Time to fess up... who cooks professionally?

northGAcock

Carolina Q said:

Somehow, I don't think the OP was interested in your high school exploits at a burger or pizza joint. "Boiling bags of meat" has to be the prize winner though!

Any real cooking training or experience here?

Face it. People who do it professionally are at work, work all the time and have little time for Internet banter on a website. 

lkapigian

My pictures suck, but I do cook for large paid events but probably 50% of my cooks are Gratis, some insist on paying. 6-800 people is pressing it but can get it done 

The_Stache

I had a Kool-Aid stand when I was 5.... does that count?

evie1370

Cookbook_Chip said:

My first ever job was Mickie-D's.  Two weeks and outta there!  But I sure learned to run a cash register after adding up the items on paper and looking up sales tax on a chart.  Wow.  Now I print cookbooks.  WAY easier.

That is what I had to do at BK. Then take money, figure change without a machine, and count it back to the customer. Those were the days!

Carolina Q

northGAcock said:

Carolina Q said:

Somehow, I don't think the OP was interested in your high school exploits at a burger or pizza joint. "Boiling bags of meat" has to be the prize winner though!

Any real cooking training or experience here?

Face it. People who do it professionally are at work, work all the time and have little time for Internet banter on a website. 

Good point.

WhiteyQ

Worked at a dinner theater in San Antonio, TX '81-'84 "Fiesta Dinner Playhouse". Served-up some of the tastiest institutional buffet chow in town. Also got some mad knife skills carving steamship roast beef rounds out on the buffet line. Great times.

nolaegghead

The number of people who have graduated from a culinary program are a small fraction of the total number of people that cook institutionally.

There are many scullions in the industry (look it up).

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Carolina Q said:

Somehow, I don't think the OP was interested in your high school exploits at a burger or pizza joint. "Boiling bags of meat" has to be the prize winner though!

Any real cooking training or experience here?

We owned a restaurant/catering/gourmet grocery store. Sold it 10 years ago. We learned a lot from a few talented chefs and vendors. We cooked a ton of food, butchered thousands of sub-primals, broke down many whole yellow tail, salmon, and halibut, ran a very busy Boars Head deli counter (that was my favorite job). Every Saturday for 4 hours I would be slammed slicing meat non-stop. We cook way better today than we did back then though. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

The Cen-Tex Smoker

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

When we got in the weeds The coke dealer “Sharif” would come back with a jumbo Tylenol bottle full of blow and dump some
out on a stainless table top and walk out. It
was like hyenas on a warthog. Then a few trays of cold ass beers would mysteriously show up. It was a different time. 

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

When we got in the weeds The coke dealer “Sharif” would come back with a jumbo Tylenol bottle full of blow and dump some
out on a stainless table top and walk out. It
was like hyenas on a warthog. Then a few trays of cold ass beers would mysteriously show up. It was a different time. 

It was a little more discrete where I worked.  The "code" for going out back and smoking was "hey, give me a hand taking the trash out".  (The trash in the kitchen weighed around 200 pounds so you actually did need two people to dump it). 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

When we got in the weeds The coke dealer “Sharif” would come back with a jumbo Tylenol bottle full of blow and dump some
out on a stainless table top and walk out. It
was like hyenas on a warthog. Then a few trays of cold ass beers would mysteriously show up. It was a different time. 

It was a little more discrete where I worked.  The "code" for going out back and smoking was "hey, give me a hand taking the trash out".  (The trash in the kitchen weighed around 200 pounds so you actually did need two people to dump it). 

Lots of hyjinx on the trash runs and lots in the walk-in too. It’s was like 140 degrees in that kitchen. No ac, just a squirrel fan in the ceiling blowing in 110 Texas summer air from a metal
roof. We would fight over who got to prep veg in the walk-in. It was a few hours of peace and semi comfort. It was not unheard of to walk in on someone smoking weed or a couple of horny waitrons “knocking one out” in there before we got busy. I could write a book. It was insane. 

Foghorn

I'm guessing the OP is regretting starting this thread at this point...

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Foghorn said:

I'm guessing the OP is regretting starting this thread at this point...

Ha ha. True. Genie is clearly out of the bottle
now though. 

nolaegghead

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

When we got in the weeds The coke dealer “Sharif” would come back with a jumbo Tylenol bottle full of blow and dump some
out on a stainless table top and walk out. It
was like hyenas on a warthog. Then a few trays of cold ass beers would mysteriously show up. It was a different time. 

It was a little more discrete where I worked.  The "code" for going out back and smoking was "hey, give me a hand taking the trash out".  (The trash in the kitchen weighed around 200 pounds so you actually did need two people to dump it). 

