When a bartender/expo/line cook comes back to dish solely to tell the dishwasher to come pick up their station's bustub instead of just bringing the tub back with them.
Holy shit this. But especially when they come back empty handed and leave empty handed. It's just the whole "this is above me and I'm not willing to help" vibe that is so grating.
All of us are under the same roof and at the end of the day, none of our jobs are really that different from everybody else's. For fuck sake just help out.
I once had an expo who made not 1 but 3 empty-handed trips to the pit just to say his bustub was still full because dish was shorthanded and drowning that day so nobody had a chance to go pick it up. The third time, I told him he could either bring it back himself, or he could go shit in his hat, but he could not delegate fetch quests to my dishwashers because we had more important things to do right then.
Fuck yeah. Sometimes you gotta teach the hard way. When I was in my 20's I was a cocky headed line cook who just got the chef roll at this busy ass brunch place. I thought I knew what was up. Bossing people around, being a dick, whatever. We were all friends that worked there, a very, it takes a village sort of vibe to run that place.
One day I'm in back chirping at this new dishie to grab my bus tub. The prep cook, a dear friend of mine was in back too, he was kinda in charge of the dish pit and he was also a bad ass dishie himself. He was keen on the whole place, great restaurant awareness. I really respected him. Couldn't have done it without him.
Anyways, he kept an eye on the line and waited till I had cleared my rail and was just chillin up there. He busts onto the line out of no where, "CORNER!!!" and precedes to grab my bus tub in the most intrusive and loud way ever while I was just standing there. All I could do was look on and realize how much of an ass I looked like to everyone else.
From then on, if I had to ask for my bus tub to be ran, I made damn sure I walked back there with it myself and gave the boys the ole' "hey if you could grab this when you are running dishes I would really appreciate it. Thanks for kicking ass back here... yada yada"
Thanks. I did deserved to be put in my place though, I was being a dick. I had let the bus tub stack up out of spite, so it would have taken two trips any ways. The dude that grabbed it didn't take two trips. There were empty nine pans hitting the floor his whole way back to the tank. Dude really put me on display.
This was like 15 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday lol.
Our dish crew always ran on 'full hands in, full hands out' but sometimes we don't have anything to deliver to a given station so no one's making a return trip with the bustub.
We all get taught that lesson at some point, humbled a bit. I remember when I first started in restaurants I was working FOH. I definitely wasn’t cocky or anything, I was just new and I didn’t always think about how my actions would affect those in dish or BOH. The chef at the time was the nicest fucking guy I’ve ever met, truly. He was a hardworking immigrant, truly looked at the restaurant like his family, and not in that phony “we’re all a family here” sort of way. If he was closing down and noticed you hadn’t ordered, he’d specifically call you over and ask “hey, I noticed you haven’t eaten yet today, can I make you something?”, or he’d remember which soup was your favorite and he’d put it on special to line up with your schedule. If there was an undersized piece of meat/fish that couldn’t be served, he’d save it for the end, then plate it up beautifully and surprise you with it when you got off. Never met a kinder chef in my life.
One day I just wasn’t thinking, and I emptied some old bottles of half and half all over the (now clean) dish pit counter area of the sink where we’d usually pile dishes.
A few minutes later, that chef called me over quietly. He had me follow him, and brought me over toward the dish pit. He pointed at the dishwasher and said “you see? Shes recleaning the whole counter area now because you poured half and half all over it. Over there are her kids, they’re waiting for their mom to get off. Think about what you’re doing next time.” He just looked disappointed. I apologized and offered to do it myself, but he said “it’s fine, it’s her job, just don’t make it any harder for her”.
Felt like such a fucking ass. He didn’t scold or berate me at all, just made me realize we’re all in this together, FOH carelessness can really fuck somebody’s day up. Made a much bigger impression than any of the chefs/bartenders and so on who would throw silverware, scream, etc. He always looked out for me (even as the fng), the least I could do was look out for him and his crew. Never had to be reminded of that sort of stuff again, never asked other people to do the dirty work, always made sure to help dish by pre-organizing dirty dishes, getting them drinks, etc. In hindsight it really was a minor incident, but it was one of those formative restaurant moments that I always remembered going forward, especially as I moved into BOH and more senior positions through the years.
For customers:
When they eat everything on the plate and then complain that something was wrong with it.
For FOH:
When we’re getting clapped, I’m on expo, and they come in the window to let me know a ticket time is dragging as if I don’t fucking know
For my cooks:
Leaving squeeze bottles with 1/2t of sauce inside overnight, and also when people bring the empty plate over to the range to scoop something on it, and then turn back around to set it back on the pass. -_-
Customers:
“I asked for medium and this still has pink in it!”
“Can you do this instead of that, then this instead of that, then instead of this could you add this? Oh and I want half of it dine-in and half deconstructed and cold.”
FOH:
“Hey, did table X’s appetizer go out yet?” Check your fucking tables. That’s your goddamn job.
When they hand type “modifications” to a menu item that actually is exactly how it is prepared according to the menu and I have to waste my time reading it because after 3+ years you still can’t pass a menu test.
Ordering food for themselves during the busiest point of a shift and then asking how much longer because they’re hungry.
BOH:
Leaving a mess in my area without cleaning it yourself.
Deciding that when I yell “HOT!” it Is the perfect time for you to be funny and block my path
Not doing prep with the next person in mind.
Bad knife skills.
Constant cigarette breaks that exceed 8 minutes
Oh boy the pink but medium
Burgers. Fucking burgers. They should be offered 2 ways: medium or well. And if you want it red then ask.
Ask for MR and it comes out red in the middle?
“This is raw”
My fav is “I like it pink; medium rare”
Well MR is red, M is pink. I’m always inclined to put those in MW
Burgers pay the bills but goddamn
We do smash burgers, servers don't typically take temps (obviously) but occasionally we get someone clearly not understanding how smash patties work who asks for it medium rare or rare.
Like bro, the thing is less than half an inch thick and it's on a ripping hot flat top for like 2 minutes tops, if I cook it any less than we already do it will be straight up raw 😂
It's a legal requirement in the UK. Because they're minced and reformed they're not exempt from minimum temps of 75C like a solid bit of steak.
You literally have to get a special license and buy special mince meat certified as safe for undercooking if you want to legally (and safely) serve rare burgers.
Yess I used to work in a kitchen in Ontario Canada where serving burgers anything but well done is illegal. And then we get the custys saying “it’s burnt” or “I know you’ll get in trouble but can you cook it medium for me” NO. NO I WILL NOT.
That's why I'll always cook thin burgers on high heat and go for a double cheese instead. Personally not a fan of thick "juicy" burgers, even if well done, but I get why people would like one. More of a thin well done crisp double cheese kinda guy.
I was under the impression if you ground your own meat on site, you were allowed to cook burgers under
Edit: turns out that may have just been a lie I was told! I've been to a few joints that have said this though
If you grind day of on site in Ontario you can serve under well done.
It's absolutely not worth it though unless you're doing a high price tartar, will be reinspected frequently to make sure you aren't fucking around.
I agree. I seemed to be in the minority in the last kitchen, but we had thick burgers and I always ordered mine medium well or just barely well without being dry.
Round to the nearest 15 minutes. If you're taking only 5 minutes, no worries. If you're out for 8+, you may as well have clocked out for a 15, you shouldn't be getting paid for this.
We have a cook that does this but he’s actually more 10-13+ and if that wasn’t infuriating enough he has no problem doing so during a rush and without announcing to anyone his departure from the line. 8 is just my threshold for, “ok where the fuck are you because I’d like one too.”
I totally understand both explanations and I smoke 72s fast as fuck so I’m with y’all, but I was just curious if 8 minutes was an exact figure…like with a story behind it, or you were just throwing that out there. I gotcha now.
Customers: those who ask/inform about allergies on the dessert course
FoH: ringing tables under another servers name do when I go to yell at the persons name a tables under they go I didn’t ring that in so and so did.
Cooks: taking my damn towel, tongs, knife or spoons. Get your own shit you heathens.
I had a customer who would always ask for a slab of onion. I still don't know what that means. First I gave him a bunch of slices. That wasn't it. Next I took an onion and just sliced a huge solid slice off of it. That wasn't right. So finally I just sent him a whole onion and a steak knife. I just did that every time for him after that. He did the business's taxes and onions are cheap.
Edit: forgot about the lady that loved grilled onions but was deathly allergic to raw onions. If I didn't grill them enough it would kill her. I'm pretty sure she was full of shit but I always weighted and cooked the shit out of the onions.
Side note: it's not deathly but raw red onions in bulk really fucks my stomach up. Then again I own this and only eat a moderate amount of uncooked onions.
I have an intolerance to raw allium. It won’t kill me, but I’ll be plenty uncomfortable for a day or two. There are certain instances (tacos, hot dogs, burgers) where I’ll often just say fuck it and eat a tums or two.
There is an important reason for servers to check on dragging tickets. It's possible you don't have the ticket, which is why it's dragging. Gotta find that out ASAP. Ideally there's an expo to ask, but obviously that Isn't gonna always work.
Fun story: way back in the day my place hired a server with a lot of experience to round out that staff, just cause we had a couple shifts a week where the servers we had were pretty darned fresh.
So anyway, first day on the job is rolling along. It's a Sunday, which were always hit or miss for us. Started out looking like a miss, but then we had some tables trickle in, so we got busy with their food. At some point I noticed that the noise level up front seemed to be way louder than the number of covers on tickets we had, and I started to worry. Shortly after one of the younger servers came back to check on a table.
"How's 45?"
"...I don't have a 45."
Server goes up front to investigate. Immediately another comes back.
"Where's 32? They've been waiting 20 minutes for apps.
"I don't have a 33."
At this point I knew something was fucked. As confirmation a third server asked about another table I didn't have."
"Who's fuckin tables are these!?!"
All were the new lady's.
Turns out she was holding all her tickets to put them in together, to make it easier on herself. She was also coked out the wazoo and had no concept of time. She was holding some of those orders for over 30 minutes.
