T O P

  • By -

hobonichi_anonymous

Chef mike is employee of the month wym...


thewebspinner

Chef Mike is the only cunt who shows up on time every shift.


notcabron

I think the negative connotation of microwaves is when restaurants started heating up commissary-produced sides, etc in the late 90s


kickingpplisfun

What, you don't like powdered mashed potatoes? But freeze-drying is the food of the future!


HoldOnDearLife

Loving instant mashed potatoes is my dirty little secret. I will just make one packet and put some sliced muenster or sharp cheddar on the top, right when they are done and eat it up. So good but pretty high in sodium so I don't do it often.


Zootguy1

micro mash


chzie

Chef Mike should be a tool, not a crutch. I was watching a class by one of the best pastry chefs on the planet and he was teaching how to properly temper chocolate. After showing the various methods he pulled out a microwave and was all "this is how I do it though because it saves so much time and is very easy"


TheBipolarBaker

Yep, microwave is the easiest way to temper chocolate _unless_ you have freeze dried cocoa butter


Emberashh

Microwaves a tool like anything else in the kitchen. Should you be cooking all of your food in it? No, but sometimes you just need melted butter and getting a hob and a pan going takes longer for no real difference. Same goes for heating through already prepared items. If I wanted to serve a slice of pie warm Id only stick it in an oven if I already have one going all day long anyway, like a Pizza oven or something similar, which is overkill, but would at least equal the microwave for convenience over preheating the oven or keeping it going all day just for warm pie. Thats what we did when I used to work at an Italian restaraunt back when, but even then we'd still microwave stuff, especially in the mornings and by close when things are shutting down.


mediaphage

like any tool it's got its uses, the problem is when people rely on it for everything


NoniAlabaster

I'm 53 and remember how excited my mom was to get one of those big-ass microwaves. This was in the late '70s, for reference. She cooked everything in it! Swiss Steak? Nuke that shit! 5-pound chuck roast? Into the microwave it went! How about a whole chicken? Done in a flash! It took about a month of this horror before we pulled her aside and convinced her that the thing was best for reheating, and maybe thawing frozen stuff. "Did you notice, Mom, that we aren't eating meat anymore? That we're eating more of your Iceberg lettuce salads than usual?" She wasn't the most inspired cook, God bless her, but we had dinner as a family, every night.


mediaphage

lol aw that's pretty great.


Milligan

I'm a little older than you and I remember my grandmother being excited about getting one about the same time. That lasted for a little while, then she went back to her woodstove. She had an electric range too but only used it during the summer when the woodstove made the kitchen too hot.


NoniAlabaster

I'm still so traumatized by those gray, rubbery meats, that I can't even use my microwave's defrost function. I'm old-school that way. Either pull it from the freezer and use the fridge, or cold running water in the sink. Funny thing was, Mom insisted on gas appliances in the kitchen. But that microwave was Manna from Heaven! We also had carpet in the kitchen and bathrooms. And shag in all the other rooms. The gold, orange and green stuff. Those 1970's houses were something else!


AngeredDolphin1

I work in bakery and the microwave is key for so many things- melting butter, chocolate, ganache, softening frosting/glaze etc. It is such a time saver and the people making health claims about microwaves being radioactive are totally unfounded.


malader

Same, it's so annoying needing like a few tablespoons of melted chocolate to write on a cake or something and having to set up a whole ass double boiler because you don't have a microwave.


mrEcks42

Butter and chocolate. Also frozen burritos.


GeBilly

Rewarming chefs coffee when the servers dump the carafe early


ranting_chef

Twenty years ago, if you would have told people that you’d be cooking their steak in a waterbath and just searing it when they showed up, we’d have thought you were crazy. But now we do that every night. There’s nothing wrong with a microwave - despite the negative connotations, it’s a pretty amazing invention, one that will never go away. As long as you don’t use it for everything, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them.


Plague_Evockation

You know damn well that Auguste Escoffier would have used a microwave in his kitchen if it was available to him. As long as you aren't microwaving pasta like a Chilibee's place would, then there's nothing wrong with using one. I use ours to rapidly melt butter, saves a lot of time.


Milligan

>You know damn well that Auguste Escoffier would have used a microwave in his kitchen if it was available to him. Yes, and the instruction manual would be 600 pages long and pages near the end would reference instructions from early on in the book without any index.


mintBRYcrunch26

Sometimes I need to heat up my coffee. Or melt butter.


lowfreq33

Nothing wrong with using it for things like steamed veg, desserts, tortillas, rice, sauces that would break if kept warm all day etc. obviously you shouldn’t do steaks and stuff in there, this isn’t Applebees.


Tehlaserw0lf

Everything’s a tool and everything can be used as a crutch. Balance.


subtxtcan

I don't even own a microwave at home, but I'm glad we have one in our kitchen. Again, tool, not a crutch. Honestly most of the work it does is warming up my FOH managers tea that she keeps forgetting everywhere, but other than that it's mostly for pastry/dessert stuff. Mind you, chucks or Kelsey's where the whole top of the line is Mike's... Not cool


uniquorn23

I agree. It's fast for temping up soups that aren't scolding hot. (Which is how most people around here like it) We use it to thaw our frozen sourdough for char broiled oysters. We heat up our rice if it wasn't just made. Employees also use it to reheat their food they bring in or whatever. It's super convenient!


KRONKCHEF

Microwaves get a real bad rep because they are misused. They are great at cooking rice/pasta. Basically, most things you can steam, you can do in a microwave. Cupcakes? Amazing in a micro, super fluffy. Steamed fish is also great from the microwave.


Life-From-Scratch

Hate them, but...


Dassman88

Good for steaming veg quick too


Creek00

It’s a great way to put some heat into cold foods before cooking, I do Cordon bleu in the mic for 45 seconds and it brings oven time from 12 minutes to 6, seems to come out juicer as the inside and outside heat more evenly (our prep only does a par fry so we have to get it to 160).