burned out/gone crazy.......

Well, it was a painfully slow night and I, well, kinda played a trick on the baker-I took a case of eggs laid them out flat by flat and randomly picked eggs out of each flat, hard boiled them, cooled em and put the case back together. You can imagine what will happen when he tries to crack eggs tomorrow...My next target: Waitstaff. Any suggestions?

It would be evil but you could replace the salt with sugar..

[Pete]

My favorite joke I have ever played on the waitstaff was the time I hide a bowl of vinegared cherries where they would find them and be able to steal them without getting caught. There aren't many waitstaff that won't steal food if they are sure they won't get caught. Imagine their surprise when they bit into them!!!

Oooh Pete, that is a good idea, never heard that one before (can't wait to try it).

As for me I generally keep my interest during the down times by buying a whole mess of those fake rubber roaches (around 20 or 30 of em'), then I place them in the sugar packets box. I set the box in a high place so the wait staff can't see what is inside. Usually one of the girls does the sugars, so when she pulls that box down it is the loudest scream you have ever heard.

Love the suggestions. I've been deep frying anything handy (bread, cardboard, frozen butter, the prep list) and leaving it for the waits to find and eat. I've got holes in my bottom lip from biting in it, keeping a straight face.

[Pete]

When I was working in restaurants where cooks provided all their own tools (knives, tongs, etc.) many of the cooks would often forget to put their tools away. Luckily, everyone was cool and rarely were things stolen. Unluckily, we had ways of reminding cooks to take care of their tools. We would bread or batter tongs and whisks and deep-fry them. Or take their knives and put them into huge cambros, fill them with water and put them in deep freeze. After they found them, they had to spend 45 min. to 1 hour thawing them out. The pastry chef once even made a large calazone out of someone's whisk, tomato sauce and all. Then served it to him. Oh, the things we do to our "friends"!

[Nick.Shu]

heheh, its the same the world over. Over here in aus, i had a floor manager who loved to pick up any food and start grinding on it.

Needless to say, it constantly p*ssed me off.

So to teach her a lesson, i made a big plate of chocolate truffles and filled the top 3 with a dark green food dye.

And i waited. Not for long, she came in and picked the biggest, most dye filled truffle, put it her mouth, between her teeth and bit down.

didnt tell her before service that her teeth were rather dirty,,,,..


[This message has been edited by Nick.Shu (edited July 21, 2000).]

[Nick.Shu]

another character we had working with us was a bit of a drinker.

He was forever disappearing into our coolroom during service, so one day i looked in and found his bottle of red wine and glass.

So i poured the red wine down the sink and replaced it with red wine vinegar and put it back in the coolroom.

hehehhe.

There are crazy days after too many hours.The best one i remember is when we told the prep cook to chop 4 cups of flour like parsley.It was flying everywhere!Or how about locking someone in the freezer to cool off?hehehe

Okay this is an all time low for even me: Last night I drew a face on the side of my hand (you know on the creas between your thumb and index finger) and I worked the window so, all waitstaff request had to be made through The Hand. Everyone one the line was rolling all over.

spot, you're a riot! I worked with a guy that was fed up a particular server. (Couldn't stand her, actually) One night when she was being a pain in the butt, he called her over and "sneezed" an oyster right at her. She cried but it was worth it.

[chefjohnpaul]

We sent the pot washer to the restaurant across the street for some steam for the steam table. Then they sent someone over for a souffle pump, so we put a pastry bag on a baine marie insert and sent it to them!

[Chef Mark Hayes]

My favorite is the old "Wasabi Guacamole".
Even our Most Hardcore Chile-Lover Was in Tears

We used to send all the new guys out for the bacon strecher!!!!
(ie. when we couldnt buy the lie flat kind)
They fell for it every time...

Originally posted by chefjohnpaul:
We sent the pot washer to the restaurant across the street for some steam for the steam table.

chefjohnpaul...I don't mean to bust your stones but come on man...get real. I assume the butt of your sophmoric prank was a dishwasher/prepper. I don't know about Sacramento, but here in New England those jobs are nearly impossible to fill. I'm HAPPY to pay one of those folks $10 @hr, feed them well and encourage 'em every step of the way.

I still remember my 1st day in the kitchen...the chef had me dicing rice for 15 minutes. Now it's funny...back then I felt like a schmuck for simply doing what I was told to do.

Nuff said.

Cheers,
TopChef