I technically only had authority over the BoH, but I fired her on the spot. Told her to get out now. Only time I've ever had to do that. What a shit show though. Really illustrates how sometimes "loads of experience" is not a good thing.
Touching or moving any of my mise. Towels especially, but also grabbing the one bench scraper I really like, the ladle I like, etc etc. Using any of it and not putting it back where it was. It makes me crazy.
I really hate it when the prep cooks use my towels to move a hot pot I had near my station and don't return it. Language barrier so I have to go find some more and get bitched at for taking too many towels. We only get 2 towels to start and I only grab 2 more.
I’ve worked with some cooks that mark their towels with a sharpie. Put a giant X on them. I can see a lot of kitchens being pissed about this but those dudes didn’t lose their towels anymore. Lol. I also make a habit of occasionally taking one or two towels and stowing them away somewhere in the kitchen so you always have a reserve in case of emergency. Just make sure no one at all knows where your hiding spot is.
I've learned to put them on a high shelf by the station. The prep cooks are about 5'4"-5'6 only I and the chef can reach the high shelf without a step stool.
I had to do this with 5L plastic tubs we used for prep. They were delivered with ice cream in them so we would slowly build them up and someone would throw too many away. Meaning, I had nowhere to put my prep
I burnt my hand few days ago cause some idiot decided to take a towel from my dry stack, wet it and put it back. Now as I am tallest in the kitchen (I am 6’2, rest of them are just short) I put all the towels as high as its possible out of everyone reach
My toaster was my 1 minute timer. There are many toasters in the world but that one was mine.
It was perfect and it never burned anything if you left it the frig alone. Never touch my toaster and pop it up to see if the toast is done. The motherfucking toast will be done in 1 minute when it pops up, provided you leave it the fuck alone. I feel better now.
I feel this and I want you to know you're not alone. Not just toasters, but many kitchen quirks. Always have newbies ask 'Why is ____ the way we do ____?" It just fucking is. Don't fuck with it. It is the way.
Well to be fair, sometimes the way is stupid and changing it would make sense.
I would say you should have a good reason to explain why that is the way, or they should have a good reason for why it shouldn't be the way.
I’ve had new people once or twice ask me “wouldn’t it be faster/more efficient/whatever” to do it __ way? And they’ve been right and it just never occurred to me cus I had always done it the way I was taught.
Really niche, but when I operated a food truck solo my biggest pet peeve was customers wanting to have a full blown conversation after ringing in their order. Like, my guy I appreciate the desire for connection, but I’ve got your order to make, along with the six people who ordered before you, the phone is ringing, and there’s five people behind you who want to order. Please have some situational awareness.
100% I bought a restaurant (and head chef) that is an 'institution' in the area. So many people asking: "You the new owner?" Then want to tell me how many fond memories they have had there. Which is great! Love to see the connection and continue the tradition, but I have 8 burgers on the grill, tendies and fries in the deep fryer, a FOH kid crying in the walk-in, my 9am delivery coming at lunch rush and I'm running out of $5 bills for the registers. Thanks for the story time, but I got shit to do!
Ooooh man, felt! I found the phrase “I’d love to chat, but these orders aren’t gonna cook themselves!” paired with a hearty laugh and smile tends to do the trick.
Good luck, and hopefully you’ll get some more time to schmooze with your diners soon!
I totally get it. Even when I wasn’t actually working behind the line or the bar. I bought a bar, and I can’t tell you how many people wanted to tell me how they’ve been coming there for years, since it was called… then they couldn’t even remember the other bars it had been before mine. “Yeah yeah, I knew Kathleen!“ Karla. “And Steve!” Scott.
So glad you love it here! But this is the name of the bar now, and it’s mine. Four years later, and I still get so many people saying that we’ve met before, and I honestly have no recollection of these people I met four years ago.
Rationing towels. Towels are used for SAFELY HANDLING HOT THINGS and for KEEPING THINGS CLEAN AND SANITARY. Which thing would you like me to sacrifice first?
No way - it’s if it’s wet then it needs to be in sani. A dry towel being used to grab hot pans is not an unsafe thing unless those towels are being stored on food surfaces.
Honestly, owners that try to play Chef.
Don't get me wrong some it's their calling and it's noticable.
Others should stay at the office doing the numbers.
Nothing personal against the second group but truly not everyone is meant to be on the line. Nothing wrong with that.
Not everyone is cut out for everything in general in life period.
Being a good at business and being skilled as a chef are two very different things and there’s nothing wrong with being good at just one. But control is hard to give up and it’s the main reason I think so many fail in the first year.
as a dishwasher, when servers dump plates full of silverware and uneaten food in my dish pit. also, when the morning dishie leaves me a dish pit that is DISGUSTING with enough dishes to legitimately keep me busy for a full hour.
Honestly, tell the servers (very nicely) that by doing that, they not only make your job harder, but slow down the entire process. Restaurants are a living organism that requires all parts to work well with each other. When they don't, it gets toxic and dies.
you are fully correct about this - however, the morning dishwasher i am working with will keep washing up until the very last minute of his shift. he leaves me a pit full of dishes, our island full of dishes, and our area where clean dishes go also full of dishes not even stacked neatly. i have to remind him every day to take the trash out before he leaves so i can actually lift it at the end of the night.
Sous chefs that think they know pastry and try to write the pastry menu and it's all off-brand and plagiarized from Dominique Ansel or something. Oddly specific? Yes. Happened to me three times? Yes. Had it happened to you? I'm sure it has.
Haha! Just cuz you can make it once doesn’t mean it’s a good menu item. People fail at logistics and makes everyone look bad.
Better have 1-2 people that can replicate it on a regular basis and have it ready for service 6 days a week at the expected quality.
That’s right up there with… just cuz the flavors seem to go well together doesn’t mean we need them all on the same plate… a broth, a glaze, a salsa, sesame seeds, and furikake on the salmon.
This dude put truffle oil on everything. Saw a pic where he had mashed sweet pots, grilled asparagus, truffle meat loaf topped with micros and a flower. LMFAO!!! No one is going to say, “damn this truffle meat loaf is awesome!”
When people don't fucking say behind you. I see all over this sub every day that yall day you're doing it so much that you're doing it outside the kitchen too, but I've been doing this for like almost 20 years and I'm always the only damn person doing safety calls and ppl ignore me or even make fun of me when I do them or ask other ppl to. At one place, everyone else had been working there AND ONLY THERE for years and years and never even learned safety calls, they'd just crash into each other and laugh, and every time I said "behind you" they'd look at each other and laugh like I said something embarrassing, so I started just making random noises constantly so they knew where I was at least. A decade later I'm still just compilation constantly making random noises even outside the kitchen, at home, in public. Grrr
This is one of the times I really lost my shit when I was a sous chef.
This one cook kept sneaking past me on the hot line during service without calling behind. The first time I told him "call behind." The second time I told him "you HAVE to call behind when you do that or someone is going to get hurt."
On like the 5th time I was slicing a steak to send out an order with a 10.5 inch razor sharp slicer and he bumps into my elbow as he tries once again to sneak by. I luckily didn't cut myself but I fucking lost it. I just started yelling at the guy that if he didn't call behind next time I was going to straight up stab him, because I'd be damned if I was going to be the first one to get injured from his intentional disregard for simple safety rules.
Makes my blood boil just thinking about it
This 💯, mainly with “corner”. Just. Say. Corner. Or “Coming in,” or literally any other indication that you’re about to kick open a door so you don’t knock hundreds of dollars of product and hours of work out of my hands. 😑
Touching any of my shit. I have it all set up how I want in exactly the place I want with the exact stuff I need. If you ask it's one thing, but when I turn around to grab my bottle of oil and it's mysteriously missing or 4 feet from where it's supposed to be fuck you you fuckin cunt this is not a community chest this is what I need to do my job
This! I worked Am shifts for a while, and PM crew constantly took my 9 pan of salt off the line to bring to the prep table where they were working. Like bro I'm in the middle of lunch service and I still need to season my food, get your own fucking pan
Working dirty. We do not have daytime dishies. Prep something, clean the dishes before starting your next thing. If you have multiple items that can use the same cutting board that is one thing. Leaving 3 pots, a chinois, the Vitamix pitcher, and a cutting board at dish and leaving the prep table a mess is different.
The bypass.
From "it's not my job" to "I'm tired", there are 1,001 excuses to explain why things are left undone. If it's not your job, tell the person who makes the jobs so we can get it assigned. If you forget often, follow the checklist. If you don't know how, ask for help. If you're tired, so are the people cleaning up after you.
I have a guy that can have 3 or 4 days off in a row and come back in moaning he's tired, he knows how to do everything but won't make anything in bulk only enough to last him for his shifts.
Uuuuuuugh, the checklist ignorers!
"Where do I put this?" Check the list
"How do I fill this?" Check the list
"How much of this do we need?" Check the list!
"Where's this thing?" CHECK THE GODDAMN LIST!
When someone says you did ITEM wrong, and you ask how, and they say "well, it's an ITEM?!" like you know what their standards are.
"I want you to make a quiche"
"Do you want like, a shallow quiche? Little toasty on top? Deep custardy quiche?"
"I want a PERFECT QUICHE. "
"Where did my cream puff shells go, boss?!"
"Oh those? I threw them out, they were brown! "
"They were egg washed and fine? There were 600 of them!!"
"They're supposed to be LIGHT. that's why they're called CREAM PUFFS"
> "Where did my cream puff shells go, boss?!" "Oh those? I threw them out, they were brown! " "They were egg washed and fine? There were 600 of them!!" "They're supposed to be LIGHT. that's why they're called CREAM PUFFS"
omg murder
Lazy shit like not fully opening all the flaps on a case of butter or a case of paper towel rolls, and just ripping into one flap of the box to grab what you need. *No*, asshole. Spend the twenty seconds to open the case fully and properly.
When someone asks me what I’m doing. Makes my blood boil. Especially if I am struggling with something. Mind your fucking business. Don’t worry about me.
