OMG disgusted!

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Umberto

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The server brought food to the wrong table...customer was drunk and took a bite, server tries to blame customer for eating wrong food...wrong with a capital W...she sends the food back to chef to re-plate...chef re-plates entree...I mean...wrong, wrong, wrong...

Then we serve old crappy calamari...I ran out of the stuff I had cut up and prepared, we served the old crap which was nothing short of what you'd expect from a chain restaurant...I told the line cook and chef that we ran out of the good stuff. They said okay just use the old stuff. I'm having a hard time with this...

I am just a lower level pantry goon, but what I observed was just enough to make myself irate...and the line cook hacks to hell the seabass portion with his little six inch santoku that has a chipped edge from opening cans...The fish is jaggedly cut. Arg! I guess it's time to move on...Go where the food is treated with more respect and if I get yelled at for something it's not because I refuse to send old crap out.
 
I guess this is not how you imagined your start in a new country. I hope you will find a nicer place to work soon.
 
If you don't agree with their Standards then def time to go. More than likely it won't change
 
Prospects are limited right now but I'll see where else I can go...I mean I'd love to use my knives more than I am now. New country? I've been in the US all my life...but I've considered going on the holy pilgrimage to Belgium and possibly working a low level kitchen job...I suppose it's hard to work in an environment where the chef is burned out. Despite this terrible thing he did, he has an amazing rock star resume and large body of work with very high end cuisine.

Now he is simply stuck in his own grind putting in 60-90 hours a week with little appreciation.
 
That tends to happen, if the team is adventurous and motivated you may be able to spark some inspiration into the chef again... May be worth a try but may not work also.

The best thing I would do is stand up for your standards, if it's your station don't use stuff your not proud of period. Any chef would respect that.
 
yup time to pack up and leave.
I left my old gig for new one only to find out the new chef is not up to par and i just left.
 
Then we serve old crappy calamari...I ran out of the stuff I had cut up and prepared, we served the old crap which was nothing short of what you'd expect from a chain restaurant...I told the line cook and chef that we ran out of the good stuff. They said okay just use the old stuff.

By "old stuff" do you mean Calamari that had turned? You can take away your chef's choice of serving bad food by throwing it out instead of holding on to it. Im just confused why there would be product on hand that was unsuitable to serve. Good luck with your quest for a new gig. I've definitely quit jobs over sanitary/unethical practices, life is too short to put up with apathetic co workers.
 
Good luck with your quest for a new gig. I've definitely quit jobs over sanitary/unethical practices, life is too short to put up with apathetic co workers.

I agree with this. Even more so if it's a situation with bad management/ownership and the kitchen is getting thrown under the bus daily.

There is always room for improvement in a kitchen but if you're just starting out there and things aren't quite up to snuff... that's an uphill battle. Your chefs and co-workers probably won't be too keen on you lecturing them on what the "right" thing is to do.

I just finished up at a restaurant that turned very sour about 4 months after I started. The Chef who hired me quit suddenly, we couldn't find or hold on to cooks, and the management was horrible. I stuck in there for over a year because that was what I had originally committed to and I felt like my resume needed that stability. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have just jumped ship when the writing was on the wall. It made me extremely unhappy, I didn't grow as a cook as much as I wanted to, and by the time I left, I felt like a beat dog.

I'm happy I ended things on a decent note and that I didn't start murdering people in the middle of service, but yeah... life is way too short for that nonsense. If you're young, unattached, and motivated there is no reason to slave away thanklessly in a situation that is neither personally nor professionally rewarding. Maybe moving to a city with better opportunities might be the right thing for you.
 
Get the hell out of there.Even if the chef has an impressive resume if food like that is getting served under his supervision he has lost his passion somewhere along the line.The longer you stay the more likely the same will happen to you and you will pick up bad habbits that will make you look like a dirty unprofessional chef in you next gig.
Life is too short for that kinda crap
 
By "old stuff" do you mean Calamari that had turned? You can take away your chef's choice of serving bad food by throwing it out instead of holding on to it. Im just confused why there would be product on hand that was unsuitable to serve. Good luck with your quest for a new gig. I've definitely quit jobs over sanitary/unethical practices, life is too short to put up with apathetic co workers.

