/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Do pastry chefs count?

>>5960704
do line cooks count?

I'm a line cook at Fazoli's, so I guess I don't count.

>>5960757
yes, pastry chefs count
>>5960765
depends on the level of skill, the purpose of being a line cook is proving yourself

>>5960704
I.... I'm not

I bake bread at Panera while baked.
Best fucking job ever.

>>5960704
I dont think I could ever be a chef, or work with food.
I'm a good cook but i'm so slow in doing aything
congrats for everyone that can handle the pressure of making other people's meals

>>5960772
I was a dishie until about 3 days ago when two of the line cooks called in sick 10 mins before breakfast rush so chef and I spent an hour banging out breakfast.

I'm a line cook but I work at a nice place, the local hipster papers and several large online sites have named us one of the 3-5 most likely restaurants who will receive a star. I usually work saute but sometimes I do grill.

>>5960780
congrats to you on being a good home cook and be thankful that you are not a chef. to be truly good at what you do as a chef you have to dedicate your every existence to it.

>>5960796
it does look pretty hard

>>5960784
this is can sometimes be a common occurrence sometimes but for the most part breakfast is pretty easy. keep doing things like this and maybe one day you can be a line cook.
>>5960788
and what restaurant is this?

I work at Waffle House. I may not be a chef but i will cook you some awesome eggs and hashbrowns that will be delicious. I will even wait your table after cooking your food and i don't even want a tip. If your drunk at 3am from the bar i will serve you glorious fried food and hashbrowns to make you happy. Do not insult a short order cook.

>>5960801

It's stressful, requires long hours and pays like shit. You have to just have an unyielding passion in order to go into it as a career.

>>5960801
it is not as hard as you would think, it just requires lots of practice time and dedication.

>>5960810

It's in SF, don't want the retards from /r9k/ or /b/ who come here to look for ramen recipes to make fake reservations or something or I wouldn't mind giving the name. We're listed in the "which other restaurants still deserve a star?" here: http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2013/10/22/michelin-stars-san-francisco-bay-area-2014/

>>5960811
i respect that, because you will not believe how many great line cooks i know who can not cook a simple egg overeasy.

>>5960826
heard that, hopefully you are getting lots of real hands on experience and making everything from scratch with love.

>>5960841

Fuck yes I am, I don't make shit for money but thankfully I was able to move here because my highschool friend had a room open up in his rent-controlled apartment. Otherwise I don't think I could rent a port-a-potty with this pay. I love the experience though.

>>5960845
well then you are on your way to knowing what it is all about. the jobs you work now for less than nothing will define your career if you ever want to be a great chef, the experience you receive is priceless and can not be attained in a culinary program. the things they teach you can be learned on your own time, after work and taught by yourself, if you want it enough and choose to.

I'm not a chef by trade but I do consider myself as talented as anyone employed as a chef.


Example: I had a date tonight, I invited the lady over with the promise of a home choked Italian meal. I microwaved four cans of Chef Boyardee overstuffed ravioli, took a loaf of Wonderbread and slathered it in margarine before sprinkling it in garlic salt and popping it in the toaster.


Couple hours before she was to arrive I opened a couple bottles of Martinellis and let them breathe at room temperature. It was bloody hell keeping the gnats and ants and bees away from them. I'm definitely getting sex tonight.

I work the line but I work fine dining high end shit

I mean home cooked, sorry chaps, auto correct.

I'm going to culinary school, so I guess I don't count either, but becoming a chef is the goal

>>5960880
define a night of fine dining at your establishment, no pretensions here.

>>5960896
do you want to be a chef, or a good chef? have you ever worked in a restaurant before?

>>5960867

Thanks chefbro, I hope that I'm really able to make myself as a great chef.

>>5960909

of course I want to be a good chef, I haven't worked in a restaurant before, I've applied to a shit ton of restaurants but it's hard to get a job without experience

>>5960913
dedicate your self and will be fine.

>>5960916
no easy way to put this, but you are seriously fucked. everyone who i have ever worked with fresh out of a culinary program has been utterly useless.
if you want to be a great chef spend 6 months in the dish pit and if you are not tired of it yet then you might have what it takes to be a great chef.

>>5960899
we do about 200 covers a night

I work hot apps (and I also cook, prep, and make the short ribs and the honey vinegar brussel sprouts contorni), so dishes I make include:

>sweetbreads with butter poached lobster claw
>seared foie gras (this is usually a special but it shows up a lot)
>mozzarella dish with squash puree, squash batons and guanciale
>"Tongue and Cheek" which is essentially a veal tongue that we brine for a month before slicing it thinly and serving it with pickled beets, beet reduction, beet dust, barbaresco, potato horseradish puree and braised beef cheek that's portioned, breaded and deep fried


I also work the third coarse beef short rib dish, so I spend the night seasoning, covering them in duck fat, wrapping them and the cooking them for 8 hours before braising them for another 2 hours in barbaresco sauce after they're portioned.

