[9ballprodigy]

some of you may already know my situation but i was wondering if any of you who have worked in top tier restaurants in the country (think Babbo, French laundry, le Cirque) or know someone who did can tell me if this is a road worth traveling. as of now, i am physically, mentally, and emotionally drained.

my current position is a line cook doing all the starches and veggies for the entrees. i create everything that isn't the piece of meat. i also sauce and garnish and send the plate out.

my shift officially starts at 230pm and i am to prep until 5pm when the restaurant opens . i am in the kitchen at 1130am at the latest because the prep that is required of me cannot be accomplished in 2.5 hours. at least it can't be done by me. other cooks who work other stations also show up at least 1.5 hours before their shift starts. we all clock in at 230pm.

my last paycheck came out to 710 bucks. i worked 85 hours. no OT for some reason. i work an approximate 40-50 hours a week on the books. in actuality, i'm doing closer to 70 hours.

the line is killing me since i haven't had prior work experience in a kitchen. i basically worked my way up from a dishwasher.

anyways, now that you know what i'm in to, i was wondering if this is how all "name brand" restaurants worked. i'm mainly doing this for the resume and the experience, but i have to admit, this job is turning me off to cooking as a profession. should i stick it out?

[Risque Cakes]

Congratulations on working your way up from dishwasher! and even though you feel exhausted both mentally and physically...welcomed to the world of food service!!! I got a job that on paper was "ASSISTANT PASTRY CHEF" at a very upscale Island , I think it was their Country Club... but it was where all the owners would come ( Think of people like OPRAH WINFRY, she used to own there!!) I was hired as a part-timer, 4 days a week, and I too worked 75 hours or more...I was scheduled in at 8/8:30 am and that was the late shift! and was not allowed to leave til we were done...10 pm to midnight!

Pay was lousy, conditions were worse, the place was a closet with ovens and it was dirty, dirty dirty! and dark and outdated... and we tried to make everything from scratch! The Head Pastry Chef had many ideas, and made us work to do them even if they were impossible...like serving frozen desserts out of doors in a Miami (tropical) July with white chocolate garnishes! the transportation of these items was a logistic nightmare...and she was wasteful...ordering like...1,000 white chocolate garnishes with logos, because she needed maybe 300 unbroken ones..(I'm exagerating, but you get the picture..lol)

for example, one holiday she made a traditional Taiwanese Dessert for a crowd that was more used to Coconut Custard Pie...( which she made with a graham cracker crust, rum flavored whipped topping and sweet coconut ...when I said she was better off sending someone to the local supermarket and picking up what the client wanted...now after there was a HUGE selection of mini pastries he wanted coconut custard pie! lol...EVERYONE hated her dessert, wouldn't touch her coconut pie...this all hurt her feelings...lol)

But you suck it up and think of the payoff....

it was horrible and there was no way to expand since the restaurant was in the Historic CARL FISHER mansion and they couldn't change a thing!!

My advice to you is to try to stick it out for your resume's sake if you can, do you know that now when I decide to "name drop" people are impressed. I don't tell them of course of the HORRIBLE conditions, that's the past.

Just give yourself a goal,a calender and a marker and just keep telling yourself...one more day, one more day.

Do what I used to do, I used to laugh and be happy at work since I knew I was NOT going to be there long and every day that passed took me one day closer to my "quitting" day..lol

Hang in there, this too shall pass!!! Take care, take a big sigh, breath ...and just think..one more day!

[kuan]

OK post your prep list.

[AtlTournant]

I have known people who did work at The French Laundry...you don't go there to make money;you go there to learn.Linecooks make less than $10 an hour.

There is also a very long list of chefs who are willing to work for free just to learn.

And if the line you're working now is difficult for you,fine-dining is much more demanding.

Just keep in mind that cooking professionally may not be for everyone in the long haul.

[shroomgirl]

Daniels in NYC, saucier was putting in long long hours $1100 a month. The busboys were making $40k. You signed up for 18mo but my buddy left at a year.

[foodpump]

What you have to understand is that many people would give thier left, uh..buttock to be in your shoes. It's simple market economics: The demand is high so the pay is lousy. Like it or leave it, but the smart thing to do is to get the experience and bragging rights, and then milk them for all they're worth.

After my apprenticeship (3 yrs, monthly salary of sfr700) I sought out the 5 star Hotels in Zurich. The pay was lousy, absolute minimum according to the Gov't figures. Hotel Baur au lac, which had a brigade of 40 cooks and an Eidgenosische Diplomierte Chef (the highest a Chef can go in Switz.) HAD NO VENTILATION SYSTEM IN THE KITCHEN, the summer restaurant was almost 300 meters (yards) away from the kitchen, the ice cream freezer in the pastry dept must have been over 60 yrs old, ran on some kind of salt water solution. When I left the payroll dept. stiffed me for double staff meals on my paycheck. The Chef had written me a "Zeugniss", or letter of recommendation, this piece of paper was my goal and it was worth the effort. I repeated this at Savoy en Ville and Rest. Kronnenhalle, all 1 yr contracts, all lousy pay, (albeit better kitchens) and top of the line tyrinical Chefs. After that my personal life has started to make demands on earning better salary and I had the experience and paperwork to get it..

