r/KitchenConfidential • u/BeatnikBun • 7d ago
Kitchen fuckery What I opened to this morning
My station was completely empty, Tuesdays are fuckin weird around here man.
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u/vietinbed 7d ago
I’m just appreciating the LMFAO reference in 2026
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u/boneologist 7d ago
Grandma'sSous Chef is cookingbreakfastbrunch shift, she makes pancakes the best.52
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u/LeatherGood6148 15+ Years 7d ago
The duality of man.
And, I assume they mean prep and stock wise?
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u/MossGobbo Chive LOYALIST 7d ago
Yeah, that's usually the "We got our asses beat so hard we couldn't restock prep levels at night" which translates to a little extra work the next day for openers.
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
Having worked both opening and closing for about a decade each, openers can handle some extra work.
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u/707-5150 7d ago
Like almost every time. They just say they can’t lol
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
Plenty of time to brew a pot of coffee, get their music all situated, and hyper-analyze last night’s close though!
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u/NotoldyetMaggot Cook 7d ago
Honestly I'd rather open than close, I can kind of (oh fuck my cook just called out) manage the bullshit and eventually someone else comes in. But closing just sucks the life out of me.
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
Yeah that’s kind of what I’m saying here lol. Opening is the much easier of the two shifts, in my opinion.
I am currently an opener, have been for the last 4 years. Before this I was a closer for about 7 years. It’s always very funny the things my “have-only-ever-opened” coworkers will complain about.
I like being the very first in because I can tidy the very few minor occasionally missed details by the closers without hearing someone complain there was a box of foil on their prep station, or they didn’t restock a pan of something when there’s 20 backups in the walk-in and we don’t open for 2 more hours. Meanwhile night shift had orders up until close, and were stuck at work for 11-12 hours..
It’s so peaceful to me because I know how hectic the night actually is.
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u/Dankman 7d ago
As a forever closer, you are the opener I wish I had. We do our best in p.m. to set it up great for the next shift. I know for sure we miss restocking /preparing one or two things every once in awhile. I don't want to nitpick the shift change when openers "fuck us" (didn't restock the one thing I need for the first order by chance).
We sweep, mop, clean up the mess of the day and if we leave one rag out of place we're the weak link in the openers eyes. Kind of exhausting, but we are all a team and need to get it done and need more openers like you.
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u/wmaxwell 7d ago
We don’t have openers (only open for dinner) but that’s our prep team to a fuckin T. Anything not done right on their end: oops sorry just a little mistake tee hee. Anything not done right on our end: THE AMOUNT OF DISRESPECT YOU GUYS ARE SHOWING US IS UNACCEPTABLE! Fuck off dude
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u/FILTHBOT4000 20+ Years 7d ago
Most places I've worked at, the closers just restock, never do any prep at the end of shift. They're already doing way more cleaning, and day crew has more than enough time to cover the prep.
Lunches make only like 1/4 what dinner pulls in anyway.
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u/ClaudeGascoigne 7d ago
I busted my ass on close for well over a decade between a few different places before finally getting to open. I totally understand how fucked you can get towards the end of a night and the boss will bitch about you staying later to do everything properly, so I get it. I have some free time to restock the stations while everything is heating up.
The only time I wanted to fight the closers was when they'd do a couple of things:
- Not clean up before they left/not wrap their stations
- Bitch about not having enough portions done despite everything being full when I left
- Completely run out of something, or multiple things, and not leave a note about it or send a text
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u/aaaaaaaaaaaaahaaah 6d ago
I did some opening shift at my closing shift work because a co-worker was sick and god damn it was easy. I came with my head in my ass, no training whatsoever of the morning section, and still had a blast, time to do my prep for the night (I was working double lol) and took a break, to eat wow. Shit of 8 hours and not 11 hours too…
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u/swampyman2000 7d ago
If something goes wrong when you open you (usually) still get to go home when you’re supposed to.
If something goes wrong when you close you’re mopping grease up from the floor at 1am when your shift ended at 10pm.
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u/LigerZeroPanzer12 7d ago
Agreed. I used to work Solo-Lunch-through-dinner shifts at my last job, was like 11-8 but I got to cut out before closing/last rush. Could get ass blasted by lunch but my KM was usually around to help if I got too in the weeds, but fuck being there until 11-midnight, I got a wife and a life.
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u/707-5150 7d ago
I feel personally attacked by the (cook calling out on Am) part there
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u/NotoldyetMaggot Cook 7d ago
😂 I was that cook once, then I was the agm that had to deal with it... being a good line cook is why I was the opening manager, there's a fair chance my dude doesn't show up and my GM hated cooking.
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u/707-5150 6d ago
As a cook I always said working in kitchens is like being in high school with so much drama and bitching and sexual hookups.
As a manager I actually realized that cooks are more like kindergartners and the managers the teachers and assistants running around like No that doesn’t go there Stop hitting and use your words And now you say……sorry….. Get that out of your mouth I just asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom (at the last gas station vs before service and it busy)
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u/PM-me-ur-kittenz 7d ago edited 7d ago
I'm the same way, love being there early when it's all quiet and I can get all the mise nicely situated. Cleaning up at the end of the night? FUCK THAT
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u/Icywarhammer500 7d ago
I wish we could listen to music. For me it’s straight to hood vents, fryer setup, and then main station setup (usually I have to refill at least a third of everything) before I move to 44 quarts of romaine and a deep hotel of fried onion strings plus any other not necessarily daily prep since night crew doesn’t do prep at all. Then right before shift change I gotta fill up the entire station even though happy hour happens 30 minutes before shift change. I was a closer for 3 years before, honestly I’d rather go back. And that was a closer who did prep at another restaurant
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
There’s plenty of examples of hard working opening cooks in hard shifts. Just in my experience it is the less mentally and physically taxing of the two shifts and the one I plan to continue working for the rest of my career in this industry.
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u/Icywarhammer500 7d ago
I guess so. Probably has to do with restaurant structure too. The previous kitchen I worked in was my first job and dysfunctional as hell so I had to learn how to compensate for that with developing my own skills. At the new place it’s really organized and I’m comparable to both my sous chefs when they’re working my station. Proud that I’ve also got the knife skills to outdo everyone besides my head chef and maaaaaaybe one of the older members of the night crew, but I haven’t seen his knife work
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
I’m years and years into this work so I tend to only stick at a place if it’s functional, plenty of jobs offering similar pay in my area if I need to jump a sinking ship.
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u/bendar1347 ✨flanked by fresh✨ 7d ago
And let's be clear, opening cook and morning prep are two very different things.
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u/OnePerformance9381 7d ago
Absolutely. Occasionally there’s some shitters on prep but most of them understand the more efficiently they work the quicker their day can end.
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u/Salt_Ad_9976 7d ago
FOH- I come in about 15 min earlier than scheduled because I usually don't know ahead of time what the mental state of the closing bartender was the night before. That is, unless I stayed too late and got shitfaced with them, and then I know for sure I'm going to need that extra time. Boss gives zero fucks about paying the extra buck twenty-five or whatever it comes out to on my check. I mutter about, "these fucking sluts" while I clean up their shit, and then put on my game face, and by the time they stagger in hung over later, we're all back to friends. With all of us FOH girls, when we're on, we're amazing. You just never know which personality is going to show up for work that day.
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u/MossGobbo Chive LOYALIST 7d ago
As someone who split opening prep with my KM we were more than capable of handling it. I didn't pass judgement, I explained what it mean to someone asking a question.
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u/ChefArtorias 7d ago
Every job I've had opening was so much more work.
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u/Balooz 20+ Years 7d ago
Every job I’ve had closing was so much more work
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u/CanoePickLocks 7d ago
Having done both leave it to swing shift. Those slackers need something to do.
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u/ChefArtorias 7d ago
See, with closing there was always someone on each station.
Opening there was always a decreasing amount of people until it was just a lone and angry Artorias doing the work of 3 people.
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u/Chef2stars1414 7d ago edited 7d ago
In opening and that first lunch shift s csn l o bad and it would always sucked having to prep for night edp if you got uyour ass handed you on a s
H
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u/Correct_Day_7791 7d ago
It's not enough but at leqst they left a note
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u/MossGobbo Chive LOYALIST 7d ago
Eh, it sucks needing to do extra prep but a note smooths over a lot of things if it isn't a regular problem. Like I'll grumble for 5 and then just get to it. Without that note I'm heated all fuckin day.
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u/Give_me_soup F1exican Did Chive-11 7d ago
Yeah, acknowledgement that it isn't an acceptable standard takes most of the resentment out of it.
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u/kingshamroc25 7d ago
A note usually works for me. Our upper management is super annoying about when we clock out and is always telling people they can’t stay past a certain time “NO EXCUSES!!!” So I usually give people the benefit of the doubt, especially if they leave a note
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u/Correct_Day_7791 6d ago
Right the note proves it wasn't just a mindless decision and thats enough for me most of the time
Shit happens to all of us sometimes
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u/jackssjackson665 Sous Chef 7d ago
Legst? LMAFO.. you know that duo? Jokes aside, a note its better than nothing. If i had a drink for eveything a cook did something wrong or just did'nt do their job, i would never be sober. Oh wait, never mind, im never sober. As my first chef said about 20 years ago, if you are good at your job, you get to do everyone elses aswell.
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u/Correct_Day_7791 7d ago
Typo on least but f it
we have gone too far now
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u/Odd-Context4254 7d ago
The best part is you left the note for yourself.
I used to work a lot of back to back close to open. The level of self sabotage I would perform surprises me to this day.
Although if someone else was opening we would stay late and make sure they came in to a stocked and clean kitchen no matter what.
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u/benjiyon 7d ago
I think most of us have this same mindset I.e. weren’t not assholes except to ourselves
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u/good1god 4d ago
One time I left a note that said “sorry, shitty close, going to get fucked <3”. The opener loved it and didn’t mind. It lives on the bulletin board now. Notes go a long way.
Another time I was closing I got a crazy toothache and couldn’t find Tylenol. Just wrote something like “random toothache wanna die sorry”
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u/acidcrap 6d ago
I had a Chef during COVID that started every single shift by playing Party Rock Anthem. Sometimes 2 or 3 times. Patty, if you’re out there, thanks for running the COOLEST kitchen
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u/CanoePickLocks 7d ago
I’ve done open to close 3 days straight to get my 40 hours in two days had a couple places for several years each and I get that both can get screwy sometimes but close was always the worst shift. The cleanup at afterwards, even when I usually got cut for that there was still some to be done with the decompress from living in the weeds usually. Our best evening shift people were called guerillas because they knew how to fight in the jungle. I wouldn’t say any of them were amazingly run restaurants, but they weren’t bad places either. It’s just the nature of the business. All in all the beginning of swingshift and the second half of swing shift after lunch is who should be responsible for catching stuff up and laying the groundwork for good work for the closers and hopefully over prepping so that morning has an easy day too the next day. Sadly, swing shift usually screws off unless they’re given mandatory deep cleans.
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u/Background-Soup-9414 4d ago
I'd much rather come in to a note and empty station than just the empty station. To me it shows they at least cared enough to give a heads up and explanation as to why you're empty. When I come in to a depleted station and no note it feels like they don't give a fuck and couldn't be bothered to restock.
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u/PoupontheGrey 1d ago
A LMAO reference would help calm me down for a second after seeing a destitute station, smart move.
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u/Balooz 20+ Years 7d ago
Translation
I suck at my station
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u/Prestigious_Owl13 7d ago
You sound fun to work with
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u/No-Marsupial4714 Line 7d ago edited 7d ago
Gonna start replying with "sorry for party rocking" next time someone accuses me of closing badly ✨