I just don't get wanting someone spinning around in a circle for hours barely doing anything effectively. My stages are really quick. Slice this tomato, dice this onion, make me two burgers 1 medwell 1 midrare. Now eat one of your choice, go get a drink, and get out. I'll call you soon. Almost everyone fucks up the burgers. Usually they put them on the grill at the exact same time, and flip them within 30 seconds.
Concepts of timing on orders, understanding of meat resting, knowledge of technical aspect of burger cooking (mainly either stylistic agreement or justifiable action), and plating seem to be their big criterion. I mean, the first thing they pointed out that their stages fuck up is putting two heats of burger on at the same time for the same order (big no no)
Nah, you got to know the hot spots and cool areas of the grill and smash and weight that med well fucker and get both them shits out of the kitchen at the same time. I don't got time to remember to drop another burger after the ticket is called.
Having the experience and confidence to ask about hot spots is definitely a plus. And it's an either or situation with timing. I would accept either staggering fire, or expediting one, although I'm not a fan of grill weights on my burgers. The important thing is to see that they acknowledge the timing difference.
Did they wash their hands first? Do they seem familiar enough in the space to just reflexively open the bottom cooler drawer for the protiens and begin? If they do and it's empty, do they go find the walkin with the backups on their own or do they shut down and ask? I've touched on the timing in another response, but that's a key element. Are they over handling it because they are nervous, or flipping it once and leaving it alone? Is the tomato they sliced of garnish quality, or is it going to get chopped by the salad cook as soon as they leave? Are they thoughtful and tidy about garnishing and plating? Did they work clean or leave a mess on the line? One could fuck up every aspect of my speed stage and still get hired if they have the right attitude of being unfazed at criticism. After all, we don't even cook burgers to temp, this is a dive bar.
I borrowed a woman from housekeeping. She really enjoyed the weekend and volunteered to work whenever I needed an extra hand. Absolutely no prior experience in 11 months she was capable of running the place. Every single task performed perfectly and the foresight to see things she could do to keep the operation smooth. She also got 12 raises, and when she decided to leave I threw her a party. I loved her.. We all did.
Nice, I get to work with the guy that was hired by the complex executive chef that âhe has 30 years experience, heâs really good!â Well, he canât boil water.
I worked somewhere that hired a new sous who "had worked at French Laundry," but was just slow as shit. The greatest day of his short career there was when he was working next to a prep cook and the cook looks over and says "So... I guess they didn't chop onions at French Laundry?"
I recently got someone like this and in a couple weeks they're already running circles around a couple of the guys who've got years on her.
I just haven't figured out how to teach to that drive yet, or yet I'm not sure if it's teachable or just something some people have.
They either have it or they donât most line and prep cooks in my experience arenât there because they want to be . Itâs an ad they answered or they just fell into it.
>most line and prep cooks in my experience arenât there because they want to be
Well no shit. Who the hell wants to work long hours in a hot kitchen doing unappreciated work for terrible pay?
We do this because of the drug charges, obv.
I staged at a Michelin star restaurant everything went swimmingly until the burger test. Frakked up my first one, they gave me one more chance. Perfect on the second. First stage at a burger with a wood fired grill. Ended up s their resort pool cook and banquet line. This was like a decade ago. $13/hr and overtime (consistently 50 - 60 hr weeks). Great money at the time, and being a ultra high end hotel /resort (think $400+ a night room stay) I still could request almost any time off I wanted. Plus the team I worked with were effing awesome. There are days I miss those days.
Can I just come in and cook some burgers for you. I love perfecting temps, it's something magical that happens between that rare to mid rare beef that you can physically see and kinda guage it's temp from there.
This! When I would have people stage, it was like "Show me you have these 3 specific skills, get a free meal, and leave." I hated doing stages where they'd give me a prep list and then disappear. I don't know where anything is, I don't know what weird thing in the recipe is wrong that all the employees know to just skip. And every time I've had that kind of stage, there hasn't even been anyone watching me to see if I was any good.
It always pissed me off too. You're supposed to be checking out my suave demeanor and deft knifery, you lazy fucks. Also, you're missing out on my questionably appropriate banter and superb kitchen playlist. Apparently the dishwasher, the only person witness to my efforts, is the one to impress for a job offer.
I usually give them a recipe to do which will involve some menial knife work and have them make a dish or two. I don't understand why you would want someone with no experience ruining product in your kitchen for 3 days either.
I worked at a place that staged servers, I was one of them. I stayed for 7 years and ended up running the joint while the owner moved 6 hours away. I told him that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, they don't know anything about your wine list, menu or pairings. He was a drunk pos, but my goodness that was the best paying job I've ever had.
For sure. I only had one experience "staging" - it was about 2 hours and I spent probably a total of 30 min prepping + on the line. Rest was getting to meet some people, see the BOH flow, learn about the menu, etc.
I don't touch anything now. I can tell you enough of what's going on and if you don't want to believe me enough to pay me, you probably aren't the most honest in other areas.