I agree if it was unservable why was it not thrown away already? How many days old was it? Did they ask if you had anything else when you said you ran out (If they did, what did you say?) ?

This happened on a friday or saturday night I'm guessing from your post date. You are pretty green in the industry from what I have gotten from your posts. Sometimes **** happens (like a new cook not having enough prep on a busy weekend night). Sometimes you have to really replay events in your head to find the real 'learning moment' in the situation.

Is this the new awesome gastropub you started working at after you didnt get that sous gig?
 
Yes it happened on a saturday.The gastropub is a work in progress. I'm going to try to sweeten the chef up by sharpening his knives...If they are halfway decent I'll scrape some mud off the aoto. For me it's time to move on but I can't just up and quit, I don't have anywhere to go. I'm crossing my fingers this chef will appreciate his sharp knives and offer me 1 or two days a week it's a 45 minute commute...but it's not about the money, it's about going into finer foods and being taught more.
 
Its a gastropub if you want to do finer foods go work in Michelin star places? Or is this not possible at the moment. I guess they wouldent pay that much.
 
since we are on the subject I guess this is kind on subject....

I have a lot of experience, but I just can't find my home at the moment, and it really sucks when you think you have found it but then out of nowhere your let go? with no explanation, whatever, It is all how you get up when you fall right? Have other people experienced this as well? moving around a lot and working in a lot of different restaurants? is this industry standard or is it just me?
 
I do that aswell once I start to get frustrated with the small things I dont agree with and cant change I move on. Usally 1-2 years
 
Either you didnt prep your station right or you didn't have enough product in house. There should never be bad food in house. No excuses. My guess is the squid was frozen as is most and you didnt have enough thawed and ready. Or if you were out why in the hell did you have bad seafood in house. Bad form all around. No where in my kitchen will you find bad food. And if one of my line guys didn't have their **** right before service they would be on a short leash. If you have bad food in your station you throw it out. Don't be a hack.
 
Either you didnt prep your station right or you didn't have enough product in house. There should never be bad food in house. No excuses. My guess is the squid was frozen as is most and you didnt have enough thawed and ready. Or if you were out why in the hell did you have bad seafood in house. Bad form all around. No where in my kitchen will you find bad food. And if one of my line guys didn't have their **** right before service they would be on a short leash. If you have bad food in your station you throw it out. Don't be a hack.

I bet he started blankly at the chef then threw whoever trained him under the bus. "Nobody showed that me!"
 
Either you didnt prep your station right or you didn't have enough product in house. There should never be bad food in house. No excuses. My guess is the squid was frozen as is most and you didnt have enough thawed and ready. Or if you were out why in the hell did you have bad seafood in house. Bad form all around. No where in my kitchen will you find bad food. And if one of my line guys didn't have their **** right before service they would be on a short leash. If you have bad food in your station you throw it out. Don't be a hack.

haha don't be a hack, I have seen it many times before, hate people that are hacks or wannabe's or whatever the hell you want to call them
 
yeah i think i might have been to lenient on you umberto blaming an overworked, passionless chef for the situation .I mean going by your version it seems like you were to lazy/inept to check your station and that brought on this fiasco.You should take responsibility for your station and the food your sending,hold yourself to high standards and communicate that to the chef. i have walked out of two restaurants cause they did **** that was totally unacceptable to me.But obviously you value money more than working in a professional manner.The fact that you are now trying to get a job by sharpening someones knives rather then proofing yourself in the kitchen speaks volumes.As far as i can see you neither have he passion nor the balls to succeed in this industry.I dont know how old you are or what your background is but if your so hard up there are definetly easier ways to make cash then cheffing.
 
That is unacceptable practice I don't care how late at night it is. You owe it to yourself to find a good kitchen to work in.
 
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