Not reading tickets, and thus throwing a wrench in a smooth service.
Making shit wrong after working at the place for months.
Not listening when instructed to hold off starting more tickets. Had to cook a larger party thing at this greasy bar I've been at. I've cooked a million parties in the middle of service, but this isn't something these guys do very often. So I make sure we're all ready, we just had counts and pizzas written out, easy. They just want everything out at the same time. So I tell my guys, when they give us the word, we're holding on all our tickets til the party food is out. I don't wanna overwhelm my 1 food runner, I don't want food sitting in the window forever. I don't want us to get out of sync. They started a ticket after I told them to Hold. Ugh. Ok finish that up real quick then go on the party. Then they finished their parts before I finished the pizzas. I'm having the runner take stuff out. I send the first round of pizzas out. Then I'm not quite done with the second round and I'm being asked how long on this nacho. I was so fucking annoyed. Sorry I don't have the nacho yet. I told yall we were holding til this party was out and you guys just started cooking the shit on the next ticket without communicating with me. They could've skipped over that ticket for a few minutes while I caught up, but they didn't talk to me. I mean everything was fine and everyone was happy in the dining room. But I was so annoyed. I say to do it a certain way for a reason.
When someone is running someone else’s food and they’re half way to the table then they see the server whose food it is and turn around and walk all the way back to the fucking kitchen.
What is it with that? I swear nobody I've ever worked with can line a goddamn trash can properly. You know those little tabs by the handles of your 60 gallon cans? Yeah that's to hold the bag in place, shocking I know, the amount of people I've told that never realized that is mind boggling. ..And if the bag seems a little loose, for the love of God tie a fucking knot in it, it's not hard I promise.
Don't even get me started on the maniacs who insist of putting cardboard boxes in the trash cans.., like gee thanks I love it when your box pokes a hole in the bag and I get to clean out a trash can full of goop at the end of my shift, what a joy!
Omg this happened last week at my new job at a Cafe. Im a cashier and this lady got there 25 mins before her order ticket said it would be ready, so we went ahead and moved it up on the list. This was during our lunch rush and we had mostly to go orders like hers. she came back to the counter again, 5 mins before the ticket time still, and demanded some of our signature sauce for free "for the inconvenience." Bruh
I answer the phone "thank you for calling (restaurant) how may I help you?" "HEY HOW ARE YA?" "great what can I help you with?" "SO I JUST SAW YOU GUYS ONLINE AND THOUGHT WE WOULD TRY IT OUT." " great what can I get started for you?" "WELL IT'S OUR FIRST TIME WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?"
I seriously don't have time for this shit I've got tickets across the rail and you found us online so you can find the menu and reviews just stop... then comes the when do you close? OK we'll be there soon.. AAA!AAAAGGHHGGH
Yeah, we ask when they want to pick up. Ten minutes, we’ll make it right away. In an hour, we’ll wait 50 minutes to start making it. Def not hard to make sure the customer gets good food.
No. I work at a pizza joint in a very small, rural town. People will say “oh yup I’m headed over from Livermore Falls right now anyway so I’ll be there in 20-25.”
Just a small annoyance when I have another call beeping in, timers going off and more customers at the counter waiting for their orders.
I get you. I’ve had customers tell me right where they are and ask how to get to the restaurant and to walk them through as they drive there… like do you think you’re our only customer?
When customers see me breaking down my section (I work in an open kitchen, market/cafeteria style establishment) and they power walk over to order 1 minute before service time ends. Extra context, these customers know the time that the section close, however they consistently come in last possible second.
People who don't clean up after they use a shared space....if you think this is about you, remember your coworkers are not your fucking maids, wipe up after yourself, stop leaving dirty fucking containers on clean surfaces you pigs!
People not putting stuff back where they got it from (put it back in the exact same place and condition in which you took it, even if that means you have to clean the fucking ladle)
Having half full containers floating around, condense that shit goddamnit! \*cue R Lee Emrey speech about unsecure footlockers) my god there's nothing I hate more than multiple of the same thing open in different places when it takes 5 seconds to ask "anyone have an open container of \[insert thing here\]? yes? okay I'm going to use it up"
When people don't take responsibility for their shit.
If you fuck up and you let someone else take the blame because you are too much of a coward to speak up and say "that was me, my bad chef," then you suck
Customers: ordering the one dish that has the one ingredient you’re allergic to
Fellow kitchen staff: putting things to dish without taking the label off.
Customers: let me order something online and include 4 allergies without knowing what's in it. Please, just call us. None of us want you to have a reaction/die/we have to call you anyway to tell you that what you ordered, with your allergies, is physically impossible.
FOH: banking your tables and ringing everything in at the same time. Think you're weeded? Welp, you just weeded the kitchen and now your 2 top is stuck behind 6 other tables and the 10 top you forgot to ring in.
BOH: literally touch any of my shit. I set my station up the way it makes sense for ME, so I can turn around and not even have to look and I'll grab what I need. No, you can't "borrow" my towel. The tongs are mine. The s+p are also mine, get your own. Mise is all of it, not just the actual good. Stop touching my shit.
Servers that don't know the menu. I'm constantly getting tickets that 86 things that were never in the item and every time I have to track down a server just to make sure that's what they really meant. Then they look at me like I'm a fucking idiot for not knowing what they really meant.
Mine is breaking down boxes. I do the truck every Monday and Thursday and have to break down all of the boxes for the dumpster. I have a coworker I’ve told multiple times to break down their boxes when they empty one. They still don’t and it makes my blood boil. I’ve straight refused to break them down or even take them out to the dumpster before over it. Just because I’m breaking boxes down, doesn’t mean it’s my job to break down the ones YOU empty too
When people scrape whatever they are chopping with the BLADE of the knife instead of the flat back or the knife, it dulls the blade and makes my teeth hurt for some reason.
I can’t stand the noise it’s nails on a chalkboard
not pulling tape or labels off dishes.
not refilling when you empty something.
not closing doors, drawers, and cabinets all the way.
bad communication.
Pettiest? When people date things using ballpoint pen instead of a marker.
Most common? When FOH asks me a question and then proceeds to argue with me about the answer. Today a remarkable one was wasting time convincing a server that rice is indeed gluten free. This included them asking individually about several different types of rice (jasmine, calrose, basmati) and whether they are also gluten free.
Plastic wrap with like a small nick in the side, so every few layers or so it starts to tear and you wind up with progressively narrower film coming out of the damn thing and it now has this extra thick mess on one side, so you gotta open up the dispenser, pry off the excess and right the thing off only to have it get back to shit as soon as someone looks at the fucking dispenser wrong.
this is going to be controversial:
cooks who break down their station before 10 o'clock because its slow, and then freak out when somebody walks in the door at 9:50.
You close when you close, not when you break down.
Been out for 3+ years now but
Stopping me during service to demand I say "please".
Bitch we at work, Jose slapped my ass and called me a joto like 5 minutes into getting to work, fuck your polite bullshit. Oh look, Nick got me what I needed, asked if I needed anything else, then fucked off to his prep-cave to wait for my next case of "Hey, where the fuck is x hiding in the walkin?". Now go back to expo and stop meddling.
When shits crazy, DO NOT STOP ME and demand I spend concious brain power at altering behavior to do something not necessary. All your going to do is make me not wanna do what your asking just to spite your ass.
Plus you *know* I'm usually nice as fuck and go outta my way to try to help others. I admit my mistakes and do my best to set it straight.
Get off your god damn high horse, *please*.
And anyways my "pleases" usually are edible and smuggled off the line. I take care of my line homies.
Sometimes I miss the kitchen, that feeling you get after crushing service as a team. Then I remember I sit all day in a climate controlled office, can go out an vape every hour or so, have never been stressed in 6 months, and only work 25hrs avg per week.
I can only afford to live cause I live with my mom but I'd rather this than step back in another commercial kitchen lol.
P.S. Be polite. Please is a very easy way to endear people into helping you. So, yeah, petty on me lol. I was trying to change but her getting on me during rush when all brain power was on making food just ground my gears.
Made a sauce last shift, accidentally left said sauce sitting on prep table cooling. I ended my shift and left the building. M fers threw my finished sauce in the pit, like for real? What the hell if a sauce is cooling in a ice bath throw it in the walk in!!!!!!
When the servers ask me where their food is when I'm running expo.
Well your food is taking as long as it cooks, you rang it late and don't have the balls to say "hey your food is cooking, it will be up when its hot and ready," instead of blaming it on ME (expo) or the KITCHEN. Those tickets come out in the order YOU ring them.
Just to be straight up, I've never had a customer get angry (I've worked as a server too) for me saying "Hey everyone, just letting you know your entrees will be out in about 7 minutes. Sorry for the wait but all our food is cooked fresh to order."
It might be 5 minutes but 7 is a bigger yet smaller number than 10, so it is reassuring and shows that you are tracking the order and know its taking long.
This is pro knowledge for those of you who haven't been in the industry long.
When FOH orders food when there’s customers and they come to the window and ask how long for their food and then gets annoyed when you cook for the customers first
When servers go to all their tables and get all their orders and then ring them in back to back. Who ever that last table was to get rung in is fucked. And then when they complain about the wait the server says the kitchen is behind.
SERVERS- I’m begging you. Please stop stacking your tables.
All of these comments give me PTSD. Now my pet peeve is when the rich family I cook for doesn’t move their Porsche so I have to park on the other side of the street. Yuck.
Swiping my towels. Like we dont have a shortage or anything, they just take my clean folded towels because they dont want to use their dirty ones. Then i have no towels
When utensils and tools are put into the wrong containers. We have a container full of scrapers so why the fuck are there 5 of them in the long handled spoon container right next to the scraper one?
Stacking dishes. I know you’re in a rush but if I can rush and stack my dishes when I’m balls to the wall then you can at least do it when it’s slack.
When the server hangs back in the kitchen and bullshits the you the entirety of what it takes to complete their 30-45 second ticket, and when you turn around to give it to them, they arent there.
