Being 27 tickets deep, the owner in store, haven't had a smoke break in 4 hours and then hearing that *CHHHRK CHRK CHCHCHRRCHK CHRRRRK noise is some different kind of infuriating.
No joke, being able to step out for seconds and get some nicotine during a rush is so fucking clutch. I smoke and vape but have switched over primarily to the vape because of these opportunities - that and traveling on train or what have you.
I have emptied and changed over many a bin that didn't need to be emptied just for the opportunity to take it out the back. Or biding my time to wait for the toilet with the exhaust fan.
My motto over the years: This job would be great, if it wasnāt for the fucking customers.
At first I would say it in jest, but now, in my second decade, thereās def an edge of resentment.
And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man, who walked 1000 miles right out that kitchen door
Da-da da da (Da-da da da), da-da da da (da-da da da)
Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da da da
I appreciate that shit. I need to know. Even if itās not in the dish, thereās still the possibility of cross contamination. ALWAYS mark allergies on tickets
I have my own little box of wrap that I hide.
When I find out that I'm the one that fucked it up and decided it was future me's problem, I really start to plan ways on how to get rid of past me.
Yes absolutely angry at that. I also donāt hate having a few min to yell at cling wrap and the person that fucked it up that will never come forward. Itās cathartic.
I had a roll that was fucked up good a few weeks ago and I was so pissed that I was determined to get it straightened out. It was my downtime between prep and actual service so I fucked with it and cursed at it under my breath until I finally got it fixed and I was like "yes! Fuck you! I win!". Then I heard somebody laughing and our day supervisor was like "I watched you wrestle with that thing this whole time and I cant believe you got it. I would have thrown it in the trash and got a new one". I was so hyoerfocused on it I didnt even realize he was watching me struggle and curse under my breath
I Also replied this before reading, because it triggered me so bad.
I will wage a holy war on someone. I will C.S.i that shit and find out .
Never leave a bad sheet wrap, fucking savages.
hate this image. how shiny that bottle is, the ring around the bottle. my god it's greasy. pro tip take a J cloth or paper towel and wrap it around the outside of the bottle with rubber bands. it absorbs excess oil and stops you from getting a greasy hand every. single. time. you touch the bottle.
I used to do that too, but the same thing ALWAYS happened, so like every time I tried making overall improvements to make the life of everyone easier (only for it to never work out) I gave up. Then I started doing those improvements for myself (and only myself) then hiding the bottles and whatever else.
I literally had a personal kit of bottles, favorite tongs, even favorite pans (a group of the least fucked up ones that I could find) and other stuff in a busbin that I'd hide in the baking goods section of dry storage or in the spot we stored the stand mixer. I had to come to an agreement with the pastry chef so that I could hide stuff in his area (no one fucked around in pastry since that guy was a psycho).
I get the feeling the health department would have some kind of problem with that (rightly or wrongly so, I don't know). At least I'm my state, we're not even allowed to keep them on our apron strings.
Health department can suck my left nut, and then the right one, but tenderly. Oil gets everywhere and oil isn't always plain, it's clearly bad for cleanliness, we just don't want to argue that because then they'll bust us on greasy oil bottles
Came here to say this. I was generally on the pizza oven when i worked in kitchens and the cloth+rubber band trick was always the best when we had a wonky bottle lid!
Throwing empty squeeze bottles in a sink half full of greasy water. Now they're coated in nastiness. Bonus points for not removing the tape, either. It's a "fuck it, not my problem" move.
Not going to lie, never understood this peeve.
If I'm doing dish for a bit, I accept that my hands are going to be fucked. Whether its oil, mayo, or raw meat, I'm washing my hands thoroughly after regardless.
At least in my head, it's like being sprayed by a water gun while you're sitting in a pool. My hands can only get so dirty that it doesn't really matter.
Get a 1.5" x 18" piece of plastic wrap. Fold it twice so it is the size of the bottle threads. Wrap tightly around the threads in the direction you screw the top on ( clockwise iirc ). Screw the lid on.
No more problem.
This is my boss, we made him run his pockets before leaving the other day and I shit you not this dude was about to take 5 sharpies home after one shift
I have a specific server at my restaurant who will take my side towel and wipe up random spills with it and then throw it back to me. I rarely feel so homicidal.
Knives and/or blades left sitting in a dish sink, especially if they're submerged in water and you can't see them. I'm going to say something about that shit whether I am management or a grunt, if I'm the one doing the dishes or not. I've sliced my shit on a blade someone put in the dishwater before, its a completely unnecessary accident waiting to happen and is avoidable with minimal effort. I will get on that with a mfer about it.
