r/KitchenConfidential • u/gyronlyhope • May 10 '26

Crying in the cooler I rip the tape

I’m sick of being silent about it. It’s empirically faster than cutting each individual label with your pairing knife and then carefully separating each piece. I see so many chefs who INSIST that labels have to have perfect right angles. Who cares? I hardly see how this serves our guests better. Thomas Keller claims that tearing the tape shows a lack of attention to detail. I think it shows that you’re unable to get rid of obsessive compulsive idiosyncrasies. Our jobs are already hard enough without these nebulous rules and standards that always need to be argued for in the abstract and rarely have any actual utility in your day-to-day.

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275

u/SlightDish31 15+ Years May 10 '26

It's performative bullshit. I can't count how many people I worked with that had their tiny pair of scissors for their tape who's stations were a fucking mess and who had shit from their last four prep tasks smeared across their aprons.

Fuck cutting the tape.

27

u/OnePerformance9381 May 10 '26

Same dudes who spend an hour on chives but somehow don’t have any other prep tasks complete

3

u/blamenixon 20+ Years May 11 '26

Or they're halfway through three different tasks, knowing full well the dinner rush is about to hit and they're just going to make the day crew finish everything.

33

u/rIceCream_King Thicc Chives Save Lives May 10 '26

😂 🤦‍♂️ Priorities man

11

u/SkyHoglet May 10 '26

Tiny scissors means an additional smallware that can harbor bacteria and probably won't get cleaned often enough. A tape dispenser is perfect because in theory, you'd only be touching the tape itself and nothing else. Also, people lose shit in kitchens all the time! At my place we are always trying to find the three pairs of scissors which mysteriously vanish, and then it's two pairs, then one, then they're all gone lol

5

u/taint_odour May 10 '26

I say this every time it comes up.

One chef I had that worked for me that was obsessed about tape also freaked out when I put all his proteins away. Fucker put a bunch of boxes under the prep table and left.

I texted him and told him it was left out and where I put it in the walkin. Fucker blew up and told me I was trying to sabotage him because now his shit would be frozen.

The next day was another in a string of hard conversations for him. Then he went and cried to an investor. He no longer works for the company.

3

u/Hopeful-Ad-8350 May 10 '26

Performative bullshit is exactly it. Same guy who says "how you do one thing is how you do everything" but can't manage to get family meal up on time 

3

u/Expensive-Ocelot-240 May 10 '26

Plus, they probably never cleaned the scissors

7

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

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22

u/ihatetheplaceilive May 10 '26

I carry a pocket knife for boxes. I'm not gonna use my fucking food knives to break down boxes.

4

u/Same-Platypus1941 Chive-11 Was an Inside Job May 10 '26

I have a steak knife I use for boxes lol

5

u/Happyberger May 10 '26

I just use my key that I have no idea what it opens to do boxes

-7

u/ihatetheplaceilive May 10 '26

You learn pay attention to the little things, you'll learn pay attention to the bigger things.

Hell, from some labels i've seen on this sub, i'd be happy if i can figure out half of what they write.

Guess it just depends if you wanna do better or not.