The Start of my Career
I've been working in the restaurant industry for almost 20 years. I have many stories I can share and I thought maybe some people here on Steemit may enjoy hearing some of them?
My very first job was at a waterfront deli. Nothing big really, just mostly making sandwiches and soups but there was also seafood, steak and poultry items that had to be prepared.
It was here I learned how to handle and properly use a knife and to work in the stresses of a busy kitchen atmosphere.
I also learned that I loved to cook.
It's fun when you get to be creative, you're getting paid to play with food basically. Your meals are usually free and sampling things is encouraged.
I worked the deli gig for over a year, I became the strongest most efficient member of the team and because of this I was always scheduled to work the busiest shifts through dinner and supper services.
I took pride in being the fastest in the crew. I also performed well under fire and could still joke around and make light of stressful situations.
I worked my way up over a year and some change until eventually the kitchen manager got fired and the job of running the place fell into my lap. I was honored and took it seriously.
I had to make the schedules, do the ordering and all the month end accounting was up to me. I learned how to do it all and I did it well. Profits were increasing and everyone was happy.
The company I worked for owned many restaurants in the city I live so when I outgrew the deli I went and worked at another restaurant they owned just up the block. I worked at 5 of thier different establishments at the start of my culinary adventure before I eventually left the group.
The second place was a 100 year old bar and also one of the most popular spots in the city to dine and drink.
Here i gained more experience working in a crew of other more professional cooks and with a whole different style of food. It was a bar but the food was great, most items were made on site and from scratch. Here I fine tuned my line work and I also started apprenticing under the chef.
Eventually I became the sous chef even tho I wasn't accredited yet. I was in charge of calling the line which is basically like an army commander or couch of a football team trying to get the best out of everyone, dictating how we would attack the orders as they came in.
There's an exhilaration that comes from being "in the juice" and banging out orders during the hectic rushes. Busy restaurants fill up quick and when the orders start to hit the kitchen the situation gets frantic fast. There's satisfaction that comes from doing well in the face of adversity and there's always challenges that come up over the course of the service.
When the business dies down at the end of the night there's a pride that comes with having handled it well or just surviving it. Cleaning up, putting things away and shutting down the equipment is a joyous time.
Usually the wait staff or bartenders will come back with a tray full of drinks and treat the kitchen staff for a job well done. Afterall it is the kitchen personnel who rush orders the servers forgot to ring in, or make changes and redo things after they've made mistakes.
This happens alot and there's nothing that can throw a wrench in your day like when you're balls deep in orders.. doing everything you can to just keep up and a waitress comes back and stands in front of you and says, "I'm sorry i screwed up"
It's bad enough having to make an order once but if I have to slow down and fix a mistake or rush a table someone forgot to ring in it just throws everything off!
Everything is carefully timed. If you're not on the ball as a chef you can easily burn yourself or not properly prepare something and have to start over. Once mistakes happen it's a calamity of unfortunate events. Shit goes squirrely really quick and then your night will be absolutely fucked! It's hard to play catch up.
So you want to be a Chef?
Anyone can cook but not everyone can handle the pressure of the constant barrage of orders, the heat and the dangers that are everywhere in an industrial kitchen set up.
There's many ways you can hurt yourself if your not careful..
First of all the knives have to be kept extremely sharp. If you're going to cut yourself it's better with a sharp knife as the wounds are easier to stitch closed or heal. If you cut yourself with a dull blade you'll be in more pain and you'll bleed more.
There's red hot pan handles everywhere. Part of the territory. Any chef worth a shit carries a dry rag on his person. Some stovetops I've worked on have 12 burner tops. That's a dozen pans or pots waiting to burn your flesh in milliseconds.
Most industrial kitchen pans are made of cast iron or one piece metal so the entire thing heats up hot. They don't have the fancy burn resistant handles your household frying pans have. In a industrial kitchen that would just get melted off quick anyways. Also they need to stack ontop of eachother and take up as little space as possible.
One place I worked at I'd have about 60 frying pans in my section, some menu items required two or three pans just for one dish. It gets crazy! The dishwasher always had his hands full picking up the dirty ones and refilling my line with clean ones.
Slip and falls are the number one concern for any kitchen. You're often spilling water, oils and food where you walk. You try not to but it's bound to happen. On the line your often walking with your hands full with a hot frying pan or pots of boiling liquids. Even antislip flooring and slip resistance shoes wont stop most falls.
The job itself is not healthy. You're usually working thru dinner and supper. You can't stop to go sit down and have a meal while other people are paying to have you cook thier food. They're not going to wait. A cook has to eat before or after his shift most times. Sometimes entire meals are skipped though.
You always have to be drinking water. The summer in a kitchen is brutal, it's easy to forget and exhaust yourself as you're sweating away while you work. I've seen ppl faint or just fall over on the line during a shift. Stay hydrated. I use a plastic beer pitcher full of icewater and get the servers to refill it as I need water. Often you don't even sweat though because you're that dehydrated.
Bathroom breaks dont happen. You can't just walk out of the kitchen to use the bathroom. Ya better go before or wait to go after once the rush dies off. I've had to go so bad before I almost crapped my pants but eventually you train yourself not to. This is definitely not good for your body but hey, this is the big leagues now.
Soft people won't last long in a professional kitchen. You better have a bit of crazy in you!
Many chefs and cooks are alcoholics or drug addicts. If they weren't before often they acquire it, almost comes with the territory. The stresses of the job make ppl resort to using as a way to deal or cope with the job itself. Often, after the place closes drinks are had on site amoungst the staff. Then the party is taken to another location or two before the night's over. Drinking and partying with coworkers is a bonus to the job at first but eventually it gets old.
Because many establishments do the majority of thier business at night this leads to many late shifts. It used to be common place for me not to get home till well after midnight and that is with not even sticking around for drinks after or going downtown with coworkers. It was normal for me to sleep till noon. That's not good for your health and I never got enough sleep.
Because of all these things I've listed suicide is prevalent in the industry.
I know 3 people I've worked with that have taken their own life. It's common knowledge that professional cooks have high rates of suicide and a quick Google search would confirm it. Also another search you'll see one of the most stressful jobs out there is cook, it's always at the top of the lists.
Well after all that you still want to be a chef?
The last decade with all the various cooking shows seeming to glorify the career I've seen floods of new people thinking they're going to try to be the next Iron Chef or Gordan Ramsey..it's not like on tv, the job is usually low paying, long hours and extremely stressful environments that aren't a helluva lotta fun after awhile.
It's pretty much all I know because its the only job I've ever had. It's not all bad but I do caution anyone thinking of trying to join the profession.
It should be noted I quit my job 3 weeks ago, I'm just taking a little sabatical now before I find another gig and do it all again..
If you guys want to hear more stories I have many to share over the years from the many places I've worked?! Not all of them are depressing 😊
*Pics courtesy of Xavier Boyier
Thanks for reading,
