Quote:
Originally Posted by Punk.of.Ages
The restaurant business is a very stressful business. I've never seen a higher level of tension than that of a dinner rush in a high end kitchen. Fact is, chef's are by and large huge assholes. I heard mention of Chef Ramsay from Hell's Kitchen somewhere in this thread. That dude doesn't have shit on some of the chefs I've worked for.
I've said it a million times before; very few situations bring out the temperamental, unacceptable, and ridiculous behavior we're more accustomed to seeing out of children, but a busy kitchen is one of those places.
I've never met anybody who works under a chef in a high end restaurant just to pay the bills. If you're only in it to pay the bills, you won't last.
I didn't put up with the yelling, berating, pan/knife throwing, or the temper tantrums to make a few bucks. I put up with it because at the end of the day I was satisfied with myself. I felt as though I'd gone into a jungle and come out with a new tiger fur.
A feeling of accomplishment is worth a lot more than a paycheck.
|
All of that, QFT. I did it to LEARN. I did it to make sure, one day, that I would be in control of my own restaurant and not have to be under someone's thumb again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by World's King
My point is this... if I call for that mid-rare filet four times and you still don't have it for me, I will yell at you. If I call for runners cause food is dying in the window and the service staff stands around ignoring me talking about who fucked who last night in the parking lot, I will yell at you. Get off your ass and do your job. It's my kitchen and my food, you're here to serve it to the people that came here to eat it. If you fuck that up, I will yell at you. Yes, chefs have a pass when it comes to treating employees like worthless piles of shit and 75% of the servers I've worked with where just that. If you don't like your job and are obviously not good at it, go find something else to do with your time. We have to yell, we have to be mean some times. We have to weed out the morons that can't keep with a faced-paced stressful job. Make sense?
|
Even the biggest dick of a chef I've worked for tried to at least ONCE explain what the fuck to do or what I was doing wrong. If they have to repeat themselves more than once about the same thing, the voulme will increase and add in colorful words.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FuglyStick
But here's the thing, Eden--it's still unacceptable. Why chefs and a few other professions are cut so much slack on ridiculous behavior is beyond me; try that on a factory line, or in a school, or in the fucking military for christ's sake, and see how fast you are called out for it. Being a chef is not a license to be a dick.
But you know what, I don't like dealing with prima donnas anyway; I ain't the one to kowtow to some douche's ego. So, I guess it's a good thing I never pursued a career in the culinary arts. If kowtowing to a douche is the only way to get ahead in the kitchen, God help the miserable souls who do it to pay the bills.
|
It's not about being a dick, it's about making yourself heard through all the noise in a kitchen. I think there is a difference between yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs. I know I've had to yell (pretty damn loud) trying to get runners to pick up food, telling servers to shut up their order just got fired 2 minutes ago, and trying to communicate with the Maître d' all the same time. You yell, you try to make yourself heard over all of the other bullshit that is going on at the same time you are putting food out.
If this guy was screaming vs yelling, that's a different thing. What was it the movie drill instructors said, "I am not yelling, I am just communicating at a level where everyone can hear me, do you understand private?" You yell a lot in kitchens, I have yelled across kitchens just to make fun of the salad chef for being in the weeds. You yell across the line to the cook on the grill. You yell, people don't like that, they leave. The ones that can handle the rude remarks, the unstable schedule, the long hours, the unbearable heat, the sexual remarks about pretty much anything, the constant teasing/picking/ragging, the assortment of wackoffs/weirdos, and the constant drinking, the long nights partying, the shitty customers, the fuckups, all of it, they stay... cause they love it.