I break my back all day (and night); half the staff were dish washers 4 months ago and they want the place ready to go for the busy season in three weeks. 70 hr. weeks ,schedules, ordering, training, logistics of off premises catering, and everything else
SEE YA CHARLIE!!!

By Chicklw (Chicklw) on Tuesday, April 02, 2002 - 08:18 am: Edit

Never had a chef/owner ask. they just tell me to get out.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, April 03, 2002 - 09:26 pm: Edit

me too.
just got fired, for telling some food runner to shutup. well,... ok, and telling him that I'd kick
his butt if he didn't shut-up.
But this is LA., and everyone is scared of minority's. Of course nothing happened to him, and he's the one that wanted a go in the first place. Oh well.
It's been 28 years since I've been fired, so I guess thats a pretty good run.
Peace.

By Chefferd (Chefferd) on Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 10:50 am: Edit

I recently worked for an Asian concept that was having problems right out of the gate. First we opened with no liquor license and gave away booze for 3 months, I was given 10 days to write a menu, hire and train a staff and set up a kitchen. With the only direction given was "a least a 4 star rating". Also half the kitcken arrived from Thailand the day before we opened.
Anyway 30 days into the "Opening" , and before our first review, the owner came in one evening and said we needed we needed to talk. We sat down and the conversation turned to "Maybe your not happy here.." " We would understand if you wanted to leave..." " We would give you 2 weeks severance..". I don't know if I was naive or just to tired form my 18 hour, no days off in a month or I just didn't catch the drift of what she saying but I told her that I wasn't finished yet and that things would be better after our reviews and after we got our license. Then I got up and went home for the night, on the hour drive home I realized she was trying to let me go and I had just told her "No thanks I still have work to do"
I ended up working for her another year and when I left I did it on my own terms.

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Thursday, November 07, 2002 - 11:23 am: Edit

I once worked for a now very famous San Francisco chef who had excellant kitchen skills but was truly psychotic. He told me when he hired me that he never fired anybody... and he was right! People quit because he was one of the most cruel people I have ever met. (Remember that I had a full career as a probation officer before I started to cook and worked with many criminal sorts including murderers, child molesters, and the like.)

For instance: There was a young lady who was temporarily moved to the hot line due to an unexpected absence. Chef didn't believe in women in the kitchen, so kept most of us in pastry and garde manger. She burned herself badly on the forearms and neck with soup. She put on a long sleeved turtlenecked blouse under her chef's jacket and kept on working so the chef wouldn't know and exclude other women from the line. He knew, but never said a word, sent her back to her regular job tossing salad and never put another woman on the hot line as long as I worked there. What a chump!

The sous chef eventually quit by throwing his apron at the chef after a particularly ridiculous order and told the chef "You do it!" He walked out and went to work at his own place, which became very successful. You just never know!

Anyway, this chef would slam sheet pans down on the serving line to make noise and yell at people when he was in a bad mood... you all know the drill... when I finally gave notice, he just rocked back in his office chair, gave me an evil looking grin and said, "I told you I never fired anyone."

How right he was! I was never so glad to leave a place. I still use some of his recipes, but I think he deeply needed therapy.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Monday, November 11, 2002 - 10:40 pm: Edit

should have stabbed him.
you'd only have to do it once, then they get the message.

By Corey (Corey) on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 12:24 pm: Edit

or beat him around the head with the oldest bagette you have.

By Kinglear (Kinglear) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 09:41 am: Edit

How about slapping him with a nice, juicy sexual harrassment/discrimination suit? That might wake him, and his employers, up to how costly his behavior is. High turnover in this business is expensive. Plan on 3 months of any new employee's salary going into training. If another employee assures, by his/her behavior, that new hires will leave shortly after the training ends, the company is out that money and has to start all over again.
Honestly, I'm amazed at how prevalent kitchen environments like the one described above are in this business. I wonder what makes chefs of his ilk immune from the kinds of lawsuits and disciplinary actions that have cleaned up the work environs in so many other businesses.
Stand up for yourself! If 5 years have not passed (standard statute of limitations) you can still file against this guy. It sounds as though you would have no shortage of corroborating witnesses.

By Grwall (Grwall) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 10:16 am: Edit

This brings up a whole other issue/thought.

I would have assumed the day of chef as "god" and the notion of abuse as the order of the day have long passed. Is this just my opinion? Are the hot tempered, abusive chefs still common or are we just looking at the occasional a**hole?

Kinglear is dead on IMO. Well run kitchens can't happen with the kind of crap that Ladycakes describes. Sounds more like a tribute to the man's ego than the efficient running of a business to me.

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 11:10 am: Edit

This man is gay and in that kitchen he was openly prejudiced against anyone not gay, overweight, female, not white, or not American by birth (read this Italian or Mexican). He was verbally abusive in the extreme.

The funny thing was his food was extraordinary, probably the best I have ever seen anywhere. He has gone on to be one of the best known chefs in the country. He opened a high toned place in San Francisco, one of those upscale markets on the peninsula, the Napa wine train, and now has a restaurant bearing his name that is doing very well.

