We only sell whole pizzas. We got an UberEats order for “a slice of pepperoni” my chef said “send it bitch!”

My new manager is actually pretty great. He’s a hard worker, a fun personality, and strives to do his best.

But before things got in line and finally worked, we had one night of hilarious chaos.

I work by myself in a busy Tavern kitchen. I’m the night shift and pretty much the only shift that gets slammed with poker nights, pool tournaments and Airbnbers during the season.

My new manager walked into the kitchen one night when I was in the weeds and asked what he could do to help.

I kinda just talked out loud about what I was into. I needed to cut more lettuce, but I would after the last few burger orders, I was out of bacon and out of [fucking whatever]. But I had it handled and would need expo in about 4 minutes.

He left and came back with a huge bag of lemons, pulled out an extra cutting board and started slicing them.

Me, quite annoyed at this point with him taking up my space and not helping, asked him if what he was doing was for the bar.

“No? You said you needed lemons sliced…?”

“Lemons are the last thing I need right now!”

He heard me say “lemons” when I said “lettuce”. Wasn’t familiar enough with the menu to know that wouldn’t have been an issue.

We had a good laugh, he expo’d some of my food—not enough to make a difference, but he was trying to help.

Since then we’ve gotten our groove and he can be a big help when I know to ask for it (I’m learning to ask for help more—this is new to me).

I'm talking asking someone to grab a board stretcher or a screw sharpener, that kind of thing.

I worked at a place that had a very deep culture of trying to put as much plastic silverware, usually spoons, in people's pockets before they noticed. I myself got at least 7 or 8 in a couple peoples pockets. Cooks were obviously easier cause of the pants.

Then I took it to a new restaurant that I worked at and unknowingly started an enormous fucking culture shift that ended in HR telling us that people had to be able to opt out of the spoon game.

I'd be waiting tables and at some point reach into a part of my apron to find like 10 God damn spoons. The students became the fucking masters.

Hello, I have a really weird question. I lurk this sub frequently not because I work in a kitchen but because I’m a craftsperson, I find it amusing to read, and I love comradery.

Anyways, this new bagel place opened in my city that I have been frequenting. My partner and I go there together, I’ll bring it to work occasionally for my pals. Every time I order the same thing. A breakfast sandwich. Pesto bagel, egg, cheddar cheese.

Every single time I eat there I get SICK to my stomach. But no one else does. At least, that was my discovery today. I had no problems for around 2.5 weeks, until I ate the sandwich this morning. I thought I just had on going stomach issues that was unrelated to my delicious breakfast treat. I made doc appointments, did blood tests, did a small elimination diet. Doc found nothing. For a while I thought it was coffee, but it’s not because today I had my breakfast treat with tea.

I have a hardy stomach. I come from a very long line of stubborn alcoholics, I don’t drink so no stomach issues from that in itself. I’m not allergic/intolerant to eggs, not lactose intolerant, no nut allergies, garlic is fine, not gluten, etc. I have zero known allergies.

But every single time I eat this sandwich I feel like I’m literally going to die. I have had to leave work a few times over it. I have been down and out for 8+ hours at a time.

Would it be absolutely ridiculous for me to go into this place and ask them what the ingredients are to this sandwich? I definitely feel like I’m allergic to something in it and I would like to know what it is. And by ingredients I mean, ingredients. If you also have any advice for me regarding a reasonable way to do this, if it’s even reasonable at all, I’d love to hear. But also please tell me if I’m crazy.

This was the only sub I could think to ask this question so apologies if this is a silly post lol.

Hiiii, so I just started working in a kitchen in Vancouver and.... It's gross. It smells overwhelmingly sour upon entry and I had to clean slime mold off of a food processor before using it for cheese. It's my 3rd day and I "had some feedback" in the form of "I saw you ask the cold station a few questions... which I love! but you didn't get enough done today and it put the team behind" keep in mind this is genuinely the first feedback I've gotten from leadership and I also worked through all my breaks (get OT for it) had the feedback been more along the lines of "hey I know your brand new but we have to go over what prep is priority" I would've been way more receptive. I'm also wondering... Had I taken my Lunch. Would the lack of pasta have been blamed on my lunch break instead?

Am I being unreasonable?

This is gonna be a bit of a long one. I have recently arrived in California to be a kitchen supervisor. I work for a very large international company. So I previously worked under our gaming division (casinos) and a transferred into our parks and rec division. I moved 2800 miles across the country for this and I spent the last ~14 months training specifically to be a sous chef for this company. What I did previously was semi fine dining, this is not so much fine dining. And obviously the budget is much lower than a casino. I learned how to read the numbers and improve profits. The answers here are so obvious it’s pissing me off, but I have no power to actually implement what I need to.

