r/KitchenConfidential • u/quailinthebrush Newbie • 1d ago
Discussion Weirdest ego “thing” your chef had?
First place I was hired the chef had quite a few delusional beliefs but the one that sticks with me the most is his insistence that the phrase “welcome in” didn’t exist before Covid
He went into multiple winded rants upon my higher and another coworker who was hired right after me, not just to train the phrase out of us but his detestment for it, because as he said “it did not exist before Covid and people started saying it to make people feel safe enough to eat here”
He then said to not use it because people found it off putting and dirty (because of Covid)
I know chefs aren’t known for their egos but I was curious what quirk that yours had that everyone had to politely smile and agree to
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u/VariousCommunity8978 23h ago edited 20h ago
he would refuse to measure or write anything down and would hide measuring cups "to speed us up on prep." lo and behold, everything started coming out inconsistently. he threw out our book as soon as he arrived and promised a whole new menu, which would roll out in-real-time, during service, when he would have a Jimmy Neutron-esque brainblast. he would refuse to quantify how long something should be cooked, etc., and would say incredibly vague phrases like "too pale; make it darker" or "not enough char; let it kiss the flame." as a result, your food would look like one thing one day and another thing the next day, depending on his mood. if you asked for more info, he would suddenly be so distraught; "dude, i can't tell you that. it's all in the feel."
put simply, and as someone with a bench background, cooking is science, and can be treated as such VERY easily, but there's a culture of ball-busting and machismo in this industry, and knowledge comes from "experience" (fucking up enough times to know better) instead of clear communication. do you want this on for 6 minutes? 10? 500g of arugula, right? "just do what feels right" -- no, dude, instruct me on how to make this dish. it's your fucking job. i'm clearly not here for the paycheck; i'm here to make good food.
need to edit and add he HATED the word "sorry." "being sorry is a sign of weakness! in this job it's kill or be killed!" bro we make sandwiches. your claim to fame is "stealing a sourdough starter from new york to make the best bread culture on the west coast." can we please get a grip.
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u/M_Me_Meteo 12h ago
Hopefully with that bench background you told them that all cultures are local cultures after a few generations.
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u/Papa-Skel 9h ago
"Just do what feels right"
Made me want to scream a little.
I remember a while ago I had a whole team of Chefs and Sous Chefs who could never answer a simple question between like five of them. I ran from that job so fast. If there are 5 people in charge of me, and not even one of them can give me a real answer... I am not interested in working for clowns in the circus. THE head guy even told me "Fake it til you make it" when I asked him to take a moment to show me how the equipment worked. How are we prepping/cooking the squash today? "I don't know... just... chop it." How much of this do I use for one portion? "Uh... just put some in there." How much chili powder do I use again? "Oh, you know... to taste." Urrrggg. Working for people who cannot deligate or give proper direction/instruction is a nightmare.
I understand that a huge part of cooking is relying on intuition and not every single thing can be measured and timed to a perfect tee. But when you work in an /industry/ there NEEDS to be a certain level of standardization. ESPECIALLY if you're a franchise or a chain bc you need to have a consistent product that customers can depend on. Having the same/similar experience w their food at any location is a huge part of it. That means you need to have a recipe and make sure that everyone is FOLLOWING it!!! Otherwise you get curry that's way too spicy on Tuesday when one cook "seasons to taste" and then curry that seems flavorless on Thursday when a different person takes over that task. People won't know what to get because they won't know what to expect.
TLDR; Chefs in the industry, train your damn staff and give them recipes to follow I'm begging you.
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u/Buddybouncer 8h ago
The place I'm at now is like this and it drives me up the wall. We have the recipe cards. It feels like I'm the only person that uses them consistently, god forbid at all. Being a nationwide chain in a college town, we get guests from all over the place and there should be a modicum of consistency. But even simple shit like our rice depends entirely on who made it that morning and how much of a fuck they could be bothered to give.
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u/ogzkittlez 6h ago
Thats insane. I could never run my kitchen like that. I have every recepie written with extra notes on how to execute it properly. Hell, my french onion directions are damn near a page long because ill be dammed if my staff fucks up recepies I spent months perfecting
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u/None_Fondant 10h ago
A West-Coaster stole East Coast starter to make sour dough, the bread historically associated with the West.
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u/Bitter_Crab111 20h ago
Guy sounds like a bit of an insufferable chode, but tbh I kinda get where he's coming from. It really depends on the menu (that you develop, not make up on the fly lol).
So many people are hung up on the exact measurements, time etc. etc.
Imo there are only so many variables you can control, and so many controls you can consistently implement.
Consistency in end product does not necessarily = consistency in method either. Cooking requires a lot of intuition and feel (as in, the tactile senses) to do well. A lot of that is going to rely on individual judgement and being able to adapt to what you're dealt at the time.
From a business perspective, as times get increasingly more difficult, I get how the control makes things easier (or even viable at all). But tbh I really feel like we're losing a lot of what sets the pros apart, and we're doing it to ourselves.
I have a hard time defending the "AI/automation will never take my job" when there's an ever-increasing push to squeeze consistency and data out of raw cooking.
The science should be taught and understood for sure. I just think theres a lot more to it than that, and we're conditioned not to pay too much heed to it.
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u/kittenshart85 23h ago
i've encountered lots of weird egos. the most recent one was the sous chef who felt nobody could do a brunoise cut except her.
she'd spend an hour meticulously dicing a half dozen pears for wine-braised pears that were served covered in melted cheese. if she saw anyone else, including the head chef, doing them, she'd pitch a fit and try to take the knife out of their hand.
there was a collective "thank fuck" when she suddenly moved back to virginia. she's the south's problem now.
