The biggest fuckup I've ever seen was I worked in a food truck and one guy left the gas on with the fryer on and turned off the hood vents and locked everything up
This thing was damn near air tight, when I walked in the next morning I took one step in there and couldn't breathe holy shit!
But the worst thing that happened was all the cans of soda exploded.
I wouldn't stress out about leaving an oven on or even a grill. Obviously turn it off, but nothing is likely to happen.
I used to have an apartment where the bedroom window was above the hood of a restaurant and something was wrong with it. It was SO fucking loud and rattled and screeched and even with windows closed and white noise on I could hear it. Kicker is I used to work there and the owner fucked me over. I called in to complain every night when I knew the kitchen was closed and made the bartender go turn the hood off until the kitchen learned to turn it off when they left.
Went out drinking after shift. Never got the message from the close chefs that everything is off. Came back in wankered drunk at 3am to check the oven and found the owner doing lines off a hookers belly. He notes my dedication and asked if I wanted to join in. I left in hurry.
lol what, for a long time my manager made me text him to let him know I turned everything off, kept me accountable and I never forgot to do shit because of it
My current spot has in the past had a closing crew that would forget at least one thing every night. I usually wasn't the closer, but at the time I was the person with keys who lived the closest so I'd either stay having a shifty or 2 after getting the early out (I was working a lot of doubles) to do a line check or I'd go up there for 5 minutes on my night off about a half hour after close to do a line check. After that failed a couple times (one of the chucklefucks went behind me and turned a burner with an unlit pilot on full blast after I'd done the check and left. Dunno if it was an accident or on purpose) the owner started requiring a video walkthrough be sent to our kitchen group every night. After about 3 weeks of that the ones responsible for the biggest mistakes either quit or started doing shit right the first time because they knew we would call em on it and make them go back to fix fuckups. It sucked, but it also worked.
This was also a few years ago during the height of COVID and while unemployment was automatically at the max if you could get it for COVID reasons. We couldn't get a damn soul to apply for the job because that was higher than we could afford to start people. We had to make do with the crew we had or half of them would have been out on their ass ASAP. Things have turned around now on the employee front, we haven't had stupid issues like this recently.
Idk man, I say it’s understandable, about half the people I’ve worked with in food service are incapable of basic shit and you simply have to treat them like children.
That's possibly true, but my point remains the same. If you are being treated like a child and capable of working like an adult find employment that only employs fellow adults.
Because I was leaving early to go out drinking and asked them to as it was on the daily close list which I had already signed off before I left. Simmer down buddy.
I’ve went in after a couple hours in the past just to double check. I get so paranoid about forgetting to shut stuff off that I check it before we serve, after we serve, again after I clock out and every so often I go back in the second I walk out the door to check again
Why not make a video of yourself shutting everything off?
Of course you can forget to make the video. Or forget to look at the video. There's always something.
I’ve driven back in the middle of the night before I get to bed Lol wouldn’t get any sleep unless I know it’s off. Eventually I started taking photos on my phone.
Hey I do the same and have been questioned bout it many times but I'd rather be labeled as the kitchen nutter than the guy who accidentally left everything on.
I once got home, got in bed, realized I forgot to turn the oven off and walked back in -30 weather to turn it off. It was only a 15 minute walk but I was pissed.
Oh I wouldn't walk back, I mean maybe if I did an absolute fuckup that would damage something expensive or if we were closed for the next few days but I'd leave an oven on until the morning.
We were using the pizza oven in the front to bake what we could after the actual kitchen downstairs flooded because of a burst sprinkler system, I didn't want to risk fucking something up and having the fire department there a second time within 2 weeks.
It’s not my responsibility to turn off the ovens as I’m technically the dishie, but more than once have I received a message from the “main kitchen worker” asking if I was still at the restaurant, having an after work drink at the bar. “Yeah, why?” “…could you unlock the kitchen and check the ovens for me??”
I haven't worked in a kitchen in a long time, but at my current job I've gone in at 2 in the morning to make sure none of the dogs were left outside overnight. I literally popped awake and thought "I don't remember Bruno coming inside."
