"...its just a bunch of alcoholics working in a place where booze is banned, locked in a steel box together for 14 hours everyday, working in a high pressure job and not having any way of venting anger except by whinging and bitching at and about one another.."
For all those considering a career in hospitality.
Posted Dec 5, 2010, 8:17 AM UTC
"If you don't like hot, humid and high pressure environments, being a Chef is not for you"
"If you don't like working 12, 14 sometimes 16 hour days... being a Chef is not for you"
"If you don't like working with a bunch of alpha personalities.. being a Chef is not for you"
"If you don't like working every holiday, sacrificing family and friend time... being a Chef is not for you"
"If you do all these things... hate it... but can't think of anything else you would love to do more... then being a Chef is for you"
I'm sorry that's what you have taken from it. Bitterness can be a bitch. Get off the line for awhile. Honestly, after 20+ years, I have never been happier not hacking it out every night. I miss it too, though.
It was a quote from my boyfriend as we were discussing his day. It's a shit fight at times but he couldn't be happier doing anything else.
sounds like a sentence out of Kitchen Confidential.
I am familiar. Take the beatings, they are a teaching moment. Eventually you can create your own world. I did. He can.
Yeah, he pretty much got raped in his first year so he tends to shrug most things off. I think he's more frustrated that the yelling comes from exhaustion rather than reason. That and the kitchen hand left so they have nobody to pick on now, it's every man for himself.
He can, he just does not realize it. The job is a mental trap for some reason.
Change career! Is it that difficult to do?
You just have to find something else you'd rather do I guess.
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He's a station chef I guess, does entrees and desserts so he's at the bottom of the chain at the moment. But it isn't much different for the head chef. They're a 5 man kitchen, though it's a fairly small restaurant - 120 covers on a Saturday. They've been understaffed for the past 6 months so they all get 1.5 days off a week, even the head chef.
Not every restaurant. I have keys (one of the 3 sets) to liqueur cabinet and we have a kitchen beer keg from which shifters are poured after every night. There is boxes of cooking wine sitting in open. All my line cooks smoke pot, not cigarettes. So there...
After the shift is over is a very different story.
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It's a shitty job. I wanted to become a chef. The sous-chef at my restaurant was brilliant. He was 18, but was in charge of 30 year olds. He was amazing and was only making $18 an hour (and this is at one of the best places in the city). I realized that I didn't want to make 12-16 an hour for the rest of my life and only topping up past 35K with tips. The best of the best, traveled places, went to the CIA, went to the 3 Michelin restaurants and worked. Most people can't afford to do that.
My buddies dad is making 60K a year as a chef and he changed careers at 50. After going to culinary school, he left his family to work in Montreal/Toronto/New York at the best hotels/restaurants. Now he is working at the best hotel in the city. The head chef is 35, is a part owner of the hotel and makes 150K a year. Point being, if you want to be a chef, you have to plan to be the best and to leave your home city to where the best of the best are. It will eat up 3-5 years of your life, but you will make it to the top. I suggest working in a kitchen for 1 year to figure out if you like it.
Good advice. I once wanted to be a chef. Then decided dating one would be much easier. Kinda.
I worked in the kitchen industry for 3 years. Now I am a security guard at a quiet desk making $12.50 an hour. I get paid to study.
Neat. Study what?
Philosophy. I pay $3500 a year, so I can actually afford to have a life.
Heh, I got written up last week for sneaking a drink to one of our chefs.
Every kitchen is a sinking submarine, always. However I've never heard of booze being banned. It's kind of the lifeblood of the industry.
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Booze if often banned during service, but it's a free-for-all after. You need something to wind down otherwise you'll never get to sleep with all that adrenaline still pumping.
I worked at a seafood/steak restuarant ( mostly tourist ) and waitress,s would bring me wine because I helped solve there customer problems, the people waiting tables live/work in two very differant worlds and they can be backbone of a successful restuarant
Nothing like drinking the insanely cheap Bourbon and Vodka used for cooking just to get through the day...I heart you 1.75L Evan Williams. Your plastic bottle and all...SIGH. Back to the kitchen.
I take offense to the alcoholic part. I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drug addict.
Would it be wrong of me to buy him a few grams of coke for Christmas?
As long as you get the powdered whiskey to mix with it.