I might be getting a job as kitchen help in about a month and while I have no experience in the field, I am a fast learner. However, I would like to be able to show some sort of skill when they interview me.
Is there anything on the internet that shows what the job is about and basic kitchen help skills? I have been cooking for myself for 7 years withou ever doing anything ridiculous like burning a meal or slicing my hand open, but you never know what is expected from you, apart from not caring about washing a million dishes a day without complaining.
Thanks in advance.
They will tell you everything. Just do it really fast, and you're good.
At the end of your first shift, chef will probably burn you a little. Don't worry it's just kind of a kitchen tradition, a hot skewer will be used to make a small 'branding' mark, usually somewhere fairly inconspicuous. Just be sure to say "I'm ready for your poker, chef." And bend over thw sink/work surface.
>>7871814
Oh jeez
>>7871814
lel this is a lie, dont do this m8.
If you're washing dishes the golden rule is to keep the machine running, you are able to exert yourself and work hard to relax and work easy, but the machine works at one speed. Lets say it takes a minute to wash a rack of plates/glasses, make sure you have another one ready to go, and another one after that, that way you can unload the machine and reload it, then put plates away while the machine is working, start cleaning a few more plates and repeat the process.
Another good tip for speed is lets say your kitchen uses 10 different types of plates, always leave one of each plate in the dish area so the dumbfuck servers know where to stack them. If you pick up all the plates then they're just going to start throwing things everywhere without any concern for you. Always make those braindead fucks put plates in an organized stack for you, so always leave one plate at the bottom of the stack so when new ones come in they put them there.
Organization is key, its an easy as fuck job besides the physical nature, but if you aren't organized then your life will become hell.
Also never shove your hands into a dirty sink, just incase some idiot put a sharp knife in there, always reach around slowly.
>>7871779
wear good shoes. be prepared to do the dirty work. are you latino?
>>7871832
All good advice. except for this >lel this is a lie, dont do this m8.
Chef will be very displeased.
>>7871834
No, I'm european and have 2 college degrees. I have to make some money in a foreign country while the deadline for applying for an internship approaches, and the main cook in this café is american so I have time to learn the local language and still be able to survive.
>>7871779
Practice peeling and cutting vegetables. Precision > Speed. As in, it's more important that the pieces/slices/cubes are equally sized. The faster you can accomplish that the better, but precision is more important.
>>7871814
>>7871830
He's sort of not wrong about that. Can you show up clean and sober every day, ready to work? You just got the job. It's not that complicated to get a job washing dishes and doing some prep before the dishes pile up. That's how most cooks get started.
Cooks are absolute douchebags though, expect to have people yelling at you all the time. It's high-stress, and it fucking sucks. Get used to the suck. When you get yelled at and have a thick enough skin to yell back, "Fuck off, I'm doing it, 2 minutes until it's done!", then you can move up to the glorious career of line cook.
After that, you can move up to sous chef and develop a crippling drug & alcohol problem.
>>7871863
I hope to only need the job for around 6 months before I get the internship and put a foot inside the industry I want to work in.
>>7871870
>holder of two degrees
>working as a kitchen porter for six months
not gonna happen
>>7871880
Why not? A friend of mine had to be a pizza boy in London for a year with a degree and graduating among the first of his class because the job market in our country is simply awful.
I could do other jobs in the country I'm emigrating to, but I don't speak the language yet. I have worked in retail before, when I was still studying, and people came from all social backgrounds and had radically different levels of education, yet the only thing that mattered is how well you did that job.
>>7871779
>>7872061
why would a professional cook need to know how to dance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V56kAcz0czw
>>7872061
what's this list ? it's serious? i hope it's a Bait...
>>7871854
speed is paramount. accuracy comes later. if you egregiously fuck something up one of the cdp or another commis can come help you fix it. if the sous chef gets involved you're probably going to get pulled off that project and made to do something else until you learn how to unfuck your technique enough to get the project done reasonably well and on-time. this is the point where the cdc might come give you advice on how to improve. take the advice. the executive will not be involved at all unless you're getting fired or moved to another station.