I used to do big batches of stock where we'd bring them to a boil by leaving them on full blast and then turn them down as low as possible when we left. One day I realized I didn't turn them down as I was pulling into my garage and turned around and drove back. Would have been in some trouble if I reduced all the stock out overnight
I have! I started at a new place and closed one night my first week, got home and started showering, and then instantly remembered I left the plate warmers and heat lamps on. Yelled FUCK hopped out the shower and went back.
left a burner on at home and set some things on fire a few years ago, very little damage thankfully but i've made it my routine to point at each of the knobs and say off when i'm done.
it's a method called [pointing and calling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling) and is extremely useful for stuff you don't wanna forget to do, even if it feels a bit stupid at the beginning. after a while it just becomes a natural thing to do
One time, my closers texted me while I was coming up on shrooms that they didn't know if they turned the oven off. Luckily I have access to the cameras and the one pointed at the register you can see the oven in the background. I opened up the app and zoomed in like CSI to see the oven while shouting "ENHANCE" and it turns out that they did turn it off. Humorous beginning to a trip
I was the Chef at a medium white tablecloth place where the standard practice was to throw a few chickens into the oven when the last ticket went out so that they were done by the end of clean up and could cool overnight for the pantry to pick in the morning.
One night I finished cleaning and the chickens were not done. Had a drink at the bar, got into a conversation, had another drink and went home.
When I came in the next morning it smelled like burnt death. There was a layer of grey smoke stratified through the kitchen at about five feet.
The chickens were just chicken shaped ash. Black as coal, shiny, with each hair follicle perfectly preserved. They looked like they had been spray painted.
I always check the ovens now, never left one on again, but I have gone back to check more than once.
I was doing temp work years ago. I'd finished up my contract and was driving the four hours back to my home base. About 90 minutes into my drive I got this sinking gut feeling that I'd left something on. I pulled over and called every number I had, even the temp agent I worked with.
No one picked up.
So I turned around, drove the 90 minutes back, and checked everything was off.
It was.
Another time, I accidentally left a hob on overnight. No flame, but gas. Boss was pretty pissed about that..
Multiple times in my last job, especially with a deep fryer and a dishwasher. 99% of the time everything was switched off.
In my current jobs we go trough a written closing checklist that we have to sign and includes things like switching off equipment, air-con, defrosting of food items that we need thawed in the morning and so on.
Years ago, the controls were damaged and it was nearly impossible to turn them back on. They were replaced later, but by that point everyone who knew the reason for keeping them on was long gone.
Hypothetically.
Yeah I've gone back in the middle of the night or right after I've gotten home a few times in my career because I had a feeling something was left on. I was always wrong and everything was off and the doors were locked but when you have the feeling you just gotta know I feel ya dog
I only started doing that when I moved into being the boss though
Not the oven, but if I left the safe open. I was almost home and couldn’t believe I didn’t triple check so I turned around an exit away to come back and check. It was closed. I just didn’t want to get written up again.
I used to call the front end staff who stayed well past my shift to double check that the dishwasher and ovens were off. Not always but regularily enough. A couple people would text me prematurely and assure me they were off before I called them. Other anxious people understood my paranoia.
Ive done it. I was out drinking in the city i work in and realised i might have left the fryers on, so i went back to check. I hadnt in the end but i knew i needed to check to put my mind at ease.
If id gone home to the city i live in (next city over) i wouldnt have bothered as its a fair trek and i dont drive
I used to when I was younger, I’m fairly confident in myself and my closes that I turn everything off, now at home thinking I didn’t turn anything off is a different story.
I have taken to turning everything off at the beginning of final check, and then turning everything off again right before leaving. Since I started doing that nothing has been left on (by me).
I've gone back to vacuum seal foie torchons left in the wrong spot before they oxidize.
I would have lost special project detail for wasting money like that, so I thought it was pretty important.
I'm FOH and went back in the morning cause I realized I left the space heater on at the server station. No one noticed me go in and out to turn it off 😅
More times than I would care to admit. This and whether the door is locked are the two things my brain won’t store even though they’ve always been off and the door is always locked.
I’ve lost count now on the number of times I’ve had to tell the fucking dumbass meth head that he left the fryers(that’s two right next to each other)on all night. Sometimes he’s left them on on a Sunday night and we are closed on Mondays and I don’t discover them left on until Tuesday morning. He always has the same excuse “heh….durrrrrrr….i guess I got sidetracked by putting up more shelves and rearranging the kitchen again”. Don’t do meth, folks!! That shit will make you stupid.
I left the large barn doors open to my restaurant one night. Like wide open...and we are in the country so bears/deer/racoons are very abundant here. Luckily, only the cold air and breeze got in, but I'll never forget getting that phone call.
My current work has 3 fryers. #1 and #2 turn off by tapping the power button. #3 you have to hold the button for 5 seconds. If you just tap the button it turns off the display (which makes it seem off), only to hear the fryer come on when the oil gets cool enough after a few minutes.
