Hello all, I am very excited to have found this forum. As a restaurant manager who has worked in the industry for over fifteen years, starting as a dishwasher at McDonald's, it means a lot to know that there is a place to share experiences with others like myself, people who live with the eternal struggle to become better, and to improve the quality of our lives through better work.
I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I've worked for over eight years at my current job, an excellent pizzeria in San Francisco, starting out new in the city as a dishwasher. I'd already cut my teeth in Kansas City, but I knew that my credentials were not going to impress in San Francisco, so I took a low totem pole position in a restaurant I respected with the expectation that I would use it as a reference for future opportunities. But I fell in love with the place as I learned the ins and outs, and quickly rose to the rank of manager, which is a position less than ten people have held in the restaurant's thirty five year history. I've turned a lot of young kids into good cooks who will be able to get their foot in the door at a more respected restaurant, and I've personally taken my creative abilities to the limit of what I can do with the tools I have. The owner respects me, trusts me, and pays me very well. But I'm bored.
I tortured myself for the last year feeling that to leave the restaurant was to leave the closest thing I've had to a family since relocating, but I've accepted it. It's time to move on. And as a man in his early thirties, I find myself unfamiliar with the process of finding a job. Well, not just a job, but a place that can promise future opportunities, give me the experience I need to be able to truly make a chef of myself, and run a kitchen with control of the menu. I'm hoping that being a part of this community might benefit me, and that I might be able to somehow return the favor.
I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I've worked for over eight years at my current job, an excellent pizzeria in San Francisco, starting out new in the city as a dishwasher. I'd already cut my teeth in Kansas City, but I knew that my credentials were not going to impress in San Francisco, so I took a low totem pole position in a restaurant I respected with the expectation that I would use it as a reference for future opportunities. But I fell in love with the place as I learned the ins and outs, and quickly rose to the rank of manager, which is a position less than ten people have held in the restaurant's thirty five year history. I've turned a lot of young kids into good cooks who will be able to get their foot in the door at a more respected restaurant, and I've personally taken my creative abilities to the limit of what I can do with the tools I have. The owner respects me, trusts me, and pays me very well. But I'm bored.
I tortured myself for the last year feeling that to leave the restaurant was to leave the closest thing I've had to a family since relocating, but I've accepted it. It's time to move on. And as a man in his early thirties, I find myself unfamiliar with the process of finding a job. Well, not just a job, but a place that can promise future opportunities, give me the experience I need to be able to truly make a chef of myself, and run a kitchen with control of the menu. I'm hoping that being a part of this community might benefit me, and that I might be able to somehow return the favor.