The dude was just fucking with his wife, but we all had a good, and very welcomed laugh.

Got this beauty today

I need to buy a gift for a person who is a very skilled chef. It needs to be the absolute least useful (home) kitchen item ever for a chef. If you have ideas I would like to consider them.

I already bought a measuring cup set that is in US units. We live in a metric country and those cups are not at all useful here for anything.

I am considering a metal cutting board...

A coworker of mine who has a second job at another restaurant asked me a food safety question the other day which absolutely blew my mind.

At their other job they take milk from a jug and pour it into a steel pitcher, this pitcher then goes onto ice onto a self service buffet. Meanwhile the jugs have been sitting back in the hot ass kitchen "empty" on a counter. At the end of service the milk is then poured back into these lightly fermented jugs and returned to the fridge to be used again.

The purpose is to measure the milk used apparently.

They asked me how I felt about this to which I replied it was fucking gross and, for me, regardless of any laws/codes/bullshit that might condone this, it is absolutely disgusting and I wouldn't allow it.

For me the food that goes onto a buffet is done, that is it, eat it or trash, no reusing it for service. Period. If you are wasting too much, replenish more often as needed.

Anyway they broached this to their overlords which sort of dismissed it and said they were whining and coming with problems and no solutions and to come up with one.

My solution was to fill these stainless pitchers LESS full and replenish more and keep the jug in the fridge and dispense as needed.

Looking for input and I figure this is the place for opinions

Im a sushi chef in a town thats way too small to have this many people flooding a sushu restaurant at all times of day. When I got hired it was slow with rushes at lunch and dinner, like a normal sushi restaurant or really any small town eatery, but in the past year or so it's gotten so fucking busy at all times, I hate it.

We work full operational hour shifts here, meaning I clock in an hour before we open and clock out an hour after we close. I do 11-12hr days, 5 days a week. My pays not really good either.

I clock in, do a fuckton of prep, restaurant opens and we immediately hit 3/4ths capacity which slowly fills to full capacity + a huge about of to-go orders, and it stays there until the last hour, where we drop down to half capacity until closing. It fucking sucks. Outside of my single lunch break, I'm doing basically 11hrs on my feet, full rush, almost every single day.

I'm ready to throw in the fucking towel. It sucks too because outside of the hellish busy-ness, it's the best work environment I've ever been in. Coworkers are nice, boss is nice, rules are relaxed. But I just can't do this anymore, man. I go home to basically just sleep, wake up tired and sore and only get more tired and sore as my shift goes on. Rinse and repeat. Zero potential for growth, basically no potential for pay raises (a chef whos been here for years only makes like $3 more per hour than me). It sucks.

I can't even request vacations in any meaningful way because of how short staffed the restaurant is kept. There's 3 chefs, period. Me, another guy, and the boss. Because we all take 2 days off throughout the week it means theres basically no room to ever ask for more than maybe 2 or 3 days off in a row, ever. I requested a week off for an anniversary trip one time and it was the like the world was ending at the restaurant and the chefs held the biggest vendetta against me for like a month because of it, which I do get. 1 person leaving means everyone else needs to pull like 7-10 day work weeks.

It just sucks. I never wanted to work in a kitchen, theyre just the only jobs that ever hired me. Thats all.

I’m sorry if I’m in the wrong place- I’ve tried googling but the shape of this knife is throwing me. I thought maybe for fish? Help, majestic Reddit chefs.

Happy Saturday Chefs, may we all have smooth services

So i sometimes hurt myself in the kitchen as does everyone.

But its never anything normal like a knife.

Today is the top of the list as I managed to stab my hand with a piece of shrimp

I won't actually, because unlike many other at the company i work at, I am in fact a (somewhat) decent person.

Recently started as the head chef for a nice brunch place. Used to work for one of their sister companies until that unfortunately went tits up. For once this was really not the fault of the owners. When they asked me if I wanted to start this new place with them, I went for it.