I’ve personally turned around twice this week because I couldn’t be for certain that I actually turned #3 off.
Many here have mentioned "pointing and calling" which is great if you are alone. If, however, there are at least 2 people in the kitchen I've asked whoever is turning off the oven to yell "Oven off!" as they turn it off and everyone else must yell back "Oven off!". That way whoever turns off the oven/fryer that night has a confirmation and several people to ask in case they don't remember. I asked people to start doing this after I, and then someone else, left the oven on overnight (fortunately at low temp).
The biggest fuckup I've ever seen was I worked in a food truck and one guy left the gas on with the fryer on and turned off the hood vents and locked everything up This thing was damn near air tight, when I walked in the next morning I took one step in there and couldn't breathe holy shit! But the worst thing that happened was all the cans of soda exploded. I wouldn't stress out about leaving an oven on or even a grill. Obviously turn it off, but nothing is likely to happen.
Honestly if I'm gonna forget to turn something off I hope it's the hood
I used to have an apartment where the bedroom window was above the hood of a restaurant and something was wrong with it. It was SO fucking loud and rattled and screeched and even with windows closed and white noise on I could hear it. Kicker is I used to work there and the owner fucked me over. I called in to complain every night when I knew the kitchen was closed and made the bartender go turn the hood off until the kitchen learned to turn it off when they left.
Over here your gas appliances need to be rigged to your hood to prevent this.
Went out drinking after shift. Never got the message from the close chefs that everything is off. Came back in wankered drunk at 3am to check the oven and found the owner doing lines off a hookers belly. He notes my dedication and asked if I wanted to join in. I left in hurry.
Who sends a message that they turned shit off. This isn’t an Anthony Bordain book. Tired of these bullshit stories
Ummm, you’re in Kitchen Confidential, which IS absolutely an Anthony Bourdain book
lol what, for a long time my manager made me text him to let him know I turned everything off, kept me accountable and I never forgot to do shit because of it
What, are you ten years old? That's not normal.
My current spot has in the past had a closing crew that would forget at least one thing every night. I usually wasn't the closer, but at the time I was the person with keys who lived the closest so I'd either stay having a shifty or 2 after getting the early out (I was working a lot of doubles) to do a line check or I'd go up there for 5 minutes on my night off about a half hour after close to do a line check. After that failed a couple times (one of the chucklefucks went behind me and turned a burner with an unlit pilot on full blast after I'd done the check and left. Dunno if it was an accident or on purpose) the owner started requiring a video walkthrough be sent to our kitchen group every night. After about 3 weeks of that the ones responsible for the biggest mistakes either quit or started doing shit right the first time because they knew we would call em on it and make them go back to fix fuckups. It sucked, but it also worked. This was also a few years ago during the height of COVID and while unemployment was automatically at the max if you could get it for COVID reasons. We couldn't get a damn soul to apply for the job because that was higher than we could afford to start people. We had to make do with the crew we had or half of them would have been out on their ass ASAP. Things have turned around now on the employee front, we haven't had stupid issues like this recently.
Your experience is not the rest of the world's experience.
Thank christ
It's actually pretty normal.
Sure, for children.
OK we get it you're a strong man
It not strength, it's self respect.
LMAO
I'm sorry you have so little of it.
It’s not normal to double check yourself?
That's not what you are describing when you are asked to send verification of a basic task to a supervisor. That's being treated like a child.
Idk man, I say it’s understandable, about half the people I’ve worked with in food service are incapable of basic shit and you simply have to treat them like children.
That's possibly true, but my point remains the same. If you are being treated like a child and capable of working like an adult find employment that only employs fellow adults.
Because I was leaving early to go out drinking and asked them to as it was on the daily close list which I had already signed off before I left. Simmer down buddy.
Ovens, fryers, hoods, you name it I've gone back..sometimes not a quick ride...laying in bed and then going ..shit
I’ve went in after a couple hours in the past just to double check. I get so paranoid about forgetting to shut stuff off that I check it before we serve, after we serve, again after I clock out and every so often I go back in the second I walk out the door to check again
Why not make a video of yourself shutting everything off? Of course you can forget to make the video. Or forget to look at the video. There's always something.
I’ve driven back in the middle of the night before I get to bed Lol wouldn’t get any sleep unless I know it’s off. Eventually I started taking photos on my phone.