Lots of hyjinx on the trash runs and lots in the walk-in too. It’s was like 140 degrees in that kitchen. No ac, just a squirrel fan in the ceiling blowing in 110 Texas summer air from a metal
roof. We would fight over who got to prep veg in the walk-in. It was a few hours of peace and semi comfort. It was not unheard of to walk in on someone smoking weed or a couple of horny waitrons “knocking one out” in there before we got busy. I could write a book. It was insane. 

And let's not forget the mandatory deal with the bartender.  We keep them fed and they keep us drunk.

We had a vent hood running the length of the kitchen.  It was one of those kitchens completely exposed to the restaurant patrons, behind a long counter. Hot as f*ck, or cold as f*ck depending on the time of the year. 

At the end of the night we would pelt the dishwasher with baked potatoes, the swinging door was the shield.  I've been on both ends of that. 

Lots of pranks and playin around.  A few things were off limits like when you're carrying 10 gallons of hot oil to the recycling.  Dangerous environment.  Constant burns, cuts, oil splashes, flare-ups.  It's like 'nam.

New busboys would be put on oyster shuckin' duty and inevitably one would stab himself in the hand.  We all pulled straws on who did the hospital run.

The music was awesome...pretty much either any reggae or Bruce Springsteen.

Doc_Eggerton

When I was in uniform and on the road, midnight Dunkin Donuts guy would sometimes let me flip the donuts frying in the oil.  Nothing builds confidence in the citizens than seeing four blue and white cars behind DD at 0400.  Our other favorite hangout was Sambo's (not very PC these days) but all they would do is let me stir sugar in my free coffee.  BTW, the coffee was free but the (dare I be non PC again) waitress generally got a couple of bucks tip for serving nothing but coffee.

Doc_Eggerton

Told The Spouse about this, and she reminded me that when I was wooing her she worked summers at Lancer Pizza at Disney World.  All the underground stuff and uniforms and so on.  Her best stories are the after closing work when she crawled into huge ovens to clean them.

northGAcock

Restaurant humor is some of the funniest chit there is. No way to splain it....you just have to have lived it. 

hoosier_egger

We'd close down the pizza shop for the night, clean the place, make ourselves some food and drink from the kegs all night since they weren't trackable. It was a real good time if someone had a doobie. Nothing better than having a pizza shop to yourself when you have the munchies 

chard

Worked at KFC for three years in high school.  Couldn't even guess how much chicken I cooked during that time - 25 years later and I still cannot eat original recipe.  I really enjoyed when the dominos guy would deliver pizza through the drive through in exchange for chicken.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

chard said:

Worked at KFC for three years in high school.  Couldn't even guess how much chicken I cooked during that time - 25 years later and I still cannot eat original recipe.  I really enjoyed when the dominos guy would deliver pizza through the drive through in exchange for chicken.

That’s what most people don’t understand. When we owned the restaurant/store we sold some very high quality food. People used to always say “you guys must eat the most amazing food”! In truth, The last thing we wanted to eat was what we had been handling all day. We ate what we didn’t sell, what was left over, or at the restaurant next door while swapping war stories with the owners there. We did eat some amazing meals from time to time but I ate more horrible fast food as a restaurant owner than I ever did before or since. 

GrateEggspectations

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

nolaegghead said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I also cooked for 2 years in a very busy seasonal restaurant here in austin when I was 18-20 ish. Went from dish to cooking and everything in between. Crazy job. Coked  out owner, Coked out customers,
frisky (coked out) front-of-house girls. Was like working on a pirate ship. Ah the 80’s

privately owned restaurants are fueled by drugs from the front to the back of the house.  So if any of you have kids....

When we got in the weeds The coke dealer “Sharif” would come back with a jumbo Tylenol bottle full of blow and dump some
out on a stainless table top and walk out. It
was like hyenas on a warthog. Then a few trays of cold ass beers would mysteriously show up. It was a different time. 

Sounds more like a party than work, but in the restaurant biz, the lines often blur. 

JethroVA

Who has read Anthony Bourdain's book on this topic?  I have. 

JohnInCarolina

JethroVA said:

Who has read Anthony Bourdain's book on this topic?  I have. 

TN_Egger

Never worked in the biz but Kitchen Confidential is a fun read - gives the outsider a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes.  However, I take exception to the comment above about needing to work in the industry to appreciate a fine meal/good restaurant-service.  Too often it's simply a lack of common sense and decency that turns me off.

nolaegghead

If you like hard work, (sometimes low pay), food, alcohol, camaraderie, sex and drugs then the restaurant business is the business for you.

coachbriseno

I turned pro after working part time for two years at Arby's.

northGAcock

coachbriseno said:

I turned pro after working part time for two years at Arby's.

Oh please share the secrete as to how they make that Roast Beef Sandwich so good. 

JohnInCarolina

northGAcock said:

coachbriseno said:

I turned pro after working part time for two years at Arby's.

Oh please share the secrete as to how they make that Roast Beef Sandwich so good. 

I think it’s the secrete sauce.