In every restaurant, there’s a guy who washes dishes. In a busy spot, it’s a whole troop of guys (and sometimes girls). To those of us who are lucky enough to have a line cook or prep cook’s position, these workers are our heroes. Continue reading Dish Wash Hero
Category Archives: Industry Standard
No dinner without the din
There’s a free-floating stainless steel ring that rests against the rinse sprayer nozzle of a commercial dish-washing machine. The ring is ostensibly there to prevent the nozzle from flailing about when released.
In reality, it’s a sleigh bell.
When a kitchen is really rocking, that little ring jingles and jangles constantly as the dishwasher shakes the nozzle back and forth, rinsing plates and pots. Continue reading No dinner without the din
Have it your way?
Folks who grew up in the 1970s will likely remember the Burger King ad-campaign jingle that went “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce — special orders don’t upset us! All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Have it your way, have it your way …” Continue reading Have it your way?
Bring a Pen
With the current dearth of applicants for the many good restaurant jobs in our Metro, you’d think a job-seeker could walk into almost any restaurant and get a job on the spot. And they just about could, but there are a few behaviors a hiring manager just can’t overlook in a potential employee no matter how desperate times are. Continue reading Bring a Pen
Shift Wars
A recent internet meme made me giggle. A lot.
The photo was forgettable, but the text said “When I die I want AM shift to lower my casket, so they can let me down one last time.”
One could easily swap “AM shift” for “PM shift” in the meme, and it would still be just as funny. Shift wars. It’s a real thing in the restaurant industry. Continue reading Shift Wars
On a Wait
Tickets are spilling out of the printer, faster than anyone could read them aloud. Cooks are busy filling orders for the previous 20 tickets, and not just a list of items, but a list of modifications including burger temps, steak temps, and at brunch, egg styles: sunny-side, scrambled with or without cheese, hard-fried, poached, hard-poached (that’s a boiled egg, out of the shell, people – it takes 10 minutes), with toast, without toast, gluten-free, sub a side of this, that or the other. Continue reading On a Wait
Humble
I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. The kitchen there is populated with young cooks, many much younger than me. I’m the oldest person working in the back of the house. At this point in my life, that’s not notable. Restaurant cooking is a young person’s game. Continue reading Humble
Having standards
I applied for a job this week. I’m out of work right now, and things are getting pretty lean. I decided to swallow my pride and see about working at a corporate place, a place I knew would have job security and union protection and proximity to home and predictable hours to trade for a pretty crappy hourly wage. Continue reading Having standards
Spot the difference: Cook or chef?
At some point, every enthusiastic home or restaurant cook has heard the following from friends or family members: Oh, this is so good! You should really open your own restaurant. Continue reading Spot the difference: Cook or chef?
In my hand
Expediting the pass at a busy restaurant takes special skill. The expediter has to be precise, has to speak to everyone on the line, has to bring everything together like an orchestra conductor to ensure that every table’s food goes out on time and in concert.
Continue reading In my hand