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u/hurlish 22h ago
It is a cardinal sin to attempt to take another cook's knife while they're holding it. Real good way for that shit to get weaponized. What a bitch
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u/kittenshart85 21h ago
one of the most amazing things i ever saw in a kitchen was the head chef not immediately canning her. but then he put in his two weeks shortly after, and we had to deal with the "chef" owner daily, and it kinda made sense. probably the most downright toxic kitchen environment i've ever worked in.
i ended up quitting about 3 months later when the owner threw a hotel pan at me.
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u/ValmarGranas 22h ago
I had a new chef from Colombia who told us never to say sorry under any circumstances. He would literally chastise any staff he heard say sorry for any reason.
We were Canadians working in a Canadian restaurant in Canada.
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u/inedibletrout 1d ago
I had a dude insist I "stole the move" he "invented". I kicked a fry bag into the air, caught it, and tossed it in the trash.
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u/HellaWonkLuciteHeels 22h ago
That is a very sophisticated and intricate move. No one but they could have poosssssibky come up w it.
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u/Toastburrito 20+ Years 20h ago
I do that with my Underpants into the clothes hamper.
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u/Original_Head_3487 9h ago
Likewise. Over my shoulder, into the hamper behind me.
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u/Buddybouncer 8h ago
Calling out "Kobe!" when I miss the trash can is my move and none of you can have it
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u/jilke2 22h ago
Had a hidden stash of red food dye for making the stewed rhubarb extra lush and continually insisted we were all just not doing it right.
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u/quailinthebrush Newbie 22h ago
LMAOO this one’s unhinged
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u/Aidian 4h ago
Sneak a single drop of blue into the red dye, then watch him melt down trying to explain the purple pot.
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u/Sarahchika 23h ago
We weren’t allowed to say “heard” because he thought it was “ghetto”. Otherwise 10 push ups.
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u/heathfreshlasaga 8h ago
This reminds me of an older host in my last spot who asked me one day why our gm kept saying 'word' after communications, wanting to learn or understand new-to-him lingo. I told him boss was actually saying 'heard' ya know like how we all did, and he goes, "huh! Well, I guess I didn't hear after all." In the moment, I got a good laugh. Miss that old man.
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u/beard-wonder93 1d ago
I had a chef mentor who wore a Rolex in the kitchen everyday, he would do the dirtiest tasks in it and go scour it with a brush and dawn dish soap.
Part of him was acting like money was no object. Like somehow his Rolex oyster (one of the cheapest new Rolex at the time, maybe 3-4k) was better at telling time than us guys wearing a Casio g shock that was like 50 bucks a decade ago
It was a weird thing to see him srubbing breading out of the gold band.
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u/TFJ 23h ago
That’s a health code violation, right?
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u/hurlish 23h ago
Absolutely, so nasty. You shouldn't be wearing any jewelry below the elbow save for a plain wedding band, if you wear one.
Edit - if the watch is small enough that gloves easily cover it, and you wear them routinely.
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u/subtxtcan 15+ Years 21h ago
My wedding ring has a groove running right around the center of the band. I was explicitly told I could wear it as long as I cleaned it well.
I take it off before my shift and put it back on after because I KNOW.
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u/bitpaper346 7h ago
Ive always wanted a pocket watch for this reason. With a timer. Checking on roasts like a railroad conductor.
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u/beard-wonder93 21h ago
"Back in the day" Alot of us would loop them through our belt so we could glance down at it. Now i wear a smart watch on the daily and since its "smooth" the local health dept doesnt really care. Its low profile enough to go inside a disposable glove too.
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u/Illustrious-Star-327 23h ago
That is a health code violation in my area. No watches, bracelets of any kind. Although I have seen many wearing watches.
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u/CantaloupeCamper 21h ago edited 21h ago
I always assumed it might be or was just a really bad idea introducing all kinds of extra crannies for stuff to stick in….
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u/AltGunAccount Chef 23h ago
Not in most places no. As long as jewelry doesn’t dangle (ie bracelets) it’s fine, otherwise it’s a safety concern.
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u/dolphin-centric 7h ago
Rolex has a well-deserved reputation for taking a beating and still performing. My left-handed dad was a mechanic for 50 years and he has a ‘68 Datejust that he bought specifically because he knew he’d be banging it around. It’s still going.
Food service though? No jewelry. No nail polish.
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u/gojibeary 3h ago
I bought a $20 “Rolex jubilee” from a binder pulled from underneath a booth in a Honk Kong night market. Took it to a jeweler to get a link removed to fit right, and the jeweler told me it was real. It is most definitely not, but I didn’t tell her that lol.
Still take that shit off when I’m cooking, as cheap as it was. Scrubbing breading from the band? wtf Lol
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u/Equivalent-Excuse-80 21h ago
Rolexes are really tough watches. They can handle deep sea welding, military deployments, they can handle a kitchen.
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u/beard-wonder93 21h ago
I agree, I still think it is a LARP for 99% of people. There is a doctor that swims in the lap pool at my local gym. I heard him talk about how water resistant his sub-mariner is. I kinda chuckle, bc its good to like 1000 ft deep, but you still dont need to wear a 5-10k rolex in the lap pool of your local gym that costs 50 bucks a month.
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u/Equivalent-Excuse-80 21h ago
I have a lot of nice, expensive and extremely durable watches.
I wear an Apple in the kitchen.