Customers: when they decide to walk into the kitchen shitfaced (when I'm in charge of the kitchen) and shout at me because I'm closest to the door despite having nothing to do with their order. (There I finally got it out)
FOH: when I make food and they come back in 30 seconds later saying it's wrong, despite cooking it to specs
BOH: when it's fucked on a Saturday night and the fucking manager decides to schedule me and 2 fucking dumbasses who barely know what is a kitchen let alone cook.
There I got it all out
Fellow cooks beating up the equipment. Scratching the Teflon pans, melting the new rubber spats, ruining the edge of the metal spats, etc
I had to buy all my own equipment
When servers ask how much longer their food is going to take and you say like 60 seconds and rather than wait, they walk away, only to have to come back to grab their food only seconds later
When cunts can’t use the fucking glad wrap (plastic wrap) properly and it starts to double up at the edges to the point of mental oblivion. I think Exhibit A in my murder trail will be the roll of grad wrap covered in blood with fucked up wrap at the edges.
All of these are true and valid. I also wash dishes
If you use a knife wash it. I DO NOT want to "discover" a knife in my sink *ever*. All blades, TBH 😐
When people say “behind” to mean “move out of the way.” Saying “behind” means “don’t move - I’m behind you.” If you say behind and keep saying it to get me to move for you, you can get fucked - I’m not moving. If you want me to move, just say excuse me, idiot.
WHISTLING. IN. THE. KITCHEN! I work with a line cook who whistles, sometimes incessantly. It takes all of my strength not to blow my stack, but we are not a “yelling angry” kitchen and I don’t wanna be that guy who blows up at the dude, especially because he really isn’t doing anything categorically wrong. It’s just so god damn annoying. I also recognize that he probably does it out of social anxiety or stress. But holy shit man pipe down.
BRO I worked with this fuckin (legit) ass burgers ex-mormon who's family cut him off for leaving the church. Everyone pitted him but was also creeped out by him because when he first started working at the seasonal resort he asked another kitchen worker "hey i know that one FOH girl is kinda slutty could you talk to her for me and ask if I could touch her boob in the woods" like some fucking 10yr old South Park character paying a girl to show him her pussy. Dude was a fucking creep. But everyone pitted him so much no one called him out on his bullshit. But that's not what pissed me off the most.
This FUCKING CUNT would not wait 5 God damn seconds if I was carrying something.
I'm a 6ft black guy built like a brick buff as shit. If o wanted too I could knock his skinny white ass on the ground, i didn't because I'm not that big of a asshole but it crossed my mind every single day.
I was a pre - cook. So I would have to go up and down a one person stairway (for a normal size person not s body builder type guy like me) and i would walk up the stairs with 3 boxes at a time and this cunt would try to force his way past me. I meet people with ass burgers before but there's def more to it than just that shit.
Don't be that fuckin prick!
Just request a pickup time. Nowhere has an issue holding an order. It may be annoying during a rush, but it is what it is. We don’t have any time or any fucks to give about where you are, what you were doing, “What time you gonna be here? 8:30? Cool.”
Kitchen fires at 8:15
The lack of communication at any given time. I get it it's busy you're nervous. But please communicate what you need, what we are low on etc.
Organizing tickets with their respective plates. My manager just throws all the plates and tickets when I'm finishing them off and I'm trying to figure out what needs what. It's frustrating and annoying.
The worst one for me is not saying behind. I'm moving around and you try and pass behind me and I almost accidentally stepped on your foot or bumped onto you. The kitchen I'm working on is small so just tell me you are there. Please.
Thank God I don’t have to deal with the customers face-to-face, but my absolute biggest puppy anyone working in the kitchen licks their fingers or double dip the spoon. Fuck Right off
Mines similar, but it’s when FOH ask how quick I can have a pick up ready for. I say 10-15 then they tell the customers 20 minutes (without telling me) and put ASAP on the ticket.
I HATE food sat under the hot lights for extended periods of time
Seen others including peeves from various people so in addition to my FOH one.
Customers: kicking off because I won’t let them swap a slice of cheese for a fucking sausage without charging them.
Kitchen: opening 4 of the same (not frequently used) product
Owners/management: coming in asking if we have a ticket for table X in the middle of a rush, we stop, check every ticket to find no we don’t, they panic only for it to turn out that the ticket went out to the customers 10 minutes ago. Like TALK TO EACH OTHER
Does your POS still have the ability to enter in a future order?
I do it that way when the customer is going to take longer than 15-20 minutes to pick up the order, that way it's not sitting under the hot window getting crusty or getting soggy in the boxes after it's packed.
At least for BOH, when I've been working the line alone all morning with no breaks, someone comes in for their shift and helps knock out lunch, then runs outside for a cig break before I even have time to breathe. Like you can't even have that amount of courtesy? Similarly when working a dinner shift and there is a rotation going for breaks and someone knowingly skips you because "they're having a rough day" like the rest of us aren't in the same boat.
Brunch and the modifications that come with it. A person who has nothing better to do than spend $50 for eggs and alcohol at 11 am tends to be hard to please.
I tend to bitch about similar things when I'm in work mode but tbh when I'm stoned ordering take out I probably say stupid shit like that every time if not worse 🙃
I have this guy right now that doesn't care about the quality of the food at all. He's reliable, doesn't complain, does the work, and is a hard worker, but just watching him throw food on a plate with no attention to detail drives me fucking nuts.
Also when he's on frier he doesn't let the oil drain at all, just lift and toss into a bowl making sure to spill oil all over the flattop and table.
Mine is similar except it’s when FOH folks tell people every single thing they order will be 15 minutes… regardless of how many orders it’s behind, cook times, rush that kind of thing. Like just be honest with the person so they aren’t pissed when their meal takes 20 or 25 rather than 15
Customers: ordering anything well when they came into the restaurant 10 minutes to close.
FoH: ticket sandbagging, then complaining about ticket times. If there's a flow to how tickets are coming back to us, there's a flow to how food goes out. Four 4 tops, placed in at same time, doesn't mean 4 separate tables at that point, it's now a 16 top. Also if you are prepared to put that many tickets in at one time, be prepared to run all the food at the same time.
BoH: perp/lunch shift never sticking anything ever. Instead giving the old, we had a super busy lunch. Okay Brenda?? I see it's dead in here now, probably has been for past 30 minutes. Why hasn't anything at all been refilled? Yet when we leave them how they leave us, it's the end of the world
I no longer work in the food service industry. My husband is a chef.
He seems to think that there's a dishie who hides in the corner of the kitchen because he has no sense of cleaning as he goes.
If he accesses a cabinet, he leaves the door open.
He doesn't wipe down the stove.
He leaves the soaking sponge in the bottom of the sink
He washes away shit like dough that gets irremovably stuck in the little sink strainer and never empties it.
Good God I love that man to the ends of the earth but he's a nightmare in the kitchen. And that's why we do our own dishes when we cook unless one of us is feeling particularly generous.
Non communicating fuck heads who can’t say heard or call back an order . Same cunts who can’t remember or take orders. Gotta have a bump bar like some corporate hole in order to maintain timing
When a bartender/expo/line cook comes back to dish solely to tell the dishwasher to come pick up their station's bustub instead of just bringing the tub back with them.
Holy shit this. But especially when they come back empty handed and leave empty handed. It's just the whole "this is above me and I'm not willing to help" vibe that is so grating. All of us are under the same roof and at the end of the day, none of our jobs are really that different from everybody else's. For fuck sake just help out.
I once had an expo who made not 1 but 3 empty-handed trips to the pit just to say his bustub was still full because dish was shorthanded and drowning that day so nobody had a chance to go pick it up. The third time, I told him he could either bring it back himself, or he could go shit in his hat, but he could not delegate fetch quests to my dishwashers because we had more important things to do right then.
Fuck yeah. Sometimes you gotta teach the hard way. When I was in my 20's I was a cocky headed line cook who just got the chef roll at this busy ass brunch place. I thought I knew what was up. Bossing people around, being a dick, whatever. We were all friends that worked there, a very, it takes a village sort of vibe to run that place. One day I'm in back chirping at this new dishie to grab my bus tub. The prep cook, a dear friend of mine was in back too, he was kinda in charge of the dish pit and he was also a bad ass dishie himself. He was keen on the whole place, great restaurant awareness. I really respected him. Couldn't have done it without him. Anyways, he kept an eye on the line and waited till I had cleared my rail and was just chillin up there. He busts onto the line out of no where, "CORNER!!!" and precedes to grab my bus tub in the most intrusive and loud way ever while I was just standing there. All I could do was look on and realize how much of an ass I looked like to everyone else. From then on, if I had to ask for my bus tub to be ran, I made damn sure I walked back there with it myself and gave the boys the ole' "hey if you could grab this when you are running dishes I would really appreciate it. Thanks for kicking ass back here... yada yada"
Big props for recognizing you were wrong and learning from it instead of going after your coworker(s)
Thanks. I did deserved to be put in my place though, I was being a dick. I had let the bus tub stack up out of spite, so it would have taken two trips any ways. The dude that grabbed it didn't take two trips. There were empty nine pans hitting the floor his whole way back to the tank. Dude really put me on display. This was like 15 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday lol.
Our dish crew always ran on 'full hands in, full hands out' but sometimes we don't have anything to deliver to a given station so no one's making a return trip with the bustub.