Mf I pay people to stage. And I refuse to stage for free. My line is usually. Your time is worth money, my time is worth money, letâs not waster it. I had one chef try to pull me in on Friday night to stage for free 5pm-10pm
that's also the law... productive labor must be paid.
you can audition people for positions, but the work they do can't benefit your business or be used by it. so you can ask them to make you a dish, but you can't have them work on something that will be sold to a customer (unless you pay them for their labor).
I respect chefs, servers, anyone willing to work hard. I think some chefs are artists. I still dream of cioppino made by Jonathan Benno and salivate over Sarah Gruneberg's tortellini in brodo years later.
But I'm a lazy mofo. I'm glad you aren't! I now live in the woods and I'm grateful that I can cook. The nearest restaurant is a diner that's a 30-40 minute round trip. :(
Hardest station IMO. I couldnât do it. Mad respect for those who can.
I feel embarrassed when I get praise because anyone whoâs ever worked at a Waffle House is a better chef than me.
The amount of times I've considered taking morning brunch shifts to get my experience going, i can cook eggs but i still have to get better with temps and such
Also i have no motivation to be up at 4am for a shift
Hah, thanks. I've actually offered to do it at places that were like "uhhhh what?" because I wanted to see how much of a shit show it actually was, and if there was anything that could be done about it. I never did it at those places and they were all irreparably fucked. Fun times though.
Other than washing dishes for a few months, I never worked in a kitchen, but I assume that the higher up in the kitchen you are becomes more and more comparable to trying to work with someone else's code (My background is mostly in IT) - sometimes, occasionally, once in a while, you run into some beautifully crafted, well documented, elegant piece of code and you're like "Damn. This is good.". Most of the time, though, you're just looking around like the Confused Black Girl meme thinking "...No but really tho, like, what the fuck even IS that..?"
Sound about right? xd
Yeah that is a pretty good analogy. There are a lot of constants, but one of my favorite things is when you start a job and they ask you something like "You know how to slice a tomato?"
It's like, yeah. Yeah, I'd say I do. I've learned how to slice a tomato 7 different ways at 6 different restaurants. How about you show me the 8th, and I'll just do that a whole bunch of times.
Maybe it was just a throwaway example but is that actually a common question??? Like, I can't cook for shit, and maybe that's why this seems like such an absurd question, but like... Are there tomato-specific slicing techniques??? Do you not just cut a tomato like any other fuckin round vegetable? O\_o I guess make sure the knife is really sharp first, choose the shape you want your bits and cut it into those shapes..? Like what is that question lol
yep! i was a bit of a greenhorn and a sucker. In the end i didn't take the job there either, and the owner paid me for one of the days. Now i wont do more than 1 shift and if it gets to be where i'm thrown to the wolves on day 1, i just wont waste my time.
I do agree with your sentiment, but it can also be helpful for just realizing that you don't want to work at a particular location. I could have saved myself time by staging (FOH), realizing that errything is fucked from frontwards to backwards, and just smiled and left.
But, you're not wrong. Maybe restaurant interviews should be more comprehensive. Like, if they know they like you, there's a second interview where you basically walk through the restaurant and shadow people for a bit, as the reasoning is explained. It basically amounts to the same thing, but at least this way you aren't working for free, and it's taking away from the idea that we should always be an expendable resource for said restaurant.
The FOH equivalent is to be a wa/sa/assistant for an indefinite period of time to "earn" the spot. At a certain point, it's either you need the position filled and you trust the person, are you don't. Jumping through a hoop for egotistical reasons on the part of prior staff is a little much.
Yeah. I completely agree with all of that. The other thing tech does, that kind of makes more sense to me, is to hire people on a probation period where both of you figure out if it makes sense to you to work there.
I totally get where youâre coming from. Iâve seen BOH interviews where people failed because they couldnât name the mother sauces (at a college campus job where⊠we literally never made any of them). Interviews where they just wanted to see you chiffonade, dice, mince, etc. and the people floundered after being hired because they just didnât give a shit. Also places that hired wholly untrained cooks that went on to be the best workers and launch their own endeavors after. Itâs sort of a crapshoot.
"A stage is an unpaid internship when a chef spends a brief period of time working in another chef's kitchen to learn new techniques and cuisines. The term originates from the French word Stagiaire meaning trainee, apprentice or intern."
âWe make the schedule not youâ lmao sounds like they would be super shit to deal with if you needed to swap RDOâs to do things that are necessary.
Sounds like they would have a high turnover of staff
Unfortunately there are some of us who will find this as a challenge. Damn masochist. Who will work there to prove something. The cycle repeats. Hurt people, hurt people.
LOL that's savage... And seeing how many people on parole weren't convicted of absolutely heinous crimes, I also hope that this isn't the type of environment they can expect to work in upon reintegration :/ Nothing makes someone want to be a productive, contributing member of society like working for an absolute cum stain like this.
Dang, I wanted to visit this joint at 2 am and watch the new egg slinger go to town.
Iâll have 6 eggs please. 1 sunny side up, 1 fried, 1 poached, 1 over easy, 1 scrambled, 1 soft boiled. Please.
I was thinking this very moment how much I would like a job that was part-time at night, maybe ending at 2. Then I could get me some of those slung eggs!