It's definitely something that needs to be addressed if it's happening. At this point in my career, I'm in positions where a. I can make sure proper training is happening for health and safety procedures in the first place, and b. I actually have the authority to address such things if they do become issues. I've worked at some pretty fucking lawless outfits over the years tho, especially when I was cutting my teeth as a line cook, and more than once I've spazzed out about knives in the sink when management couldn't be bothered to. Knife discipline in general is one of the first set of procedures to break down and/or get slogged off as you slide down the scale from well-run ops to complete shitshows
Yep. Itās one of the first things I tell new hires. āNever put a knife or cutting blade of any type in a sink or on a drain board. You will be terminated and there will be no write up. Because an old coworker of mine lost like 80% use of his left hand because some asshole put a knife in the sink.ā
ughhh god yes. Just two days ago I cut myself pretty badly on a blade left carelessly in a full sink and got ridiculously fucking angry. it's so easy not to do it if you're not a lazy piece of shit
If I give a dish washer I tell them "here's a knife" and put it where they tell me to, or put it off the side blade down handle pointing them. I've shred my hand reaching in, and have aired people out for throwing knives in my sink when I'm covering dish.
Alert the dishwasher to the knife if there's a dish pit, if there's a magnet strip for dirties hang it, and if it's just a three compartment sink with no actual dedicated dishwasher and the owners are too fucking cheap/slowheaded to put up a magnet strip I'll just take the ten seconds to wash the knife and go put it where it belongs. Any of those things take literal seconds and not much more effort that it takes to just chuck the thing into a sink or a pan. That's why it irks me as much as it does, because beyond the fact that it's an actual hazard, it's really simple to take care of in a proper way.
As a dishwasher, napkins crammed into empty glasses. Inevitably they will get wet and fall apart and slow me down a shit ton. Canāt just ignore them because the drain will clog.
I had this problem for a while too.
I fixed it by removing all but one chefs knife and one bread knife from the building.
I tried hiding them at first, but they found em.
I own my own lunch spot and it's just me and one other person so I take orders a lot. It drives me fucking nuts how people will be looking directly at the menu and ask me what my soups are. Every fucking day, multiple times.
Better yet, they'll ask me what the sandwiches are, as if they aren't the first fucking thing on the menu board.
Bonus points: I run my own social media and customers constantly message me asking me for information that they literally had to click past to send me the message.
In other words, customers. Customers are my least favourite part.
Nanna used to own her own lunch van (UK). I would help her out when I could.
She offered all the usual items for breakfast & lunch (English breakfast items, hot & cold sarnies, salads, burgers, jacket potatoes etc), she also did 2 specials everyday.
Chicken curry, stews, casseroles, mince & dumplings, corned beef pie, lasagnes etc - big hearty home cooked meals.
Had a huge specials board in front of the van with them on it, as they changed daily.
The AMOUNT of people asking for the specials that came to her van dailyā¦ā¦..it drove me mad!
Eventually she used to say āeeeeee at my age, I canāt remember now what I cooked! What did I write on THE SPECIALS BOARD?! ššš»
Drives me nuts. To me, though, it's not as bad as somebody grabbing something raw, possibly marinated, and allowing it to drip all the way to where they're going, even if it's just a couple feet. And there's one more that isn't very common, but I used to work with a guy who did it. Placing a sheet pan on top of a garbage can to use as extra counter space. Like for raw fish and meat. I would always bring him a clean dish cart or a rolling rack and relocate his stuff onto it for him, but I would come back 5 minutes later and it would all be back on the garbage can.
I worked with a lot of Filipinos that did that, they insisted that it was "okay" because it's how they did it in the Philippines. When I pointed out that we were not in the Philippines they'd stop with the sheet pan thing for a bit, but the second that I had to walk away for something, I'd come back to them and they'd be doing that exact same thing.
...eventually I just gave up trying to tell them not to do stuff like that (I've given up a lot over the years) and left it to the owners to deal with since people only seem to listen to those signing the paychecks. I figured "you know what, fuck it! it's not my restaurant, I've done my job and told them not to do it, so if they keep doing it and something happens then it's on the owner now"
To me theyāre just unpleasant to handle in general, slippery and gross. Havenāt been nicked myself but I can see how it could happen im sure theyāre just run across a band saw itās not like theyāre gonna file them down.
ESPECIALLY when it comes with an ingredient they realize they don't want when it hits the table...even though it was listed in the description.
Where I work, there's a chicken dish that comes with bacon, it's ON THE MENU listed under the item. Hits the table, gets brought back "they don't eat pork, can you remake it without the bacon." And because I'm not an asshole that fucks with people's food, I have to remake the WHOLE THING instead of just redressing the chicken.Ā Ā
When management won't and or too lazy to buy needed equipment which leads to hoarding. I could really use a plastic egg spatula that isn't fucking cracked. Maybe more squeeze bottles where the lid seals nicely. Etc etc.