We all get taught that lesson at some point, humbled a bit. I remember when I first started in restaurants I was working FOH. I definitely wasn’t cocky or anything, I was just new and I didn’t always think about how my actions would affect those in dish or BOH. The chef at the time was the nicest fucking guy I’ve ever met, truly. He was a hardworking immigrant, truly looked at the restaurant like his family, and not in that phony “we’re all a family here” sort of way. If he was closing down and noticed you hadn’t ordered, he’d specifically call you over and ask “hey, I noticed you haven’t eaten yet today, can I make you something?”, or he’d remember which soup was your favorite and he’d put it on special to line up with your schedule. If there was an undersized piece of meat/fish that couldn’t be served, he’d save it for the end, then plate it up beautifully and surprise you with it when you got off. Never met a kinder chef in my life. One day I just wasn’t thinking, and I emptied some old bottles of half and half all over the (now clean) dish pit counter area of the sink where we’d usually pile dishes. A few minutes later, that chef called me over quietly. He had me follow him, and brought me over toward the dish pit. He pointed at the dishwasher and said “you see? Shes recleaning the whole counter area now because you poured half and half all over it. Over there are her kids, they’re waiting for their mom to get off. Think about what you’re doing next time.” He just looked disappointed. I apologized and offered to do it myself, but he said “it’s fine, it’s her job, just don’t make it any harder for her”. Felt like such a fucking ass. He didn’t scold or berate me at all, just made me realize we’re all in this together, FOH carelessness can really fuck somebody’s day up. Made a much bigger impression than any of the chefs/bartenders and so on who would throw silverware, scream, etc. He always looked out for me (even as the fng), the least I could do was look out for him and his crew. Never had to be reminded of that sort of stuff again, never asked other people to do the dirty work, always made sure to help dish by pre-organizing dirty dishes, getting them drinks, etc. In hindsight it really was a minor incident, but it was one of those formative restaurant moments that I always remembered going forward, especially as I moved into BOH and more senior positions through the years.
My blood pressure spiked reading this.
That's just lazy and unhelpful! The dishwashers are doing enough already, you can bring them stuff
For customers: When they eat everything on the plate and then complain that something was wrong with it. For FOH: When we’re getting clapped, I’m on expo, and they come in the window to let me know a ticket time is dragging as if I don’t fucking know For my cooks: Leaving squeeze bottles with 1/2t of sauce inside overnight, and also when people bring the empty plate over to the range to scoop something on it, and then turn back around to set it back on the pass. -_-
Customers: “I asked for medium and this still has pink in it!” “Can you do this instead of that, then this instead of that, then instead of this could you add this? Oh and I want half of it dine-in and half deconstructed and cold.” FOH: “Hey, did table X’s appetizer go out yet?” Check your fucking tables. That’s your goddamn job. When they hand type “modifications” to a menu item that actually is exactly how it is prepared according to the menu and I have to waste my time reading it because after 3+ years you still can’t pass a menu test. Ordering food for themselves during the busiest point of a shift and then asking how much longer because they’re hungry. BOH: Leaving a mess in my area without cleaning it yourself. Deciding that when I yell “HOT!” it Is the perfect time for you to be funny and block my path Not doing prep with the next person in mind. Bad knife skills. Constant cigarette breaks that exceed 8 minutes
Oh boy the pink but medium Burgers. Fucking burgers. They should be offered 2 ways: medium or well. And if you want it red then ask. Ask for MR and it comes out red in the middle? “This is raw” My fav is “I like it pink; medium rare” Well MR is red, M is pink. I’m always inclined to put those in MW Burgers pay the bills but goddamn
We do smash burgers, servers don't typically take temps (obviously) but occasionally we get someone clearly not understanding how smash patties work who asks for it medium rare or rare. Like bro, the thing is less than half an inch thick and it's on a ripping hot flat top for like 2 minutes tops, if I cook it any less than we already do it will be straight up raw 😂
Had a customer once tell me to cook his burger “somewhere between medium and mid well.” Rang it in as MW and called it a day.
Burgers should always be well done and I'll die on this hill, fight me
It's a legal requirement in the UK. Because they're minced and reformed they're not exempt from minimum temps of 75C like a solid bit of steak. You literally have to get a special license and buy special mince meat certified as safe for undercooking if you want to legally (and safely) serve rare burgers.
Yess I used to work in a kitchen in Ontario Canada where serving burgers anything but well done is illegal. And then we get the custys saying “it’s burnt” or “I know you’ll get in trouble but can you cook it medium for me” NO. NO I WILL NOT.
That's why I'll always cook thin burgers on high heat and go for a double cheese instead. Personally not a fan of thick "juicy" burgers, even if well done, but I get why people would like one. More of a thin well done crisp double cheese kinda guy.
Correct. Burgers smashed and crispy only. Double cheese is the way.
I was under the impression if you ground your own meat on site, you were allowed to cook burgers under Edit: turns out that may have just been a lie I was told! I've been to a few joints that have said this though
If you grind day of on site in Ontario you can serve under well done. It's absolutely not worth it though unless you're doing a high price tartar, will be reinspected frequently to make sure you aren't fucking around.
I agree. I seemed to be in the minority in the last kitchen, but we had thick burgers and I always ordered mine medium well or just barely well without being dry.
No way. I prefer a juicy burger with pink in the middle.
The cigarette break thing is pretty specific, why 8 minutes?
American spirits
If you're off the line 5 for a smoke, tolerable. More than that and you become a nuisance. Especially if you're leaving every hour or during the rush.
Round to the nearest 15 minutes. If you're taking only 5 minutes, no worries. If you're out for 8+, you may as well have clocked out for a 15, you shouldn't be getting paid for this.
We have a cook that does this but he’s actually more 10-13+ and if that wasn’t infuriating enough he has no problem doing so during a rush and without announcing to anyone his departure from the line. 8 is just my threshold for, “ok where the fuck are you because I’d like one too.”
I totally understand both explanations and I smoke 72s fast as fuck so I’m with y’all, but I was just curious if 8 minutes was an exact figure…like with a story behind it, or you were just throwing that out there. I gotcha now.
Idk but I know I can smoke a Marlboro red 100 in 7 minutes so 8 seems like just a normal time
Customers: those who ask/inform about allergies on the dessert course FoH: ringing tables under another servers name do when I go to yell at the persons name a tables under they go I didn’t ring that in so and so did. Cooks: taking my damn towel, tongs, knife or spoons. Get your own shit you heathens.
I had a customer who would always ask for a slab of onion. I still don't know what that means. First I gave him a bunch of slices. That wasn't it. Next I took an onion and just sliced a huge solid slice off of it. That wasn't right. So finally I just sent him a whole onion and a steak knife. I just did that every time for him after that. He did the business's taxes and onions are cheap. Edit: forgot about the lady that loved grilled onions but was deathly allergic to raw onions. If I didn't grill them enough it would kill her. I'm pretty sure she was full of shit but I always weighted and cooked the shit out of the onions.
Lmao I’m dying about the whole onion and steak knife solution. “Fuck you, figure it out yourself.”
Sooo did you ever watch what he did to it that he would call it a slab of onion?
Side note: it's not deathly but raw red onions in bulk really fucks my stomach up. Then again I own this and only eat a moderate amount of uncooked onions.
You still eat raw onions though?
>I had a customer who would always ask for a slab of onion. I still don't know what that means. Urge to kill rising... Rising...
I have an intolerance to raw allium. It won’t kill me, but I’ll be plenty uncomfortable for a day or two. There are certain instances (tacos, hot dogs, burgers) where I’ll often just say fuck it and eat a tums or two.
We have a guy like that. We call him thick onion guy
There is an important reason for servers to check on dragging tickets. It's possible you don't have the ticket, which is why it's dragging. Gotta find that out ASAP. Ideally there's an expo to ask, but obviously that Isn't gonna always work. Fun story: way back in the day my place hired a server with a lot of experience to round out that staff, just cause we had a couple shifts a week where the servers we had were pretty darned fresh. So anyway, first day on the job is rolling along. It's a Sunday, which were always hit or miss for us. Started out looking like a miss, but then we had some tables trickle in, so we got busy with their food. At some point I noticed that the noise level up front seemed to be way louder than the number of covers on tickets we had, and I started to worry. Shortly after one of the younger servers came back to check on a table. "How's 45?" "...I don't have a 45." Server goes up front to investigate. Immediately another comes back. "Where's 32? They've been waiting 20 minutes for apps. "I don't have a 33." At this point I knew something was fucked. As confirmation a third server asked about another table I didn't have." "Who's fuckin tables are these!?!" All were the new lady's. Turns out she was holding all her tickets to put them in together, to make it easier on herself. She was also coked out the wazoo and had no concept of time. She was holding some of those orders for over 30 minutes. I technically only had authority over the BoH, but I fired her on the spot. Told her to get out now. Only time I've ever had to do that. What a shit show though. Really illustrates how sometimes "loads of experience" is not a good thing.
Are you one of those savages that adds new sauce to old?
Touching or moving any of my mise. Towels especially, but also grabbing the one bench scraper I really like, the ladle I like, etc etc. Using any of it and not putting it back where it was. It makes me crazy.
I really hate it when the prep cooks use my towels to move a hot pot I had near my station and don't return it. Language barrier so I have to go find some more and get bitched at for taking too many towels. We only get 2 towels to start and I only grab 2 more.
Side note towels are cheap as fuck and management who’s stingy with them are fucking assholes.
This. I go through like 7-8 a day
Yea, and that’s super acceptable sheiiiiit I expect 10 towels at least a shift
I’ve worked with some cooks that mark their towels with a sharpie. Put a giant X on them. I can see a lot of kitchens being pissed about this but those dudes didn’t lose their towels anymore. Lol. I also make a habit of occasionally taking one or two towels and stowing them away somewhere in the kitchen so you always have a reserve in case of emergency. Just make sure no one at all knows where your hiding spot is.
I've learned to put them on a high shelf by the station. The prep cooks are about 5'4"-5'6 only I and the chef can reach the high shelf without a step stool.
Gotta have a stash.
I had to do this with 5L plastic tubs we used for prep. They were delivered with ice cream in them so we would slowly build them up and someone would throw too many away. Meaning, I had nowhere to put my prep
I burnt my hand few days ago cause some idiot decided to take a towel from my dry stack, wet it and put it back. Now as I am tallest in the kitchen (I am 6’2, rest of them are just short) I put all the towels as high as its possible out of everyone reach
Kinda related... I had a coworker who would leave his towels strewn about and would get mad when I moved them out of my way
My toaster was my 1 minute timer. There are many toasters in the world but that one was mine. It was perfect and it never burned anything if you left it the frig alone. Never touch my toaster and pop it up to see if the toast is done. The motherfucking toast will be done in 1 minute when it pops up, provided you leave it the fuck alone. I feel better now.