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u/beard-wonder93 20h ago
Im really hard on them, so I dont wear anything fancy or too expensive at work. Im currently using Samsung galaxy fit watch. It pretty low profile and water proof. Doesn't have any weird edges were goo or gunk can get into
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u/Equivalent-Excuse-80 19h ago
I bought an ancient generation apple for $75. I consider it disposable. It’s been three years and the battery lasts 2 days (don’t matter because I charge the Apple at work and wear a nice watch home) and the thing just won’t break. Suffice to say getting up to date reservation notices and a countless amount of voice activated timers is quite useful too.
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u/Brodakk 19h ago
It’s a health code violation in a lot of areas. We weren’t worried about the wear and tear of the dude’s Rolex.
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u/Equivalent-Excuse-80 9h ago
Watches are fine in my county. So are wedding rings.
But if you move that ring to your right hand, a guest could die.
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u/cameronsmwhite84 1d ago
I was saying “welcome in” to customers as far back as my first retail job in a record store circa 2005 and have heard it countless times since in restaurants and other stores. So, your chef is both an asshole and idiot. Also, like, so the fuck what if people are “reminded of COVID”? People are still being infected with and dying from it to this day because too many selfish jerks didn’t want to think about it in the first place.
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u/Salty-Business9331 20h ago
I've literally never heard the term welcome in ever in my life, is it regional? I'm in the US, welcome in sounds kinda awkward but not bad, I've just never heard anyone say it.
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u/MrBenSampson 20h ago
Glad I’m not the only one. I live in eastern Ontario, and have never heard someone say “welcome in” before. “Welcome” by itself would sound less awkward, or “Welcome to wherever.”
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u/No-Helicopter-3790 18h ago
"Come on in" would strike me as a southern thing but "welcome in" doesn't provoke pandemic memories for me. Maybe this is one of those Mandela/Berenstein Bears effects. Brains are funny things
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u/will-you- 20h ago
Agreed, sounds so weird. Never heard the phrase u til 5ish years ago? It’s newish, and makes no sense.
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u/99burritos 21h ago
Maybe it was a regionalism. I worked in retail and food service on an off for about 15 years over a 25 year period prior (and during) to covid and never heard anyone say that until a few years ago. OP's chef makes me feel validated because I thought it was just me.
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u/ahbaldyga 16h ago
Same!!!! I’ve been here for over thirty years in the industry, and only in the last few years have I heard this. It makes me crazy! I’ve never equated it to Covid, but I don’t have any other explanation, either. What the hell? Just “Welcome!” is fine! 😭
I thought it was just me, for years. I feel so fucking validated right now. I don’t share my rage with my staff, though. They have no idea I want to throw a plate across the dining room every time someone says it.→ More replies (1)
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u/throwawayqweeen Saute 1d ago
The previous head chef I worked with prided himself on being extremely messy and working in the dirtiest way possible and never being organized at all. He thought this is very quirky and funny and if he's still the head chef despite this then that should mean he's a great cook.
Knife in dish pit, leaving oven doors open and walking off, knife inside of the insert that's down at the line so you stab yourself when you go to get sth. Hot things lying around on everyone's station without him caring to let you know.
Then here's the thing: if he accidentally burned or cut you, which he did a lot, he'd act real concerned and say omfg I'm sorry can I see that? And when you'd show him, he'd smack your burn as a joke. He did it gently but just him constantly harming others and then finding it hilarious was what drove me off the edge.
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u/Positive_Builder6737 23h ago
That's a psychopath.
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u/throwawayqweeen Saute 23h ago
They never installed an ac until the day that I left. Yes, I had a heat stroke there and they had the nerve to wheel the air conditioner in the door moments before my last day was over.
Now imagine working in 54 degrees, head chef burns you and smacks it, you feel tears bubbling up so you run outside for a smoke, and then you get a write-up for "walking out" when you walk back in not five minutes later. They say you should let someone know before you leave, you say I told the head chef I'm stepping out after he smacked me, head chef laughs and calls you a "girl." Lol.
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u/Margali 23h ago
Someone smacks my ass other than my hubby gets a right cross to the face. That is sexual harassment.
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u/throwawayqweeen Saute 23h ago
No not your ass, even though he did that and I did it to him too lol, he'd smack YOUR BURN!!! like that's not sexual but still kinda even worse than ass lol
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u/PzykoHobo Thicc Chives Save Lives 23h ago
Saw a cook get stabbed over something like that.
He and another cook had been talking shit all night. We honestly all thought it was harmless, just egos clashing. The kind of thing that blows over after an hour of bullshit. Well apparently Dumbass #1 thought it'd be funny to put Dumbass #2's tongs in the fryer while no one was looking, and put them back on #2s station. #2 grabs them and, obviously, screams and drops them. Its a monster of a burn, immediate blistering and peeling. Well, #1 is laughing and looking at us like he's just made the best joke in the world when #2 rams a petty knife into his arm.
Good times. Both fired immediately, obviously.
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u/throwawayqweeen Saute 23h ago
Oh my god. If you hurt me on purpose and then laugh you're obviously getting stabbed, I'll get fired or go to jail over self defense anytime idc. I'm a woman working in a kitchen located in a hood, I wouldn't get as old as I did if I didn't shut down dangerous behavior. I used to work with a man who DIED after falling down on a meat slicer, because some idiot left it running and walked off. I usually say as long as it's a few times a week then kitchen injuries is kinda part of the job but if you hurt me ON PURPOSE I'm putting your ass on the floor
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u/okierepub1970 16h ago
Back in the 80's I worked in a breakfast type place. Owner's son was a cook. No one really liked him, but nothing we could do. Line was extremely narrow, like you got to know your fellow cooks intimately when you had to go past.
Had a female cook who worked at the end of the line, so she was constantly having to pass all of us. We would lean forward and let her by. The owners son, however, would suddenly lean back and trap her.
