Life after my first year at JWU

[KateW]

I posted basically this same post at cheftalkcafe and thought you guys would like to know too. I mentioned briefly in Zilla's post about work that I was looking for a job this summer and I wanted to follow up on where that led me.

I finished my first year at JWU at the end of May and I'm well into summer now. I got my servesafe certification in the mail (passed with an 84) and got my academic grades (A's and B's).

After school got out, I put in an application at Sid Wainer and Son, a well-known produce and speciality food distributor in the town I live in now, New Bedford Massachusetts. I never heard back from them. I finally let it go and went to the shopping mall a couple towns over and applied at Bertucci's (an Italian restaurant like Olive Garden but with a much bigger--and better I think--selection, and lots of pizza options), and Ruby Tuesday's, which is basically like most family restaurants; it has burgers, sandwiches, steak, pasta, salad bar, etc. Ruby Tuesday's asked me to come back later the same day for a second interview, and following that, they asked me to come back Saturday to observe the kitchen. That's when they offered me a job doing basically whatever they need me to do at the time; prep cook, cooking, dishwashing, bussing, etc. I start Tuesday at 4:30, and will probably get 2-4 shifts a week at least to start. I hope to keep it as a weekend job when I go back to school in September.

So that's basically it. I'm looking forward to it! This is my first restaurant job and I'm pretty nervous, but excited.

[fresco]

Congratulations. Sounds like a great opportunity to learn everything about a kitchen and you seem to have a great attitude. Best of luck.

[elyse]

Great news, Kate! Let us know how it goes.

[Pan]

I hope you enjoy your job, Kate.

Somehow, I can't figure out what JWU is. I keep thinking John Wayne University.

[mise en place]

Let us know what the job is like. I've always wondered how the kitchens in these type of operations work--Chili's, Appleby's, etc.

[plax]

JWU=Johnson & Wales University. They have campuses around the country, including one in North Miami where I've taken a couple of their one-night "cooking with a chef" courses; I assume from the geography that Kate is at the main campus in Providence, RI.

[KateW]

That's right--it's Johnson and Wales University and I go to the one in Providence. From what I observed in the kitchen for a little while Saturday, it looked like there were about 8 people behind the line, all doing mostly hot food, and one or two people off to the side prepping salads and such. Not everything is made to order of course; a lot of things looked like they came out of the fridge and were heated up or whatever needed to be done. I saw a lot of chicken quesadillas, buffalo chicken fingers, and desserts being made. One of the cooks took a slice of cake out of the fridge, topped it with ice cream and butterscotch and whipped cream, turned to me and said "There! Just like school, right?"

The orders come in through a machine, which is nice, very much unlike school where you took the ticket from a server and deciphered the handwriting. You take a slip from the machine and prepare whatever is on it and put it up to be taken.

Everyone there seems nice and I hope that's true.

[MatthewB]

Kate, congratulations & best wishes!

[Ladybug]

I'd be interested in hearing about what Ruby Tuesday is really like "behind closed doors." (Sort of like a Joan Lunden special, yes?) I've only been to Ruby Tuesday's a few times and I think I've only had the salad bar with one exception when I had half of some sort of turkey sandwich. But it's my brother's favorite restaurant!

[tan319]

Good Luck on your entry into the food biz.

I have a question for you though.

What made you want to work in a more corporate type of restaurant, as opposed to an indie, maybe casual fine dining type of establishment? Where there is probably more of an focus on creating and making product from scratch?

Does J & W place more of an emphasis on hotel/corporate types of establishments?

Not trying to be confrontational, genuinely curious.

[KateW]

Well, there are lots of reasons why I would not want to work in a more upscale place at this point. JWU did not influence me either way in where I wanted to work. 1, this is my first real experience in food outside of school. I don't want to go to some fancy place and screw everything up ;) I wanted to go somewhere where the food prep is below my level of skill just to kind of experience the whole atmosphere rather than worry about making the food right. 2, I want to get used to working fast paced, work on timing, things like that, and that is exactly what the manager said is their main focus when I went for the interview. After I get into the swing of timing and speed, I can worry about making fine food.

Hmm, did I say lots of reasons? Well, those are the main ones. There are other smaller reasons, like the area I live in is not very affluent and doesn't have a lot of fine dining to offer, and I am not a confident driver at this point and don't want to travel much. (Whole lotta issues there for a different thread and possibly a different board )

Basically I aimed low to hopefully reduce the pressure on myself. I had thought about your question in the past, should I have aimed higher? Maybe. But it's done and I hope I'm happy with it.

[KateW]

I'd be interested in hearing about what Ruby Tuesday is really like "behind closed doors."  (Sort of like a Joan Lunden special, yes?)

I think we watched some of those specials in Sanitation class! Hope I don't run into the things I had to watch!

[elyse]

You can shoot higher any time you want.

[KateW]

You can shoot higher any time you want.

Yup! I also hope I can get into more activities in school this year, like cooking for parents' weekend (you can volunteer to make all sorts of cool stuff like tempura and canapes) and going on field trips and stuff.