I then cook and plate them on the line with some pickled chanterelles, pickled pearl onions, radish greens and polenta

and then I just work the brussel sprouts contorni, looks simple but it's the hardest to really get right

>>5960916
I've found that to be the case as well. It's difficult to get started in the job you want. I was lucky the restaurant I work for wanted to hire and train me their way. Keep looking.

>>5960815
That I agree with. you have to want to be good at your job, not just wanting a paycheck.

>>5960960
sorry to break it to you but 200 hundred covers a night is not fine dining. your list of the things that you do is very simple and very easy to execute. the proteins you most undoubtedly come in frozen, but that is not such a bad thing.. don't get big headed at your skill level but what you are doing is a little bit above nomad line cooking motions. you are very well on the right path if you know how to do these things properly, i would love to be able to teach you more and have you as one of my cooks.

>>5960979
the paycheck comes it time, but not without its costs. the enrichment you learn for yourself and cooking in a worldly perspective has no price..

>>5960989
bruh. we're fine dining. Also, our shit does not come in frozen, we're very close with our butchers and purveyors, and all of the stuff we get comes from the farmers markets if it doesn't come from Baldor, D'artagnan or Hudson Valley.

200 is only on our busy days, to be honest. On a typical not weekend night, we do 100-150.

I'm not big headed, but you definitely don't have a right to say that i don't work fine dining

>>5960704
Technically, I am a chef.
Technically, my title is "Executive Chef".
Kind of a titular role. FC and ordering. Rarely pick up a knife.

>>5961018
>>5960989
Kitchen workers love having pissing contests with each other. It's so fucking lame, I hate having young guys in the kitchen.

>>5961049
shhh anon I'm not really like this IRL and it's really fun proving myself to other kitchenbros on various /ck/ threads

>>5960989
Also, forgot to ask, what restaurant are you currently a chef at?

>>5961018
if your shit comes in the way it does then you are not fine dining, your chef is. you do not have a close relationship to the purveyors, your chef does. you only know what the right stuff is because your chef has told you, and it is on the menu. i take back what i said, in all honesty i would not want you for my dishwasher you boastful fuck. it is very funny that what you think that you do is "fine dining".

>>5961049
this is coming from the guy who is forever line cook, because these are the ones who enjoy pissing on each other

>>5961002
having actually sucked dick, even I'm going to admit that sounded pretty gay.
be passionate but don't romanticize it.

>>5961058
not at a restaurant thank fuck, but a private club.

>>5961068
thank you for admitting that you suck dick, now no one can take what you say seriously

>>5961077
there seems to be a lot of that in this thread

>>5961083
of what

>>5961087
of no one being taken seriously. Also a lot of dick measuring, particularly since OP started it.

>>5961095
well in that case i'm not sorry you've got a very small fucking dick

I apprenticed as a chef as a teenager, so I'm a qualified chef, but I don't work in the industry because the hospitality industry is the shittest.
I can't handle the low pay, the long hours, the antisocial hours, the hard work and the high stress environment. And now I work as a tech in theater, so obviously I'm a fuckin' idiot who doesn't know what he wants.
I definitely don't regret working in kitchens, it was a great time of my life, and taught me a work ethic and how to properly cook but now, ten years later I just don't have the drive or energy to do it again.

>>5961110
stay out of the kitchen if you know what is good for you, thank yourself, and take the cooking skills you learned and apply it to your normal life. we all wish we could have had a normal life if we knew better, but at the same time, we would not have it any other way.

>>5961120
When I make a million dollars, at fifty I'll run a sleazy French bistro into the ground, but that's my entire goals in regards to cooking again.
Sometimes I miss it, y'know. I was just nineteen when I finished the three year apprenticeship, and going out with the boys and getting fukt on shitty beer, casing the joints of the nicer place in town, stealing deliveries just for kicks and something to give our girlfriends. Nothing says 'love' like 8 kilograms of raw meat.
But for every time that I remember the crazy stories, I remember that I was doing high school at the same time for a year and a half, and working 60 hour weeks on top of that. I remember Chef being so abusive that it brought me to tears on more than one occasion, I remember the owner of the semi-attached bar beating his wife in the store-room that fronted on to our restaurant.
Good times and hard times, but for me the hard outweighed the good, though I understand the appeal, or magnetic draw.

>>5961021
>why do I even reply to these threads?
>line cook spitting contest thread

>>5961060
nobody wants to be your anything you smug little prick. nobody wants to work for a showboater

>>5961103
doesn't make the initial romanticized option any less gay, but if it makes you feel better, sure.

>>5961153
just seems like there's one line cook showing off and belittling everyone else.

>>5961140
then why are you still crying to chef you fucking pussy, die or do something.