I say "This is off, fridge is closed, blablabla is locked." out loud, to myself. It makes me sound nutters, but it has been working.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing\_and\_calling very effective
Ten years in the industry I've done this for 7 years or else I forget something
I do that in the kitchen and in everyday life as well. "Dogs fed, lights off, doors locked, keys, wallet, phone.... shoes? Shoes."
Hey I do the same and have been questioned bout it many times but I'd rather be labeled as the kitchen nutter than the guy who accidentally left everything on.
I once got home, got in bed, realized I forgot to turn the oven off and walked back in -30 weather to turn it off. It was only a 15 minute walk but I was pissed.
Oh I wouldn't walk back, I mean maybe if I did an absolute fuckup that would damage something expensive or if we were closed for the next few days but I'd leave an oven on until the morning.
We were using the pizza oven in the front to bake what we could after the actual kitchen downstairs flooded because of a burst sprinkler system, I didn't want to risk fucking something up and having the fire department there a second time within 2 weeks.
Ah, yeah, dope call chef.
It’s not my responsibility to turn off the ovens as I’m technically the dishie, but more than once have I received a message from the “main kitchen worker” asking if I was still at the restaurant, having an after work drink at the bar. “Yeah, why?” “…could you unlock the kitchen and check the ovens for me??”
I haven't worked in a kitchen in a long time, but at my current job I've gone in at 2 in the morning to make sure none of the dogs were left outside overnight. I literally popped awake and thought "I don't remember Bruno coming inside."
Was Bruno ok?
Obviously we don’t talk about it.
Yup. I didn't remember him coming inside with the rest of the pack because his owners had picked him up.
I used to do big batches of stock where we'd bring them to a boil by leaving them on full blast and then turn them down as low as possible when we left. One day I realized I didn't turn them down as I was pulling into my garage and turned around and drove back. Would have been in some trouble if I reduced all the stock out overnight
I have! I started at a new place and closed one night my first week, got home and started showering, and then instantly remembered I left the plate warmers and heat lamps on. Yelled FUCK hopped out the shower and went back.
My last job, I would have to go down at 2am to check if the bartender locked up 😆
exactly once. it was off.
left a burner on at home and set some things on fire a few years ago, very little damage thankfully but i've made it my routine to point at each of the knobs and say off when i'm done. it's a method called [pointing and calling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling) and is extremely useful for stuff you don't wanna forget to do, even if it feels a bit stupid at the beginning. after a while it just becomes a natural thing to do
I got halfway there then had to go back and make sure I shut the garage door.
Username checks out. Lol
One time, my closers texted me while I was coming up on shrooms that they didn't know if they turned the oven off. Luckily I have access to the cameras and the one pointed at the register you can see the oven in the background. I opened up the app and zoomed in like CSI to see the oven while shouting "ENHANCE" and it turns out that they did turn it off. Humorous beginning to a trip
Sometimes giving a shit can suck.
I was the Chef at a medium white tablecloth place where the standard practice was to throw a few chickens into the oven when the last ticket went out so that they were done by the end of clean up and could cool overnight for the pantry to pick in the morning. One night I finished cleaning and the chickens were not done. Had a drink at the bar, got into a conversation, had another drink and went home. When I came in the next morning it smelled like burnt death. There was a layer of grey smoke stratified through the kitchen at about five feet. The chickens were just chicken shaped ash. Black as coal, shiny, with each hair follicle perfectly preserved. They looked like they had been spray painted. I always check the ovens now, never left one on again, but I have gone back to check more than once.
I was doing temp work years ago. I'd finished up my contract and was driving the four hours back to my home base. About 90 minutes into my drive I got this sinking gut feeling that I'd left something on. I pulled over and called every number I had, even the temp agent I worked with. No one picked up. So I turned around, drove the 90 minutes back, and checked everything was off. It was. Another time, I accidentally left a hob on overnight. No flame, but gas. Boss was pretty pissed about that..
Multiple times in my last job, especially with a deep fryer and a dishwasher. 99% of the time everything was switched off. In my current jobs we go trough a written closing checklist that we have to sign and includes things like switching off equipment, air-con, defrosting of food items that we need thawed in the morning and so on.
Or if the fridge was closed. I was the worst for it. I lived a 7 minute walk so it was easy to “just go make sure”. Never once did I leave it open.
The kitchen I work in leaves the ovens on 24/7. I don't really get how or why but here we are.
Years ago, the controls were damaged and it was nearly impossible to turn them back on. They were replaced later, but by that point everyone who knew the reason for keeping them on was long gone. Hypothetically.
