Working in a restaurant. Is it anything like on TV?
Discussion
I know it's TV but it looks incredibly intense in a restaurant kitchen.
Lots of shouting, people dashing around, serious confrontation, chefs sweating, they literally look like they are having a breakdown.
Now I've worked at a high level in unrelated businesses, aiming to hit challenging targets and deadlines but I've never resorted to the sort of behaviour I'm describing.
Is it just for TV? Is it just the Ramseys and Marco Pierre White types?
Whats it like in say a really good gastro pub where they cook everything in house?
Do they get all shouty?
Lots of shouting, people dashing around, serious confrontation, chefs sweating, they literally look like they are having a breakdown.
Now I've worked at a high level in unrelated businesses, aiming to hit challenging targets and deadlines but I've never resorted to the sort of behaviour I'm describing.
Is it just for TV? Is it just the Ramseys and Marco Pierre White types?
Whats it like in say a really good gastro pub where they cook everything in house?
Do they get all shouty?
Depends on the chef imo. It was particularly bad for a while as there was a generation of chefs brought up with Marco Pierre f
king White and Gordon fking Ramsey do they thought that's how kitchens should be. The attitudes are changing now as people are seeing that the lifestyle isn't good for you.
If you're planning on getting into professional cooking you may need to tough out a few years in that sort of kitchen but there's nothing to say that all kitchens have to be like that.
king White and Gordon fking Ramsey do they thought that's how kitchens should be. The attitudes are changing now as people are seeing that the lifestyle isn't good for you.If you're planning on getting into professional cooking you may need to tough out a few years in that sort of kitchen but there's nothing to say that all kitchens have to be like that.
I worked in a restaurant whilst at uni 10 years or so ago.
Horrible place - the kitchen was the worst, hot, sweaty, agressive head chef, the rest of the chefs working split shifts, unsociable hours, prepping veg for hours... I enjoy cooking but it would be desparate times if you caught me working in a commercial kitchen to make my living.
Service side was OK though. Terrible money but a bit of banter with the guests, usually similarly minded colleagues - students etc... just there to work, make money and go home, not career waiters as such.
Horrible place - the kitchen was the worst, hot, sweaty, agressive head chef, the rest of the chefs working split shifts, unsociable hours, prepping veg for hours... I enjoy cooking but it would be desparate times if you caught me working in a commercial kitchen to make my living.
Service side was OK though. Terrible money but a bit of banter with the guests, usually similarly minded colleagues - students etc... just there to work, make money and go home, not career waiters as such.
It can be but it is really down to the structure in the kitchen. Some chefs act like God and are total tts. Shouting, swearing, throwing plates away if they are anything but perfect etc.
The best kitchens are those where you only hear the sounds of the pots and pans clinking away as food is prepared. The head chef will read out the order and ask how long for this, this and this instead of saying I need this in 2 minutes.
It can be very stressful regardless of how the head chef conducts himself due to the long hours, split shifts and not spending any quality time with your wife/GF/etc for what can be weeks on end even if you live in the same house.
One thing that they never tell you about on TV is the pay and conditions which can be, and generally are, laughable. Low pay and unpaid overtime are the two major problems in the gastro industry.
ts. Shouting, swearing, throwing plates away if they are anything but perfect etc.The best kitchens are those where you only hear the sounds of the pots and pans clinking away as food is prepared. The head chef will read out the order and ask how long for this, this and this instead of saying I need this in 2 minutes.
It can be very stressful regardless of how the head chef conducts himself due to the long hours, split shifts and not spending any quality time with your wife/GF/etc for what can be weeks on end even if you live in the same house.
One thing that they never tell you about on TV is the pay and conditions which can be, and generally are, laughable. Low pay and unpaid overtime are the two major problems in the gastro industry.
Kitchens as a smelly, hot, dirty place to work. Add in 70+ anti-social hours a week over split shifts, split days off and rarely a weekend, never a normal holiday like Xmas or New Year, certainly never Valentines. This is why most chefs are single.
Only ever met one head chef who shouted and bullied "his" team. He didn't last long.
It's very much a young persons game until you get to the higher levels and a lot of the chefs I employed and/or worked with relied on alcohol and chips to keep them going.