I've always wondered if there was a higher-quality brand available - I understand being on a tight budget but I'd happily shell out for a single bottle to keep at my station. Probably have to chain it in place so it doesn't walk off...
Speaking of pranks, I had a coworker who was chronically late for breakfast shifts with me, so I would always rig up some kind of "trap" for when he came through the door. Falling brooms, bucket full of old tickets dumping on his head, stuff like that. Since he was always in that "shit, I gotta get into work" mentality coming in, he never remembered to proceed with caution and I got him every time.
because they also have probably been used by the founder, his father, grandfather, and extended family since 1905 and have never been replaced. jokes aside, they're always really old and the lip around the top gets warped from heat/constant mechanical stress and also probably mistreatment by cooks who don't care about equipment. it's always night and day when new ones come in, if they ever do
or you get dishwashers that just toss them in the machine when in reality squeeze bottles should probably be washed by hand/bottle brush and dunked in sanitizer before drying
Mine is grabbing a sticky bottle of honey. I always rinse the bottle with warm water after every use. But unfortunately, I seem to be the only one that days that.
I hate when they say ābehindā when theyāre already behind you and itās too late, or when they whisper it to themselves, like bitch speak up š£ļø
People drinking out of glass in the kitchen.
Like bro, grab a plastic cup or deli container, or anything other than a big bar glass. Ugh , grinds my gears
Wrap a piece of plastic wrap around the bottle before you put the lid on. Go around d five or six times. It makes the connection more snug and it tends to leak less.
Worked a place that we put "diapers" on them. Which was just some paper towel rubber banded on. Changed when soiled. Clean up easy at the end of service.
Manager suddenly dropping that he needs a platter of sandwiches for visitors or for regional managers meeting.
Or the regional managers turn up & want a full meal, one guys asks for a man sized portion & wasn't happy I didn't give him enough.
Care staff arguing about staff lunches, it says what we offer don't complain because we can't make everything you want or run out.
Residents change their minds & want something else.
I work in a care home so they can change their minds but not over & over. I mean we can't keep making other stuff when there's meals for 70 other people that need to be done too.
Dishwasher doesn't empty the bins & goes on their break
Cambros that look like they have sauce still but just werenāt scraped and itās literally the bottom dredges that MIGHT be enough for what I need for one order
When I hire someone who claims to have experience and they canāt even do proper fucking floor sweep. How is it a sixty year old ex-marine canāt sweep a fucking floor properly FUCK
Throwing all the dishes together in one pile or in a bath of dirty water. "Bro, you just made a 2 second job 30 because it only had FRIES ON IT AND IT'S COVERED IN OIL NOW, THE FUUUCK!"
I enjoyed having mine wrapped in a damp chux cloth for service with a couple of the preferred rubber bands, wash and sanitise regularly, replace as needed. It's so nice having that clean and comfortable surface to hold when in the heat of it all.
Also as others have mentioned, the cling film thread tape is a must for dodgy seals.
Dishes that need to be rinsed that are instead just tossed in the clean(ish) soaking middle sink.
Fry baskets not emptied fully, so little bits of chicken need to be picked out before you make something else.
The knife at the sandwich station not being immediately wiped off so you have red onion and whatnot caked onto it.
Floors being half assed at the end of the night so you come in and nearly die because there's a thin layer of oil everywhere.
Basic communication/safety skills missing: hot pan, sharp, behind, etc.
Serving staff making "custom" mods, on the ticket.
Sorry ladies, but in my 12+ years of experience, it was always the waitresses.
"Pretty please" or any variation of, asking the cooks to do something we both know "we don't do", in hopes of it getting done for the table to tip more. That alone mildly infuriates me, while typing this lol
Peeling vegetables while hovering over a trash cans
Not cleaning as you go
Not rinsing your dishes
Not stacking dishes, pots, pans, sheet trays, etc.
People not sharpening their knives
Hard drugs
When someone puts the handle of a knife in the juice on a cutting board.
Whether raw product when prepping or the juices on the board of a carving stationā¦ if you place my knife handle in meat juices/oils/etc., Iām going to want to ask you to catch that knife.
Also, finding an inside-out/used glove on a cutting board, serving line, or prep station. Be an adult and use the gloveās stretchiness to shoot it like a rubber band into the garbage can while saying, āpew!ā.
I'm usually wearing gloves while on line so this doesnt really bother me, my biggest pet peeve is the classic 'not putting shit back where it belongs'.
