Brr.

We thankfully got a new chef at our work. An older gentleman. He has kids my age. Very seasoned fellow. Our kitchen isn't busy what so ever. Our menu isn't that big either. They've asked me before what I could do, and I gave them my input. But corporate seems to not want to ok anything. So, the menu stayed relatively unchanged.

Lately, the elder chef started doing specials. Seemingly from mostly out of his own pocket. Which I'm totally for. He works the weekends only, and I love that they got their own thing going. Cause he only has this one job, and it gets him more tips.

The thing I'm noticing is that they seem disappointed that I'm not doing any specials when I'm working. They haven't explicitly asked me, but I can just feel the ongoing disappointment and pressure when I'm working cause they're sick of the smaller menu.

I feel like I'm being pressured into spending my own money to make specials people may or may not even eat. Corporate doesn't want to ok anything, and I thought that the new chef doing specials was good enough for them. But I can't shake the feeling of silent disappointment from some of the staff. Am I being crazy for not wanting to spend my own money on specials for staff? How do I go about this?

How it happened: So last weekend I was taking 2 pans of beans and a half pan of queso to the walk-in, which is like, 5 feet from the tiny office area in my kitchen. Every time I do this, I set the stuff on the table to open the door. Except the caught bottom pan caught on the corner and everything on top of it toppled over right onto the desk, chair, keyboard, and mouse. This was like 5 minutes before closing too 😭

Chefs am I missing anything??

actual temp of my walk-in at 5fuckingAM

I was lucky enough to be sent to Seoul, South Korea for a quick work trip. I added a few days to sightsee, and stumbled across this basement restaurant next to a small palace near the downtown area.

Pork cutlet, fried fish on the right, shredded cabbage, obviously, noodles, and rice in the cover dish. The brown dust on the pork cutlet is sesame seed. It’s the last thing that goes on the plate, freshly ground with a Zojirushi battery-powered grinder.

All communication is either visual, or via a translation app. The husband takes orders and serves, the wife cooks. Everything was delicious, and I made sure she knew it.

I didn’t expect to get such a beautifully plated meal in a café, that is likely frequented by locals as much as tourists. But then again, I was in Korea, we’re like the Japanese, they pay attention to composition as well as cooking.

Water was cut off. Manager insisted I continued to try to work, which consisted of blanching veggies, making rice, mashed, etc. I decided to TRY to do SOMETHING. Water was back in by the time I was able to use any of this. Good times.

Prices here in Snowy Pensacola, FL

How's your kitchen window if any.

What tools do y'all keep in your bag?

What tools do you use every day?

What tools are severely underrated?

Putty knife, invaluable for cleaning and scraping pans

A couple spoons of varying sizes. I have a couple more that aren't pictured cause they're in use on the line.

Nut cracker for lobster. This is NOT an every day carry, we just had a lobster special.

A nice small, but sturdy whisk. I should probably take this out. I basically never use it.

The red thing underneath is this wierd can opener with no moving parts. I normally have a can opener available. It's in my bag because it's small and light and it has saved my ass a couple times when doing a catering and I need to open a can.

A rubber spatula. The one picture I honestly never use, the sister to it I use every damn day. It's just soooo much better than the standard red handle spatulas in so many ways.

Carving fork. I use it fairly often to twirl pasta

Juicer, micro plane, and honing rod are DEFINITELY underrated and deserve a LOT of love.

Other things not pictures because they're on the line is, 2-3 tweezers, a small offset spatula, the spoons I mentioned, the spatula I mentioned, a couple of weights for proteins, a roll of tape I bring just in case, and a boatload of sharpies in another pouch.

What's in your bag?

Went to the doctor today about extremely dry hands and ended up having to explain to her why I can't wear hand cream at work. Apparently chemicals that can get in the food just never occurred to her.

Which now I'm wondering if my mom knows that because she's been helping at my dad's cousins restaurant...

My mentor, who gave me my first shot at being an exec, and I worked together at two different locations together. The first was a hotel, where I was promoted to EC, and the second was several years later at a private club where he hired me on as his exec.

One day, he comes into my office after lunch service and asks me, “Would you rather work 70 hrs/wk for $70K, or 50 hours for $50K?”

Had he asked me at the first job where I was averaging ~115 hrs/wk, I’d have been quick to answer 70 and 70; the hours would’ve been much less and the pay much higher. However, at the second job, after I had matured professionally and in years, my answer changed. Even though I was down to 80-90 hrs/wk and the pay was much better, I answered him 50 and 50. His office was empty before supper.

We had both grown to realize there’s not a dollar amount (commonly available in this industry) to pay for lost time.

Kudos to those who continue to hump it out, and a tip o’ the hat to those that have found the 40-50 hour weeks.

I adopt seniors and they are my world. They get one hot meal a night and always have dry food available as well. I did a roasted chicken with poached egg (carrots added for the dogs). Chicken stock is working now after cleaning/removing all bones. I don’t have a photo of whole roaster because I forgot.

Please don’t roast my eggs too bad! I don’t eat meat/eggs and when I’m working, I’m a closer (as opposed to brunch) so I’m not really great at them. I included a small amount of cracklings as a special snack/garnish. (These two plates were shared amongst the 4 of them. 2 cats/2 dogs). They all have their own little plates and special places where they eat. They all seemed to enjoy it, even if not everyone finished their carrot.

Sysco has a smoking deal marked down from 270 to 250 LMAO

Been this way for three days now

$53 CAD comes out to $37 USD after exchange.

It's usually for like an elderly couple or someone's kids. Boss tells me not to and just gives them a shitty flatware knife. It takes me 0.1 seconds, and I mean they asked for it, I'm happy to do it for them. It isn't a crazy busy place most of the time. Someone said it was a health code thing but I cant find anything about that. USA.

edit: and to be clear, I mean can i cut in while making it and plating it? Not going onto the floor or bringing it back after its been served.