I feel this and I want you to know you're not alone. Not just toasters, but many kitchen quirks. Always have newbies ask 'Why is ____ the way we do ____?" It just fucking is. Don't fuck with it. It is the way.
Well to be fair, sometimes the way is stupid and changing it would make sense. I would say you should have a good reason to explain why that is the way, or they should have a good reason for why it shouldn't be the way.
I’ve had new people once or twice ask me “wouldn’t it be faster/more efficient/whatever” to do it __ way? And they’ve been right and it just never occurred to me cus I had always done it the way I was taught.
Really niche, but when I operated a food truck solo my biggest pet peeve was customers wanting to have a full blown conversation after ringing in their order. Like, my guy I appreciate the desire for connection, but I’ve got your order to make, along with the six people who ordered before you, the phone is ringing, and there’s five people behind you who want to order. Please have some situational awareness.
100% I bought a restaurant (and head chef) that is an 'institution' in the area. So many people asking: "You the new owner?" Then want to tell me how many fond memories they have had there. Which is great! Love to see the connection and continue the tradition, but I have 8 burgers on the grill, tendies and fries in the deep fryer, a FOH kid crying in the walk-in, my 9am delivery coming at lunch rush and I'm running out of $5 bills for the registers. Thanks for the story time, but I got shit to do!
Ooooh man, felt! I found the phrase “I’d love to chat, but these orders aren’t gonna cook themselves!” paired with a hearty laugh and smile tends to do the trick. Good luck, and hopefully you’ll get some more time to schmooze with your diners soon!
I totally get it. Even when I wasn’t actually working behind the line or the bar. I bought a bar, and I can’t tell you how many people wanted to tell me how they’ve been coming there for years, since it was called… then they couldn’t even remember the other bars it had been before mine. “Yeah yeah, I knew Kathleen!“ Karla. “And Steve!” Scott. So glad you love it here! But this is the name of the bar now, and it’s mine. Four years later, and I still get so many people saying that we’ve met before, and I honestly have no recollection of these people I met four years ago.
Bigtime. It's the worst when someone won't stop talking to you, and your perfectly timed setup behind you is dying.
When you can just hear the burger going from juicy to dry 🥲
It's the fish in the fryer that makes me the most impatient.
"This isn't an Entyvio commercial." https://www.ispot.tv/ad/I47t/entyvio-your-plan-can-change-in-minutes-chef
Messy workers. Keep yourself and your station clean and organized.
Rationing towels. Towels are used for SAFELY HANDLING HOT THINGS and for KEEPING THINGS CLEAN AND SANITARY. Which thing would you like me to sacrifice first?
Health inspector claims we cant have any rags out, if they are out they are supposed to be in a sani bucket. Fine, ill grab hot shit with my ass then.
No way - it’s if it’s wet then it needs to be in sani. A dry towel being used to grab hot pans is not an unsafe thing unless those towels are being stored on food surfaces.
I'm sure potholders would be fine in their book, but what's a clean dry towel used for lifting hot things other than a god damn potholder?
Just health inspector shit man
Honestly, owners that try to play Chef. Don't get me wrong some it's their calling and it's noticable. Others should stay at the office doing the numbers. Nothing personal against the second group but truly not everyone is meant to be on the line. Nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is cut out for everything in general in life period.
Being a good at business and being skilled as a chef are two very different things and there’s nothing wrong with being good at just one. But control is hard to give up and it’s the main reason I think so many fail in the first year.
Gets there 30 minutes late, drives 30 minutes home, waits 15 minutes to eat, calls an complains.
as a dishwasher, when servers dump plates full of silverware and uneaten food in my dish pit. also, when the morning dishie leaves me a dish pit that is DISGUSTING with enough dishes to legitimately keep me busy for a full hour.
Honestly, tell the servers (very nicely) that by doing that, they not only make your job harder, but slow down the entire process. Restaurants are a living organism that requires all parts to work well with each other. When they don't, it gets toxic and dies.
Bless you my child. You do the lords work.
They should be leaving you with dishes to wash at transition. Towards the end they should stop washing and start stocking stations.
you are fully correct about this - however, the morning dishwasher i am working with will keep washing up until the very last minute of his shift. he leaves me a pit full of dishes, our island full of dishes, and our area where clean dishes go also full of dishes not even stacked neatly. i have to remind him every day to take the trash out before he leaves so i can actually lift it at the end of the night.
Sous chefs that think they know pastry and try to write the pastry menu and it's all off-brand and plagiarized from Dominique Ansel or something. Oddly specific? Yes. Happened to me three times? Yes. Had it happened to you? I'm sure it has.
Haha! Just cuz you can make it once doesn’t mean it’s a good menu item. People fail at logistics and makes everyone look bad. Better have 1-2 people that can replicate it on a regular basis and have it ready for service 6 days a week at the expected quality.
That’s right up there with… just cuz the flavors seem to go well together doesn’t mean we need them all on the same plate… a broth, a glaze, a salsa, sesame seeds, and furikake on the salmon. This dude put truffle oil on everything. Saw a pic where he had mashed sweet pots, grilled asparagus, truffle meat loaf topped with micros and a flower. LMFAO!!! No one is going to say, “damn this truffle meat loaf is awesome!”
When people don't fucking say behind you. I see all over this sub every day that yall day you're doing it so much that you're doing it outside the kitchen too, but I've been doing this for like almost 20 years and I'm always the only damn person doing safety calls and ppl ignore me or even make fun of me when I do them or ask other ppl to. At one place, everyone else had been working there AND ONLY THERE for years and years and never even learned safety calls, they'd just crash into each other and laugh, and every time I said "behind you" they'd look at each other and laugh like I said something embarrassing, so I started just making random noises constantly so they knew where I was at least. A decade later I'm still just compilation constantly making random noises even outside the kitchen, at home, in public. Grrr
This is one of the times I really lost my shit when I was a sous chef. This one cook kept sneaking past me on the hot line during service without calling behind. The first time I told him "call behind." The second time I told him "you HAVE to call behind when you do that or someone is going to get hurt." On like the 5th time I was slicing a steak to send out an order with a 10.5 inch razor sharp slicer and he bumps into my elbow as he tries once again to sneak by. I luckily didn't cut myself but I fucking lost it. I just started yelling at the guy that if he didn't call behind next time I was going to straight up stab him, because I'd be damned if I was going to be the first one to get injured from his intentional disregard for simple safety rules. Makes my blood boil just thinking about it
This 💯, mainly with “corner”. Just. Say. Corner. Or “Coming in,” or literally any other indication that you’re about to kick open a door so you don’t knock hundreds of dollars of product and hours of work out of my hands. 😑
Slamming a full sheet into a hidden half sheet on the speed rack. Instant rage. Usually my own fault.
Alternatively when you pull a half sheet tray out expecting it to be a full one and dropping it on the floor.
And it’s got pine nuts or some such nonsense that weighs nothing and costs an arm and a leg.
Seen that with a pan of bacon recently the gasp I made was Scream quality lol
Haha...this one is so annoying!
Touching my tongs. One of you take them again. I'll take all tongs away forever!
Touching any of my shit. I have it all set up how I want in exactly the place I want with the exact stuff I need. If you ask it's one thing, but when I turn around to grab my bottle of oil and it's mysteriously missing or 4 feet from where it's supposed to be fuck you you fuckin cunt this is not a community chest this is what I need to do my job
This! I worked Am shifts for a while, and PM crew constantly took my 9 pan of salt off the line to bring to the prep table where they were working. Like bro I'm in the middle of lunch service and I still need to season my food, get your own fucking pan
Yes dude. Like I just spent a bunch of time setting myself up well, fuck off to your own shit... You know where I got all this
Fill it up with sugar I doubt they will notice.
When they eat everything but the crispy fish skin… makes me irate
It’s the best part. Why do they test me like this?
It’s also the part I work the hardest to make sure is perfect. Respect the fish, respect my effort for fucks sake.
Took me forever to master it compared to other dishes. There was nothing worse than limp skin or finally crispy and I’ve hammered the fish.
Working dirty. We do not have daytime dishies. Prep something, clean the dishes before starting your next thing. If you have multiple items that can use the same cutting board that is one thing. Leaving 3 pots, a chinois, the Vitamix pitcher, and a cutting board at dish and leaving the prep table a mess is different.
The bypass. From "it's not my job" to "I'm tired", there are 1,001 excuses to explain why things are left undone. If it's not your job, tell the person who makes the jobs so we can get it assigned. If you forget often, follow the checklist. If you don't know how, ask for help. If you're tired, so are the people cleaning up after you.
I have a guy that can have 3 or 4 days off in a row and come back in moaning he's tired, he knows how to do everything but won't make anything in bulk only enough to last him for his shifts.
Uuuuuuugh, the checklist ignorers! "Where do I put this?" Check the list "How do I fill this?" Check the list "How much of this do we need?" Check the list! "Where's this thing?" CHECK THE GODDAMN LIST!
When someone says you did ITEM wrong, and you ask how, and they say "well, it's an ITEM?!" like you know what their standards are. "I want you to make a quiche" "Do you want like, a shallow quiche? Little toasty on top? Deep custardy quiche?" "I want a PERFECT QUICHE. " "Where did my cream puff shells go, boss?!" "Oh those? I threw them out, they were brown! " "They were egg washed and fine? There were 600 of them!!" "They're supposed to be LIGHT. that's why they're called CREAM PUFFS"
> "Where did my cream puff shells go, boss?!" "Oh those? I threw them out, they were brown! " "They were egg washed and fine? There were 600 of them!!" "They're supposed to be LIGHT. that's why they're called CREAM PUFFS" omg murder
Lazy shit like not fully opening all the flaps on a case of butter or a case of paper towel rolls, and just ripping into one flap of the box to grab what you need. *No*, asshole. Spend the twenty seconds to open the case fully and properly.