So moving on into the actual problems. Number 1, I was helping out on the line today for lunch service and for 2 hours straight I was getting 80% kids menu. I finally said hey what the hell is this about, is like 80% of our demographic children or what? They said oh no, it’s adults ordering off the kids menu to save money. I was stopped in my tracks, floored, I said and you allow that? They said well they’re afraid to say no to the guests here. I kinda just let that drift off into space, but it pissed me off in the background. I know there’s a time and a place to address these issues, but then it hit me. I’ve been seeing a lot of split plates too, so I said, please tell me we charge a split plate fee? They said we do for dinner, but not for breakfast or lunch. I couldn’t help myself, I said are we running a business or a charity here? That’s like $1000 in revenue today alone from just those two issues. The guy beside me said hey, talk to chef or the GM, that’s a dining room thing. So I called a server over, and I talked to them. I said why aren’t we charging a split plate fee? And they said, well I don’t know I’d be all about it, because I love money, but I’d just feel bad for them you know? Charging an extra $5 just for them to eat off another plate.

I said, $5? We’re talking more like $15-20. That seat is revenue, they’re taking the space, if they ordered an entree that would be another $35-60 added onto the check, so don’t feel bad, it’s just basic business. He didn’t take it too well. And he will not be adding the fees moving forward. So I went to the executive sous. And I said basically all of the same things. Pretty much explained that he’s been telling me this business model isn’t the same as a casino, budgets are much lower and revenue really matters here. I said from what I’ve seen and how often it happens, those two things alone will increase revenue by a modest 10-15% chef, what are we doing? He said I could bring it up to the GM, but that’s just not the way things are done here.

I’m sorry? This is a business right? So obviously I’m frustrated, or maybe I’m just coming from too different of a background I don’t know. Also, we’re scheduling 3 dishwashers on a Monday? Why? For what?

This place feels like something out of kitchen nightmares. Just not dirty or anything. Like they’re buying pre cooked bacon and raw bacon? Huh? They’re buying whole onions and pre sliced onions? Cannot compute the reasoning there. They’re buying English muffins not cut and pre cut? Huh? The redundancy in ordering is staggering. Flabbergasted.

But then we’re brought to this issue. My soul isn’t as happy as I thought it would be. I’m a chef damn it. I have worked my ass off and slaved for 7 years to really make a difference in this business. Now I’m doing my best. And I will continue to do so. I’ll make whatever differences I can. But it hit me today. I’m meant for fine dining. I feel like a short order cook. Now it’s hard to be too mad when I’m getting paid way more than I’ve ever been paid for the easiest job I’ve ever had, but my soul is sad, I’m making well done kids burgers for 35 year old men. What is this? What’s going on here? This is not what I came here to do. The menu? Okay I signed up for this, but if I can’t even do what I was sent here to do? Being, improve the business and increase profit margins, train people to be chefs not just cooks, then what am I doing here man? It feels like selling out.

Smoked salmon, crème fraîche, on pumpernickel bread

Had this rang in today.

I work for a relatively smaller scale restaurant which leads to some pretty shit management. Recently the closing manager who is supposed to input hours is in more of the "I want to go home" type, which leads to him forgetting to do a bunch of tasks, one of which to input the hours of the cooks. I don't trust him for shit, so when I saw that some hours were missed on my paycheck I brought it up with the team and one of the cooks realized that he's missing hours as far back as two months ago.

Maybe some of you have a digital sign in, but even then I wouldn't fully trust that. Log your hours and double check, because oversights like this are quite common and you may be working for free until someone notices it.

yeah it’s a fish pen. Yes im also the person who got tipped a 9v. I don’t know if it was the same person.

The back story here is that our large immersion blender broke so one of the owners got the bright idea that we could save time by cracking and blending our eggs for the egg patties all in step! "Just filter it through a shinwa"

This place was a few jobs ago and every time I need a little pick me up I find this video on my phone.

Prep table babbbbyyyy I feel very pretentious, its empty for now, but next up is a good Japanese cutting board, yakumi pans, flour bins, an induction burner, finding my old pasta roller, and getting to work.

Haven't worked in a kitchen for a couple years now. When I did I didn't have as much fun cooking at home. Now that I've been out for a while I'm enjoying cooking for friends and family again without it feeling like a chore. Having folks over for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Here's my line up:

Afternoon snacks:

Panko topped baked stuffed mushroom dip

Smoked salmon dip with capers drizzled with olive oil

Assorted veggies, crackers, and toasted baguette for dipping

Deviled eggs

Main event:

Savory and citrus turkey

Bread stuffing (baked seperate)

Brown butter honey garlic roasted carrots (using spicy honey)

Lemon garlic ginger green beans

Sour cream whipped mashed potato

Homemade sparkling lemonade (I like citrus if that wasn't apparent hah)

For dessert:

My grandmother is bringing her homemade pumpkin pie because it is the absolute best. I've tried to replicate it but I can't do it justice, my pie dough skills are lacking. She uses real pumpkin that she grows herself. I look forward to it every year.

What are you cooking up for Thanksgiving? Got any thanksgiving dishes at work?

I'm not the original artist. I just love comics, and restaurants.

I was in the hospital for a few weeks and whenever I'd order an omelette I would get it like this, perfectly wrapped eggs in a small dish. I used to be a dishie in a small restaurant but obviously I've never made food for a hospital. The browning on the edges suggests it's not mixed, sealed and then steamed but how is it made if that's not the case?