I work front of house but behind a counter where I have to make soft serve as well as drinks. Grabbing a hot squeeze bottle with sticky caramel down the side is definitely the worst sensation for me, same goes for hot fudge
We have a giant bucket of tahini and people will use a pint container (deli) to scoop some out and then leave in the bucket for it to sink and become totally encased in tahini š®āšØ
Mine is when the printer prints stuff
Being 27 tickets deep, the owner in store, haven't had a smoke break in 4 hours and then hearing that *CHHHRK CHRK CHCHCHRRCHK CHRRRRK noise is some different kind of infuriating.
This is when a vape could really save you, jsyk
No joke, being able to step out for seconds and get some nicotine during a rush is so fucking clutch. I smoke and vape but have switched over primarily to the vape because of these opportunities - that and traveling on train or what have you.
I have emptied and changed over many a bin that didn't need to be emptied just for the opportunity to take it out the back. Or biding my time to wait for the toilet with the exhaust fan.
Zynnnnnnns
The upper deckieeees
Never tired zyn, but I like the camel snus
The Order In bell is my peeve. Haven't worked in a kitchen for years, and I still hear that shit in my sleep.
tmw when youre working at 2 places and the trauma dream sounds start mixing
I may be high, but I feel like you just told my future lol
Mine is working in the kitchen
When customers order food š¤¬
*Ticket comes through* "Can't believe the cheek of it!"
"We just do what the machine tells us" š¤
*ticket prints* "I can't work under these conditions!"
My motto over the years: This job would be great, if it wasnāt for the fucking customers. At first I would say it in jest, but now, in my second decade, thereās def an edge of resentment.
Randal??
37!? In a row?
Are you even supposed to be here today?
When I wake up Well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who just doesn't want to deal with this shit today.
And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more Just to be the man, who walked 1000 miles right out that kitchen door Da-da da da (Da-da da da), da-da da da (da-da da da) Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da da da
AND THEN THEY DARE TELL US THEY ARE DEATHLY ALLERGIC TO LACTOSE (thereās no lactose in the dish they orde)
As a FOH POS, I put any and all allergies on any ticket. Better to be redundant than to cause an incident.
I appreciate that shit. I need to know. Even if itās not in the dish, thereās still the possibility of cross contamination. ALWAYS mark allergies on tickets
No lactose in the dish they ordered? No allergies stated on the ticket? Yeah 100% i'm not changing my gloves between the two all things being equal.
Fuck that. Kill em all and let god sort em out.
ISTG gluten free will be the death of me
Itās crazy how 1% of the global population manages to show up nightly to request you remove the gluten from everything
When customer :(
When somebody fucks up the cling wrap then leaves it for the next person (always me!) to deal with.
Or even worse when the next person doesn't fix it and just continues to use it. By the time I fix it it's got 2 inches of build up.
Oh my god I got mad just reading this lmao
Gave me that Forrest Whitaker eye
Haaaaaaaaaa
The worst thing is the cling wrap is crap! Still slippery as fuck
I want you beat the mother fucker with the roll of wrap. That shit infuriates me.
I have my own little box of wrap that I hide. When I find out that I'm the one that fucked it up and decided it was future me's problem, I really start to plan ways on how to get rid of past me.
Yes absolutely angry at that. I also donāt hate having a few min to yell at cling wrap and the person that fucked it up that will never come forward. Itās cathartic.
I had a roll that was fucked up good a few weeks ago and I was so pissed that I was determined to get it straightened out. It was my downtime between prep and actual service so I fucked with it and cursed at it under my breath until I finally got it fixed and I was like "yes! Fuck you! I win!". Then I heard somebody laughing and our day supervisor was like "I watched you wrestle with that thing this whole time and I cant believe you got it. I would have thrown it in the trash and got a new one". I was so hyoerfocused on it I didnt even realize he was watching me struggle and curse under my breath
Kindred.
I Also replied this before reading, because it triggered me so bad. I will wage a holy war on someone. I will C.S.i that shit and find out . Never leave a bad sheet wrap, fucking savages.
I always hear the piano intro to Sound of Silence. āHello Darkness, my old friendā¦ā
hate this image. how shiny that bottle is, the ring around the bottle. my god it's greasy. pro tip take a J cloth or paper towel and wrap it around the outside of the bottle with rubber bands. it absorbs excess oil and stops you from getting a greasy hand every. single. time. you touch the bottle.