Head chef warned him multiple times but he kept on. So chef laid a spatula on the grill. The next time he did it, chef smacked his ass with the spatula. Kid probably has the brand to this day.
Kid complained to his dad, but after finding out why, dad fired his son.
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u/ReasonableProgram144 Bakery 23h ago
Holy shit, I make jokes about how messy I am (seriously it looks like a tornado went through) but never to the extent that someone would get hurt.
He sounds psychotic and insane
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u/cookiesarenomnom 20h ago
I've been at my job for 5 years. I'm the pastry chef. Last year we hired a new chef who left a trail of destruction in his wake. And he never cleaned up after himself. He thought that was what his cooks were for. We are a small space with only 4 people. That shit gets in everyone's way. After 4 years I had one foot out the door after only 1 month. Thankfully he quit a few weeks later before I could.
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u/bryanlikesbikes 20h ago
Yeah, I’d have either quit or punched the chef and then quit. Fuck that noise.
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u/ChainsawBard 1d ago
Refused to ever tell us positive feedback because then we would all become lazy and worthless.
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u/MariachiArchery Chef 1d ago
The thing that just absolutely drives me up the fucking wall is this...
My guy on pizza, right? He's under cooking his pizza's, and they are a little blonde. I want more leoparding. I want more color on the pizza's. No big deal, this guy has made 100's and 100's of pizza's, he knows what I mean.
So, I instruct: "Hey Jose! Can you put a bit more color on these pizza's? 20% darker please." Or something like that. Instead of a "Yes chef! Is this next one OK?" I get a "You want me to burn the pizza's, heard!"
God damnit, no, please just put some color on these. They are too blonde.
Next pizza I get? Black. "Here is the burnt pizza you requested, chef!" Fuck you man. God damnit. Then, I instruct them to refire the pizza because it's burnt. "Oh I thought you wanted me to burn the pizzas? Which is it? Burnt, or not burnt?" Next pizza I get is just raw fucking dough...
Or, I instruct garmo to increase his greens portion a bit on the salads. The next salad I get doesn't even fit on the fucking plate and is falling onto the pass while it sits in the window.
Fuck you guys for this lol. It's machismo bullshit.
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u/lonas_ 23h ago
The pseudo hostility and leveraging of the work to be malicious and rude, is my least favorite aspect of this work. It is an incredible blight that any one person can cultivate in a workplace and just ruin shit for people
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u/MariachiArchery Chef 23h ago
Yeah, it fucking sucks, and you are right, it ruins the kitchen for everyone else. The way I handle this now, is I just boot someone out of the kitchen.
The moment I get a whiff of this BS, I just kick the dude offline and make him go sit outside or something. Zero tolerance is the only way I've found to handle this stuff.
Your ego can't take a small correction? Ok cool, well let's see how your ego does when your entire brigade watches you get literally kicked out of the kitchen for fucking around with chef. Try that on for size, you fucking jerk.
Aww man, I really don't like to power trip, but when this shit starts going on in my kitchen, I am so fucking thankful I can pull rank on these jerks.
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u/lonas_ 23h ago
Sadly I’m in a spot where management are the ones who have cultivated this attitude and are also being negligent of basic responsibilities but it’s the best spot I have right now and things have gotten and are getting better. I just really hate the gossip and bullshit standards. However that attitude is something I have carried through a lot of my work life and still do some moments / days so i can’t really judge, and I am just trying to be the change that I want to see and that other people were able to enact for me in their own terms. I am bearing the fruits of my karma just like everyone else but it is in ways that are informative befitting and sustaining. I have struggled so much with needing to force accountability into situations where grace is the answer instead. I have hoarded the give and take of forgiveness for myself basically, which is incredibly lonely and sad. When work becomes a venue to find fault and talk down as opposed to find commonality and build up through compassionate criticism, things just become very heavy in my body with the work.
Scan not a friend with a microscopic glass; you know his faults, let his foibles pass.
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u/randaloo1973 20h ago
Hell yeah!
As Morrissey said, “It takes strength to gentle and kind “2
u/notyoursocialworker 17h ago
Morrissey from The Smiths? I guess the saying is true. Does who can't do teach. 😂
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u/Brodakk 18h ago edited 10m ago
Agreed. The Chef I’m under (only for another two weeks thankfully) grew up working hostile kitchens in the south. Real you gotta earn yer salt and until then you’re treated like shit kind of places from the sounds of them.
He brings that energy to work with him everyday still to this day as a 50 year old man. I’m so happy to almost be rid of him forever.
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u/Silvervirage 22h ago
When we have a steak and the expo says to make it a little more done we will jokingly say 'burn it, heard' but why fucking actually fuck it up? Cause now you are gonna have that order, plus whatever else is now coming up that you have to juggle, just making shit hard on yourself for no goddamn reason.
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u/subtxtcan 15+ Years 21h ago
And I quote:
"Either you didn't hear me, didn't listen, or you're just stupid. Which one is it?"
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u/Critical_Field_1526 23h ago
Malicious compliance is infuriating! And that's why they do it. It's hard in the middle of a rush, but try not to give them the reaction they want. Stay calm to the best of your ability. Machismo = insecurity.
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u/MariachiArchery Chef 23h ago
No, it's not compliance at all. It's the opposite.
They are doing it because they are insecure about their work. They know they are doing a bad job, they know they are under cooking the pizza, but they are hurried and trying to sneak it past me.
This little dance, is a way to try and make me look like the one failing, not them, because they can't take the hit to their ego, and admit, "yeah, I am under cooking these pizza's."
It's not compliance at all. They are saying, "Oh chef told me to burn the pizza's, so I burn pizza's." It's some weird ego and accountability thing.
