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Writer's Block: The Worst Job
Jun. 9th, 2010 01:06 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
The worst job I ever had was at a pretty popular chain restaurant in the area. I was a cook and it was really hazardous. First you had to climb over things to get to anything. Just to reach an apron for the day I had to climb over coats and bags of potatoes and flour and reach the bag of aprons about a foot over my head.
The walk-in was outside, which I'm sure was great for tracking in bacteria and other nasty stuff found outside (dog poop, anyone?) Things were not properly shelved in the walk in and stuff was always sitting on the floor, not 6" off the ground as required.
What's funny is, this is a relatively upscale place (as far as chain restaurants go anyway) and they pride themselves on making your food from scratch and to order. I guess it makes up for the nightmare in the kitchen.
Another horrible place is an independent restaurant. The two owners/chefs are in their early 20's and are heavy pot heads. They used to leave me and one other cook alone in the kitchen while they went out back and smoked. They were routinely late, and had insane practices for cooking. Their food was pretty bad and they refused to admit it. When I offered to show them a better way to make something they shrugged it off. They would tell me to wear gloves but not change them so much, just rinse them off. So why wear gloves? Can't I just wash my hands? They were strict about water use as well. I was rinsing off a dish one day before giving it to the dishwasher and I got chewed out. So the dishwasher would use just as much water (if not more) rinsing off the dish before washing it. One day I walked in to find raw chicken resting on top of some lettuce. They were both wrapped, but still.
They'd make tubs full of rice and use it for a week.
Ugh...
The worst job I ever had was at a pretty popular chain restaurant in the area. I was a cook and it was really hazardous. First you had to climb over things to get to anything. Just to reach an apron for the day I had to climb over coats and bags of potatoes and flour and reach the bag of aprons about a foot over my head.
The walk-in was outside, which I'm sure was great for tracking in bacteria and other nasty stuff found outside (dog poop, anyone?) Things were not properly shelved in the walk in and stuff was always sitting on the floor, not 6" off the ground as required.
What's funny is, this is a relatively upscale place (as far as chain restaurants go anyway) and they pride themselves on making your food from scratch and to order. I guess it makes up for the nightmare in the kitchen.
Another horrible place is an independent restaurant. The two owners/chefs are in their early 20's and are heavy pot heads. They used to leave me and one other cook alone in the kitchen while they went out back and smoked. They were routinely late, and had insane practices for cooking. Their food was pretty bad and they refused to admit it. When I offered to show them a better way to make something they shrugged it off. They would tell me to wear gloves but not change them so much, just rinse them off. So why wear gloves? Can't I just wash my hands? They were strict about water use as well. I was rinsing off a dish one day before giving it to the dishwasher and I got chewed out. So the dishwasher would use just as much water (if not more) rinsing off the dish before washing it. One day I walked in to find raw chicken resting on top of some lettuce. They were both wrapped, but still.
They'd make tubs full of rice and use it for a week.
Ugh...