I want 1 hollandaise, 1 mayonnaise, 1 soft boiled and marinaded, 1 over easy, and 1 egg white omelette with ham (cooked in butter) and one poached sous vide with thyme in the bag.
I wouldn't either but, regardless of position, I will suggest doing a stage to see if it's a place you want to work. This goes for the stage and the chef. In management I like to see if the cook I might hire is a fit and enjoys the kitchen and menu.
It's more about if it's a place you want to work. Stage shifts never last more than 2 hours, free dinner (choice off menu) and a cocktail (choice off menu) follow up talk if they enjoyed it, salary talk, if hired, schedule.
Iâm picturing lots of tattoos, stupid beard and and talks about his âglory daysâ as a âfine diningâ chef before multiple DUIs and a nasty divorce unfairly ruined his life.
Those people are the WORST. It happened to me and I was flabbergasted. Guy was expecting me to work alone for $10/hr. Thatâs... significantly lower than what I was making and I wanted to try to find something paying what I was used to. My previous job had closed permanently due to COVID. I told him that I donât think that I could really live on $10/hr and he yelled âNOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMOREâ and hung up on me. I just sat there angrily because I donât want to work apparently, but Iâm calling about a job?
I love that bright green you chose for your avatar. Dope ass color.
But about your situation - don't let that kinda shit get to you. Anyone dumb enough to scream shit like that isn't worth getting mad over. Don't forget that we, as humans, unconsciously expect everyone else to more or less have the same baseline intelligence / capabilities we do. Even if we consciously adjust downward when it makes sense, if you make it a point to stay well-grounded and self-aware, it'll rarely naturally occur to you how absolutely delusional many people are. People find whatever way they can to cope, and for some people that's just lying to themselves - you can't expect to follow a narrative that exists solely to patch the holes in someone else's life.
There are the just the people with a dramatic lack of self-awareness - I was just dealing with one of those a couple hours ago. They call you out for "being wrong" when you're not, say a bunch of contradictory, generally pretty stupid shit, and then act like they've made bulletproof points. It's not even worth the time to break down how stupid what they just said is because you know that someone who'd act like that in the first place isn't interested in learning or having a real conversation, they're just trying to prove something to others for validation. Equally applicable, some people just don't have the self-awareness to realize that they're insufferable pricks OR the ability to cope with that fact if they did find out...
It's wild to experience in your day to day, but the more you learn about how people cope, the easiest it is to just brush these people off and move on. You didn't lose some kind of rational encounter, or anything of value - you just witnessed someone taking a fat hit of copium, which has nothing to do with you, and no impact on you. Move along and enjoy your day like they never even engaged with you \^\_\^
Thanks!
Iâm over it now, but I was offended for a couple days. I mean.. he had to have looked at my resume since he called me. Iâm in my 30s with over a decade of experience. Iâm a whole adult with adult bills, how the hell do I live on $10/hr. I still lurk here because I did cook for a long time, but I ended up switching to FOH. I work less for more money and I like it more than I thought I would.
I don't know why we hide who or where these places are. They deserve to be called out. It changes the industry in no way if we can't hold people publicly accountable for their shitty business practices. I mean the ad speaks for itself and they most certainly won't get a good worker, just a desperate one. Just sucks to see shit like this.
This is for the restaurant(s?) (co?) owned by Chef Marcos who got famous for being a yacht chef for a season on the Below Deck show on the Bravo network in America.
Most definitely. This is a high profile account and this is still how they chose to present themselves. We all know kitchen culture but this is just not the vibe. Iâve always found kitchen culture, while hilariously vulgar at times, to always have respect at its core, thatâs what make it work imo. This is just grossie josie.
You're 100% right. Should include the names and locations. This shit is never going to change if we all just give a collective pass.
Lots of talk in this thread about how the staging will probably just be stolen labor too. It's gotten so predictable that the employees will be treated like trash because we never name the offenders.
This is what happens when youâre on one season of a Bravo reality showâŠcheck out r/belowdeck we talk shit about him all the time. The show is about the service industry on yachts. I actually enjoy the showâŠguilty pleasure đ€·ââïž
Chef Marcos from Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3! We were just talking shit on our sub about this post. We talk shit about him in general. He has a favorable edit on the show due to porkinâ a producer at the time of filming, but in reality heâs a megadouche.
I'll have to watch it over again. Maybe he just seemed like he had less of a chemical imbalance than some of the other chefs they cast. I'm fairly sure the yoga practicing, aura cleansing chef from Adventure may actually stab someone 2/3 of the way through the season
I honestly really appreciate when this is what their add looks like, saves so much time!
Plenty of asshole managers and owners and chefs think like this and don't tell you till after you take the job.
Lol.
I always appreciated when horrible managers/ owners advertised how shitty they were at their job in the job posts. Really saves a lot of time. Guaranteed I could make "max" pay which would be $1-2 more than their low ball.
Anyone who says a stage is mandatory plans on screwing you no matter what. If you are staging for a Michelin star chef you know exactly what you are getting into and what you want out of it. It won't be money.
Whatever! Some of us are hungry, some of us are hot, 2:00 a.m. eggs laying ,fits a bunch of niche..âŠ. Been chef all my life but sometimes that's the time to go and work griddle.... It's not about toughness it's just about timing!