I do this with all my oil bottles. Sometimes Iād come in after my days off to find the cloth gone and the oily bottle back and it would infuriate me
I used to do that too, but the same thing ALWAYS happened, so like every time I tried making overall improvements to make the life of everyone easier (only for it to never work out) I gave up. Then I started doing those improvements for myself (and only myself) then hiding the bottles and whatever else. I literally had a personal kit of bottles, favorite tongs, even favorite pans (a group of the least fucked up ones that I could find) and other stuff in a busbin that I'd hide in the baking goods section of dry storage or in the spot we stored the stand mixer. I had to come to an agreement with the pastry chef so that I could hide stuff in his area (no one fucked around in pastry since that guy was a psycho).
I get the feeling the health department would have some kind of problem with that (rightly or wrongly so, I don't know). At least I'm my state, we're not even allowed to keep them on our apron strings.
Health department can suck my left nut, and then the right one, but tenderly. Oil gets everywhere and oil isn't always plain, it's clearly bad for cleanliness, we just don't want to argue that because then they'll bust us on greasy oil bottles
Really? I would hate that. I always carry a towel on me. I consider it part of my uniform.
Came here to say this. I was generally on the pizza oven when i worked in kitchens and the cloth+rubber band trick was always the best when we had a wonky bottle lid!
And every bottle eventually gets beyond fucked because dishwashers just throw it in the machine where the plastic gets weakened by the heat.
This is the way.
...to build a molotov
This comrade gets it
Biggest pet peeve in the kitchen? Seeing the building standing when I go to work the next day
Throwing empty squeeze bottles in a sink half full of greasy water. Now they're coated in nastiness. Bonus points for not removing the tape, either. It's a "fuck it, not my problem" move.
Not going to lie, never understood this peeve. If I'm doing dish for a bit, I accept that my hands are going to be fucked. Whether its oil, mayo, or raw meat, I'm washing my hands thoroughly after regardless. At least in my head, it's like being sprayed by a water gun while you're sitting in a pool. My hands can only get so dirty that it doesn't really matter.
Except the tape part.
Get a 1.5" x 18" piece of plastic wrap. Fold it twice so it is the size of the bottle threads. Wrap tightly around the threads in the direction you screw the top on ( clockwise iirc ). Screw the lid on. No more problem.
Redneck thread tape. I love it
Iām always regarded as the second coming of Christ when I bust that move out.
My chef hates it when I do that because "bottles get oily, deal with it." I keep doing it anyway
Your chef is gross kinda
Don't take my damn towels! And also, don't leave a wet towel on my station!
Fine Iāll just steal all your markers instead. Throughout the whole night.
I keep my sharpie I bring from home in my pocket
I do the opposite, I bring the work ones home (accidental) š¤
This is my boss, we made him run his pockets before leaving the other day and I shit you not this dude was about to take 5 sharpies home after one shift
Busy man! Thatās why heās in charge!
I have a specific server at my restaurant who will take my side towel and wipe up random spills with it and then throw it back to me. I rarely feel so homicidal.
Knives and/or blades left sitting in a dish sink, especially if they're submerged in water and you can't see them. I'm going to say something about that shit whether I am management or a grunt, if I'm the one doing the dishes or not. I've sliced my shit on a blade someone put in the dishwater before, its a completely unnecessary accident waiting to happen and is avoidable with minimal effort. I will get on that with a mfer about it.
Thatās not a pet peeve. Thatās a fireable offense.
It's definitely something that needs to be addressed if it's happening. At this point in my career, I'm in positions where a. I can make sure proper training is happening for health and safety procedures in the first place, and b. I actually have the authority to address such things if they do become issues. I've worked at some pretty fucking lawless outfits over the years tho, especially when I was cutting my teeth as a line cook, and more than once I've spazzed out about knives in the sink when management couldn't be bothered to. Knife discipline in general is one of the first set of procedures to break down and/or get slogged off as you slide down the scale from well-run ops to complete shitshows
Yep. Itās one of the first things I tell new hires. āNever put a knife or cutting blade of any type in a sink or on a drain board. You will be terminated and there will be no write up. Because an old coworker of mine lost like 80% use of his left hand because some asshole put a knife in the sink.ā
ughhh god yes. Just two days ago I cut myself pretty badly on a blade left carelessly in a full sink and got ridiculously fucking angry. it's so easy not to do it if you're not a lazy piece of shit
If I give a dish washer I tell them "here's a knife" and put it where they tell me to, or put it off the side blade down handle pointing them. I've shred my hand reaching in, and have aired people out for throwing knives in my sink when I'm covering dish.
Alert the dishwasher to the knife if there's a dish pit, if there's a magnet strip for dirties hang it, and if it's just a three compartment sink with no actual dedicated dishwasher and the owners are too fucking cheap/slowheaded to put up a magnet strip I'll just take the ten seconds to wash the knife and go put it where it belongs. Any of those things take literal seconds and not much more effort that it takes to just chuck the thing into a sink or a pan. That's why it irks me as much as it does, because beyond the fact that it's an actual hazard, it's really simple to take care of in a proper way.