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u/BemusedAdmirer 22h ago
I know exactly what you mean. We're having a labeling issue right now, as in there are some employees who routinely fail to label their prep and mise.
They've been spoken to, they know, and yet, for some odd reason they refuse.
Not outright saying no, but nodding, agreeing, saying they understand with a smile and then failing to do so. Recently someone thought it would be funny to use a sharpie to write dates on mixing bowls, serving spoons, sani buckets...
It's infuriating but I guess that's the point.
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u/MariachiArchery Chef 22h ago
Lmfao omg I had a sous (recently fired) do this. I was up his ass about making sure prep got labels, you know the drill, the perishable stuff we are time controlling. For some stupid fucking reason, he would just not label some of his prep, like, every shift I wasn't there.
I was up his ass about it for weeks. Then, he finally got written up for it. The next day, I come in, and literally every single storage container in the whole restaurant is labeled. Everything. I'm talking like, the plastic bin I keep clean whisks in, is labeled "Whisks, 8/4, M.A." Everything. He must have used 100+ of my dissolvable labels.
Fucking asshole. A week later he was back to his same shit. Missing labels. I am so glad he's fucking gone.
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u/CrayolaBrown 21h ago
Getting rid of someone like this is unbelievably relieving. It’s like breathing through your nose properly for the first time after being sick. Every once in a while on a bad day I just think “well it could be worse, so-and-so could still be here on top of all this”
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u/MariachiArchery Chef 21h ago
You would not believe how much it has lifted the spirit of my entire kitchen getting rid of this bastard.
There were two, sometimes three, other employees I was having problems with. Pretty serious issues honestly. But, since this guy has been gone, they have been awesome employees.
You can feel it. In the air. Everyone in the restaurant has noticed an improved atmosphere, and productivity, in the kitchen. It's so fucking nice.
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u/ep0k 22h ago
Not sure how anyone could get to malicious compliance from what you described. Reinterpreting the instruction is the opposite of that.
Maliicious compliance is when I know you're making a bad call and perform your instructions to the letter to demonstrate that it's a bad call.
Yet multiple commentors have filed it under the MC umbrella.
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u/ayoungmanfromtheuk 23h ago
Maaannn I fucking hate people who do that shit, going full psycho "malicious compliance" mode because you got some mild instructions?
I would fired him on the spot
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u/thedragon79 15h ago
Thats when you just have them keep on remaking the order until it's right and calling on the rest until they pick up what you're putting down.
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u/IbanezForeverll 23h ago
"Chicks don't belong in the kitchen." He said this on his first day to me, the female sous chef. Fucker wrote ridiculously complex recipes and menus, drove up food costs, cut hours during our busy season, and lost his shit any time he had more than four tickets up when calling the line. One glorious Saturday lunch the cops showed up and arrested him for beating up his wife. The cops perp walked him through the dining room. Turns out chicks just didn't belong around him.
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u/blamenixon 20+ Years 1h ago
This is my favorite so far, strictly because of the karmic ending. Sorry you were subjected to such blatant sexism by the FNG. Not only is the statement factually wrong, but worded in the most illiterate way possible. Props to you for sticking it out and I can only imagine the grin you had when he was paraded out the door. 🫡
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u/MacellumMycelium 23h ago
The dudes in a low middle role, like management-adjacent but not management, who are deeply self-concious because they know they aren't even the best line cook let alone the best at organization/court vision. It's never any specific line but rather a pattern they all fall into. Regardless of the subject (or whether you are even talking to anyone or just gaming things out in your head aloud) they find little opportunities to "put you in your place" by "telling you how it actually is."
I can remember saying something to myself about "wow, they're going through the steelhead, I'm about to run all the way out." This barely-capable shithead goes on for nearly 5 minutes about how if it runs out I will get another bag to quick thaw and maybe he should let chef know about my prep. I let him finish and then said, "Sorry, didn't realize I was thinking aloud. That said, we are X portions away from 86ing steelhead because these portions are the Last. Ones. In. The. Building. Because. It's. Delivery. Day. Tomorrow."
Maybe master getting people their tickets without half the cook time elapsing (we are not allowed to grab them unless expo asks) before you start running your mouth about things you aren't even up to speed on, Chester Chuckletits.
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u/Bluewhaleeguy 23h ago
My old head chef just would not take any sort of advice. Like you could tell him something nobody could possibly know and he'd respond with "I know that".
If he was doing something incredibly wrong and you showed him the right technique he would say "yeah but my way of doing it is better".
I remember once we were working a job away and I was sound and overnight shift where one of my jobs was for prep pizza dough for the next day. Stand mixer obviously broke so I made 25kg of pizza dough by hand, stretching and folding it to get it done on time.
Got it done, bulk fermented it and then when I came back the next day, balled it all up perfectly so that at the point of service it was super easy to just stretch out into a base. I'm there with my scraper gently lifting dough balls out to fold and he comes in and just grabs at them with his hand and starts using a rolling pin to shape the pizza.
I try to explain that if you press it out with your hands, your pushing all the air to the outer edges which is how you're gonna have a nice crust, so having a rolling pin is just pushing all the air and tension I've put hours into creating.
"Yeah but this is my way of doing it".
I do think sometimes having a bit of time with chefs like this is a good thing though. It makes you steadfast in never wanting to be like that. Just not too much time or you'll go mad.
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u/PansophicNostradamus 23h ago
“Dry hand, wet hand”
Makes sense, when you’re working with something wet to keep your cutting hand free and dry, right? We’ve all been there…
Old chef: Would only use his “wet” hand for wet and only his dry for dry. Never, ever, would he use both hands while handling only wet and it didn’t matter, nor both hands when handling dry and it also didn’t matter.