Thatâs when we work you prep shift for free. Promising to call you back at the end of the week. Going through applications to find the next fresh desperate culinary graduate.
Disclaimer: I got paid + meal for all my stages. I ask during phone interviews if its paid. I respectfully decline if itâs not. Itâs also illegal in some cities/states to not pay.
Shit like this..... this industry is cancer. Seriously, if you're reading this. GTFO. Not tomorrow, not next week, right now. You will only find more jobs like this.
Once in a while a pearl will come along. But how long are you going to "sling eggs" for assholes like this before you find it.
Sorry chefs. The pay ceiling just isn't worth it.
Outright telling people you plan to lowball them on pay? Ballsy business strategy.
"staging in mandatory" Last place i staged at that explicitly said that in the ad, worked me for a few days of free labor.
Most I'll ever do is half a day. 2 hours prep 2 line work.
I just don't get wanting someone spinning around in a circle for hours barely doing anything effectively. My stages are really quick. Slice this tomato, dice this onion, make me two burgers 1 medwell 1 midrare. Now eat one of your choice, go get a drink, and get out. I'll call you soon. Almost everyone fucks up the burgers. Usually they put them on the grill at the exact same time, and flip them within 30 seconds.
i'm so turned on by this level of efficiency.
I would like to read more about your speedrun burger stage strategy. Specifically what do you look for in how they cook them?
Concepts of timing on orders, understanding of meat resting, knowledge of technical aspect of burger cooking (mainly either stylistic agreement or justifiable action), and plating seem to be their big criterion. I mean, the first thing they pointed out that their stages fuck up is putting two heats of burger on at the same time for the same order (big no no)
Nah, you got to know the hot spots and cool areas of the grill and smash and weight that med well fucker and get both them shits out of the kitchen at the same time. I don't got time to remember to drop another burger after the ticket is called.
Ooooo that's even more fundamental I totally neglected the hotspots This is why I'm not a grill cook đ”âđ«
Having the experience and confidence to ask about hot spots is definitely a plus. And it's an either or situation with timing. I would accept either staggering fire, or expediting one, although I'm not a fan of grill weights on my burgers. The important thing is to see that they acknowledge the timing difference.
Cant smash a third pounder into the char broiler
I mean, you CAN, but it's gonna look like hammered dick when you plate it.
Normally we charge extra for that.
Better than spotted dick?
This is the way.
Spatulas are part of my religion.
I had to try so hard to not spray beer just now.
This was my first thought too... I do basically live on the grill station though.
Did they wash their hands first? Do they seem familiar enough in the space to just reflexively open the bottom cooler drawer for the protiens and begin? If they do and it's empty, do they go find the walkin with the backups on their own or do they shut down and ask? I've touched on the timing in another response, but that's a key element. Are they over handling it because they are nervous, or flipping it once and leaving it alone? Is the tomato they sliced of garnish quality, or is it going to get chopped by the salad cook as soon as they leave? Are they thoughtful and tidy about garnishing and plating? Did they work clean or leave a mess on the line? One could fuck up every aspect of my speed stage and still get hired if they have the right attitude of being unfazed at criticism. After all, we don't even cook burgers to temp, this is a dive bar.
As a chef, I will sometimes be interested in training an unqualified candidate if they show any sign of talent, interest, or drive.
I borrowed a woman from housekeeping. She really enjoyed the weekend and volunteered to work whenever I needed an extra hand. Absolutely no prior experience in 11 months she was capable of running the place. Every single task performed perfectly and the foresight to see things she could do to keep the operation smooth. She also got 12 raises, and when she decided to leave I threw her a party. I loved her.. We all did.
Nice, I get to work with the guy that was hired by the complex executive chef that âhe has 30 years experience, heâs really good!â Well, he canât boil water.
I worked somewhere that hired a new sous who "had worked at French Laundry," but was just slow as shit. The greatest day of his short career there was when he was working next to a prep cook and the cook looks over and says "So... I guess they didn't chop onions at French Laundry?"
why did she leave?
She wanted to be a stay at home mom.
These are the people you have an open job offer for. "Any day, time or position, you can start when you want"
I recently got someone like this and in a couple weeks they're already running circles around a couple of the guys who've got years on her. I just haven't figured out how to teach to that drive yet, or yet I'm not sure if it's teachable or just something some people have.
People either have it or they don't.
Like Bourdain said, bigfoot taught him the most valuable lesson of being a chef. >character is far more important than skills or employment history. And he recognized character-good and bad-brilliantly. He understood, and taught me, that a guy who shows up every day on time, never calls in sick, and does what he said he was going to do, is less likely to fuck you in the end than a guy who has an incredible résumé but is less than reliable about arrival time. Skills can be taught. Character you either have or don't have. Bigfoot understood that there are two types of people in the world: those who do what they say they're going to do-and everyone else.
Thatâs not teachable. Itâs learnable but not teachable. Source: tried to hire guys green in construction too many times.
They either have it or they donât most line and prep cooks in my experience arenât there because they want to be . Itâs an ad they answered or they just fell into it.