>>5961160
>>5961161
are you done yet

>>5961160
take in mind i never for help and especially not from this forum. just wanted to know if there where any real chefs here, but evidently not.

>>5961164
The fuck do you think you are, /b/tard? Some hard ass motherfucker? Some big balled expert and the raison d'etre of men?
Well, I've got some news for you, sonny Jim, you're shitposting on 4chan and that ain't a high reason for existence.
>>5961174
You're an insufferable cock as well. Any 'real chef' wouldn't use you as a cum rag.

maybe i wanted to fucking learn but everyone else had to big of a pissing contest.

>>5961180
sorry your wrong choice isn't working out for you

>>5961186
Sorry you've got no friends and get your kicks being a fool on anonymous imageboards.

Pathetic. Laughable, even.

>>5961180
pretty sure from your context you are and ausfag? you guys pretty much have it made with what ever shitty choice you make it your meaningless life.

>>5961188
don't need friends when you are a real chef mate, haven't got time for it.

>>5961191
Got time to post on 4chan, though, kid.
>>5961190
Sucks to be from whatever third-world country you're from, then. Enjoy your struggle, whilst I bask in the fruits of an economically performing social democracy.

>>5961191
sure but you've got time to post to an anonymous internet forum about how much better you are than other people. It seems like you should be more busy.

>>5961163
Ah.
Can't be bothered to read through the thread.
There's definitely some arrogant line cooks on /ck/.
For myself, the more I learn about a subject, the more I realize how much there is that I don't know. I was a know-it-all in my 20s. I learned humility in my 30s. At 43, with most of my working years being in the food industry, I feel pretty well rounded, but I can still learn things from the 20yo people in my kitchen.
I'm glad I made it through the arrogant years.

>>5961215
you're lucky you didn't keep that 20 behavior into your 40s, so many people do. I hope to still have my passion like that when I am older, but for now, it's the most enjoyable work i've got.

>>5961215
It's a good skill to be able to learn every day of your life.
Even though I'm not working in kitchens anymore, I still endeavour to experiment and learn every day. I read, and I improve myself in small ways. I miss having someone I could learn from in any meaningful way, in a mentor/student relationship, but I've learned enough of a work ethic to study on my own.

>>5961219
That's sad. I wish them the best, honestly. It's hard to find a happy balance of comfort of life and work. I'm still passionate about food, though. If it's in your blood, it's in your blood. Tried to leave the industry a couple times. I just can't quit her.

>>5961222
I used to read cook books cover to cover. I should probably start again, but this damn internet and it's videos keep me occupied.

>>5960704
what kind of Chef you mean? Head Chef? ( Chef de Cuisine )

what ist then the difference between a "Line Cook" and a "Chef (de partie)" aka Cook?

>>5961615
go jack off into the pages of larousse

>>5960879
stopped reading at microwave

>>5960704
Not a chef and couldn't/wouldn't want to be. I enjoy being a humble home cook and entertainer. My sister is a highly skilled chef though and from what she describes, it sucks. Everyone bitches at you, servers, owner, customers, you have the worst hours imaginable, and the pay is literal shit for how demanding and high stress the work is.

Then my uncle is like one of five chefs in the entire world with some prestigious-ass title. France even presented him with medals and awards and shit for highlighting their cuisine. Now he's so well respected that there's almost no stress. He endured decades of shit to climb the ranks, but when you see him in the kitchen, you understand that he really had no other choice than to be a chef because he loves it so damn much.

>>5960826
this is what happens when you tell people where you work on /ck/

>>5961765
c est qui ton oncle... Ducasse?

>>5960768
even a chef at fazoli's wouldn't count

I'm an EMT . . .

>>5960826
Are you at Gary Danko?

Just went there Thursday, the oyster dish is phenomenal.

>>5962077
non

>>5961854
wow, that ain't even funny.

kids on /b/ should kill themselves

>>5960916

The advice in >>5960949 is accurate.

I had 5 years experience in kitchens and no qualifications, so I went to trade school to get a certificate.
Most cookery schools have a training kitchen with an attached restaurant that sells dishes on the cheap, with the customers knowing that the food was made by a class of noobs, but this school didn't have one. So instead, as part of the course I needed to do 192 hours of free work experience in a real commercial kitchen.

I walked into the best restaurant in my area and said something along the lines of, "Look, I've got years of good experience in the kitchen and I've come to you to offer my services for free for 192 hours as an extra chef".
Of course they gave me the position, and thankfully they were kind enough to pay me some cash for each day I came in.
After the second day the head chef offered me an ongoing job after my placement hours were up, and I've been there on proper wages for 8 months since.

>>5960812
I work with a girl at this local pizza joint who's currently in culinary school. She's shitty at her current job and hates being there half the time, I can't even BEGIN to imagine her working in a bigger restaurant.

I have no interest in cooking for money. It's a stressful career path and I don't cook well enough for even a roadside diner

what is fazzolis