[Clint]

Hi. Like I said in the welcome forum I'm only 17 and have been cooking for a little more than a month but have been cooking at home for years. It's kind of a funny story how I was hired. I started washing dishes where I work now and would always watch the cooks from the dishpit but never thought I would be hired due to my lack of experience, then one day frusrated I was stuck washing dishes for 6 hours a day I talked to my manager saying I would possibly be putting in my two weeks notice. She then offered me a job cooking since I supposedly showed good energy and what not while dishing, and since I've always greatly enjoyed doing it at home I accepted. To say the least a lot of things I didn't consider about the job are popping up. So if you have anything you wish somebody would've told you when you began cooking please share, however my biggest problem is the stress, staring at 4 or 5 order tickets and not knowing if I should just finish one order first then move on to the next, or do pieces of each order then finish them all together, things like that. I should mention that the restaurant I work at isn't gourmet or anything, we serve everything from prime rib to burgers, to grilled walleye to bruschetta.

[Coregonus]

Keep your nose up, buddy! Food doesn't bite, you do! I just hope you'll get some help from boss making first steps.
Working short orders is all about timing. It's important to be able to finish some plates right in time while starting others. So you'll have to multitask. And be careful with wet stuff in deep-frier.

Lucky you, having fresh walleye all the time. We get frozen fillets mostly here.
Have you checked that thread out yet? The Industry, Schooling, & Career Change...

Good luck

C

[Chef_rockclimb3]

hey bro don't worry i know what u mean, i get stressed sometimes when i cook either i will get nervous about how the dish will turn out or how do i do this recipe with out screwing it up. keep it up the more cooking u do the more experience u will have and the less stress u will have from working all the different types of cooking in every aspectof the cooking world u will feel more cofident with it foods u will create

keep it up bro

[Mezzaluna]

When I was in college I was wound up in a kitchen without any training except what I had at home making dinner for six and more. I worked lunch, the busiest shift. What has been said here about multitasking is gold- you have to develop a keen sense of timing, such as how long that sandwich needs to go before you flip it, or how to manage getting all plates in the order on the counter at about the same time. The only remedy is to dive in, do your best.

If you don't mind sharing, where are you in Dairyland?

[thetincook]

I'll throw a couple of aphorisms at you like:

Keep your cool, dont panic
Don't let the food be the boss of you.


4 or 5 tickets at once is nothing.
The goal is to get each course out at the same time for each table. This is pretty easy if you have a good expo. Otherwise you must communicate with your fellow linesmen. Communication is a must, don't do it, and the line will sink into the weeds fast.

Second thing to do is check out your mise. If you've got enough, could it be organized better. You should have acces to everything you need if you have one foot nailed to the floor. One of the things I do, is precup some of the sauces that people order extra sides of. It saves me a few seconds during the rush.

The FOH can also screw things for you if the seatings aren't staggered. Some waiters like to hoard tickets and put them in all at once.

Lastly, I always scan ahead to see if I have any surprises or long cooking items coming up. Well-dones are the worst and can really hang a ticket.

[Clint]

Wow, thanks a lot guys

Mezzaluna: Im in central WI. Im working on getting better at multitasking but every once and a while I'll totally forget about something on the char broil and end up wasting the company money and the customers patience .

The tin cook: That brings up a whole nother set of problems...see we have a new head chef that is firm on sticking exactly to the recipes, which is fine with me but the cooks training me will each tell me a different recipe for say mashed potatoes, then the head chef will see me making them and tell me im all wrong and I need to add horseradish and less of all the spices. Then if the cooks see me using his recipe then im told im wrong all over again and its so frustrating.

Chef_rockclimb3: Yeah thats kind of been my plan of attack, I come home from work then cook something from our menu for dinner er...midnight meal then come online and look for all the info I can, so basically constantly thinking about cooking. So far just talking with you guys has proved to be the most useful and I really appreciate it.

Coregonus: Oh, no they aren't fresh, we get frozen fillets as well, with the skin on. I catch my own walleye all summer long for cooking at home and honestly I can't tell the difference so they must be pretty good. Ill hafta check out that forum too, thanks.

[Greg]

Regarding the recipe problem, always do as the chef says. That pretty much applies to anything in the kitchen for that matter.

[thetincook]

I feel your pain Clint. At one place I worked at, the exec was only on the day shift and made frequent changes to recipes and plating without updating the recipe book or letting anybody else know. On the rare occasions when he did swing by he'd throw a fit. It got so bad that our signature salad was almost two different things depending on if you had it for lunch or for dinner.

It sucks taking it both ways. Do what greg said and do what the chef (or sous chef in charge of your shift, I guess) says. If the crew has gone rouge, there isn't much you can do about it except stick up for the standards on the stuff that comes of your station

[kuan]

1) The chef is right.
2) The chef is always right.
3) When in doubt, see (1)

Whenever some other cook tells you different, ask him can we do it like chef says please? See, being a good cook is a little like being a good soldier. Do your duty unless you know for sure it's ethically wrong. If chef says MR is 140F then MR is 140F. It's not going to kill anyone. 140F is MR in HIS kitchen.

You will find your groove, or you will decide this isn't the right place for you.

Stick with it for awhile and see what happens. Line cooking is a lot like doing your mise. You can start a bunch at a time, like 6 chicken breasts on the grill, and finish them one at a time, or you can do them one at a time as the orders come in. Personally my style was many at a time. During lunch for example when one chicken sandwich would come in I'd toss six on the grill and they would all be gone in 10 minutes. Try not to do it with burgers though. Old burgers suck and customers can tell.

[Mezzaluna]

Home cook here asking what "MR" means in this context, Kuan.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

Home cook here asking what "MR" means in this context, Kuan.

Oh medium rare.

[Krootons]

Communication and patience are important untill you find your "groove" with your cooks.

You really need to be "thrown" into the environment. You will mess up. A lot. The trick is to continually learn from your mistakes and your victories. Ask questions, and pay attention to what others do when you get a chance.

It is stressful, but that's part of the appeal IMO. Don't forget to breathe, and catch every second you can to take a drink of water and truly -read- and know your next 4 tickets, at least. Pay attention to the tickets, and you won't get any surprises. Surprises really crank up the stress level.

Also, don't run. Ever. And be wary of the fryer and your floor. Watch closely for oil/water spills, and clean or mend them accordingly. Stress and heat can be very painful when you get lost in the moment.

[Scottintexas]

Line cooking is a lot like doing your mise.

What does mise mean?

[ddugan]

Mise is mise en plahs(french i believe). In line cooking its all the ingredients and raw product you will need for all the menu items you cook at your station. At home say your cooking beef stew, you would naturally gather, prep all your ingredients before you start. All the ingredients for the stew would be your mise. Hope this explained it.

[greyeaglem]

Try your best, that's all you can do. If you are conceintious and truly try, you will do fine. No one expects you to be able to jump in there and be an expert right off the bat. Like all of us, you just need to learn and you will make mistakes learning. I still get busy and forget things. We all do. My frustration in kitchens today is that due to the low wages in my area for cooks and chefs, we wind up with kitchens full of people who are just putting in their time until something better comes around, and they don't care. They don't care if a sandwich that is supposed to be toasted is just barely warm, they don't care if the food comes out hot, etc. So, speaking from experience, if I had a person like you who is concerned enough to come to a website like this and ask for help to improve their performance, I would thank my lucky stars that I had someone on my staff that was trying so hard. It just takes practice. You will get it, and someday we may all be seeing your name linked with some famous restaurant. As for the conflicting information you get, stick with the chef. If anyone gives you grief, tell them to take it up with the chef, but this was how you were told to do it.l Good luck to you.