[elyse]

Cool. Any updates on your pantry?

[KateW]

LOL. Hmm not really, just fridge stuff.

[tan319]

Well, there are lots of reasons why I would not want to work in a more upscale place at this point.  JWU did not influence me either way in where I wanted to work. 1, this is my first real experience in food outside of school.  I don't want to go to some fancy place and screw everything up ;)  I wanted to go somewhere where the food prep is below my level of skill just to kind of experience the whole atmosphere rather than worry about making the food right.  2, I want to get used to working fast paced, work on timing, things like that, and that is exactly what the manager said is their main focus when I went for the interview.  After I get into the swing of timing and speed, I can worry about making fine food. 

Hmm, did I say lots of reasons?  Well, those are the main ones.    There are other smaller reasons, like the area I live in is not very affluent and doesn't have a lot of fine dining to offer, and I am not a confident driver at this point and don't want to travel much.  (Whole lotta issues there for a different thread and possibly a different board  )

Basically I aimed low to hopefully reduce the pressure on myself.  I had thought about your question in the past, should I have aimed higher?  Maybe.  But it's done and I hope I'm happy with it.

Sounds cool.

Just keep in mind that:

1- I doubt you would screw anything up in a finer dining place because they wouldn't let you screw it up

2-Chefs in more upscale places generally love to get 'fresh' employees to work with, they have less preconceptions to deal with and are more mallable to train the way they want people to do things.

I worked at a pretty 'heavy' place right when I got out of school ( a much shorter type of program then J & W) and they were sure to throw it at me very slowly but firmly. And later on, when I worked in NYC, most of the line at a very well known chefs new operation were all students doing externships from the 3 big Manhattan cooking schools. Timing and pacing were learned 'quickly' but assuredly.

I just wanted to share that with you. Good luck to you and

I hope you enjoy yourself in this crazy biz

[KateW]

Thanks tan :)

[KateW]

I hate it..hate it hate it hate it. Sure, I'm fine making quesadillas, chip and dip plates, and bowling soups, but ask me what's on any plate that involves the word sampler, trio, or platter and you've lost me. I don't get to practice most of the dishes enough for it to be routine. I forget about things under the broiler, I can't lift the fry baskets, I can't reach half the plates...

Technically this is my second week, but I've only worked about 25 hours so far, and they want me to start cooking by myself next week. Ummm, can we say I don't think so?

What should I do? Hang on, fumble through, get a lot of sendbacks and have a breakdown every day? Or get out while I still can?

Money's not an issue, I'm doing this for experience, and if I do hang on, I can either quit at the end of summer or keep on during weekends if they want to do that while I go back to school. But my career goal is more of a private practice, not corporate. Somehow I have this image of making meals in my own home, or a small kitchen, with maybe a couple helpers. Minimal use of fryolaters

I need your thoughts, everyone.

[elyse]

If you REALLY hate it, leave. If you're just feeling overwhelmed, stick it out. You'll get used to the menu. I always used to take a menu home to study it at a new restaurant. I'd still freak out, but at least I'd feel think I tried to make a difference. Yeah, right.

[KateW]

I have a little menu booklet, but it's outdated, not everything is in there, and some things in there are different now. It's also not in color, which would really help me with learning what sauces go with what, for instance. Big help, huh? There are also pictures and specs of each dish behind the line, but they have the same problems as the menu booklet.

I guess I just want to know how much time to give it.

[elyse]

Can you steal a menu? Would it help?

[KateW]

Probably wouldn't help much, because there arent pictures of everything, and it doesn't always tell you what sides it comes with, or what size plate it's on. Their online menu helps a little bit though. I just wish I could do less, like simply cook whatever is needed, while someone else plates it up, or vice versa, but it doesn't work that way.

Today I flipped out because I burned the cheese on French onion soup under the broiler TWICE in a row. No big deal I guess, but it broke me.

Tomorrow I work 12-9 (yuck, but at least I'm not closing).

Mainly I feel bad for the cooks who just wanna get stuff done and get out of there but have to babysit me instead.

[elyse]

Well, then the customers don't really know what they're supposed to get anyway!

Don't feel badly about the other chefs. It seems to me if the kitchen were running well, you wouldn't be having this problem.

[KateW]

Well, then the customers don't really know what they're supposed to get anyway!

Don't feel badly about the other chefs.  It seems to me if the kitchen were running well, you wouldn't be having this problem.

Haha that's true, someone said to me before that nobody really notices unless something is *really* screwed up. But the manager notices, and he is always back there checking the plates before they go out.

The kitchen seems to run fine, when I'm not in the way

The heat doesn't bother me, burning my fingers doesn't bother me, it's when I screw up and get frustrated and feel embarrassed for even being there, that bothers me.

I guess if I hadn't burned the FOS twice it wouldn't have been such a bad day, but the girl who was supposed to be training me felt like it was ok to leave me alone for a while, and that's when the shit hit the fan. I was mad at her for trusting me, mad at myself for failing, etc. You know how it goes.