[24-7cook]

I did my apprenticeship at an exclusive country club with an extremely talented chef. I worked 80 hours a week. It was just expected of the apprentices. When I was not at work I was taking 12 hours of college credit in the culinary program. This is one of the few businesses that you excel as fast as you are willing to push yourself. I made banquet chef in 2 years, Sous chef in 3years and Exec Sous in 4 years. I had told myself I would be an Executive
Chef in 5 years and I succeeded. I wanted to quit many times. I saw all of my friends having fun and thought when is it going to be my turn. This career is about choices. I am 38 years old and have been doing this for 15 years now, I still work 80 hours a week. I would advise you to think about what is important to you. I am currently finishing my degree so that in 7 years
I can start the next phase and begin teaching.

[the_seraphim]

yeah, sometimes there is just 80 hours of work expected from you and 40 hours of pay offered to you....

you can either do your 40 hours paid, frantically trying to get everything done without enough prep

or you can put in overtime and get things done, even if its unpaid.

luckily for me, im not normally doing prep anymore, and as our prep kitchen is not quite built yet its having to be done in the main kitchen, alongside starters, so weve got extra people in to do it earlier on, so we have room for starters....

i still think about just throwing it all in and getting an office job... i was making $15 p/hr just doing basic clerical, and if i really put all in i could pull $50 p/hr doing computer servicing (i did a degree in networking concepts and computer platforms

but thats not what im in this job for... luckily i dont have to do 80+ hours a week... i do 50 or 60 (for 42 hrs pay of course!) and i still get some time off to do things i want to do, not that i have a lot of money to do them with... so i just play COD4 all the time sgt soap mactavish of the 22nd at your service lol

[Rivitman]

Sadly it's normal.

Cooks at many fine places make no more than cooks at slop joints.

While the good places may have linups to get a job there, there is an overall shortage of kitchen labor, that is becoming increasingly serious. There has also been a total failure in the concept of supply/demand. Cooks wages should be going up in a tight market, but they are actually receeding when adjusted for inflation. and about two thirds of all cooks make sub poverty level incomes. The wage gap between cooks and dishwashers is getting smaller, now only 2 or 3 dollars.

[Chad Aaland]

The nicer place you work, the less money you make.

[phoenix 12]

If your doing it for the experience that is fine. There is no business in the world that doesn't appreciate FREE help. **** whatever happened to a good wage for a good honest days work. Look at it this way. You saved them $710 plus. You gave them a free week. **** yeah they are going to make money, thier doing with 1/2 the staff they should be using. If this was your place wouldn't you appreciate free help?

Mike

[9ballprodigy]

Originally Posted by kuan

OK post your prep list.

ok... so i show up at 1130 for this prep list.

first thing i do is make a gratin. this takes about an hour to prep.
i then do about 30 orders of crostinis. takes about 15 min.
while the gratin is in the oven, i chop 3-4 bunches of veggies that will later on be used in a stir-fry.
i julienne another bunch of veggies.
i also take the kernels off 18 qts. of corn-on-cob
i do a risotto using a box of arborio, onions and garlic.
by this time, i yank the gratin out and cool it in the walk-in
i steam off 18qts of potatoes.
while the potatoes are steaming, i'm doing a brunoise of hearts of palm and carrots. about 2 cups.
i render 8 slices of diced bacon
i also do a jasmine rice with oil, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, and shallots. i finish these in an oven for about 30 min.
by this time, the potatoes come out
i rice the potatoes in batches.
i heat up cream and soften my butter.
i do a garlic mash as my first batch.
i do a bacon mash as my second batch
i do a taro mash as my third.
wrap everything into pouches using plastic wrap, and place into a warmer.
i pull my jasmine rice and set it aside to cool.
i throw in 16 cups of white rice into the steamer and 6 cups of brown rice which i do in a pot and finish in an oven.
i set my double boiler on and do a bearnaise sauce using 6 egg yolks and 2 cups of clarified butter.
i also fry up a pasta garnish. about 15 orders.
service is setting up and i take apart 2 live crabs, put the white rice in a large rice warmer, give the brown rice to the waiters.
i take my gratin out and cut it into portions.
i collect the risotto and give it to the chef.
i get on the line by 5pm and start cooking all the sides for the dishes that start firing.

oh... yeah.... btw,

we also get VVVIPs that get their own menu.
so on those days, i have to do a special fried rice, steam off other veggies. do about 2 cups of hollandaise, create a tomato sauce, and gather special plates that are used in the dish. also, this has to be done by 5pm.

[Risque Cakes]

LOL, on the bright side...that sound like my house when I used to have family over!

[kuan]

I think when you do the potatoes for your gratin you can do 2-3 days at a time and leave them in the walkin. You use a slicer attachment? It's a potato gratin right?

Render your bacon in the oven.

[foodpump]

What kuan is doing is pure instinct--he's running on auto-pilot: Multi-tasking and planning everything out 4 and 5 steps ahead. If you watch the Exec Chef and the experienced ones you'll see this, everything planned out ahead--right down to where they'll lay down a dirty spoon, where their hands blindly and automatically reach out for a common used tool or knife, and anal retentive tendancies as to how the station's low-boy fridge and general mise en place are set up. These are tricks to shave off time; planning ahead chops off hunks of time, and multi tasking is what you breathe...