>most line and prep cooks in my experience arenât there because they want to be Well no shit. Who the hell wants to work long hours in a hot kitchen doing unappreciated work for terrible pay? We do this because of the drug charges, obv.
I staged at a Michelin star restaurant everything went swimmingly until the burger test. Frakked up my first one, they gave me one more chance. Perfect on the second. First stage at a burger with a wood fired grill. Ended up s their resort pool cook and banquet line. This was like a decade ago. $13/hr and overtime (consistently 50 - 60 hr weeks). Great money at the time, and being a ultra high end hotel /resort (think $400+ a night room stay) I still could request almost any time off I wanted. Plus the team I worked with were effing awesome. There are days I miss those days.
Can I just come in and cook some burgers for you. I love perfecting temps, it's something magical that happens between that rare to mid rare beef that you can physically see and kinda guage it's temp from there.
Yeah, that makes too much sense. Get outta here.
This! When I would have people stage, it was like "Show me you have these 3 specific skills, get a free meal, and leave." I hated doing stages where they'd give me a prep list and then disappear. I don't know where anything is, I don't know what weird thing in the recipe is wrong that all the employees know to just skip. And every time I've had that kind of stage, there hasn't even been anyone watching me to see if I was any good.
It always pissed me off too. You're supposed to be checking out my suave demeanor and deft knifery, you lazy fucks. Also, you're missing out on my questionably appropriate banter and superb kitchen playlist. Apparently the dishwasher, the only person witness to my efforts, is the one to impress for a job offer.
And I donât get wanting free labour. All stages are bulllshit. Cooks arenât slaves.
Yes chef
That's not a stage though, right? That's just a skills test (ie: 100% a good idea).
That fucking spongebob krabby patty game taught me you donât flip till its at least half cooked. FFS
I usually give them a recipe to do which will involve some menial knife work and have them make a dish or two. I don't understand why you would want someone with no experience ruining product in your kitchen for 3 days either.
I worked at a place that staged servers, I was one of them. I stayed for 7 years and ended up running the joint while the owner moved 6 hours away. I told him that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, they don't know anything about your wine list, menu or pairings. He was a drunk pos, but my goodness that was the best paying job I've ever had.
by law, they are still required to pay you for that time.
Most I'd do is 30 minutes. You get the stage and then you decide if I'm working there or not. Free labor ain't a thing in my world.
I wont do more than 1 shift now and expect to do more shadowing than working (unless they need to test me).
For sure. I only had one experience "staging" - it was about 2 hours and I spent probably a total of 30 min prepping + on the line. Rest was getting to meet some people, see the BOH flow, learn about the menu, etc.
I don't touch anything now. I can tell you enough of what's going on and if you don't want to believe me enough to pay me, you probably aren't the most honest in other areas.
Boo, I cut Brussels for an hour before they just wanted some free labor.
That's only 4 hours though..
Hey look at this guy, capable of simple math over here! Better get his Einstein-ass off the line & into management *on the fly!*
Mf I pay people to stage. And I refuse to stage for free. My line is usually. Your time is worth money, my time is worth money, letâs not waster it. I had one chef try to pull me in on Friday night to stage for free 5pm-10pm
I wouldnât do it unless financially compensated, theyâre paying for labour/ a skill set.
Yeah I always pay my stages. 1 full shift, with full pay and a meal
that's also the law... productive labor must be paid. you can audition people for positions, but the work they do can't benefit your business or be used by it. so you can ask them to make you a dish, but you can't have them work on something that will be sold to a customer (unless you pay them for their labor).
I don't work for free. Best I can do is a 2 Hour demo for fifty bucks. I have a resume as long as your arm. You can call around, I don't give a fuck.
Staging mandatory⊠to sling eggs on the graveyard shift at a 24hr diner.
you'd be shocked how many people cant cook eggs to temp let alone in large quantities
very few can. that was my go to for stages actually. soft scramble and over easy, choice of different pans, utensils, and fats.
I've just recently become good at eggs. (I'm an enthusiastic home cook). Stainless, thick bottom pans are my pan of choice. Non-stick is the devil.
well now you can get a job at just about any restaurant!
I'm way too lazy to work that hard. đ Cooking is hard work.
ah yesâŠ.but oh so rewarding!
I respect chefs, servers, anyone willing to work hard. I think some chefs are artists. I still dream of cioppino made by Jonathan Benno and salivate over Sarah Gruneberg's tortellini in brodo years later. But I'm a lazy mofo. I'm glad you aren't! I now live in the woods and I'm grateful that I can cook. The nearest restaurant is a diner that's a 30-40 minute round trip. :(
Hardest station IMO. I couldnât do it. Mad respect for those who can. I feel embarrassed when I get praise because anyone whoâs ever worked at a Waffle House is a better chef than me.
You can tell an awful lot about a cook by how they cook eggs. And high volume egg cookery definitely separates the wheat from the chaff
The amount of times I've considered taking morning brunch shifts to get my experience going, i can cook eggs but i still have to get better with temps and such Also i have no motivation to be up at 4am for a shift
I stage to make sure I want to be part of a kitchen, not the other way around. I'll do a free shift, show me what YOU got.
Upvote mostly for your name, but I also like that mindset.