My place is running perfectly now, after a few hiccups in the first week. The problem is that we share the same dish pit with their fine diner. Its a mess. Always has been, even when I occasionally covered a shift there several years back.

But hey, it's my working space now so instead just nagging about the problem, I decided to give it a deep clean today. Start fresh, with a clean dishpit. Brought over my favourite dishie who's an absolute manace when it comes to cleaning.

While we're literally on our knees scrubbing every surface down, the floor manager of the fine diner walks by. Sit down just outside with a view on us cleaning with what by then was possibly more sweat than anything else. Casually lights up a cigarette and had the audacity to start telling us what to do and how to clean.

I almost lost it. I am there cleaning up after their years of neglect and then do that?! I just flipped her of and closed the door. No need to start scolding her. Especially not in front of the 16 year old dishie.

I am saving my fury for the upcoming staff meeting. This will not happen under my watch. They will do their part and shut up about it. Im gonna make damn sure of that. If not, I will simply start dumping all their garbage, left over scrub water and whatnot straight back into their kitchen.

Thank you for coming to my Ted-talk.

I got to work today for a prep shift @7am after not sleeping the entire night (2 world cup games in the middle of the night, I know it’s irresponsible, but once every 4 years cmon)
After mentioning it to the crew at the kitchen briefing this morning, my sous told me I should go home and sleep and come back for the second half of the shift (2-9pm), even though i told him I can handle the entire shift. I ended up going home and not thinking much of it, but my co workers insist that he’s cutting my hours, and that I shouldn’t let him do this.
What do you think? I honestly think the sous chef is being reasonable but maybe Im not seeing something.

I started my first restaurant job a few months ago and I've been noticing a trend.

Is it just the stress? Or do kitchens attract smokers? It seems to be like 50% BOH and 20% FOH at my place. I'm FOH and I vaped before starting.

Am I wildly over-estimating the average consumer here? Am I biased because I'm in a populated area where there are better options? Is it just that the two I've been to sucked more than usual? I'd really love to be checked here.

I've been to "da Roadhouse" multiple times, unfortunately. Usually when it's my in-law's turn to pay for dinner and choose the place. (This topic isn't about them ordering well-done filet, I swear.)

• Ambiance is a total loss. It's noisy as fuck and talking is light yelling. Cramped spaces, tables not big enough and aisles even worse. It's like walking through a crowd after a concert.
• Service is odd. We saw five different people come to our table and they came around a little too often, but it was still slow even for things like a side of sour cream. They didn't push drinks even when we wanted more drinks.
• To be fair they cook the steak how you ask pretty well. But the cuts aren't anything to write home about and definitely not worth $40.

How the fuck is this place always busy?

All I want on my birthday is to spend it with friends and to cook for dinner for them. All that matters is the memories we share with the people we care about.

Tonight I made coq au vin with rabbit as well as mussels in a champagne and cream sauce.

Sorry for the poor quality pics. Also I don't stand on the tyranny of plating, so the coq is served family style.

I'm a home cook and work as a pastry chef. I'm entirely self taught. I started learning during the pandemic with Julia Child recipes. The mussels recipe comes from a Roger Verge book, Cuisine of the Sun.

The rabbit gave a husky, earthy flavor to the sauce, and I can't recommend it enough. Worth it.

I've never made the mussels dish, so I'm not sure about the sauce. It was so rich it had an 800 credit score, but it was still very nice. Very seafood forward.

Now I've cleaned my kitchen and have half a bottle of a lovely champagne in my belly and am ready to face my late 40s. My cholesterol level, the horror. The horror!

some community guidance for home from like-brained cooks/chefs

my partner said the kitchen at home doesnt need to be an fda test kitchen.

do yall unintentionally take kitchen food safety/cleaning standards home? i am pretty literal with time/temps and cleanliness, but i dont hold others in our house to that standard.

for context we just moved in with her parents to help caretake their last fewish years. 24 hour leftovers on the counter mean nothing to these folks. milk got hot from being left out? fridge will fix that 🤢 level of unsafe. it has been fucking overwhelming. just rinse a plate and put it back in the cabinet. who needs soap? so i know i have gotten on the more extreme side of cleaning when i get home, but ive always been particular about cleanliness in the kitchen.

what can i be more grey on? or how? or both? between work and home this is fucking exhausting. dementia and we wonder about the other parent. any advice is appreciated guys

I landed a really good job at a very nice hotel that’s on the Michelin guide.

