Hello everyone I am new to this forum. Seems like a great place.
I just recently took a job at a fairly new upscale retirement home as the head chef. Everything seems ok as I am happy with my wage, staff, And working in a big new clean kitchen with all the bells and whistles. Everything is made from scratch and I work with great products such as beef/pork tenderloin,lamb rack,baby back ribs,scallops etc. So everything looks great except;
The food and beverage manager. I can tell early on that we are going to have problems. She comes down in to my kitchen and is always stepping on my toes. Just the other day on my days off she said to my 2 cooks that they don't need all of their tasting spoons and grabbed a handful of them and brung them back upstairs to the dining room (kitchen is downstairs). She said that they only need 2 spoons for the entire shift, And to keep running them through the dishwasher. Seems unfair to me. I have always worked in many restaurants and have been a chef for 15 years and have never had any problems with a food and beverage manager. Maybe it's because I am in a retirement home now, But this women is slowly starting to do certain things that are driving me nuts and my staff crazy. What do I do? Bottom line is who has 100% authority in the kitchen... The head chef or the food and beverage manager. In previous kitchens where I was the head chef I was the one in charge of the kitchen and the F&B manager was always in charge of the dining room and bar. I don't feel the same vibe at this place. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
i agree she shouldn't be in the kitchen telling your cooks what they dont need to do. this is crap. but we have a big boiler and i taste some food put the spoon in there and whip it off and it goes back in my back pocket. thats how its done at my work but if u want it done another way its your kitchen and that should be the final word. also if she keeps taking your spoons order some more that dont match the dinning room set and then you can have set for the front of the house and the kitchen, if it looks really different they wont try and use them on the tables and make sure your cooks taste eveything i dont care if she is your boss or not its your job to put out good food and how do u know its good unless u taste it.
BYERS, unfortunately it is the F&B Manager that has the final say in all things FOOD & BEVERAGE. In every and I mean EVERY hotel, resort and retirement home I have worked in or been involved in for my 20+ years they are the one the Chef reports to. Now that doesnt mean that they like to be in the kitchen but they are ultimately responsible for you and all things food. I would suggest you two sit down and figure things out or atleast come to some kind of compromise before things get out of hand.
As for the spoon thing, buy a case of plastic spoons, they are cheap.
I most places I have worked the chef reports to the F&B Manager, so ultimately she is your boss. That said, she needs to leave the day to day operations to you, unless there is a problem. She doesn't need to be micro managing your kitchen. As for the spoon thing, I agree, buy some that are different then the ones they use in the dining room. Pick up some cheap at a garage sale or buy a cheap set at Target.
Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully everything works out. As for the spoons thanks for the ideas of getting a cheap different set or even some plastic spoons. I sure love this website. Thanks once again.
I did assisted livings for a while usualy the F&B has final say, welcome to the game. Corporate America AKATHE EVIL EMPIRE. Let the egos run wild!!!:bounce:
Firstly, your description of tasting spoons does seem a bit unsanitary, and you don't have to take the "good' spoons from the dining room for this purpose.
In a perfect world the F & B would have brought the topic up to discuss with you before approaching your staff. But perfect worlds don't exist.
What I can imagine is, that the dining room was running low on spoons and a waitron complained to the F & B that "all those cooks have oodles of spoons in their pockest for tasting things" . A good F&B doesn't react, they act, and this one did, and all within good reason
All things being said, this is a VERY MINOR incident and should best be put aside.
Christmas is a-coming and the stress levels will be on maximum power. It will soon be time to discuss "things" with the F&B, and this is done best on a daily basis. What I would suggest is a daily, informal, meeting, the first cup of coffee where daily stuff is discussed and agreed upon. The object of these meetings is to extract as much information from each other as possible without one or the other feeling inferior or superior.
If the F&B was a true rectal orifice, they would have already orchestrated your hiring, (ie brown nosing slave, and don't forget that I got you the job) or would have already orchestrated an incident to belittle you or strip away any power that you have.
So far your F& B hasn't, and it seems that she is playing by the "fair" rules. If you can comprehend this, enjoy and respect it, for it isn't a "right" that every Chef gets, nor does it happen all the time.
Spoons are not the issue here. The issue is she goes over your head and you get pi.off . As I asked you before who hired you. Go to them on the qt and ask who runs and is responsible for what. Get it clear now and you will save future aggravation.
Hold on now.... If we re-read the original post, it seems the Chef commandered a "handful" of them, lets say a dozen, for arguement's (!) sake.
In defense of the F&B, the spoons are property of the dining room, and if s/he requires them for service, then they require them for service. In defense of the Chef, the F&B had no right to tell the cooks that they only needed two of them, but should take the point about running them through the d/w. Again, in defense of the F&B, the Chef should either use plastic spoons, staff spoons or whatever else, just not the ones for customers-- and the same goes for coffee mugs, drink glasses, "service" bar-wipes, and lest we forget-- cloth napkins.....
It's a good point to sit sown with the F&B and hash out details, but a word of advice here: A good diplomat can tell you to go to **** in such a way that you will actually look forward to the trip. Be that diplomat. The wrong attitude or approach and the F&B will point out exactly what I've pointed out:---spoons are property of the dining room and shouldn't have been taken without permission in the first place anyway. Don't get caught in this trap.
Did u say u wash the spoon between taste then store in back pocket?
WHO DOES THAT?
Plastic/Disposable is proper!
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