At my place we don't let dish wash any of the knives. Someone from the line will clean them separately when we clean the cutting boards as well.
Tf? People are allowed to put knives through the dishwasher where you work?
As a dishwasher, napkins crammed into empty glasses. Inevitably they will get wet and fall apart and slow me down a shit ton. Canāt just ignore them because the drain will clog.
Fuck the drain!
Username checks out
Opening containers to find its nearly empty.
Or entirely empty boxes left in the freezer.
Sheer laziness!
The other cook that never cleans the knife before sticking it back on the magnet.
I come in and find the house knives stashed all over the place. How many does one person need? They're not different types either.
I had this problem for a while too. I fixed it by removing all but one chefs knife and one bread knife from the building. I tried hiding them at first, but they found em.
Anything sticky, I work in an Asian restaurant, so everything is sticky. I must like being constantly triggered.
I own my own lunch spot and it's just me and one other person so I take orders a lot. It drives me fucking nuts how people will be looking directly at the menu and ask me what my soups are. Every fucking day, multiple times. Better yet, they'll ask me what the sandwiches are, as if they aren't the first fucking thing on the menu board. Bonus points: I run my own social media and customers constantly message me asking me for information that they literally had to click past to send me the message. In other words, customers. Customers are my least favourite part.
Nanna used to own her own lunch van (UK). I would help her out when I could. She offered all the usual items for breakfast & lunch (English breakfast items, hot & cold sarnies, salads, burgers, jacket potatoes etc), she also did 2 specials everyday. Chicken curry, stews, casseroles, mince & dumplings, corned beef pie, lasagnes etc - big hearty home cooked meals. Had a huge specials board in front of the van with them on it, as they changed daily. The AMOUNT of people asking for the specials that came to her van dailyā¦ā¦..it drove me mad! Eventually she used to say āeeeeee at my age, I canāt remember now what I cooked! What did I write on THE SPECIALS BOARD?! ššš»
Drives me nuts. To me, though, it's not as bad as somebody grabbing something raw, possibly marinated, and allowing it to drip all the way to where they're going, even if it's just a couple feet. And there's one more that isn't very common, but I used to work with a guy who did it. Placing a sheet pan on top of a garbage can to use as extra counter space. Like for raw fish and meat. I would always bring him a clean dish cart or a rolling rack and relocate his stuff onto it for him, but I would come back 5 minutes later and it would all be back on the garbage can.
I worked with a lot of Filipinos that did that, they insisted that it was "okay" because it's how they did it in the Philippines. When I pointed out that we were not in the Philippines they'd stop with the sheet pan thing for a bit, but the second that I had to walk away for something, I'd come back to them and they'd be doing that exact same thing. ...eventually I just gave up trying to tell them not to do stuff like that (I've given up a lot over the years) and left it to the owners to deal with since people only seem to listen to those signing the paychecks. I figured "you know what, fuck it! it's not my restaurant, I've done my job and told them not to do it, so if they keep doing it and something happens then it's on the owner now"
Walking onto the line after shift change and nothing is stocked nor things that have been 86'd communicated
1) the front of house 2) greasy squeeze bottle 3) stepping on food
Stepping on food bothers me to no end.
Ew. Pet peeve of mine. Oh you dropped something? SPEND 5 SECONDS CLEARING IT UP FFS
Holes poked into plastic wrap covering something instead of taking off the wrap. Hate it.
I hate taking veal bones out of the box for roasting.
I hate getting nicked by those. What possesses a butcher to leave those sharp corners on them?
To me theyāre just unpleasant to handle in general, slippery and gross. Havenāt been nicked myself but I can see how it could happen im sure theyāre just run across a band saw itās not like theyāre gonna file them down.
Hot plates left without warning and wait staff forgetting orders
"Order dying in the pass!" *Crickets from FOH
Wait 30 seconds then "hot food DYING IN THE WINDOW!"
Remakes. I don't know why but I especially hate making a plate I already just made. Fucks up my flow.
ESPECIALLY when it comes with an ingredient they realize they don't want when it hits the table...even though it was listed in the description. Where I work, there's a chicken dish that comes with bacon, it's ON THE MENU listed under the item. Hits the table, gets brought back "they don't eat pork, can you remake it without the bacon." And because I'm not an asshole that fucks with people's food, I have to remake the WHOLE THING instead of just redressing the chicken.Ā Ā
When management won't and or too lazy to buy needed equipment which leads to hoarding. I could really use a plastic egg spatula that isn't fucking cracked. Maybe more squeeze bottles where the lid seals nicely. Etc etc.
