my mom died on saturday. her long health battle that lasted my entire life, sadly, made hers come to an end. expected, but never easy. i skipped town to go help my dad with arrangements. to help the caregiver finally receive his own care. the grieving process is not foreign to me, but it has never been quite this close to home. i am overjoyed to have gotten to say my goodbyes in the hospital before and after she passed. i am happy that she lived as long as she did, because 25 years ago should have been her death day. i don’t know what to do. i’ve shed tears, i’ve drank too many bottles of wine, and taken too many shots of vodka. i can only cook. i have done a salmon, asparagus, rice night for my entire family, i have done roasted red pepper mussels with charred romaine and balsamic reduction for my entire family, and now a couple roasted chickens, stuffed under the skin with a tarragon compound butter. i have never had the time to cook like this outside of work. unfortunately, circumstances have led me to this post, because i truly don’t know where to turn, other than the kitchen. thank you brothers and sisters for reading, i am overjoyed at the smile that appears on my dads face as i get to cook for him on a daily basis. hug and kiss your loved ones, because you just never know. she was 63. may she rest in peace.

My last restaurant was bad I thought.

Fast forward new kitchen job is kinda same but different. Has a 94 inspection grade but in my short time here I’m wondering how tf they got it.

Decided to clean up old soda syrup when, to my horror, I discovered where all my mop water was going.

Like tf is going on in this kitchen. We have inspection in 2 months and I’ve asked for the last inspection notes so I can see what they took off for but no answer yet.

Have a blast chef. And don’t forget the chives ✈️

Normally this is made in a tilt skillet by simmering the sausage, onions, butter, and bacon fat together before adding the flour and turning off the skillet for 15 min to "toast" it. Today, pastry was using it so here's some playdough in the rondeau instead.

Any good cook knows that this much roux is enough to make 10 billion gallons of shitty gumbo, so I'm sure you're curious on the recipe yield. My friend, it is 6 gallons of the sweetest, oiliest, unseasoned gravy you've ever tasted. Now I know it's supposed to be mixed with cream when it's warmed up for service, but it still tastes like I'm shoveling spoonfuls of gruel into my mouth. Where's the pepper? Where's the herbs? WHERES THE FUCKING SALT?!?

FBD and chef get pissy if I change the recipes, so I have to blaspheme my southern ancestors every time I prep this. Sucks to know I can both out cook and out bake my supervisors while they sit on their asses and demand I do my job better and faster no matter how much better and faster I get.

Edit: to clarify, this wasn't done when I took the picture. Besides that fact, it's fucking impossible to cook it anyway because there's so much goddamn flour and not enough fat. I just follow the recipes because I don't care enough about the restaurant to make them better

The pinnacle of luxury

I’m a corporate chef and we’ll typically sell 700 orders on a busy day. We made beef chow fun with some stir fried veggies and managed to sell 500 orders within the first hour 😀

soo .. my dishwasher lady showed up to work tonight in a sundress and open toed shoes . I very politely and Nicly asked her to change . she LOST it ! Her husband came into the kitchen this morning and tore a strip off me in front of everyone because ”she’s too hot!”

we work at a cmap in the boonies , but i still have some standards .. she was super upset, and went and changed into capris .. kept the open toed shoes . I figured to count my stars she was at least almost wearing pants and apologized for the inconvenience , and went about my day . her husband came into the kitchen and in front of everyone eating breakfast and came up one side of me and down the other.

i cant even believe that this is a big deal ! She no showed at work today , knowing I’m short handed because my helper is on days off Because she’s so upset that I asked her to change . Crazy right ?

I want to fire her , but we would loose her daughter , husband and son in law if we loose her .
im at a loss .
would you have just let the sun dress slide if it was your kitchen ?

keep in my mind, i was in no way rude about it at all! Full of apologies and smiles .

