A place for foodservice industry & hospitality workers.

I was having a conversation with my dishwasher about the most hours we ever worked. I told him my highest was 84 hours at my first job out of college. He responded “wow, that’s like a $700 paycheck!”. He’s a good guy but had some drug issues most of his life and never pushed himself into higher paying positions.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was 2k after taxes.

He’s in a union, so I can’t control his pay. The union is terrible and dude makes like $10 an hour, after a big raise this year. Dude is the happiest guy I ever met and loves his terrible pay. He doesn’t realize how low it is.

Last night I closed the pit because the dishwasher was gone, and after about an hour so was I. I’m tired of the hangovers, the shaking, the mood swings, the blackouts, the danger that I’ll die in a car crash or spend the rest of my life in prison for killing someone else with my car.

I’m done, the game is over. I’m getting help before this gets out of control

Anyways when I get back yes, you can hit my pen

Never thought that this would be the first question I’d be asking when interviewing candidates for kitchen work.

I’m building a new team in a smallish resort and the garbage and recycling is away from the kitchen and the easiest way to deal with it is to grab the little Japanese right hand drive truck (keys are always in it) throw the garbage in the back and drive it up the hill, or wait until maintenance finally gets round to it, right now I’m the only person who can ( or will admit to being able to) drive the damn thing.

Had one of the toughest men I know in tears for 48 hours because of a tiny shard of steel stuck in his eye. Eventually I remembered he had this habit and the look of shame on his face when I brought it up was just both hilarious and sad. Articles of clothing aren't towels!

At work we brick our flat top but there’s a ton of buildup in the corners I want to clean off this week. I can’t get in there with a brick without the risk of splashing oil on my face. Is it safe and or effective to use a wire brush on those corners? Any other methods?

Hey Kitchenconfidential!

Been working in a cafe for a while now and our only equipment is a turbochef oven and a panini press. The turbochef oven can get a little steamy and has grease coming out of it so we were wondering if a ductless/ventless hood would be able to contain the grease? Would love to learn everyone's experiences with them and which companies they worked with!

I got a hired at a French place at $27/ hr which was a big jump in pay for me but I knew right off the bat I was being paid well because this owner was a complete sack of shit. He really had a mental disorder or something, doesn’t play well with others type of thing, he laid on the horn one day because our produce driver was in his parking spot dropping off the shit the dude ordered. Things did not work out well at this place and I was happy to get out of there as quick as possible. I stage at another place that’s Indian fusion on sauté and everything goes great. We end up talking money and I tell them look I’ll be honest I’m making $27. They counter quite a bit lower, we go back and forth and land somewhere in the middle but not close to $27, I just asked that if I’m going to work at that amount that I get at least 40 hours a week. They say sure but they want me to work the wood fired grill. I had 0 experience with wood fired grills, I left a great impression with them on sauté but not so much on the grill and they also had me making naan and I barely ever even made pizzas before. They said they are happy to teach me. After 14 days my hours get cut, they had only just put me on the naan station halfway through my last shift, the sous said my naan was looking good but at one point another line cook made a naan and the head chef sees that one and tells me it’s shit and not how we make naan. I’m being let go about ten minutes later, whatever I hated that fucking grill. What irks me is the first and pretty much only thing they said was that I claimed to make $27/ hr at my previous job and they just weren’t seeing it. My question is what does that have to do with anything if you are paying me much less? Is it a crime to be paid well in this industry? Every one of these chefs you negotiate money with are trying to get you to work for absolute peanuts is it wrong to negotiate a little? Unbelievable this happens the one time I didn’t lie about my previous wage!