>>7871863
i have the dubious honor of being 'best dishwasher' at my property. i've been approached about moving to a production position before but it just isn't feasible. my main station is a three-compartment sink scrubbing sautee pans and related hotline items for our public restaurant. three drop pans: one on garmo, one at sautee and one under the char (this one is a cunt to get at during service).
servers drop off soiled dishwares on a queen mary rack opposite the garmo expo which i then load onto a cart and wheel down to the dishtank area in the back kitchen, down a 200ft hallway. i then have to manually sort the flatware for the tank washer, load all the dishes onto the stainless shelf and run back up to my own station. the production area they want me to learn is in this back area, which is mostly shut down except for weddings or other banquet events. what this means is there are very few opportunities for me to break off my own responsibilities, go fuck-off down the hallway where i can't even hear the sous chef or the line cooks from my area.
sometimes shit doesn't make sense. they got dem benefits doe. paid vacation and doubletime holiday pay.
>>7871814
Depending on where you work you will probably get fags like this teasing you and telling you dumb shit like "go find me some elbow grease"
So if something sounds funny like that they're probably fuckin with ya, just laugh and keep working.
Stay off your phone, stay busy. If you have down time, find something to clean without having someone tell you to. Learn shit the first time you're shown/told and do it right. Show up to work ten minutes early every day.
Do this and you'll be just fine.
>>7873492
>Stay off your phone, stay busy.
can you teach this trick to the line cooks at my property? thing 1 and thing 2 were playing pokemon fucking go on the garmo line last night.
>>7873492
Listen to this guy.
>sous chef here
>best advice in this whole thread hands down
And good luck man. You don't have to slam dope to be good in this industry. But it helps :)
>>7871832
>incase some idiot put a sharp knife in there
The assholes will ALWAYS do this. I started returning their knives and burying them point down in their cutting boards. I would go for extra points by aiming for in-between their fingers.
>>7871779
So not gunna lie. I thought the same thing before getting into kitchen work. You will get hurt(hopefully not badly). Everyone cuts a finger once in a blue. and yes you definitely will get burned. Stay safe
>>7873477
Get me the soufflé pump, boy.
>>7873499
why was nobody fired to make an example??
>>7873522
agreed.. keep your machine humming, keep up on emptying the bus tubs, and ask the cooks what you can do for them if you've caught up on your dishes.
also, as somebody else pointed out, make sure somebody knows you saw them put a sharp or hot object in your sink without warning.
a dishwasher should always hear "HOT!" or "SHARP!" if something dangerous is being put into your area. if not, don't be afraid to speak up regardless of the fact that you're new.
the other cooks will give him so much shit for being told off by the new guy (who was in the right) that he won't ever do it again.
>>7873551
cook always clean their knives them self. point.
if he don't do it throw them away... it's not your job
>>7874162
this.. unless somebody is like "hey man, can you please rinse/handwash my knife?", don't even bother.
my shit is too expensive and i take care of it to the point where i don't want anybody else using it, much less cleaning it ordinarily.
>>7874148
>why was nobody fired to make an example??
sous chef was off-line, FOH staff dgaf because they're doing it at the waitstation opposite my station.
i'm not a rat and i don't name names about that kind of thing, but i do gently remind management when it's time to review the phones-at-work/alcohol/etc policy.
>>7873522
>drugs make working in the kitchen easier
What a retarded meme. I'm an ex drug addict, and work is so much easier and a lot less stressful now that I'm clean.
Pro tip: Being dope sick and/or awake for days at a time is just going to make life more stressful.
>>7871849
Make sure you have comfy shoes you'll be on your feet all day.
Get a ton of vegtables and practice basic cutting techniques
You'll be under pressure so you should probably time yourself too.
Since you have a month you should work through some basic recipes a couple of times look through a Childs cookbook and work through it.
>>7873492
This is the best advice, your phone shouldn't leave your pocket. Always be busy. That alone will make them like you.
