Thread 21549356

How bad is working in a kitchen in reality?
Say, for someone with no social life so doesn't care about the working hours beyond wanting to get paid for every hour worked?
People say that chefs will shout, humiliate and insult their underlings but how does that make sense?
I've played a lot of DOTA, I placed high divine and once immortal, and one thing I learned was that flaming your teammates is not only unhelpful, it can actually be harmful because it causes tilt and may even cause people to rage or feed.
Is it all just dramatised?
Which position is the best entry level position to get into the industry? Should I go to culinary school?

This is a bait thread, in case people wondered what those looked like

>>21549356 (OP)
Kitchen workers are:
>Drug addicts
>Niggers
>Ex-cons
>Spics who cannot speak English
It leads to nowhere. Also the chef always has a drinking/drug problem. No real power except in the kitchen. He's more than likely been 3 times divorced.

Cooking isn't really a skill. Any idiot can do it. Now baking that takes skill

>>21549356 (OP)
I only worked at a sandwich shop but the people there were pretty nice (although weird). Probably more likely to have a bad environment at places that are high cost/volume, or really low volume

>>21550097
It's like everywhere else. If the place is fucked up somehow it smells... Could be financial issues, or could just be one bad egg who poisons everything they touch. Happens with any working place.

>>21549356 (OP)
>beyond wanting to get paid for every hour worked
This is not the field for you when you're closing, just letting you know. And you will be closing.

>>21549425

If my time working in a Wild Wings is any indication, you're absolutely correct. It was staggering that I was the only person who could stay sober through a shift AND speak intelligible English

it's only yelling in haute cuisine, also you get to fuck the waitresses

>>21550527
What I don't get is where kitchen niggers get all the cocaine when they make zero money.

>>21549356 (OP)
The screaming/insulting is definitely way overblown by sensationalist media catering to drama-addicted low IQ morons. But still at the end of the day it's still a shit job with shit pay, shit schedules and shit conditions.

>>21550816
>The screaming/insulting is definitely way overblown by sensationalist media catering to drama-addicted low IQ morons.
It does kind of seem like dumb people really like that sort of entertainment, but I don't know why.

>>21550819
They're chefs, thats why

Is it ok to ask the chef for recipes when you're a dishwasher/helper?

Start in a dishpit and see the environment of the kitchen
Don't hop into being a line cook as you are anon trust me

>>21551626
Not op but I'm working in the dishpit atm and I'm enjoying the atmosphere atm but idk if it's possible to move up or even if I want to move up or stay here

>>21549425
high volume fine dining cooking on a hot line is definitely a skill and not idiot proof if a chef wants perfect dishes up on the pass and fast. theres so many moving parts and the dining room and idiot waiters are hell bent on tripping you up. it's hot, intense, stressful. try doing 200+ covers on a course menu, grill loaded, stove loaded, baskets, flat tops loaded, 25 temps at once just in your head on, sauces reducing, cutting, plating, fishing out differently timed shit in the oven, wishing you had 8 arms, doing fucking yoga poses in 90 degree heat and if you fuck up you start over, the train starts coming off the tracks, waitors having meltdowns, the chef hounding you, keeping your composure, thinking to yourself god just let me make it through the hour, covered in sweat. a lot of wannabes get broken there. its a skill. mcdonalds, sando shops, diners, yeah thats idiot proofed. not real cooking though.

>>21551669
How much of this is due to the head chef/manager having invested money into the business?
I can't imagine getting that worked up about something unless you've invested tens to hundreds of thousands into the business

>>21549425
Hey, I've only been divorced once and I've been clean and sober for three years, thank you very much.
Baking takes focus, the ability to accurately and precisely follow a recipe, rather than just tasting as you go and winging it the whole time. Pastry takes a decent amount of the two skills, the ability to be extremely precise and the ability to improvise as necessary. I started in a bakery, and I was the only white, non felon there, most of the employees lived in the halfway house across the street from us. It's honestly very repetitive and boring, once you get the hang of it and it loses its mystique; work at a bakery and you'll hear some civilian talk about how much skill it takes, and you'll scoff, too.
Brewing, now that really takes skill and knowledge, I wish I didn't have a drinking problem, being a brewer was the most fun job I ever had.

>>21551674
It's just called taking your job and responsibilities seriously
Not exclusive to chefs

>>21551674
a head chef or sous chef will often not be invested. they want to do a good job. theres a dining room of paying customers out there and in order to be a fine dining chef in the first place they have a sense of honor. also if they have bad reviews and long ticket times for food theyll get shitcanned so theres that.

>>21551692
>being a brewer was the most fun job I ever had
Is it something you’d avoid now to stay sober?

>>21551616
Put your big boy pants on and ask your chef to his face
Trust me

it's fucking heck
you have to be fucking ruthless to make it to the top
most of the kitchen culture shit you see online is bullshit from people who barely spent a few years in the kitchen and are all "us cooks heh" when they see a meme about someone coming in at closing time or kitchen workers using drugs

>Which position is the best entry level position to get into the industry? Should I go to culinary school?
dish washer. be the hardest worker. you'll end up doing things at some point because the kitchen will be understaffed. take pride in everything you do

the culture is insane. you will become petty and you will become cutthroat if you want to climb

>>21551669
>soyjak culinary badass.png

>>21554501
oh and
> Should I go to culinary school?
if you wanna. they will give you real kitchen experience, but remember that it's just one kitchen. don't come out thinking you're better than someone who has been grinding without culinary school and you'll be ok. you might surpass that person, but you need many years under your belt to be taken seriously

in culinary school you'll learn about wine pairings, pastries, lots of french techniques like mother sauces, whatever else idk. on one hand i think like if you're doing this as a career why the fuck not go through culinary school which can be very inexpensive and takes what like a semester? on the other hand i think people come out of there thinking they're the shit and then they end up getting humiliated. but with the right attitude i think it could be a great thing

more importantly, learn your state's health code and don't talk back to inspectors

OP here
I applied as a dishwasher and I got a call back within 3 hours
Is this a bad sign?
I literally have no experience in anything and I really doubt they're that desperate for workers so how the fuck did I get a scheduled shift?