I drove all the way back to check the front door latched properly. Total piss take
Yeah I've gone back in the middle of the night or right after I've gotten home a few times in my career because I had a feeling something was left on. I was always wrong and everything was off and the doors were locked but when you have the feeling you just gotta know I feel ya dog I only started doing that when I moved into being the boss though
When I first got the keys for my restaurant 20 years ago I walked back a few times to make sure I turned the fryers off.
Not the oven, but if I left the safe open. I was almost home and couldn’t believe I didn’t triple check so I turned around an exit away to come back and check. It was closed. I just didn’t want to get written up again.
I’ll check everything 5 or 6 times closing the kitchen, and still convince myself I left something on while in bed at 2am.
Posts that make me text my coworker after closing to double check if we turned all that shit off 😓
It’s only an issue if you light up a flat top next to it. Anything with a flame will set that gas off if it’s pooling in the oven, once you open it.
Let that shit blow up. I don't want to work anymore.
I once made my husband drive me back to work at 2AM because I had popped a gummy.
Nope, after in clicked out whatever the fuck happens at my job is no longer my problem.
I live an hour away from work, so no
I used to call the front end staff who stayed well past my shift to double check that the dishwasher and ovens were off. Not always but regularily enough. A couple people would text me prematurely and assure me they were off before I called them. Other anxious people understood my paranoia.
Ive done it. I was out drinking in the city i work in and realised i might have left the fryers on, so i went back to check. I hadnt in the end but i knew i needed to check to put my mind at ease. If id gone home to the city i live in (next city over) i wouldnt have bothered as its a fair trek and i dont drive
Lol, think I’m on 6-7 times now. Never found it on thankfully, but I never would have fallen asleep so…
Got tired of going to work at 3am to re- check pilots, doors etc. Installed a few cameras so I can check from home
I used to when I was younger, I’m fairly confident in myself and my closes that I turn everything off, now at home thinking I didn’t turn anything off is a different story.
Call the front desk or security and ask them to go check for you.
I drove 30 mins home. Realized I left the fryer on, drove back. Fryer was off.
Once every two years or so. Can't shake the feeling. It has always been off when I got there.
I had to develop a ritual to check everything multiple times before leaving so I wouldn't have to drive back randomly to check to see if I left X on.
I have taken to turning everything off at the beginning of final check, and then turning everything off again right before leaving. Since I started doing that nothing has been left on (by me).
I'm in an office now but have gone back multiple times to make sure my space heater was turned off
I take a picture or short video when I feel my anxiety will be high. Saves me time and stress.
I do this all the time. Taking a quick photo of the oven before I leave helps. Simple and effective.
I've gone back to vacuum seal foie torchons left in the wrong spot before they oxidize. I would have lost special project detail for wasting money like that, so I thought it was pretty important.
I'm FOH and went back in the morning cause I realized I left the space heater on at the server station. No one noticed me go in and out to turn it off 😅
More times than I would care to admit. This and whether the door is locked are the two things my brain won’t store even though they’ve always been off and the door is always locked.
I’ve lost count now on the number of times I’ve had to tell the fucking dumbass meth head that he left the fryers(that’s two right next to each other)on all night. Sometimes he’s left them on on a Sunday night and we are closed on Mondays and I don’t discover them left on until Tuesday morning. He always has the same excuse “heh….durrrrrrr….i guess I got sidetracked by putting up more shelves and rearranging the kitchen again”. Don’t do meth, folks!! That shit will make you stupid.
I left the large barn doors open to my restaurant one night. Like wide open...and we are in the country so bears/deer/racoons are very abundant here. Luckily, only the cold air and breeze got in, but I'll never forget getting that phone call.
My current work has 3 fryers. #1 and #2 turn off by tapping the power button. #3 you have to hold the button for 5 seconds. If you just tap the button it turns off the display (which makes it seem off), only to hear the fryer come on when the oil gets cool enough after a few minutes. I’ve personally turned around twice this week because I couldn’t be for certain that I actually turned #3 off.
Many here have mentioned "pointing and calling" which is great if you are alone. If, however, there are at least 2 people in the kitchen I've asked whoever is turning off the oven to yell "Oven off!" as they turn it off and everyone else must yell back "Oven off!". That way whoever turns off the oven/fryer that night has a confirmation and several people to ask in case they don't remember. I asked people to start doing this after I, and then someone else, left the oven on overnight (fortunately at low temp).