Chef-Janitor, Chef-HouseKeeper, Chef-Whatever..etc..

[foodpump]

A good Chef can scare the living cra* out of employees by doing things they refuse to do, faster, cleaner, and better than the person in charge is supposed to be doing.

Take for example greasy sheetpans from baking off bacon. The d/w or prepcook does a mono-buttucked job of cleaning them: Water everywhere, dishpit full of bacon grease,(which gets smeared on everythng else...) grease in the drains, and invariabley in the grease trap.

Now I've got some pretty good credentials and experience to my name. Do I scream and demand that the pans be cleaned perfectly, and I don't care how it gets done? Or do I instruct the d/w / cook to cut me off some cardboard box tops, then show both of the eejits how to scrape the grease and crud off of the pans with a cardbaord box top, throw the greasy tops in the garbage and rinse the sheet pans clean? Do I degrade myself by doing some actual dirty work? Do I earn any respect from my staff by taking time and showing everyone how to do things right?

I once hired a cook who had worked in a Union kitchen for 10 years. Every week we take apart the stove, oven, and convection oven and clean with oven cleaner. We, myself included. New guy refused, said it was the d/w job. Our d/w was up to his ears in cleaning up the last banquet's dishes. I told him he could do the dishes or the oven, he walks out on me instead.
Go figure....

[Just Jim]

I'm reminded of my favorite Far Side comic.

A sinking ship and a life raft full of sailors, including the captain.
On the bow of the ship is a guy in a chef's outfit, and he's thinking: "I wonder if that's really true, the cook always goes down with the ship?".

Well, it is.
The Chef's ability or inability to run the ship can cause it to succeed or fail.
I don't think the Chef should be scheduled as the regular dishwasher, be they should be expected to jump in anywhere in a pinch to keep the machine running.

[the_seraphim]

while i hate doing the cleaning jobs i know **** well if i worked my way up to head chef or sous chef i have little intention of cleaning unless i have to

at the minute though i am a mere chef de partie so i have to clean the canopy, the input vents, the filters, sweep, mop, empty the bins, clean the bins, clean outside put the stock away

you know all that stuff we have to do...

but if not me then who? a waitress!? yeah.. right...

although we have been told today that we can have as much labour as we want... no upper limit, as long as we can justify each person being there... no one standing talking else it gets cut back to 300 hours a week (we got it down to 295 at the moment hehe were ace like that)

personally i dont think 295 hours for a 371 seat place is bad even if it does mean i have to get literally waist deep in oven lol... at least it was turned down to low!

[chefzell]

I guess I am out numbered here. I suppoose coming from the educational arena rather than the kitchens has something to do with it. In education it is paramount that the instructor be reguarded as above the student. If not, students don't listen, the classroom is out of control and learning is not taking place. This seems to be much different from the Professional kitchen. I look back when I was in school and jow I reguarded my instructors. To me they were God-like figures who created masterpieces with food that I (At that time) could only imagine.

Yet I still say that great Chefs are great managers and their time is better spent on food cost, menu and recipe creation and implementation, scheduling, payroll, and on and on. And still if the Chef were the last man left in the kitchen and there were dishes to do he or she would be the one to do it, but that is a kitchen I rather not work in because there has to be more than one person in the kitchen.

Dan Zeller
Kitchen University

[chefzell]

The original question was . . .

"Don't want to go into detail here! But, i'm wondering if any of you have ever been expected to take on additional duties or responsibilites which were not related to your Chef's position? If so, how did you feel about it, and what did you do?"

It's not about "In an emergency" It's not about once in a blue moon on a very busy Saturday night" This question is about someone working as a Chef who is expected to do cleaning duties as a part of their regular job. Like doing dishes between 7-7:30 because the dishwasher is on a break.
Or moping the floor at night because that way everyone leaves the kitchen at the same time.