It's one of those things where if you haven't cracked it by 35 chances are you aren't going to. Those that do either make a half decent career out of it or move sideways into related roles. I've interviewed a lot of 40+ chefs who are still sous/snr sous who will still be doing the same thing in a big brigade in the bowels of a 3 star hotel for ever. Or worse still, cruise ships. That's a whole different league of st.
Only ever met one head chef who shouted and bullied "his" team. He didn't last long.
It's very much a young persons game until you get to the higher levels and a lot of the chefs I employed and/or worked with relied on alcohol and chips to keep them going.
It's one of those things where if you haven't cracked it by 35 chances are you aren't going to. Those that do either make a half decent career out of it or move sideways into related roles. I've interviewed a lot of 40+ chefs who are still sous/snr sous who will still be doing the same thing in a big brigade in the bowels of a 3 star hotel for ever. Or worse still, cruise ships. That's a whole different league of s
t.Casting my mind back to my time working in a couple of different hotels in my late teens I think I worked with six chefs:
1) Generally decent bloke who was OK to work with as long as you kept on the right side of him. Often 3-parts pissed during service.
2) Arrogant sous-chef who thought everything was beneath him
3) Nice but useless bloke who soon got the boot
4) Owner of establishment, utter arse who didn't speak to me for several months for no reason
5) Nice but useless bloke who soon got the boot
6) Very pleasant, quiet chap who was a pleasure to work with and was willing to help out with anything.
Make of that what you will.
1) Generally decent bloke who was OK to work with as long as you kept on the right side of him. Often 3-parts pissed during service.
2) Arrogant sous-chef who thought everything was beneath him
3) Nice but useless bloke who soon got the boot
4) Owner of establishment, utter arse who didn't speak to me for several months for no reason
5) Nice but useless bloke who soon got the boot
6) Very pleasant, quiet chap who was a pleasure to work with and was willing to help out with anything.
Make of that what you will.
ApOrbital said:
Chef that stays/house shares with us does splits shifts he is always foofed,great guy but always knackerd works in a posh hotel,it's very hard work.
It is indeed very, very hard work and I'm very glad I don't work in that environment any more (albeit I confess I never did 'super high end'). Chefs differ in the delivery of the message if you get it wrong - some shout - others not - but the message is as savage no matter what.
There is a great pressure to excel against the backdrop of a hostile working environment and long (and usually unsociable) hours.
Certainly I woulnt wish to make a career of it unless it really was my absolute passion and I had a chance of 'making it' as a chef....
I quit being a chef a little under 2 years ago. crap money, crap hours and generally the unhealthy lifestyle that goes with it. Hot sweaty kitchens and 80+ hours a week. start at 7am most days and finish between 12/2am the following evening. Then after work you normally end up staying or going somewhere close by for a few beers. It really is a mugs game these days and I think you really have to love food to ant to to the job.
I do miss it now and again though, the buzz of a busy kitchen that flows it really is a fantastic feeling being the head chef when you've got a kitchen setup like that.
However the biggest problem the industry faces these days is that too many people who think they can knock up a few dishes out of Gordons cook books can run a professional kitchen. They expect to start at the top with out having to go through the learning process and the st first. I blame tv reality shows for that.
I do miss it now and again though, the buzz of a busy kitchen that flows it really is a fantastic feeling being the head chef when you've got a kitchen setup like that.
However the biggest problem the industry faces these days is that too many people who think they can knock up a few dishes out of Gordons cook books can run a professional kitchen. They expect to start at the top with out having to go through the learning process and the s
t first. I blame tv reality shows for that.NordicCrankShaft said:
I do miss it now and again though, the buzz of a busy kitchen that flows it really is a fantastic feeling being the head chef when you've got a kitchen setup like that.
Buzz is the right word. Few doors away we had a late night live music club which we regularly invaded post service to wind down. Good times. /rose tinted glasses26 years in Hotels now, whilst all you hear is mostly true, the tide is turning. All our chefs do less than 50 hours a week as do the majority of my team of just under 100, don't most employees these days? I work minimum 11 hour days but get paid well, almost always two days off then I take it back. We are in the process of introducing straight shifts in the kitchen, restaurant service this near on impossible which again will improve things as does finishing early before days off and starting late on return.
I learned to cook on the job in a cramped, open kitchen when we were let down by the previous chef, it was the most stressful thing I have ever done, my heart rate was over 140bpm for three or four hours every night.