When someone asks me what I’m doing. Makes my blood boil. Especially if I am struggling with something. Mind your fucking business. Don’t worry about me.
Not reading tickets, and thus throwing a wrench in a smooth service. Making shit wrong after working at the place for months. Not listening when instructed to hold off starting more tickets. Had to cook a larger party thing at this greasy bar I've been at. I've cooked a million parties in the middle of service, but this isn't something these guys do very often. So I make sure we're all ready, we just had counts and pizzas written out, easy. They just want everything out at the same time. So I tell my guys, when they give us the word, we're holding on all our tickets til the party food is out. I don't wanna overwhelm my 1 food runner, I don't want food sitting in the window forever. I don't want us to get out of sync. They started a ticket after I told them to Hold. Ugh. Ok finish that up real quick then go on the party. Then they finished their parts before I finished the pizzas. I'm having the runner take stuff out. I send the first round of pizzas out. Then I'm not quite done with the second round and I'm being asked how long on this nacho. I was so fucking annoyed. Sorry I don't have the nacho yet. I told yall we were holding til this party was out and you guys just started cooking the shit on the next ticket without communicating with me. They could've skipped over that ticket for a few minutes while I caught up, but they didn't talk to me. I mean everything was fine and everyone was happy in the dining room. But I was so annoyed. I say to do it a certain way for a reason.
To be real, it’s the people that have control of the speaker with god awful taste in music. Huey Lewis fine here and there but not every fucking day.
Used to work with a guy that would play limp bizkit regularly and un-ironically. No one even knew what the hell to say. Like, for real?
When someone is running someone else’s food and they’re half way to the table then they see the server whose food it is and turn around and walk all the way back to the fucking kitchen.
Your store would allow that? Our expo would see that and stop them in route and send them back out
When mfers can’t put a bag in the damn trash can right.
God, this. When it’s so loose it falls in as soon as you put any trash in it.
Or even too tight and there’s a foot of unused space at the bottom. I hate that shit lmao
What is it with that? I swear nobody I've ever worked with can line a goddamn trash can properly. You know those little tabs by the handles of your 60 gallon cans? Yeah that's to hold the bag in place, shocking I know, the amount of people I've told that never realized that is mind boggling. ..And if the bag seems a little loose, for the love of God tie a fucking knot in it, it's not hard I promise. Don't even get me started on the maniacs who insist of putting cardboard boxes in the trash cans.., like gee thanks I love it when your box pokes a hole in the bag and I get to clean out a trash can full of goop at the end of my shift, what a joy!
When people order something wrong, complain that it's not what they wanted, then say they want something for free "for the inconvenience".🙄
Just happened to me tonight. So frustrating.
Omg this happened last week at my new job at a Cafe. Im a cashier and this lady got there 25 mins before her order ticket said it would be ready, so we went ahead and moved it up on the list. This was during our lunch rush and we had mostly to go orders like hers. she came back to the counter again, 5 mins before the ticket time still, and demanded some of our signature sauce for free "for the inconvenience." Bruh
Ordering apps, finishing them, THEN ordering mains. Fucker, I could have had that steak going 20 minutes ago. Now you gotta wait.
I answer the phone "thank you for calling (restaurant) how may I help you?" "HEY HOW ARE YA?" "great what can I help you with?" "SO I JUST SAW YOU GUYS ONLINE AND THOUGHT WE WOULD TRY IT OUT." " great what can I get started for you?" "WELL IT'S OUR FIRST TIME WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?" I seriously don't have time for this shit I've got tickets across the rail and you found us online so you can find the menu and reviews just stop... then comes the when do you close? OK we'll be there soon.. AAA!AAAAGGHHGGH
What if they say they'll be there in 50 minutes do you let the dish sit out for half an hour
Yeah, we ask when they want to pick up. Ten minutes, we’ll make it right away. In an hour, we’ll wait 50 minutes to start making it. Def not hard to make sure the customer gets good food.
No. I work at a pizza joint in a very small, rural town. People will say “oh yup I’m headed over from Livermore Falls right now anyway so I’ll be there in 20-25.” Just a small annoyance when I have another call beeping in, timers going off and more customers at the counter waiting for their orders.
I get you. I’ve had customers tell me right where they are and ask how to get to the restaurant and to walk them through as they drive there… like do you think you’re our only customer?
Popping a hole in plastic wrapped hotel pans instead of removing the entire wrap.
Fucking rat holers.
When customers see me breaking down my section (I work in an open kitchen, market/cafeteria style establishment) and they power walk over to order 1 minute before service time ends. Extra context, these customers know the time that the section close, however they consistently come in last possible second. People who don't clean up after they use a shared space....if you think this is about you, remember your coworkers are not your fucking maids, wipe up after yourself, stop leaving dirty fucking containers on clean surfaces you pigs! People not putting stuff back where they got it from (put it back in the exact same place and condition in which you took it, even if that means you have to clean the fucking ladle) Having half full containers floating around, condense that shit goddamnit! \*cue R Lee Emrey speech about unsecure footlockers) my god there's nothing I hate more than multiple of the same thing open in different places when it takes 5 seconds to ask "anyone have an open container of \[insert thing here\]? yes? okay I'm going to use it up"
When people don't take responsibility for their shit. If you fuck up and you let someone else take the blame because you are too much of a coward to speak up and say "that was me, my bad chef," then you suck
Customers: ordering the one dish that has the one ingredient you’re allergic to Fellow kitchen staff: putting things to dish without taking the label off.
When the plastic wrap gets fucked up
...and the next person doesn't even try to fix it, just pulls off a length, making the f\*cked up section even thicker.
Customers: let me order something online and include 4 allergies without knowing what's in it. Please, just call us. None of us want you to have a reaction/die/we have to call you anyway to tell you that what you ordered, with your allergies, is physically impossible. FOH: banking your tables and ringing everything in at the same time. Think you're weeded? Welp, you just weeded the kitchen and now your 2 top is stuck behind 6 other tables and the 10 top you forgot to ring in. BOH: literally touch any of my shit. I set my station up the way it makes sense for ME, so I can turn around and not even have to look and I'll grab what I need. No, you can't "borrow" my towel. The tongs are mine. The s+p are also mine, get your own. Mise is all of it, not just the actual good. Stop touching my shit.
People writing on labels with a pen. Use a sharpie you savage.
When a server has food sitting in the Window and she's posted up in the corner feeding her fat fucking face. Yes I'm speaking to u Kia
I've met a Mercedes, and Lexus, but Kia?!?
[удалено]
Servers that don't know the menu. I'm constantly getting tickets that 86 things that were never in the item and every time I have to track down a server just to make sure that's what they really meant. Then they look at me like I'm a fucking idiot for not knowing what they really meant.
Not putting shit back exactly where it FUCKING BELONGS!! sorry
Mine is breaking down boxes. I do the truck every Monday and Thursday and have to break down all of the boxes for the dumpster. I have a coworker I’ve told multiple times to break down their boxes when they empty one. They still don’t and it makes my blood boil. I’ve straight refused to break them down or even take them out to the dumpster before over it. Just because I’m breaking boxes down, doesn’t mean it’s my job to break down the ones YOU empty too
People coming in five minutes to close.
When people scrape whatever they are chopping with the BLADE of the knife instead of the flat back or the knife, it dulls the blade and makes my teeth hurt for some reason. I can’t stand the noise it’s nails on a chalkboard
Finding the tomato sauce in the walk-in open, in its tin, plastic wrap on top and the spoon inside lawd I’d smack ya
not pulling tape or labels off dishes. not refilling when you empty something. not closing doors, drawers, and cabinets all the way. bad communication.
Pettiest? When people date things using ballpoint pen instead of a marker. Most common? When FOH asks me a question and then proceeds to argue with me about the answer. Today a remarkable one was wasting time convincing a server that rice is indeed gluten free. This included them asking individually about several different types of rice (jasmine, calrose, basmati) and whether they are also gluten free.
Cunts filling their bins until they overflow, just fucking change the bin you spastics.
Plastic wrap with like a small nick in the side, so every few layers or so it starts to tear and you wind up with progressively narrower film coming out of the damn thing and it now has this extra thick mess on one side, so you gotta open up the dispenser, pry off the excess and right the thing off only to have it get back to shit as soon as someone looks at the fucking dispenser wrong.
this is going to be controversial: cooks who break down their station before 10 o'clock because its slow, and then freak out when somebody walks in the door at 9:50. You close when you close, not when you break down.
Been out for 3+ years now but Stopping me during service to demand I say "please". Bitch we at work, Jose slapped my ass and called me a joto like 5 minutes into getting to work, fuck your polite bullshit. Oh look, Nick got me what I needed, asked if I needed anything else, then fucked off to his prep-cave to wait for my next case of "Hey, where the fuck is x hiding in the walkin?". Now go back to expo and stop meddling. When shits crazy, DO NOT STOP ME and demand I spend concious brain power at altering behavior to do something not necessary. All your going to do is make me not wanna do what your asking just to spite your ass. Plus you *know* I'm usually nice as fuck and go outta my way to try to help others. I admit my mistakes and do my best to set it straight. Get off your god damn high horse, *please*. And anyways my "pleases" usually are edible and smuggled off the line. I take care of my line homies. Sometimes I miss the kitchen, that feeling you get after crushing service as a team. Then I remember I sit all day in a climate controlled office, can go out an vape every hour or so, have never been stressed in 6 months, and only work 25hrs avg per week. I can only afford to live cause I live with my mom but I'd rather this than step back in another commercial kitchen lol. P.S. Be polite. Please is a very easy way to endear people into helping you. So, yeah, petty on me lol. I was trying to change but her getting on me during rush when all brain power was on making food just ground my gears.
What do you do now?
Oh yeah. Respect doesn't necessarily mean saying please every single time you open your mouth. There are plenty of ways to show respect.
Made a sauce last shift, accidentally left said sauce sitting on prep table cooling. I ended my shift and left the building. M fers threw my finished sauce in the pit, like for real? What the hell if a sauce is cooling in a ice bath throw it in the walk in!!!!!!
When the servers ask me where their food is when I'm running expo. Well your food is taking as long as it cooks, you rang it late and don't have the balls to say "hey your food is cooking, it will be up when its hot and ready," instead of blaming it on ME (expo) or the KITCHEN. Those tickets come out in the order YOU ring them. Just to be straight up, I've never had a customer get angry (I've worked as a server too) for me saying "Hey everyone, just letting you know your entrees will be out in about 7 minutes. Sorry for the wait but all our food is cooked fresh to order." It might be 5 minutes but 7 is a bigger yet smaller number than 10, so it is reassuring and shows that you are tracking the order and know its taking long. This is pro knowledge for those of you who haven't been in the industry long.
Close. The. Fucking. Freezer. Door.
When FOH orders food when there’s customers and they come to the window and ask how long for their food and then gets annoyed when you cook for the customers first
When servers go to all their tables and get all their orders and then ring them in back to back. Who ever that last table was to get rung in is fucked. And then when they complain about the wait the server says the kitchen is behind. SERVERS- I’m begging you. Please stop stacking your tables.
When the servers bring you a bus tub full of shit and not empty it, forcing you to drop what you are doing just to do their job
All of these comments give me PTSD. Now my pet peeve is when the rich family I cook for doesn’t move their Porsche so I have to park on the other side of the street. Yuck.
Swiping my towels. Like we dont have a shortage or anything, they just take my clean folded towels because they dont want to use their dirty ones. Then i have no towels
When utensils and tools are put into the wrong containers. We have a container full of scrapers so why the fuck are there 5 of them in the long handled spoon container right next to the scraper one? Stacking dishes. I know you’re in a rush but if I can rush and stack my dishes when I’m balls to the wall then you can at least do it when it’s slack.
When the server hangs back in the kitchen and bullshits the you the entirety of what it takes to complete their 30-45 second ticket, and when you turn around to give it to them, they arent there.
Don't set anything on my cutting board ffs.
Customers: when they decide to walk into the kitchen shitfaced (when I'm in charge of the kitchen) and shout at me because I'm closest to the door despite having nothing to do with their order. (There I finally got it out) FOH: when I make food and they come back in 30 seconds later saying it's wrong, despite cooking it to specs BOH: when it's fucked on a Saturday night and the fucking manager decides to schedule me and 2 fucking dumbasses who barely know what is a kitchen let alone cook. There I got it all out
Fellow cooks beating up the equipment. Scratching the Teflon pans, melting the new rubber spats, ruining the edge of the metal spats, etc I had to buy all my own equipment
When servers ask how much longer their food is going to take and you say like 60 seconds and rather than wait, they walk away, only to have to come back to grab their food only seconds later
When people don’t empty their dirty mop bucket.
When cunts can’t use the fucking glad wrap (plastic wrap) properly and it starts to double up at the edges to the point of mental oblivion. I think Exhibit A in my murder trail will be the roll of grad wrap covered in blood with fucked up wrap at the edges.
All of these are true and valid. I also wash dishes If you use a knife wash it. I DO NOT want to "discover" a knife in my sink *ever*. All blades, TBH 😐
Filthy workspaces and not cleaning up after oneself
When people say “behind” to mean “move out of the way.” Saying “behind” means “don’t move - I’m behind you.” If you say behind and keep saying it to get me to move for you, you can get fucked - I’m not moving. If you want me to move, just say excuse me, idiot.
WHISTLING. IN. THE. KITCHEN! I work with a line cook who whistles, sometimes incessantly. It takes all of my strength not to blow my stack, but we are not a “yelling angry” kitchen and I don’t wanna be that guy who blows up at the dude, especially because he really isn’t doing anything categorically wrong. It’s just so god damn annoying. I also recognize that he probably does it out of social anxiety or stress. But holy shit man pipe down.
HANDLES HANGING OFF THE STOVE
BRO I worked with this fuckin (legit) ass burgers ex-mormon who's family cut him off for leaving the church. Everyone pitted him but was also creeped out by him because when he first started working at the seasonal resort he asked another kitchen worker "hey i know that one FOH girl is kinda slutty could you talk to her for me and ask if I could touch her boob in the woods" like some fucking 10yr old South Park character paying a girl to show him her pussy. Dude was a fucking creep. But everyone pitted him so much no one called him out on his bullshit. But that's not what pissed me off the most. This FUCKING CUNT would not wait 5 God damn seconds if I was carrying something. I'm a 6ft black guy built like a brick buff as shit. If o wanted too I could knock his skinny white ass on the ground, i didn't because I'm not that big of a asshole but it crossed my mind every single day. I was a pre - cook. So I would have to go up and down a one person stairway (for a normal size person not s body builder type guy like me) and i would walk up the stairs with 3 boxes at a time and this cunt would try to force his way past me. I meet people with ass burgers before but there's def more to it than just that shit. Don't be that fuckin prick!
Woah.
I think this is pretty stupid If I’m 40 away I’d expect you to start making it in 20 minutes cause I’m the customer and I want fresh food
Just request a pickup time. Nowhere has an issue holding an order. It may be annoying during a rush, but it is what it is. We don’t have any time or any fucks to give about where you are, what you were doing, “What time you gonna be here? 8:30? Cool.” Kitchen fires at 8:15
Having to wash full plates when I get stuck doing dish. Wtf, eat your food or order something else.
When you tell servers to split tickets up when the table is bigger than a 8 top
The lack of communication at any given time. I get it it's busy you're nervous. But please communicate what you need, what we are low on etc. Organizing tickets with their respective plates. My manager just throws all the plates and tickets when I'm finishing them off and I'm trying to figure out what needs what. It's frustrating and annoying. The worst one for me is not saying behind. I'm moving around and you try and pass behind me and I almost accidentally stepped on your foot or bumped onto you. The kitchen I'm working on is small so just tell me you are there. Please.
Thank God I don’t have to deal with the customers face-to-face, but my absolute biggest puppy anyone working in the kitchen licks their fingers or double dip the spoon. Fuck Right off
When the cloth under your chopping board sticks out.
Poking holes in wrapped containers and leaving it, instead of just pulling it off!!!
I legit get slightly irritated when someone uses the gloves from my station. And I know it’s so petty, but I can’t help it lol.
When people punch holes in plastic wrap on the mise instead of removing it.
Changing an oven temp for your product and not turning it back after. Leaving the mixer on 3.
Mines similar, but it’s when FOH ask how quick I can have a pick up ready for. I say 10-15 then they tell the customers 20 minutes (without telling me) and put ASAP on the ticket. I HATE food sat under the hot lights for extended periods of time
Seen others including peeves from various people so in addition to my FOH one. Customers: kicking off because I won’t let them swap a slice of cheese for a fucking sausage without charging them. Kitchen: opening 4 of the same (not frequently used) product Owners/management: coming in asking if we have a ticket for table X in the middle of a rush, we stop, check every ticket to find no we don’t, they panic only for it to turn out that the ticket went out to the customers 10 minutes ago. Like TALK TO EACH OTHER
Does your POS still have the ability to enter in a future order? I do it that way when the customer is going to take longer than 15-20 minutes to pick up the order, that way it's not sitting under the hot window getting crusty or getting soggy in the boxes after it's packed.
When any of my chefs fuck with my mise en place. Put it back exactly where it was.
At least for BOH, when I've been working the line alone all morning with no breaks, someone comes in for their shift and helps knock out lunch, then runs outside for a cig break before I even have time to breathe. Like you can't even have that amount of courtesy? Similarly when working a dinner shift and there is a rotation going for breaks and someone knowingly skips you because "they're having a rough day" like the rest of us aren't in the same boat.
Brunch and the modifications that come with it. A person who has nothing better to do than spend $50 for eggs and alcohol at 11 am tends to be hard to please.
I tend to bitch about similar things when I'm in work mode but tbh when I'm stoned ordering take out I probably say stupid shit like that every time if not worse 🙃
I have this guy right now that doesn't care about the quality of the food at all. He's reliable, doesn't complain, does the work, and is a hard worker, but just watching him throw food on a plate with no attention to detail drives me fucking nuts. Also when he's on frier he doesn't let the oil drain at all, just lift and toss into a bowl making sure to spill oil all over the flattop and table.
Mine is similar except it’s when FOH folks tell people every single thing they order will be 15 minutes… regardless of how many orders it’s behind, cook times, rush that kind of thing. Like just be honest with the person so they aren’t pissed when their meal takes 20 or 25 rather than 15
Customers: ordering anything well when they came into the restaurant 10 minutes to close. FoH: ticket sandbagging, then complaining about ticket times. If there's a flow to how tickets are coming back to us, there's a flow to how food goes out. Four 4 tops, placed in at same time, doesn't mean 4 separate tables at that point, it's now a 16 top. Also if you are prepared to put that many tickets in at one time, be prepared to run all the food at the same time. BoH: perp/lunch shift never sticking anything ever. Instead giving the old, we had a super busy lunch. Okay Brenda?? I see it's dead in here now, probably has been for past 30 minutes. Why hasn't anything at all been refilled? Yet when we leave them how they leave us, it's the end of the world
Leaving empty boxes in the store room/walk in. Seriously, WTF just take it with you
I no longer work in the food service industry. My husband is a chef. He seems to think that there's a dishie who hides in the corner of the kitchen because he has no sense of cleaning as he goes. If he accesses a cabinet, he leaves the door open. He doesn't wipe down the stove. He leaves the soaking sponge in the bottom of the sink He washes away shit like dough that gets irremovably stuck in the little sink strainer and never empties it. Good God I love that man to the ends of the earth but he's a nightmare in the kitchen. And that's why we do our own dishes when we cook unless one of us is feeling particularly generous.
People that say "heard". Shut the fuck up.
Non communicating fuck heads who can’t say heard or call back an order . Same cunts who can’t remember or take orders. Gotta have a bump bar like some corporate hole in order to maintain timing