The Chef is inkcharge of the general welfare of the kitchen period. If a kitchen is staffed and run propperly the only time a Chef should have to do any cleaning is in an emergency.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Chef Dan
Kitchen University

[Just Jim]

It's possible I strayed to far from the original intent of the thread.
So,
I think the size of the place you work also comes into play.
Obviously a large restaurant with a brigade system should have all of the components necessary to delegate the responsibilities to.
But a smaller, Mom & Pop owned place would be different.
It can still be fine dining, fancy shmancy, but the Chef would possibly be expected to assume other roles up to and including equipment maintenance.
All situations are unique.
As well as all Chefs.
I guess it comes down to what you personally will tolerate.
I have no delusions of grandeur, and no self worth issues.
I can see myself feeling exactly as each of you do depending on the circumstances.

That's my story, and like my underwear, I'm sticking to it.

[chefzell]

That is what makes this industry so great. It is so diverse that whatever statement you make there has to be exceptions because there are so many different kinds of restaurants.

This has been great. I learned some and I lived some and in the end there is no way the Giants beat the Patriots in the Superbowl!

uh huh, oh yeah !


chef Dan
Kitchen University

[foodpump]

I guess it all comes down to the individual Chef's management style and the size of the place. In a mega-kitchen the Chef would get fired if he cleaned out an oven, in a small place the Chef really doesn't have much of a choice.

My personal style is to avoid the mega-kitchens like the plague, and to earn respect of my staff by them knowing that I don't shirk away from the nitty-gritty or take lousy excuses from them For instance:

If the d/w doesn't show up, I'll make EVERYONE do a 1 or 2 hr stint at the dishpit. True, I'll take the choice hour when I'm not needed otherwise, but no one has a chance to wine they they had to do the washing up "all by themselves"... Of course when the d/w shows up next day I'll ride him/her for a few days by telling them that the area needs this or that properly cleaned, that they don't need to spend so much time doing such a task so long because I could do it in half the time...

If I put a tray of baked goods in the convection oven only to have it contaminated by little bits of blowing black crud, despite the protestation the the oven is "Clean" (yeah, the door and outside are, but not the inside). I'll wait until the end of service, tear the oven apart, spray it with cleaner and start on one or two racks, and then hand the job over to the responsible person, making sure they see the contaminated pastry and understand that half the work has already been done for them. Again, they have no excuse to whine about unfair cleaning duties if I do it this way.

If I observe that "Joe" takes 10 -15 minutes to empty out one garbage can in the dumpster, I'll wait until the next day until "Joe" goes out again with the garbage. I'll wait 5 minutes, then go out and catch him sitting on his butt, smoking or yakking on his cellphone, and tell him to hurry now to the kitchen, and that I'll empty the garbage. When I get back, I can ride "Joe" for at least a week about him taking 15 minutes to empty the garbage when I can do it in 2 minutes.

This is just my management style, everyone has different styles...

[the_seraphim]

Originally Posted by chefzell

The original question was . . .
Like doing dishes between 7-7:30 because the dishwasher is on a break.
Or mopping the floor at night because that way everyone leaves the kitchen at the same time.

Chef Dan
Kitchen University

the dishwasher is on a what? what is a break? lol... seriously, i got to work at 11am this morning, i worked till 5, i got 2 hours off to travel 30 minutes either way back home and back to work where ill be working from 7pm till 11:30pm

saturday: 10am to 11pm straight!

and out of over 1000 patrons... only £1 each in tips to the kitchen staff, (10% of everything they make FOH) and that was between 4 of us

FOH are crap! and we have to clean behind them as well... at least weve got the open ended wage bill now so were getting an extra line cook and were demoting someone to potwash again

one of our prep cooks quit as well "when i joined i thought i was gonna you know, end up as sous chef"

well maybe in 5 or 6 years sure... but not with mcdonalds as your only experience and only working 18 hours a week lol! ill make sous well before she does! (within 12 months at this point yay!)

[mick]

i trained as a chef to work as a chef, not a kitchenhand or anything else. alot of employers still expect you to wash dishes, take bins out, mop floors etc. WHAT THE ****??? im well past that stage.