How hot is your kitchen

[banqueteer]

So what is they average temp in your kitchen and how sick have you gotten from it?

[Pastachef]

It's this hot!

[momoreg]

You know what they say, if you can't take the heat...

[coolJ]

My kitchen gets HOT!!. but I haven't gotten sick from the heat though. It's probably because I get all the free soda that I want, and I usually drink three or four litres everyday, just to keep fluid in my system.

The kitchen i am working in now is only open in the summer and is up on the top floor of the hotel (7th floor). It is the smallest kitchen in the hotel and the HOTTEST! The have to bypass the fire alarms every night becuz once the kitchen reaches 140 degrees, the sprinklers go off! Our only source of air is from the window, which has been bolted shut!!!! Too many people have passed out up there...even the sous-chef calling the line!

[BillyG60]

A couple of years ago the exhaust fan went out on a busy Sat.night(over the grill).
To make a long story short,the fire sprinklers went off at the busiest time of the night!!!! Alarms going off and people were freaking out.I just stood there and laughed for a few moments(I am not right by any means ;-) )

I like to tell that one to the new Waitstaff when they start complaining about running around in an air condition Dinning Room!!!

Billy

[Pastachef]

It will never get THAT kind of hot, Momoreg I think we're all troopers here.

[Pete]

I really don't mind the heat in the kitchens I've worked in, and I have worked in some seriously HOT kitchens. The only time it bugs me is when the servers come back to the kitchen wanting to warm themselves under the heat lamps because the dining room is soooooooooo cold. Or when the 5th FOH person comes back to the kitchen and just has to ask "Is it hot enough in here for you?"

[mofo1]

I'm one of the weird ones. I LIKE the heat. True, I need to cool down once in awhile but I feel like if I'm not sweating, I'm not working.

[Nick.Shu]

i once worked in a kitchen that had under powered extractors and was in a converted office suite with one door and no opening windows (during summer in sydney AUS).

Needless to say, the kitchen got quite warm. Oh did i also say that this was a cajun restaurant; (lots of blackening) smokey too.

Mofo1,

What do you mean weird, why would anyone want to work in the cold? I'm with you bring on the heat.

BigMal
(smiling from the inside)

with 8 ovens going it gets hot.....but I will let the cat out of the bag and say...being a mid age women.....I go threw the kitchen and keep saying " I am having a hot flash!" and nothing could be hotter!!
but it does not fase me anymore. I just try not to drip into the soup.

[Joshua Tomczyk]

Ok I am used to the heat I live in Tucson I have seen it as hot as 123 outside. In the kitchen the only cooling is swamp coolers. They pull air through wet pads and blow it through vents to add humidity and cool the air. They don't work at all in a kitchen and when it's the Monsoon season it gets really bad. The pantry guy brought in a backyard weather station, measures temp. and humidity. That night it was 140 with 100% humidity in the pantry. Yes, salads are out of the kitchen in less than 30 seconds. The broiler in the restaurant is a huge Mesquite Charcoal Fired ****. The charcoal burns at 2000 degrees. Before I had only seen brick ovens that could reach 800. Hot spots in this baby reach 1200-1400. Cooking in this baby is an hand speed demonstration. If your in there too long, more than a second or two, it feels like your finger nails are going to pop off. Standing in front of that thing I have seen 189 on an instant read thermometer in my pocket.

[Katherine]

Spinin, take vitamin E to get rid of your hot flashes. Start with 800iu/day, but you may need to go 3x that much. The cheap stuff is ok, though. You don't need the more expensive "natural" brands.

The first night I did grill and sauté where I'm working now, it was the hottest day of the summer and I got a nasty headache and got sick on the way home, in spite of constantly drinking ice water. The next day was better, and after that I was used to it.

We were reviewed last week, and the only fault the reviewer could find (she even loved the dishware) was that the DR got warm. Duh! it's an open kitchen.

[W.DeBord]

I had an ad in the paper a few months back looking for an assistant. One person called and the first question they asked me was "what's the pay?". The second question was "is your kitchen air-conditioned?".

I didn't much care for those questions and how straight out the person was asking them. But now that I'm looking for a new position I'm thinking they weren't such bad questions after all.........