People wanted to work for him because of his food abilities and the interpersonal problems were excused away by saying, "When you meet him socially he's okay." I repeat, I think he's a psychopath. Thanks for your comments on this. I too have seen the business come a long way and continue to be amazed that his behavior was tolerated. I worked for him about 15 years ago and can only hope that his attitude has improved over time.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 11:50 am: Edit

I never knew Chef's were " God's "
I know that Pastry chefs are Demi-God's,
but everyone knows that...........

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 12:36 pm: Edit

I was the Chef at this restaurant owned by a "TV personality chef" he has a show called Moonshine Cuisine or something opposite of that, this guy is about as much a Chef as I a brain surgeon!
A friend of this individual told me the scoop how they both stowed away on a ship from France when they were both waiters there in France.
After arriving in the US, this guy became a Cordon Bleu graduate and bought a piece of a restaurant then bought his partner out. The restaurant is now closed and the chef is trying to survive running a cooking school in Ft. Laud.
So much for french chefs!!!
Anyway he opened the restaurant where I was Chef and he had a partner, the partner screwed him royaly, I left a couple of weeks later because the new owner was a reltor dude and had no clue as to what a restaurant was and the place closed 2 months later.

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Spike I think you mean demagoge

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 01:17 pm: Edit

do you mean Demagogue?
that means " a political agitator appealing to the basest instincts of a mob ". (Oxford dictionary,1998.)

Dem-i-god
a. a partly devine being
b. the offspring of a god or goddess and a mortal
(Oxford, dictionary,1998.)

so unless your saying that yous guys are the mob,
and i'm like some union boss, (God help me!!)
I'll stick with the Dem-i-god thing, the benifits might be better, and then there's that virgin thing too!

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 01:54 pm: Edit

I like:
dem·a·gogue also dem·a·gog Pronunciation Key (dm-gôg, -gg)
n.
One who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.

I think that works.

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Bullshitters is the term you are all looking for!!!!!

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:35 pm: Edit

Thanks Manny, that's it.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:43 pm: Edit

the ugly head of jealousy rears up!.........
yous guys are just jealous that your not Pastry Chef's. You can dem-a-goo-gle it to death
remember...we make things with, what,(?) 100 or less items?
we always make a profit
we never, NEVER have enough help.
we can do it with either hand.
we have less inventory than anyone else.
we work the worst hours and never, never complain.
we can do it with both hands!
and women always want to meet the Pastry Chef....
all this is a burden, but we continue, for we must, we are Pastry Chef's !!!
we are the level heads in the kitchen!
thank you, thank you.

By Kinglear (Kinglear) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Aren't these types in the same league as the Visigoths?
Like Shrub-lite in Florida.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 02:52 pm: Edit

No,no,no..........
that was france and spain.
in the 5th century.

whats shrub-lite in flor-e-da mean?
is that a Bush crack?

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 06:32 pm: Edit

Uh Huh.

I kinda like the Demi God thing. [As in Demiglace Gods LOL]

Spike, you can be the glace God. (Where is the accent mark when you need it?)

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Wednesday, November 13, 2002 - 08:37 pm: Edit

Alt+0233 will make the é and Alt+0232 will make the è
Here is a URL for a character map that has many of the characters not on your key board.

http://www.xplor.org/xplor2001/charactermap.cfm

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 10:56 am: Edit

Hey! Cheftim, thanks!

Chèrie

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 03:19 pm: Edit

God du Glace' or God et Glace'
i like them both! lol.

By Ladycake (Ladycake) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 11:23 am: Edit

Hmmmm. Spike, God du Glacé. You should put that in your resumé.

Am I loving this or what?

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 08:26 pm: Edit

well I'm glad your having fun.
Peaches 1407 wasen't.
she took her stuff and went home.
some guy named Mike did it.
Damn him!

By Claudina81 (Claudina81) on Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - 03:05 pm: Edit

I was accused of staging for another resturant, when I was at
home with conjuctivitis and a cold. A week after that he told me things weren't working out because of my lack of heart in the kitchen. And to think how I busted my butt for 3 months working double shift on sunday and working 6 days a week and taking all that harassment from his staff. And did I mention he had poor english and a thick accent. Those three months were pure hell. But I loved what I was doing. I just didn't care for the low class staff.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 02:42 am: Edit

Hey !, a local girl, opps... i mean women.
don't let it get to you, theres plenty of chefs here in Cal. that would love to have you.
I know of two women chefs at very nice places, i'll post that info as soon as i get back.

By Foodpump (Foodpump) on Tuesday, November 02, 2004 - 10:00 am: Edit

Seven years ago, before I opened my own business, the owner told me he wanted me to leave. The exec chef was in hospital for over 2 months due to a skiing accident and I was working double shifts, running the show. I shocked the owner by telling him I wanted to quit, had several job prospects, but wouldn't leave untill the Exec was back to work or he found a replacement. The owner didn't like that!
In retrospect I think I should have written the owner a registered letter basically saying that he wanted to fire me for no due reason, that I worked 3 months solid double shifts with no public holidays with a total of 9 days off. As well, should he not reply via registered mail within 3 working days I could understand that my complaints were valid and could take appropriate action. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.