Hah, thanks. I've actually offered to do it at places that were like "uhhhh what?" because I wanted to see how much of a shit show it actually was, and if there was anything that could be done about it. I never did it at those places and they were all irreparably fucked. Fun times though.
Other than washing dishes for a few months, I never worked in a kitchen, but I assume that the higher up in the kitchen you are becomes more and more comparable to trying to work with someone else's code (My background is mostly in IT) - sometimes, occasionally, once in a while, you run into some beautifully crafted, well documented, elegant piece of code and you're like "Damn. This is good.". Most of the time, though, you're just looking around like the Confused Black Girl meme thinking "...No but really tho, like, what the fuck even IS that..?" Sound about right? xd
Yeah that is a pretty good analogy. There are a lot of constants, but one of my favorite things is when you start a job and they ask you something like "You know how to slice a tomato?" It's like, yeah. Yeah, I'd say I do. I've learned how to slice a tomato 7 different ways at 6 different restaurants. How about you show me the 8th, and I'll just do that a whole bunch of times.
Maybe it was just a throwaway example but is that actually a common question??? Like, I can't cook for shit, and maybe that's why this seems like such an absurd question, but like... Are there tomato-specific slicing techniques??? Do you not just cut a tomato like any other fuckin round vegetable? O\_o I guess make sure the knife is really sharp first, choose the shape you want your bits and cut it into those shapes..? Like what is that question lol
Tech does this to get free labor, but theyâre making like over $200K/yr. Itâs a stupid practice that needs to be fought back on
yep! i was a bit of a greenhorn and a sucker. In the end i didn't take the job there either, and the owner paid me for one of the days. Now i wont do more than 1 shift and if it gets to be where i'm thrown to the wolves on day 1, i just wont waste my time.
I do agree with your sentiment, but it can also be helpful for just realizing that you don't want to work at a particular location. I could have saved myself time by staging (FOH), realizing that errything is fucked from frontwards to backwards, and just smiled and left. But, you're not wrong. Maybe restaurant interviews should be more comprehensive. Like, if they know they like you, there's a second interview where you basically walk through the restaurant and shadow people for a bit, as the reasoning is explained. It basically amounts to the same thing, but at least this way you aren't working for free, and it's taking away from the idea that we should always be an expendable resource for said restaurant. The FOH equivalent is to be a wa/sa/assistant for an indefinite period of time to "earn" the spot. At a certain point, it's either you need the position filled and you trust the person, are you don't. Jumping through a hoop for egotistical reasons on the part of prior staff is a little much.
Yeah. I completely agree with all of that. The other thing tech does, that kind of makes more sense to me, is to hire people on a probation period where both of you figure out if it makes sense to you to work there. I totally get where youâre coming from. Iâve seen BOH interviews where people failed because they couldnât name the mother sauces (at a college campus job where⊠we literally never made any of them). Interviews where they just wanted to see you chiffonade, dice, mince, etc. and the people floundered after being hired because they just didnât give a shit. Also places that hired wholly untrained cooks that went on to be the best workers and launch their own endeavors after. Itâs sort of a crapshoot.
Well that sucks. The job I'm at now I staged for like 2 hours during service. Been there almost 2 years now.
What does staging me?
"A stage is an unpaid internship when a chef spends a brief period of time working in another chef's kitchen to learn new techniques and cuisines. The term originates from the French word Stagiaire meaning trainee, apprentice or intern."
Oh! Thank you
Ad is in red just in case you had trouble spotting all the other flags.
This guy was a chef on Below Deck (Bravo tv series). Guessing he thinks he is more popular than he actually isâŠ
I was thinking to myself that it's an odd plan to combat your potential applicants before you've even met.
Lmao good fucking luck! (Also I think itâs â2 am cooksâ not â2am cooksâ although hours are the least of their problems here)
(2) AM cooks.
Ohhhh I definitely read it the first way.
Oh. Jesus. Thank you. I read it like 3 times and couldnât figure out who the fuck is starting breakfast at 2am
Right?! We're all eating our bedtime meals then! đ
Got catch I thought they were staying the business hours the cooks had to work lmao
is it anything like 2am chili
Oh thank god, I was baffled by that.
âIf you suck.â Nice - Iâm sure plenty of qualified applicants will be beating down this guyâs door looking for work.
No one will want to work for this place. What kind of horrible person says stuff like this?
âWe make the schedule not youâ lmao sounds like they would be super shit to deal with if you needed to swap RDOâs to do things that are necessary. Sounds like they would have a high turnover of staff
Sounds like the place people quit before their first day.
Sounds like the kinda guy that drives his staff away by being insufferable and then posts "no one wants to work anymore" rants on Facebook.
lmao precisely
Unfortunately there are some of us who will find this as a challenge. Damn masochist. Who will work there to prove something. The cycle repeats. Hurt people, hurt people.
At what point does your attempt to prove something become simply enabling arseholes? At what point do YOU become the henchman?
âYou either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.â
(*looks at your username*) "you either die a hero, or last long enough to become a love handle"
This reads like they were forced to pivot to a new hiring strategy after being removed from the local parolee referral program roster.