>>21554516
people quit constantly
just never walk out. you'll make it

>>21554517
Why?
Is it this particular restaurant or all of them?
What's so bad about it?

>>21554516
I was a dishie late high school/early college and the """work ethic""" of the average dishwasher was so bad it was impressive.
Just walking out mid-shift and never showing up again and similar things were a common occurrence. As someone who got raised like a hard-working obedient little robot I was fucking dumbstruck by the shit people would pull.

>>21554527
many are passing through, just needing something seasonal to make ends meet. many are just fuckups who can't hold anything down for one reason or another
>what's so bad about it?
it can be unpleasant. well, my arms are covered in stripes from oven burns, but that was my choice not to wear long sleeves. people can be petty and vindictive. when you're seen trying, some will respect you, some will put you through hazing type stuff. in any case you'll probably cry at some point. and then when you feel like walking out, just don't. that's how you make it (if you wanna)

>>21554549
What happens if a dishie walks out?
Is the restaurant fucked for the night and then the workers learn their lesson and try to make it better for future dishies?
>>21554553
Should I wear long sleeves?
Why would anyone be vindictive when you're just doing your job?
What kind of hazing should I watch out for?

>>21554565
either they call the submissive lackey if they have one or the lower tier/less busy cooks do the dishie's job
>try to make it better for future dishies
what the hell would you expect anyone to do to make it better? There's dishes and pots and pans to wash and you wash them, some nights there's not much and some nights there's shittons more, that's pretty much as straightforward as a job gets

>>21551669
COOKING IS SO INTENSE AND HAS SO MANU VARIABLES I THINK IM LOSING MY MIIIIIIIIIND

If you job is low paid then it is not a difficult job. It's that simple.
Working in a kitchen is low paid because everyone can do it.

>>21554565
>Should I wear long sleeves?
are you reaching into an oven constantly during peak hours? I probably "should have" but it's fine. My arms are scarred for life but in the grand scheme of things who gives a fuck?

>Why would anyone be vindictive when you're just doing your job?
people have a lot of faults, like lacking communication skills, or being jealous of someone potentially succeeding/gaining favor
>What kind of hazing should I watch out for?
you're going to get shit on

>>21554572
That's not true
There are lots of jobs which are difficult to do but earn low wages because of their prestige
Cooking is one of them

>>21554572
Pay is about barrier of entry more than anything else. A bunch of the lowest paid low skill factory jobs are way the fuck harder than what most middle class people do day to day.

>>21549356 (OP)

30+ years as FOH in Michelin stars restaurant:

Hard work,fucked up hours,
But since around 2005 no headchefs scream or shout in kitchens.
They re way too scared about lawsuits for bullying and harassment and lose everything they worked for.
CDPs are soft nowadays too they don't drink much,barely do drugs too.
Very different times .

THERES TOO MANY FUCKING SANDWICHES

>>21554577
>>21554585
you retards are confusing jobs that require hard labor vs jobs you actually have to use your brain to do

>>21555819
You said "difficult" which can be interpreted different ways.
Retard.

>>21554572
Nah, manual labor fags work way harder than I do for worse pay. I do however have a highly sophisticated set of skills such as literacy and the ability to talk to other people. If you're on 4chan, you actually read and write for fun, so a lot of you would be surprised at how horrendously retarded the average pleb-tier worker actually is.

I was a dishwasher for a week at a mid-tier Turkish/pan mid east restaurant and I quit because the owner who was also a cook kept grabbing my ass when he walked by and the last straw was when he shoved his hand between my cheeks and palmed my ass cheek and shook it vigorously while laughing and grunting. I pushed him to the floor and yelled FUCK YOU F****T and stormed out. Never contacted the restaurant and never got paid for a weeks worth of dishwashing. That was my first and last restaurant job.

>>21556172
Is that place still open?

Look, you dumb piece of shit, there are anons on here that are so fucking prissy that they think that cooks wear gloves while they are cooking. Ignoring the fact that you would have to go through about 500 gloves in a single shift or wash the outside of your gloves (which is against HAACP regulations), ignoring the fact that if you're around things that regularly get to 700-800 degrees and that melts onto your hand because your disposable glove isn't tailored to your hand. Fucking morons literally think that we're back there, NOT half drunk, NOT saying the most vile goddamned shit about the customers, the servers, the owners, each other, while cooking their $200 meals and making sure that they are ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME, and juggling a whole dining room of these entitled fucks and making sure everything is done at the EXACT RIGHT TIME so that retard server #1 doesn't let it die in the window because she's too busy flirting with the table for tips to do her job... you have no fucking clue how much actual skill goes into this work, how goddamned draining it can be, how rewarding it can be at the end of the day. What do you do - get an SSRI check? Live with your parents? Fuck you. Marines have it easier than us - they're all expected to be dipshits that get elevated to the same level of pretty good eith no standing out. Being a cook is like being around the same people every waking hour and having them be your best friends and worst enemies - you want them to be as good as you expect them to be to not fuck your work flow up, but you don't want them to shine brighter than you, because YOU want to move up, you want YOUR name thrown around when a sous position finally opens up at the prestige place that Presidents dine at. You touch food with your bare hands and it becomes a part of the body of people who RUN THE FUCKING WORLD, if you're good. And if you're just good, you're not good enough.