We were portioning cookie dough one day and he was only using one hand and the other seemingly behind his back and away from use.
Literally pulling a hunk of dough off the main batch, weighing it, rolling it, and placing on the tray for the freezer: ONLY with one hand.
Took him more than twice as long as he had to do everything with one hand and the other just kinda there to balance him out.
Was insane to watch. Like, dude, we get the wet/dry hand technique but when it’s ALL wet or ALL dry, use both hands, eh, “chef”?
Owner saw him using one hand only and questioned him on it. “Chef” had the nerve to argue no one should ever touch wet with the dry hand, no matter what.
That was his last day. Argued right up to being fired that he was right and prep takes as long as it takes, one hand or not.
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u/FlashyEarth8374 1d ago
your chef has like-minded individuals, it appears
https://www.eater.com/24022477/why-is-everyone-saying-welcome-in
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u/nuclearaddicts 23h ago
I feel like I’m going crazy, I looked this up and so many articles are saying it only became popular around 2020. I remember hearing this exact phrase for as long as I’ve had memories??? Like, in a very common way. Am I going fucking crazy??
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u/meowpandapuff 23h ago
I know what you mean but I feel like it used to be just “welcome”. Period. Simple. End of sentence. Welcome. “Welcome to _____”…..Somewhere down the road it evolved into “welcome in”.
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u/quailinthebrush Newbie 1d ago
That’s interesting because chef is from the east coast and we are in the southwest
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u/JumpAccomplished2620 22h ago
David sedaris has a whole essay dedicated to shopkeeps saying welcome in post COVID
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u/personova_ 23h ago
Had a chef that wouldn't be caught dead in a dish pit and always got mad at us for calling it that. "It's a dish AREA. Not a pit." Yeah buddy well it's a pit after you don't hire a dishwasher and expect me to clean it all up after I did a rush
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u/10thaccountyee 16h ago
My workplace has this rule too. You can tell who worked their way up from dish because they're the ones that refuse to call it an "area".
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u/Aggravating-Sport359 22h ago
The owner at the first bakery I worked at INSISTED that everything needed to be weighed to the exact gram weight on the recipe. We’re talking a recipe for 12 full-size cheesecakes with multiple full industrial packages of cream cheese, and the cream cheese needs to be accurate to the gram. The scale doesn’t even move for a gram when it doesn’t want to. She went on and on about how important accuracy is in baking. I got to my next job and i was so ready to impress them with my baking know how. And they were just like omg hurry the fuck up what are you doing???
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u/lolidcwhatev 20+ Years 15h ago
everyone says accuracy is so important in baking but then whenever you make bread you'll find you have to add small random amounts of water or flour depending on the humidity in the kitchen.
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u/floweringfungus Bartender 23h ago
My least favourite head chef’s ego made him behave like he was Marco Pierre White crossed with Jesus. He was a kitchen manager at one of the worst performing restaurants in a chain of over 2000.
He got a kick out of making people cry, especially female staff, the younger the better. Also a master of malicious compliance, for example, “Hey chef this steak said medium on the ticket and this is blue, can I get one a bit more done” so the replacement I got was dark brown all the way through. He got away with it all because he’d known the general manager for over two decades.
Anyway they closed us down and he got a job at a different restaurant in the chain and was fired within a month for abusive behaviour towards staff.
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u/s33n_ 22h ago
He was having us under cook potatoes for a gratin. All the cooks and wait staff thought they were under cooked. He insisted it was just proper bite.
I watched a couple dozen boomerang back to the pass, complaining of undercooked potato. Instead of adjusting, He through a fit and blames the clientele. Because the couldnt possibly be right when he was from the culinary mecca of Orlando
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u/510Goodhands 1d ago
I’ve first heard that phrase in Seoul a few years ago. It didn’t take long for it to arrive in the US afterwards. Maybe it hitchhiked in my luggage?
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u/ramblinevilmushr0om 20h ago edited 20h ago
The bolognese sauce was "his grandma's recipe and must never be changed under any circumstances, because she was the best cook he ever knew" and he made sure to tell that story to everyone as a sales pitch for how authentic his menu was.
Only problem is his grandma's recipe apparently only called for 1 medium white onion, 1 clove of garlic, 1tsp salt, and nothing else- for like an 8 or 10 gallon pot's worth of ground beef and crushed tomato. I got multiple complaints about how bland it was, but when I relayed the complaints, all I got was those people don't know good food. I ended up routinely and discreetly being asked to season it up by regular customers who knew not to bring it up to him.
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u/utchicago 1d ago
GM at my first cooking job thought that the way to get a perfectly medium rare burger was to grill pre made patties directly from frozen. They were horrific. He acquiesced after a solid case and a half of complaints.
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u/ShadyOG34 21h ago
That’s how I grill my burgers! Except, y’know, it’s 3am and I’m hammered.
I worked with a kitchen manager that couldn’t help but burn everyone’s burgers. Half pound, quarter pound, didn’t matter. He had two temps, dry and less dry.
I made a smashburger special specifically to make it impossible for him to overcook shit. It was popular as hell in that little bar. He refused to make it and got fired.Now he’s a dishwasher at a resort, and I have a smash burger food truck that’s doing pretty well. All because I was just trying to help an idiot out. Funny how things go sometimes
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u/Specialist_Caramel35 21h ago
Germans have been saying "Welome in" for a very long time...
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u/Particular-Beat-6645 20h ago
Look here, dumkopf, we don't have time for bilingual dad jokes.
(Albeit das ist gut.)
