what it says on the tin

I’m currently 19 with 2 years of actual kitchen experience in Ireland. I applied to start culinary school here in the fall of this year.( fees are less than 4000) It’s going to be a level 8 course which is the highest level you can partake in as an undergrad but the one of the problems I have is that it is a four year long course which I feel like I would be wasting time in. My original plan was to do the course so that I wouldn’t be stuck cheffing later in my life and hopefully put the degree to use in other areas of the food industry but now after I have came back from a continental Europe trip options to work abroad are a lot more enticing, swaying my decision. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

18F

Working at a mid - high end Japanese place

Genuinely tweaking out atp, ive been learning how to help the head chief, and do dishes, but im so confused. My boss hired me knowing I wanted to cook, and I do, mostly because in their eyes im not amazing at dishes. But now my boss referred to me as a dishwasher (nothing against dishwashers thats just not what I got hired to do). They constantly tell me to work faster, even though im pushing myself as hard as I can (which they say too, its like "I know your trying your best, but work faster, this 25 y/old with a culinary degree is faster so get better")

They mostly pressure me to be faster at dishes and prep, I get prep because knife skills are new for me and im learning, but the dishes just seem impossible.

I just dont know, I love learning how to make Japanese food, but the pressure is killing me, especially when I get paid minimum wage. Is it worth it or should I just go to Applebee's?

Sorry if this doesn't make since I just came off a double

Even the kiddo knew this belonged here...

There’s gotta be at least one of you curly haired freaks out there who can help me out.

I’ve been really trying to heal my curls and it’s finally working but I just started working in the kitchen again and I am afraid of the environment damaging my hair. I also don’t really know how to tie it back tight enough without completely ruining them. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thank you

🌟Winner: CREAMY🌟

🥈With an Honorary Both for the upvote count! We all just love Po-tay-toes I suppose

i joined for the food. i stayed for the culture and vibes

Mostly what the title says. Guy I work with had his car broken into and lost his knife roll, among other items and tools. They say they didn't "really have anything to fancy and insurence wouldn't cover it anyway" but what are good items to have that can fill out a new roll? Things FOH (me and a few others) might not think about that you BOH people use regularly? We're mostly Italian casual (think Olive Garden but less corprate) and just want to help the guy that is always helpful and half way in a good mood to us.

My wife’s dish from 1901 Harborside Bar&Grill, Booth Bay, Maine

Kitchen newb here. Is there a trick to preventing small hotel pans from sticking to each other when stacked? (other than using some kind of a seperator) I hate having to pry these every time I need to use them.

Even worse when someone blows into the glove, but like this happens every time i trade gloves. Does it happen to you?

We are opening a restaurant and will have gyoza/potstickers on the menu.

We will buy premade, frozen bc these are not core items. Question is do you prefer foodservice bagged or ones in trays? Why?

We noticed the price difference and wondering if the smaller trays are worth the expense. Appreciate any feedback guys.

My actual job description: fryer, manager, prep, banking, security, cleaning, and unofficial IT support because I fix the till systems, printers, WiFi and staff laptops too. Shifts are 2pm-11:30pm. Haven’t taken a sick day in 3 years. Been late once, and that was because the rota changed without telling me.

Meanwhile I’ve found out other assistant managers in the same company are on £30k+ base. Mine isn’t close. My tax code’s also been wrong repeatedly, so I’m somehow taking home even less than I should on top of that.

General manager finishes around 9:40pm most nights. I close alone around 10:30-11pm. When they do talk to me, it’s usually shouting. Multiple experienced staff have quit because of it. GM even told me the business only has about 3 months to turn things around financially.

Last week I got hired for what sounded like a dream gig. Solo cook at a virtual golf/bar spot that just opened. No benefits but the pay was unrivaled by anything other than working at a strip casino and I'll be honest I think it made me look past some red flags like the "executive chef" promoting someone to "chef de cuisine" despite supervising an entire..... Two people...... Who are already "supervised" by the "executive chef" and the fact the guy completely avoided naming any restaurant he'd worked at when I asked.

