Break? What is this "break" you speak of?
Yeah, there's what the law says. And then, there's what people actually do. I am in one of the few kitchens here where all the cooks are salaried; we work 13 - 16 hours a day five days a week. We're allowed a fair amount of autonomy in our kitchen, but nobody takes breaks when there's work to be done. Given the choice between a break, and having service completely tank because we're not prepared enough, breaks go right out the window. Such is life for an ambitious self-driven lot!
That said, the smokers do manage them each day, and being one of the few non-smokers, I tend to go on popsicle/cold beverage runs for everyone, but again, it still comes down to getting as much done as possible as quickly as possible first. Nobody gets juice or soda or energy drink if I'm too busy, unless a server is on hand with a few extra moments to run to the store instead.
At the end of the day, we also all sit down to eat family meal together, table settings and all. So far, this has been the only restaurant where I've experienced this in my 4+ years of cooking. It's really nice, though I have to say it's awfully painful to get up afterwards and finish breakdown and cleanup!
Pat