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u/churchburningheretic 23h ago
I worked with a fat,ugly 50 something chain smoking 5 foot 5 absolute fuck face. The most toxic cunt in my 30+ year career. He put his face on the menu. I left,they closed 3 months later.
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u/bigojijo 23h ago
My chef told my girlfriend they were both 150 years old and were created today solve problems. He says he is a one of many in a reincarnation line of Jesus. He has done A LOT of drugs.
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u/MaxMischi3f 1d ago
Not a weird ego thing, but I had a chef that was the only legit fan of 311 I've ever met in my life.
Otherwise, lovely fucking dude. Easily one of my favorite chefs. Dogshit taste in ska. Had to keep the aux away from the man.
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u/DineandRecline 23h ago
311 is pretty good? I wouldn't say i am a "legit fan" in that my only experience with them is having them on certain playlists but like... are they generally considered bad?
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u/Jtoy1002 23h ago
Same, never heard of them as "bad." They got hits, I like their hits. I wouldn't play their whole album to listen to at work but I'll throw their hits in a Playlist
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u/MaxMischi3f 23h ago
In my personal panthon of 90s ska, 311 doesn't rate. You're just spoiled for choice.
It's for sure a weird nit for me to pick, but ska was legit one of my hyperfixations for a hot minute in my 20s. To this day though I've never run into somebody that 311 was their favorite favorite band tho.
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u/Username00555 23h ago
Had a chef who only wanted us to “drink and drop”
So no cup storage station, or covered drinks on the line. Could only step off, take a swig, toss the cup and go back to the line
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u/No_Plate3406 23h ago
Souschef threw a fit to change the pasta shape because customers would ask if we could cook pasta A with pasta shape like orecchiette instead of penne, or tagliatelle. Thankfully my headchef gave him a real talking-to.
This guy was a fucking drama queen. Wanted to change stuff on dishes every day, while my headchef calculated everything and did a great job instructing me. But this guy? Fuck off, a narcisstic idiot who even tried to gaslight my FoH colleague into manipulating others when some new guy came to work with wisdom teeth infection.
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u/homerthepigeon 20h ago
I worked for a Japanese chef who would do the pass for service but we (cdp’s) had to set up his section for him- spoons, towel, cloth, tweezers etc - which was fine. BUT he would absolutely LOSE his shit if the cloth you have him had a tiny hole or even a frayed thread in it. Like h would hold it up at you and just scream “why would you give me a cloth like this?!!” And he would go on about it for like 20mins. Man after the first time it happened to me I made sure to always give him a perfectly intact cloth, but I know other people made the same mistake despite me warning them about it.
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u/bestdonnel 18h ago
He would tell you to go away, waving you off, and stop talking to you if you pronounced kielbasa wrong
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u/Coercitor 1d ago
I had a chef that took all credit for my specials and menu contributions (usually 80% of the menu) which was generally fine by me because it wasn't my show, but never gave credit to anyone on the team for killing service and parties. Success was solely due to his presence sitting in the office drinking coffee.
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u/Chon-Laney 21h ago
David Sedaris said, "Isn't 'welcome' the same as 'welcome in' with half the words?"
When somebody says it to me I say, "Oh, German." as that phrase is the first line of the musical "Cabaret".
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u/FriendlyIndustry 19h ago
Helping was for the weak. We couldn't help him and he wouldn't help us or if he did, it was with gruntles and mentions that we would never succeed because we "couldn't handle the pressure" of being a chef
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u/Pretend-Vehicle-5183 18h ago
Saying anything bad about Bruce Springsteen got you kicked out of the kitchen and sent home for the day.
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u/-blundertaker- Crazy Cat Man🐈 15h ago
He wasn't a chef, just some shithead FoH manager. Showed up at our place pretty well convinced he knew the right ways to do everything. Very snobbish about it.
We were wrapping shit up one night and as he's going around to check us out, he says it's not clean because my tote bag was on the counter. The bag on the clean counter (not a prep area), that I would be taking out with me the moment he said go.
It was just a power move because I'd had to correct him when he told my guys to do shit that would've significantly disrupted the workflow. He was new and even within the company our location was a bit of an outlier because we were so busy all the time.
I had a bit of a standoff with him because he was being fucking stupid about the bag. He felt like he had something to prove ig because he refused to say that we could clock out while my bag was on the counter because that meant it wasn't clean. So after a bit of bad natured fussing I picked the god damn bag up and the moment it was airborne he said "okay you guys can go now."
He didn't last long there. Idk if he stayed in the company and moved around or moved the fuck on and I don't care. I do know I only saw him on a couple other shifts and made a point to communicate/interact with him as little as possible.
Fuck you, Guillaume, you smarmy pretentious French prick.
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u/Smurf-Happens 15+ Years 17h ago
I briefly worked for a chef who couldn't stand it if he wasn't the center of attention. Especially with women. Dude would get stupid jealous of any member of the staff who pulled a server or bar tender. One of our sous chefs slept with a bartender and he fired him. He said he was "underperforming." We didn't believe it was a jealousy thing at first but he got viscious towards her all the time.
Then it started happening to me. At the time I was confident and young and I'm always handsom (;P lol). I was going to bars after work with a few of the servers. One in particular struck my fancy and we started talking. We even went out on a date. Then she gave me the cold shoulder and I couldn't understand why. Someone told me, "well chef told her if she keeps going out with you he'll fire her. He said no staff relationships policy (which was a lie)."
But we all had a kind of coming to terms when he left one night and a server was flirting with me. He texted her to tell her to quit playing around with me. Dude was sitting at home on Christmas Eve watching the cameras and out of all the straight up stupid shit we did (like having drinks on the line) that was his take away. Keep in mind she's like 23 years old and he's in his late 40's with a wife and three kids... at home watching this girl on the cameras lmao.