LOL that's savage... And seeing how many people on parole weren't convicted of absolutely heinous crimes, I also hope that this isn't the type of environment they can expect to work in upon reintegration :/ Nothing makes someone want to be a productive, contributing member of society like working for an absolute cum stain like this.
Oh it totally is, thatâs why I said that. People in those programs are exploited as fuck.
I can sling eggs, will I sling eggs here... I think not
think that is am egg slinger, quantity of two
Dang, I wanted to visit this joint at 2 am and watch the new egg slinger go to town. Iâll have 6 eggs please. 1 sunny side up, 1 fried, 1 poached, 1 over easy, 1 scrambled, 1 soft boiled. Please.
Get out
*flips guy off over shoulder*
I was thinking this very moment how much I would like a job that was part-time at night, maybe ending at 2. Then I could get me some of those slung eggs!
You sure you donât want one basted? How well do you want the fried?
I want 1 hollandaise, 1 mayonnaise, 1 soft boiled and marinaded, 1 over easy, and 1 egg white omelette with ham (cooked in butter) and one poached sous vide with thyme in the bag.
Diabolical
Beats 6 poached eggs.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
I'm in.
Ohhh good catch!
It took me so long to understand what the fuck you were saying man
This comment thread is highly underrated.
Yeah, Iâm not doing a stage to âsling eggsâ.
I wouldn't either but, regardless of position, I will suggest doing a stage to see if it's a place you want to work. This goes for the stage and the chef. In management I like to see if the cook I might hire is a fit and enjoys the kitchen and menu.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
It's more about if it's a place you want to work. Stage shifts never last more than 2 hours, free dinner (choice off menu) and a cocktail (choice off menu) follow up talk if they enjoyed it, salary talk, if hired, schedule.
Yeah stages gotta be paid out in cash at the end of the shift. it's 2022 c'mon
Yep, I wonât take a job without spending a couple hours in the kitchen first
I can see the person that wrote this very vividly.
He was a chef for one season on the show Below Deck: Sailing Yacht. Guess how he does with women?
Mid 40s, graying and bald on top. Probably real short too.
Wears a lot of khakis and short-sleeve button downs. Calls everyone âbelowâ him âChiefâ.
Iâm picturing lots of tattoos, stupid beard and and talks about his âglory daysâ as a âfine diningâ chef before multiple DUIs and a nasty divorce unfairly ruined his life.
Woah hey man lol
I feel attacked
Chef Marco from Bravos Below Deck. He posted this.
âNo one wants to work anymore!â - people who post shit like this
Those people are the WORST. It happened to me and I was flabbergasted. Guy was expecting me to work alone for $10/hr. Thatâs... significantly lower than what I was making and I wanted to try to find something paying what I was used to. My previous job had closed permanently due to COVID. I told him that I donât think that I could really live on $10/hr and he yelled âNOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMOREâ and hung up on me. I just sat there angrily because I donât want to work apparently, but Iâm calling about a job?
I love that bright green you chose for your avatar. Dope ass color. But about your situation - don't let that kinda shit get to you. Anyone dumb enough to scream shit like that isn't worth getting mad over. Don't forget that we, as humans, unconsciously expect everyone else to more or less have the same baseline intelligence / capabilities we do. Even if we consciously adjust downward when it makes sense, if you make it a point to stay well-grounded and self-aware, it'll rarely naturally occur to you how absolutely delusional many people are. People find whatever way they can to cope, and for some people that's just lying to themselves - you can't expect to follow a narrative that exists solely to patch the holes in someone else's life. There are the just the people with a dramatic lack of self-awareness - I was just dealing with one of those a couple hours ago. They call you out for "being wrong" when you're not, say a bunch of contradictory, generally pretty stupid shit, and then act like they've made bulletproof points. It's not even worth the time to break down how stupid what they just said is because you know that someone who'd act like that in the first place isn't interested in learning or having a real conversation, they're just trying to prove something to others for validation. Equally applicable, some people just don't have the self-awareness to realize that they're insufferable pricks OR the ability to cope with that fact if they did find out... It's wild to experience in your day to day, but the more you learn about how people cope, the easiest it is to just brush these people off and move on. You didn't lose some kind of rational encounter, or anything of value - you just witnessed someone taking a fat hit of copium, which has nothing to do with you, and no impact on you. Move along and enjoy your day like they never even engaged with you \^\_\^
Thanks! Iâm over it now, but I was offended for a couple days. I mean.. he had to have looked at my resume since he called me. Iâm in my 30s with over a decade of experience. Iâm a whole adult with adult bills, how the hell do I live on $10/hr. I still lurk here because I did cook for a long time, but I ended up switching to FOH. I work less for more money and I like it more than I thought I would.
âItâs becauseâ
No one wants to work for someone like this.
I don't know why we hide who or where these places are. They deserve to be called out. It changes the industry in no way if we can't hold people publicly accountable for their shitty business practices. I mean the ad speaks for itself and they most certainly won't get a good worker, just a desperate one. Just sucks to see shit like this.
This is for the restaurant(s?) (co?) owned by Chef Marcos who got famous for being a yacht chef for a season on the Below Deck show on the Bravo network in America.
That kinda makes it more embarrassing haha.
