New job - who is in charge?

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 :D 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.

Good luck

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.

Spoons should be the least of your problems,be glad she is not sending people home without telling you or re-writing your menus.

Who hired you?, and at that time who were you told you would answer to?

I did assisted livings for a while usualy the F&B has final say, welcome to the game.
Corporate America AKA THE EVIL EMPIRE. Let the egos run wild!!!:bounce:

So glad I got out, just my experience.

This technique doesn't sound sanitary to me.

Why keep a tasting spoon in your back pocket?

Chef's have a tendency to feel naked without a bigger than normal tasting spoon in their back pocket. It's not like it isn't washed between tastes...

Yeah, I'm sure, but I'm just saying that your pocket isn't very sanitary either.

I keep a little six pan full of spoons with some water inside for tasting. I guess I don't often find myself tasting something by surprise.

Sometimes the F&B can be an F'n B.

I use plastic spoons myself, cheap and sanitary.

Well, yes to a lot of things.

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.

Good luck for the upcoming Christmas season

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. :rolleyes:

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? :eek:

WHO DOES THAT? :confused:

Plastic/Disposable is proper! ;)