My work at hotel

[gus20]

Hello to eveyrbody and thanks for all the pieces of advice!

I wanted to tell u some things of my time at a Jw Marriot. I can say i learnt a little the movement in a kitchen. I have been helping banquets. Well i was one of the youngest guys at the kitchen, i realized the cooks dont have nice behavior, all the time they had to talk about sex and alcohol even its a forbidden topic at the hotel. Many time they have to ask u about sex, and if u dont want to answer they laugh of u or they joke of you. Thats why i tryed to work and not to talk. or i tryed to talk with other younger guys like me from a school. really i couldnt belive some things, others just try to seem they are the best cuz u are in the beginning and if u say something they shout u.
For example, i rememebr the chef told me to prepare a fumet. Well i was doing it and the cooks shouted me: why do u start from cold water??? i explained why, to avoid the boiling and for getting a clear fumet. Thye got angry to me, they told me it should boil and bla bla, they not only tryed to tell me i was wrong, they tryed to made me feel bad, like i didnt know anything, and many times laughinf of my school. I was hating the environment at my work, and i was asked many time why i wasnt smiling cuz the spirit froma Marriot is being happy. I tryed to smile but i couldnt after to being critized everymoment.
Other thing i hated was, i usually found food in my place to work, in my table, i hated that, to find yogurt or fruit that is forbidden. I could find food, that was terrible for me. Maybe cuz at school my french chefs have been very hard with us and well i loved my bromatology class and everything about how to take care of food, haccp and many things. Other thing i didnt like was, why everybody try to work just the necessary? if u stay more hours they get mad, or they ask u if u can do it. I didnt like much teh idea of working soem days 13 or 14 hours but it was work and a customer deserve the best.
I sometimes could see the chef in his office, i sometime couldnt see him, he just did the administrative work i think but he couldnt see how people was working. Of course i dont work like the, they are faster, they cook better than me, im in the beginning, but why cooking well is important if u dont respect people, customer and food? i really get angry when i see that. Thats why my co-workers ask me why i look angry.
Sometimes i think i wont cook but i can be good at checking how to manage a kitchen. I justw anted to say that. Iw ant to know if the kitchen are in that way, what i hate more if when they say, a cook should be "cachero" that means someone who has sex all the time, alcoholic or homosexual , its a little sad.

see u
thanks.

Gus

[panini]

Gus.
Are you at the JW in Washington?
Sounds like a rough time. Sometimes. misery loves company, which is why some people may act like that.
I have always found that a good defense for this situation, is to smile, and smile bigger when someone is ragging on you. If you frown, it sends the message that it is getting to you.
Good luck,
pan

[gus20]

I work at JW in Lima, Perú. My country.

Yes,. i usually smile. Thanks.

Gus

[chrose]

Gus I spent quite a bit of time in hotel kitchens and to me they are a separate animal entirely. I have found hotel cooks/chefs, not all of them mind you, but many of them to be among the most arrogant, self involved, perverted group I have ever run across. It seems to be a sadistic underground society. Again, this is not everybody and not all hotels. JW MArriot is no exception. I did my time in a Marriot kitchen and found it to be better than some, but just as bad as others.
What you will come away with though is a great experience that can't be duplicated anywhere else. Perhaps it's because hotel work is so tough and demanding that the people get that way. Still if you apply yourself, and keep your eyes and ears open to whats happening you will get some great training. After this everything else will seem easy!

[Apprenticed]

Poor Gus,

I am so sorry to hear that a group of lasy, complacent cooks are trying to rob you of your passion for cooking. DON'T LET THEM!

I agree with Chrose about hotel cooks being a separate animal... I think it is what comes of having secure positions, being managed by pencil necks (accountants), and not really having to push themselves anymore as they have it made... just a guess.

As for keeping your eyes open, I'd say if anything, you are learning what not to do to food... e.g. the fumet. You are right, you use cold water always, to extract the proteins and you never boil it, to avoid cloudiness.

Personally, I would act with great surprise at bad advice, and thank them for showing the professional way (their way) of doing things... while i secretly visit all the great little kitchens in Peru (privately owned) looking for my people.

Find your people, find a kitchen doing fresh new things with food, while respecting tradition. It may mean a cut in pay, not sure if you are able to do that, but at least it will put a spring back in your step and a smile on your face.

It's your career... protect it and make it yours... i know you can do it.

Respect!