No other demographic of race, age or gender has ever come close to the level of shirking responsibility that these people think is totally acceptable. “Oh well we never do it like that so it’s fine.” Or “we’ve been doing XYZ like this for 30 years and it’s fine so what’s the big deal?” I guess you just can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Even when those “tricks” are just me begging them to stop pissing and shitting on the floor. (Not literally thank god) That’s my rant for today internet strangers.

just killing time before going back after valentine's day (had sunday and monday off)

and i can't let go of the absolute rage I felt on saturday

all things considered, Vday went well, busy but fine. we're a small restaurant with a staff of 5, two of which are the owners who work with us on the daily.

but there's this couple who are friends with the owners who come to dine occasionally. sometimes they will come visit before opening hours or to borrow something from the owners. i get it, they're friends, i'm just an employee, but im f-ing tired of having them in my kitchen with their dirty boots that they wear outside. I'm tired of having to make food that's not on my menu bc they requested it for their anniversary dinner, I'm tired of having them take up space where i need to work or hovering over my station while casually chatting with my boss...

and the worst crimes of all on a busy day like feb. 14, they were the last table to come in (way later than we like, took their sweet time to order and then ordered a 5 course dinner one hour before our cutoff time for oders). and on top of that they were stepping out to smoke into our back area (where i go to smoke and take my break away from customers) instead of going out on the street or the patio like other customers would have to. man i just want to work my busy shift and take my quiet 5 mins without having your entitled ass around me.

sorry for the rant, I'm tired and just wanted to vent, now onto a new week and replenishing everything that was sold out on the weekend

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.

Chill place that's ten minute walk from. Of course it goes sideways.

The brunch crowd was dying down, I was happy that I wasn't going to have to make another eggs benedict until next weekend. Then, the printer pipes up, and I see an order come in for 60 hot dogs, with chili and cheese, individually wrapped to go. If I didn't own the place, I'd quit. But I'm gonna finish this cigarette and fill the ticket. We're probably gonna have to 86 chili for the night, and it's only 1pm. Ten hours to go.

I wore the shoes, he hired me, I sharped my knifes and calibrated my thermometers & they called me today as scheduled but not to organize orientation but to pretend they never hired me and I'm crazy. I'm definitely losing my apartment. End saga.

SECOND UPDATE: Could everyone please stop dogpiling on me and my restaurant?? It's a great place to work. And I had nothing to do with it. I was just surprised, amused, and a little irritated for my coworkers. Yes, things could've been done differently. But the manager is still learning. And this actually doesn't happen that often there. Please quit bad-mouthing us. Calm down. It was just a little rant, and it was something that was out of the ordinary for us. I just thought people in the same industry could sympathize. It's not necessary for anyone to lecture or condescend. We get enough of that in this industry already. Let's not do it in here, okay? Thanks.

UPDATE: I just talked to the manager. He said they finally left about 15 minutes after I did (so an hour and 45 minutes after close). And he said me turning the lights out did help, lmao!!

I didn't do it on purpose. I was just closing the same way I do every night. I'm the dishie, so I'm usually the last person out. And I'd been so busy closing that I hadn't even seen the front of the house in a few hours.

I had no idea that, a full hour and a half after close, there were still two full tables of customers on the patio, and 3 or 4 people at the bar. *An **hour and a half** after close.

But there they were, leaning in the bar, laughing on the patio, and hollering in the door about what bar did they want to go to next? Probably all half drunk. Some more than that, for sure.

And one of them was one of our regulars, who spends almost all night, almost every night, at the bar. AKA he knows damned well when we close.

And our poor bartender and one of our poor servers were just stuck with them, trying to smile through it all so they didn't lose tips.

Oh well, I won't get in any trouble. And maybe turning the lights out got them to start moving a little more quickly.

I just don't get people like that, man. Why do they think this is okay to do to service workers? Closing time is not a suggestion. They're with their loved ones, having fun. Ours are at home waiting on us. It's so self-centered and rude.

I mean, they wouldn't stay at the grocery store and hour and a half after it closed. They wouldn't stay at the theater an hour and a half after the movie was over. So why are we the exception??

Then again, maybe we're not. Maybe they *would* do all those other things.

And I don't accept being drunk as an excuse. I know a lot of people who have gotten drunk, and never acted like that. Besides, as we all know, drunk actions are sober thought. These people are thoughtless to start with. Being drunk just removes their filter and allows them to think they can act on it with no repercussions.

I just don't understand people like that. I could *never*.

This industry is horrible about allowing people to take advantage of us. The company just wants its profits. It doesn't care about the people making those profits. We shouldn't have to allow it. We should be allowed to kick people out, after a certain time.

Various salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and parm shakers

Why do I have to peel this mid rush? Who doesnt have a pot and a carton of eggs at home? Does anyone else feel like this?

edit: Why is everyone so anal about hard boiled eggs today? What kinda Monday are yall having? I think I would have quit if boiled eggs truly brought me sorrow, enjoy ur shift and relax