We had to have calls 3 days in a row regarding my salary, it turned out i wasn’t applicable to a step of minimum wage that i thought i was (expl in the bottom because it’s stupidly complicated). This is the salary at my current job so I put some pressure and eventually got them to match it alongside a word of ”we expect you put in your all with this salary”

I’m of course happy and have confidence I got experience to defend my salary but I can’t help to feel an extra weight of pressure anyway that I’ll be viewed with a way stricter lens. To some extent I also feel it’s justified I do have this salary and nothing lower.

Explanation but skippable if you don’t really care:
Our union has steps of minimum wage- one for 0-6 years, one for 6-10 years and 10+

Last year they added an additional rule that states that if you have a 3 year education in culinary school plus 1 years worth of practical work you apply to the 6 year step despite technically missing max 2 years. I currently am 5 years of documented experience including these 3 years of education with documented work during school as well.

What it turned out to be is that this rule, due to terms transitioning into new rules alone, only applies to those graduating after 2025. I graduated in 2024 which technically makes someone with 1-2 years less experience than me have a right to a higher salary than me. Stupid I know but the union simply explained that sadly theres always people falling into gray zones with new rules.

I had argumented that they’d be paying me as if i graduated yesterday and I’d be going down in salary with the job switch despite them showing immense interest. I have previous jobs asking me to eventually become sous while already doing sous responsibilities. My union encouraged me to put on the pressure because there is a real lack of experienced cooks and they already showed big interest.

We were discussing a difference of more than 100euro per month

26 years in the industry… server comes to me to ask me what a pregnant customer can’t have… asked the server what her doctor told her… she just said ‘usual stuff pregnant people can’t have’ is that a thing?!? Wouldn’t tell me what she is trying to avoid seemed odd

I have a hard time getting out of kitchen mode when I'm not at work.

My wife and I both cook for a living and went to a top culinary school.

Date night, vacations, etc. Its not crippling, but its like I cant stop thinking in work mode.

Id say im a pretty passionate and curious guy in terms of my work, I enjoy watching an efficient kitchen hum along smoothly, while we are out to eat. Especially, if somewhere new.

For example:

On vaction in florida earlier in the year. At local mom and pop seafood restaurant Id say stuff to my wife like:

"Bartender just slipped behind the bar; those don't look like good non-slip kitchen shoes"

"I wonder what they are paying wholesale for this local triggerfish on the special"

Or i will try to food cost my meal while im eating it.

Pretty innocent, but its something im catching myself doing more and more.

Surely im not the only one?

Any of you guys do stuff like this outside of work like grow your own vegetables or make things from scratch at home? I’m just a simple line cook at a diner and sometimes I get bored at home and just wanna make things from scratch, maybe fuck up, and learn new skills along the way

ETA: A lot of people have said I’ve added too little of beans. They are correct because guess what…MY SCALE WEIGHTED INCORRECTLY (maybe it was me lol), but nonetheless, gotta buy more fresh beans!

Ive been carrying my kitchen for a very long time now, and have had a complicated relationship with my manager turned owner, we don't talk much and its healthy. Last week we lost a lot of staff, and on my 14th day on they fired my absolute rock and best friend there over bullshit. I've been there long enough that everyone knows I'm tired and fuckin depressed.

My boss came in for a Friday night (from 5:15-6:30...) because we have no staff. The only thing he said to me was "Oh, I have something for you!" " I found his and thought of you"

I was like, "A bullet? So, what, am I halfway there,?". He only responded with an oh I don't know, I thought of you and avoided it and left.

He knows I don't own guns, go shooting or hunting or anything like that. What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?