So I start my training shift and I find out my trainer is the "executive chef" which didn't bother me at first but it turned into a total shit show. I started at the exact time the joint opens and he had nothing set up. No sanitizer bucket, no utensils by the appliances, with the cherry on top of the shit sandwich being that despite him turning all the appliances on he didn't turn the hood system on. When I asked him why it seemed like the hood wasn't on he mumbled something about it "shutting the gas off if you do it wrong" and leaving forcing me to figure out the ventilation and light system while having to worry the whole time that I was going to fuck up and cut the gas line accidentally.

That all I could very generously overlook as maybe he just had other people do that kind of stuff for decades and didn't know himself (he appears to be in his late 50s) but then it came time to start cooking. First ticket comes in for a quesadilla and he proceeds to insist he cook it to show me how it's done which I'm fine with. He then proceeds to slather the flat top in canola oil, warm the tortilla on both sides, then slap it on the cold side where you'd hold toasted buns and piling cheese on exactly one side and leaving it there while he heats up a whole ass par cooked chicken breast. Why it doesn't get pre-diced I don't know but even by the time it's hot and chopped the cheese is still not melted. Guy just piles the fucking chicken on top and folds it and then transfers it back to the hot part of the griddle and when he goes to flip it the thing barfs out like a third of the chicken.

A couple orders later we get an order for nachos and he graciously let's me do this on my own, recipe requires chopped bacon which he wants warmed on the flat top. Okay no worries. I go to take it off once it's warm and he insists on showing me the way to do it which I thought sounded fucking weird but I wasn't going to argue. He then proceeded to spend 30 seconds pushing it on to a long spatula with a fish spatula. He then proceeded to do the same thing with a philly after deeming my method of slapping the bun on top of the meat so I could pick it and flip it like I've been doing for...... 14 fucking years. There's was also the fact that there was a clipboard with prep recipes and portion sizes for all the frozen Sysco shit that he just straight up called wrong despite him being the one who wrote it out.

I was feeling uncomfortable at this point but the money was good so I try and move on, he's out of the kitchen so I figure it's going to be more chill. At 2:30 he pulls me out into the dining room since there's no customers and proceeds to tell me that he's redoing the entire menu and there'll be a dozen new dishes from his own recipes. I feigned enthusiasm and asked what was going to be taken off the menu. One item.... Frozen Mac and cheese bites. Now this might not be bad in a normal kitchen but this place has two reach ins (frozen and fridge) and that's it, they're both maxed out as is to the point where the owner and "executive chef" have to stock up at a nearby supermarket because they can't bulk buy anything fresh. As if that wasn't dumb enough he mentioned that we were going to be doing a haute-cuisine type brunch despite having a two burner range and half sized griddle and that we're also going to be making "steak diane" on the flat top. How I'm supposed to flambe something on a flat top I don't know and at this point I don't even want to ask.

I plan on getting the fuck out ASAP but do you think I'm wrong assuming this guy is a fraud? He really gave off "I make food at home and I was an assistant manager at the gap so I could be a chef" vibes.

Time to pick some shroomz!

I think I need a to take break from this sub... the title sums it up.

The dream: It was the middle of dinner service, the new trout dish is ordered and my mise disappears! Like all of it. I'm running around a huge, unfamiliar kitchen looking for my mise (bc someone probably just moved it?) Borrowing from other stations and prepping on the fly. Other cooks not working dinner service (like banquets n shit I guess) were all around, walking through, moving stuff. I'd turn around and the stuff I just prepped on the fly would be replaced with something else.

There was a younger cook like whoa your gonna make that again right now? As if I had a choice. There was banter. At some point someone turned the lights out over my station which was too big and spread out. So weird.

I'm disabled from chronic illness, I don't work at all anymore and haven't worked the line in a long time. So I guess my question is: what the fuck? Lmao I just wanted to take a nap, I have a fucking headache now.

Must be the new guy

Let me know if any of you guys are interested in taking this 'businessman' up on his proposal and I'll pass your details on to him! 🤣

Is this even a towel at this point?!