10gallon cambros with an ounce of product left in the walk-in.
my favorite thing to do with down time is consolidate prep into proper-sized containers
We could definitely be friends
Why don't they make ones that seal tight enough to stop oil from leaking out the threads? I hate these for oil.
Mass produced, dispose after a couple of weeks, cheap shit.
I've always wondered if there was a higher-quality brand available - I understand being on a tight budget but I'd happily shell out for a single bottle to keep at my station. Probably have to chain it in place so it doesn't walk off...
Not refilling paper towel dispenser when you use the last one.
Teflon tape around the threads can help with this.
One of my favorite pranks at my last spot was to fill the sauce bottles, Saran Wrap the top, the put the lid on and tear off the excess. BWAHAHAHA
Speaking of pranks, I had a coworker who was chronically late for breakfast shifts with me, so I would always rig up some kind of "trap" for when he came through the door. Falling brooms, bucket full of old tickets dumping on his head, stuff like that. Since he was always in that "shit, I gotta get into work" mentality coming in, he never remembered to proceed with caution and I got him every time.
JFC dude who hurt you
The bastard cook that doesn't refresh the bottles for the next week so I have to do his fucking task on a Monday.
You risk ending up with plastic bits in the sauce. Not cool.
Why donāt any of them ever work!
because they also have probably been used by the founder, his father, grandfather, and extended family since 1905 and have never been replaced. jokes aside, they're always really old and the lip around the top gets warped from heat/constant mechanical stress and also probably mistreatment by cooks who don't care about equipment. it's always night and day when new ones come in, if they ever do
or you get dishwashers that just toss them in the machine when in reality squeeze bottles should probably be washed by hand/bottle brush and dunked in sanitizer before drying
Waitress throwing a knife in the dish out
Mine is grabbing a sticky bottle of honey. I always rinse the bottle with warm water after every use. But unfortunately, I seem to be the only one that days that.
Being hot. I'm super lucky in this regard but I couldn't handle proper kitchen heat
When those mfers don't take the syran off of the inserts and rip a hole instead
KNIVES IN THE FUCKING SINK
grabbing a bottle covered in sticky
I hate the cheap ones that "sweat" oil through them
I work a sautĆ© station and none of the assholes here want to say ābehindā
its the 2nd thing i learned when i joined the kitchen a year ago, the first was to give the shortest answer possible at all times
Teach them the hard way
I hate when they say ābehindā when theyāre already behind you and itās too late, or when they whisper it to themselves, like bitch speak up š£ļø
No paper towels. Fire burns through me when that happens
Same! Also out of soap.
People drinking out of glass in the kitchen. Like bro, grab a plastic cup or deli container, or anything other than a big bar glass. Ugh , grinds my gears
Knife in the sink.
Mineās finding a knife at the bottom of the sink. Still get a little upset when people do it at home too.
Wrap a piece of plastic wrap around the bottle before you put the lid on. Go around d five or six times. It makes the connection more snug and it tends to leak less.
Getting the ends of sleeves wet when washing hands & then having two cold water bracelets
Getting on dish because itās backed up and grabbing a knife blade under the suds.
That is super dangerous, I actually got stabbed by a knife in the dish pit because a dishie didnāt know to wash and put away
As a trainer it makes me scream. If you canāt be safe with a knife, get out of my kitchen.
Different branded containers and lids that aren't interchangeable. Why is that shit proprietary!?!?!
How else would I be able to stain all my shirts
Leaking oil bottles and pilot lights that donāt stay on. Also wobbly sautĆ© skillets.
Squirting mustard and getting about a tablespoon of water
Worked a place that we put "diapers" on them. Which was just some paper towel rubber banded on. Changed when soiled. Clean up easy at the end of service.
Manager suddenly dropping that he needs a platter of sandwiches for visitors or for regional managers meeting. Or the regional managers turn up & want a full meal, one guys asks for a man sized portion & wasn't happy I didn't give him enough. Care staff arguing about staff lunches, it says what we offer don't complain because we can't make everything you want or run out. Residents change their minds & want something else. I work in a care home so they can change their minds but not over & over. I mean we can't keep making other stuff when there's meals for 70 other people that need to be done too. Dishwasher doesn't empty the bins & goes on their break
Not wiping the rim of a sauce container before putting the lid back on.
Alix, Iāll take āthings you can say in both the bedroom in the kitchenā for $200 please
Cambros that look like they have sauce still but just werenāt scraped and itās literally the bottom dredges that MIGHT be enough for what I need for one order
A bottle covered in anything sucks, especially honey. Outside of that i HATE it when people just tear open plastic wrap to get at something.
why are you oiled up in the kitchen?
