well , lets see . the place i'm working is actually a bar , but we have a pretty good food selection . it ranges from the regular bar munchies(ie; cheese sticks , chicken planks , fries and such) to a variety of sea food such as fried or grilled scallops , fried flounder , grilled tuna , shrimp scampi , calamari and so forth . we do several italian dishes , steaks , chops , hand pressed burgers , hand chopped bar-b-q and even our own version of a philly cheese steak . every day we do several specials ranging from meatloaf to mahi ma to home made chicken pot pie . on saturday nights we do prime rib , and sunday morning an all you can eat brunch .
almost everything we sell (except said munchie foods) is made fresh in house . we cut all our own steaks , and chops in house , and i couldn't tell you how many pounds of shrimp i have peeled and devained over the last year .
i'm the primary night cook and work 5 nights and 1 day a week. we usually have 2 cooks during the day , and 1 at night except friday and saturday night we run 2 cooks . our lunch rush can be pretty hectic(i'm glad i only do one a week) , and its not unusual for us to put out 130 to 150 meals in a 3 hour period( i dont know if this is a lot compared to other places as i have no other experience to go by) . on week nights ( i work a 5 hour shift plus clean up time) i average 40 or 50 meals plus an assortment of munchies . on saturday nights we'll do 80 to 120 meals over a 7 hour shift .
when my boss bought this place from his father 4 years ago their food sales were approx 25 percent of total sales . a year ago food accounted for about 55 percent of sales . this last year food accounted for just under 70 percent of sales .
all the cooks do prep work through out the week , and we do all our own dishes . we're not really big enough to hire actual dish washers .
the kitchen is about the size of an average bathroom , and has very little room for actual movement . although we do have pretty good facilities as far as equipment goes .
i'll be the first to admit i am no chef , but according to my boss who has been working in the buisness for 20 some years , i am a pretty good short order cook . i have worked as an auto mechanic , a live sound reinforcement technician(roadie) , bouncer and a few other profesions . this is the first job i have really enjoyed enough to see as a permanent career . i'm probably a bit older than most starting cooks(pushing 40 real hard), but i figure age doesnt matter when you find something that works well for you , you do it .
i can see there is a lot of really good info here that i hope to delve into , and i hope in turn to be able to ad my small bit of knowledge to the pot so to speak .