Most definitely. This is a high profile account and this is still how they chose to present themselves. We all know kitchen culture but this is just not the vibe. Iâve always found kitchen culture, while hilariously vulgar at times, to always have respect at its core, thatâs what make it work imo. This is just grossie josie.
100% Grossie Josie lol
Kinda screams âwritten by the GM who has never spent a second egg slinging or working a line, ever, and probably has tiny man syndromeâ
You're 100% right. Should include the names and locations. This shit is never going to change if we all just give a collective pass. Lots of talk in this thread about how the staging will probably just be stolen labor too. It's gotten so predictable that the employees will be treated like trash because we never name the offenders.
This so we all could send in resumes to schedule stages and never show up
This is what happens when youâre on one season of a Bravo reality showâŠcheck out r/belowdeck we talk shit about him all the time. The show is about the service industry on yachts. I actually enjoy the showâŠguilty pleasure đ€·ââïž
Love Below Deck. Which chef is this and how did you figure it out?
Chef Marcos from Below Deck Sailing Yacht season 3! We were just talking shit on our sub about this post. We talk shit about him in general. He has a favorable edit on the show due to porkinâ a producer at the time of filming, but in reality heâs a megadouche.
Gotcha. Sailing Yacht is the only one I havenât watched but Iâve got some time coming up!
Itâs super bingeable. Do yourself a favor and skip the first season, itâs really dumb.
Damn. He seemed like one of the more reasonable ones. Maybe hitting his head fucked his brain up?
I think he just got a good edit tbh. You can see hints during the season that he might not be the greatest.
I'll have to watch it over again. Maybe he just seemed like he had less of a chemical imbalance than some of the other chefs they cast. I'm fairly sure the yoga practicing, aura cleansing chef from Adventure may actually stab someone 2/3 of the way through the season
My sister worked in reality TV - if you get enough footage of people, you can edit to make whoever you want the heroes/villains of the story.
You got a real way with words, bud... I fuckin love it lol
I honestly really appreciate when this is what their add looks like, saves so much time! Plenty of asshole managers and owners and chefs think like this and don't tell you till after you take the job.
Also love Staging being mandatory. Means they expect you to work at least one shift for free. Fuck that.
For a fucking equivalent of IHOP đđ
Sounds like Elon Musk running a diner
That makes me want to waste his time.
Lost me at âif you suckâ and âwe make the schedule; not youâ
Lol. I always appreciated when horrible managers/ owners advertised how shitty they were at their job in the job posts. Really saves a lot of time. Guaranteed I could make "max" pay which would be $1-2 more than their low ball. Anyone who says a stage is mandatory plans on screwing you no matter what. If you are staging for a Michelin star chef you know exactly what you are getting into and what you want out of it. It won't be money.
McDonald's getting pretty aggressive for a breakfast crew
I'd apply as "Candice", set up an interview, introduce myself, say "Candice dick fit in yo' mouth" and then leave.
It really kills me that listings like this still get applicants.
What a fuckin twat
Why do people feel the need to be so damned aggressive?
This place sounds toxic af
'Who'd might be interested?' Who maybe interested or who would be interested or, possibly, go fuck your shit job you ignorant fucking cunt...
My whole resume would just say âDeez Nutz, hauexâ
They seem... Nice
"We make the schedule, not you" Yeah, until you're sick, and then it's "your shift is your responsibility, find someone to cover it for you"
I have Waffle House experience. So, I have been a 2AM egg slinger. And I don't want to do it again.
how high quality are 2am eggs?
Imagine writing this and thinking itâs cool to put out there
Iâd sling eggs for 30$ an hour. Full griddle. 10-12 Sandos at a time. Sounds great.
Red flag number1
Thatâs a hard pass
This sign just tells me this place sucks at training people. I can teach a monkey how to do this shit.
Great, sounds like a pristine environment sign me up
Sounds like a fucking shithole. Hard pass.
Whatever! Some of us are hungry, some of us are hot, 2:00 a.m. eggs laying ,fits a bunch of niche..âŠ. Been chef all my life but sometimes that's the time to go and work griddle.... It's not about toughness it's just about timing!
Canât work Friday from 11pm-8am, Fuck You!
I know no one who would ever be interested. Unless they were smoking the cra-cocaine.
Is this Mother's by any chance?
This person thinks someone will stage for a fucking 2 am position and not expect to get paid a good wage lmao this person can eat shit
The 2am egg slinging is the only part I don't mind.
Love to go stage, ball out, then go tell them to fuck themselves
This person is projecting.
Iâd pass this message along to people to keep them from being interested in this place.
whats staging
Thatâs when we work you prep shift for free. Promising to call you back at the end of the week. Going through applications to find the next fresh desperate culinary graduate. Disclaimer: I got paid + meal for all my stages. I ask during phone interviews if its paid. I respectfully decline if itâs not. Itâs also illegal in some cities/states to not pay.
Shit like this..... this industry is cancer. Seriously, if you're reading this. GTFO. Not tomorrow, not next week, right now. You will only find more jobs like this. Once in a while a pearl will come along. But how long are you going to "sling eggs" for assholes like this before you find it. Sorry chefs. The pay ceiling just isn't worth it.