Five months without any time off, prepping, organising and cooking from nine am until midnight in order we did not lose our house and investment.
On a really busy night we would be sending out, on average a meal, cooked from scratch, every three or four minutes, I grew to like it though, it is a bit like putting on a stage show.
I used to be pretty slow to blow my top but working at such intensity the smallest error by anyone can mess up service and it is really hard to make up time after a cock up. My explosion point was usually after I had asked for something two or three times without result and ended up losing my concentration sorting it out.
Ended up wrecking my marriage as well...............
With good, motivated staff, working in harmony, a kitchen can be a very satisfying place to work but when things go wrong it is hell on earth.
I know a couple of seventy year old ex chefs who learned their trade starting out at fourteen, these guys really know their stuff, how to do absolutely everything in every section from practical experience, the stories they tell are amazing, harsh discipline, bullying, thieving, drunkeness and more.
We took on a number of trainees from the local college, they were, with one exception, as good as useless, lacking even basic skills despite bringing a folder full off qualifications, I could see a Ramsey type chef quickly losing his rag with a bunch like those!
Five months without any time off, prepping, organising and cooking from nine am until midnight in order we did not lose our house and investment.
On a really busy night we would be sending out, on average a meal, cooked from scratch, every three or four minutes, I grew to like it though, it is a bit like putting on a stage show.
I used to be pretty slow to blow my top but working at such intensity the smallest error by anyone can mess up service and it is really hard to make up time after a cock up. My explosion point was usually after I had asked for something two or three times without result and ended up losing my concentration sorting it out.
Ended up wrecking my marriage as well...............
With good, motivated staff, working in harmony, a kitchen can be a very satisfying place to work but when things go wrong it is hell on earth.
I know a couple of seventy year old ex chefs who learned their trade starting out at fourteen, these guys really know their stuff, how to do absolutely everything in every section from practical experience, the stories they tell are amazing, harsh discipline, bullying, thieving, drunkeness and more.
We took on a number of trainees from the local college, they were, with one exception, as good as useless, lacking even basic skills despite bringing a folder full off qualifications, I could see a Ramsey type chef quickly losing his rag with a bunch like those!
That point that comes around every now and again during service where st really hits the fan and the kitchen just comes to a stand still, fk me I had a couple of those during my 16 years of cooking and running kitchens, especially during my younger days where your at that point....The kitchens backed up, your running low on mis en place, order are still coming in.....It's a very hard and dark place to be. My head would either just completely blow or just go completely blank and I wouldn't be able to think straight or think of anything else other than walking out and just fking off......Awful, awful place to be in. You can really understand why a lot of guy's turned to alcohol/drug abuse as it's such en extremely high pressure environment.
I was trained by old school chefs, so I kind of had the old school attitude.The kitchen was run like a military operation, we*d sit down in the morning before starting for 30 minutes to discuss the menu and tactics for the day, who was going to work which sections and then go through the MEP lists with everyone so we were all clear and on the same page. When I run my own kitchens I never intentionally bullied or singled anyone out but after two or three times of fking up I'd let you know and that during the peak of service if it was that bad would involve throwing st plates at the bin area and a bit of screaming which usually did the trick.
t really hits the fan and the kitchen just comes to a stand still, fk me I had a couple of those during my 16 years of cooking and running kitchens, especially during my younger days where your at that point....The kitchens backed up, your running low on mis en place, order are still coming in.....It's a very hard and dark place to be. My head would either just completely blow or just go completely blank and I wouldn't be able to think straight or think of anything else other than walking out and just fking off......Awful, awful place to be in. You can really understand why a lot of guy's turned to alcohol/drug abuse as it's such en extremely high pressure environment.I was trained by old school chefs, so I kind of had the old school attitude.The kitchen was run like a military operation, we*d sit down in the morning before starting for 30 minutes to discuss the menu and tactics for the day, who was going to work which sections and then go through the MEP lists with everyone so we were all clear and on the same page. When I run my own kitchens I never intentionally bullied or singled anyone out but after two or three times of f
king up I'd let you know and that during the peak of service if it was that bad would involve throwing st plates at the bin area and a bit of screaming which usually did the trick.Edited by NordicCrankShaft on Sunday 26th June 11:53
Gassing Station | Food, Drink & Restaurants | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff