved back to NYC, after 18 years in California, and went to cooking school.  

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Wow, Carrol’s - that’s a blast from the past!  There were two in my little Northern NY burg, well before McD’s came to town.  I believe both locations are still Burger Kings. 
First food-adjacent job was really a babysitting gig for a couple who had a seasonal (summer) lakefront restaurant.  When the kids were put to bed, I’d go help out in the kitchen with little stuff like salads and desserts. Other times, I’d get called over to be a spare pair of hands when the kitchen was in the weeds. 
I also worked as a dishwasher at the local golf course restaurant where I also helped out with plating, etc when they were catering for group lunches or dinners.  
Then I did my own fast food stint at McD’s. I continued to work there even when I was in college because they were happy to give me as many hours as I wanted and work around my schedule. They have corporate processes, training materials and templates for everything and we had a manager who wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box and happy to turn tasks over to someone else so I volunteered and learned how to do the ordering, rotate stock, calculate waste & reject, man-hours and scheduling. I also did tours for school kids and scout troops, arranged birthday parties and donations to local nonprofits with insatiable thirsts for McD's orange drink. I also learned to do arithmetic in my head really fast so I could total things up while stuffing the bags, add the sales tax (I used to know 6.5% of anything without looking) and calculate the Canadian exchange for our guests who wanted to pay in CDN.  
Then I graduated, moved to California, and worked in labs where we weighed our ingredients but didn’t produce anything edible!
 

[YvetteMT]

The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college I worked at a little foody boutique with an attached restaurant.  I roasted coffee, sold bougie wine and beer, and made up sample trays of products we sold.  And got thrown into waiting tables one afternoon when the restaurant was short. Didn't take long to realize I never wanted to wait tables again.