Restaurants, Kitchens and Bars... Oh my!Many years ago, I went out with a chef. Kitchens are merely vice dens with food. You couldn't move for people bonking and snorting coke in the store room. And the things they did with the food...
My personal vice was chocolate mousse - I remember it being very calming in all the chaos around me. I think they put things in it.
Tell us your stories of working in kitchens, bars and the rest of the nightmare that is the catering trade.
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chthonic, Fri 21 Jul 2006, 9:58)
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Oh dear god...Lots to get through, but I'll try bring it down to just three.
I worked as a "general kitchen assistant" (read: dishwasher) for about 5 years. The horror of the real truth behind the scenes is... horrible.
First and formost, glasses. Those were a pain in the ass. Or the hand, as we used to break them often, many a time stabbing ourselves in the hand in the process. One such night I wasn't paying attention as I put the glass up on to the shelf. It hit the underside, and shatterd, with a huge peice stabbing into the middle of my thumb. I was the only person doing dishwashing on this busy friday, and thus I was told to put a plaster on it (read: blue medical tape), and wear a glove if it starts to leak. I nearly finished the night, but when my thumb started to turn blue, I insisted that I be allowed to leave for the hosptial, of which I was allowed to at 11pm.
Secondly, the walk in freezer. Normally those are safe, as there's a handle on the outside as well as the inside. Not so today, when me and another worker went inside the freezer to try find some fish. It was about 5 mins before work should of started, so we were the only ones in the building. We go in, the door closes, we find the fish, press the button to open the door.... and nothing. We try again... nothing. The freezing unit was positioned on the left as you open the door, and it was leaking water, which because the freezer is minus 18c, froze rather rapidly, making it impossible for the freezer handle to open from the inside. Cue us finding a knife and attempting to chip away at the ice for a good 10 mins before the door opens. It's our boss, who had been standing outside the door wondering what the hell was the noise comming from inside the freezer.
The final one was the dish washer itself. The industrial ones have a set type of powder to put in them, as if you put anything else into them, they foam up. Like hell. Cue to the new employee who, while I'm finding some drying up cloths, adds the floor cleaning powder to the machine. 5 mins later, the whole kitchen was covered in foam up to our waists. We had to close the place for the day and spend the time (a good 5 hours) getting rid of the foam. Suffice to say the new employee was fired, not before earning the nickname of foamy.
NeoThermic
(, Tue 25 Jul 2006, 13:58, Reply)
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