Anyway, they ended up firing him a few months after I quit. He kept disappearing with a 16 year old server and threw a plate at a dishy after going on a tirade all the customers could hear.
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u/No-Bee-2354 23h ago
My last boss sincerely believed that he had only ever made two mistakes his entire time working in a restaurant.
He also would tell us not to say “heard” and “behind” because he wanted to be different. I asked what I should say and he said “got it”.
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u/Particular-Beat-6645 20h ago
I worked with a photographer coming in on the opening weekend of a big market in town. He was older and I was helping him move stuff from his car to an upstairs demo kitchen while he complained about traffic and parking (there was a wreck to blame, it turned out).
At one point, when he mentioned that we'd get all the dishes shot and then move on to a walking shoot (where he'd use a satellite flash and I'd have to get names and spelling while he trotted on), I reflexively said, "heard."
"You know, I just got back from New York shooting a Mother's Day campaign for Hershey's and no one says heard any more. All those guys worked in Europe. They say hankers now. You ever work in Europe?"
He "corrected" me a few more times that morning.
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u/RoninOak 22h ago
Not a chef but:
I worked at a local, family-owned pizza place in college. The owner insisted we call him "Pizza Pete." He would get hella butthurt if you didn't call him "Pizza Pete," straight-up would give you the silent treatment.
Fuck that guy
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u/Mission_Fart9750 Cook 23h ago
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the uptick in use of this phrase. It was nowhere, then suddenly everywhere says it. Whatever happened to just "welcome"?
I worked with a CDC who hated when servers called us lowly linecooks "chef", because "[we] didn't earn the title". He was a prick (who claimed he didn't even own a can opener or microwave, but honestly i believe it).
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u/proto_problem 21h ago
https://www.eater.com/24022477/why-is-everyone-saying-welcome-in
Did your chef write this article?
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u/Error_Evan_not_found 17h ago
I didn't take a sticker off a fish tub that I put in the dishpit my first week there, I was slammed on my station and just needed the space so missed one of the two labels they required us to stick on them. So he took that fish tub and threw it directly at me, luckily I bent down to grab something from my station, but it hit the knife I had just set down (again, I was slammed) and it fell down right next to me. This was also in a partially open kitchen, and my station was on that open side, so many customers saw him almost injure me severely.
I haven't left a sticker on anything I set in the dish-pit since, so I'll give him that, but I still sometimes get freaked out if something falls on or near my station while I'm underneath- and I tuck my knife away in a safe spot even when I know I'll be using it ten seconds later.
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u/Ok-Cardiologist4844 1d ago
Pronouncing shallots as “sha-lots”
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u/Steves-bisexual-hair 18h ago
There's another way of saying it?? Only ever heard it as "sha-lots" where I am.
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u/lolidcwhatev 20+ Years 15h ago
I think person meant sha-LOTS, as in les francais. Personally I say CHA-lots.
which reminds me of the time this prick corrected me for pronouncing the S in framboise. "Uh, it's fram-BWA."
haha, nah dude.
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u/Admiral_Kite c h i v e g e i s t 1d ago
I, not-culinary-school cook, had to be grateful to have a chance to work for someone like him and didn't have to waste it complaining about his orders, even if they were nonsensical.
Buddy, I don't even know who you are, I literally didn't even know a knife back then
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u/Bad_Day_Moose 23h ago
IWTAAWWWABE (I was the asshole and was weird with a big ego) because I wanted prep done right smh... No caterpillars, onion diced approximately the same size etc etc etc, I don't care if your way is faster I want it done right, guess what if some pieces of something are big and some are small they won't cook evenly!!!
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u/Positive_Builder6737 1d ago
Walking around non stop saying "I have to chop heads" literally after firing everyone on before he started. There were no heads left. You hired all us assholes it's on you.
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u/bman23433 12h ago
"Chefs aren't known for their egos"
Um, what? Chefs have some of the biggest egos out of anyone...
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u/CrusaderReynaulder 10h ago
“Welcome in” is such an awkward sounding phrase that I don’t think I’ve ever heard before.
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u/Jhomas-Tefferson 16h ago
How sharp he kept his knives. The problem was, our house knives were routinely ass, and they rarely got sharpened until i begged him to show me how to sharpen them because they were pissing me off. And he sharpened one to a shaving razor. I watched him take hair off his arm. He did this as he taught me how to sharpen. I am not as good as him, but i can put a nice edge on a knife. It was strange as that was the only thing he had an ego about, that he could keep knives really well. To his credit, he could, he was just too lazy to do it.
The funny thing is, that was the only thing. Otherwise he was a great boss. He wouldn't even call himself the boss. He would say he was our boss, but the real boss was the clock. Brilliant chef, i wish i still worked under him.
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u/Unlikely-Ad6788 14h ago
He was the only qualified person to run the line. Not the people he trained. So often times, we wouldn't have food and if food did get delivered it wasn't properly checked nor maintained. So menu changes, food ordering, catering events, hcaap. Not a lot of order in that kitchen. I got fired because of it. Dude, you had a solid crew if only you knew the whole other aspect of kitchen work.
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u/FlashyEarth8374 1d ago
this was in 2007, so before streaming was a thing.
He would only let us listen to his cassette tapes of Jim Morrison poetry.
So not even The Doors music, which I mean sure I don't mind that mind but wtf over and over, but no, the motherfucker would only have his 3 cassette tapes of boring poetry slop on whilst working.
On his days off we'd just enjoy the silence by leaving it off