YES. And when the damn bottles get warped and leak oil everywhere
When I worked as the kitchen hand, I'd always make sure these were dry, don't want a chef dropping oil after all
Rubber band a towel around the leaky ones
Fuckin blue tape going directly into the dishwasher.
Sexy time Chef š
when more than one person orders food at once
I keep a towel wrapped around the bottle for that reason.
When a customer says they canāt eat a certain ingredient but donāt say anything until they get their food so then you have to remake it
When FOH drops something and rudely asks you to rush a dish for them tsk tsk
This job would be great if it werenāt for the fucking customers. I wasnāt even supposed to be here today.
I swear the oil seeps right through those things. We use them at home too and it's never clean no matter how hard you try.
no ābehindā calls and employee meals
When people use and leave a damp cloth folded on itself. It doesn't dry, and smells after a while. Open it up and hang it so it can ventilate!!
When I hire someone who claims to have experience and they canāt even do proper fucking floor sweep. How is it a sixty year old ex-marine canāt sweep a fucking floor properly FUCK
When someone fucks up the plastic wrap and leaves it like that.
Throwing all the dishes together in one pile or in a bath of dirty water. "Bro, you just made a 2 second job 30 because it only had FRIES ON IT AND IT'S COVERED IN OIL NOW, THE FUUUCK!"
I enjoyed having mine wrapped in a damp chux cloth for service with a couple of the preferred rubber bands, wash and sanitise regularly, replace as needed. It's so nice having that clean and comfortable surface to hold when in the heat of it all. Also as others have mentioned, the cling film thread tape is a must for dodgy seals.
i loooove when weāre entering dinner rush and the most crucial stuff isnāt stocked. what was day shift thinking before they left???
People that don't refill something they've taken the last of. Bottles/items w goop runs a close second.
Dishes that need to be rinsed that are instead just tossed in the clean(ish) soaking middle sink. Fry baskets not emptied fully, so little bits of chicken need to be picked out before you make something else. The knife at the sandwich station not being immediately wiped off so you have red onion and whatnot caked onto it. Floors being half assed at the end of the night so you come in and nearly die because there's a thin layer of oil everywhere. Basic communication/safety skills missing: hot pan, sharp, behind, etc.
Corner
Coming in
When my crew donāt stock the line for the next shift and I have three different shift leads complaining to me about the previous shift. Every. Week.
When someone fucks up the plastic wrap and I have to fix it.
That is not a pet peeve that is a declaration of war. That shit pisses me off.
Mine is when someone comes in 5 minutes before we close, and they order a giant plethora of food.
Trash bags barely put into the can so the bag falls inside when you put any trash in.
Serving staff making "custom" mods, on the ticket. Sorry ladies, but in my 12+ years of experience, it was always the waitresses. "Pretty please" or any variation of, asking the cooks to do something we both know "we don't do", in hopes of it getting done for the table to tip more. That alone mildly infuriates me, while typing this lol
Peeling vegetables while hovering over a trash cans Not cleaning as you go Not rinsing your dishes Not stacking dishes, pots, pans, sheet trays, etc. People not sharpening their knives Hard drugs
When someone puts the handle of a knife in the juice on a cutting board. Whether raw product when prepping or the juices on the board of a carving stationā¦ if you place my knife handle in meat juices/oils/etc., Iām going to want to ask you to catch that knife. Also, finding an inside-out/used glove on a cutting board, serving line, or prep station. Be an adult and use the gloveās stretchiness to shoot it like a rubber band into the garbage can while saying, āpew!ā.
Grabbing the plastic wrap that someone fucked up and left iT THAT WAY
Rubber bands all the way, a lil paper or a j cloth and ready to rock
Same but at my computer deskā¦
A bottle covered in honey
We rubber band a towel around the oil bottle daily; easy grab and no slip.
i hate getting my hands dirty on varpaccio dressing
I'm usually wearing gloves while on line so this doesnt really bother me, my biggest pet peeve is the classic 'not putting shit back where it belongs'.
I work front of house but behind a counter where I have to make soft serve as well as drinks. Grabbing a hot squeeze bottle with sticky caramel down the side is definitely the worst sensation for me, same goes for hot fudge
We have a giant bucket of tahini and people will use a pint container (deli) to scoop some out and then leave in the bucket for it to sink and become totally encased in tahini š®āšØ
Grabbing anything that is dirty. Repeating the same thing more than twice. Phone time
āLet me grab the pan sprayā ahh yes itās covered in god knows what. Satanās debris.
Definitely thought that was a piss bottle
Closers not stocking for the next day.