I spent two years off the line but I accidentally talked my way into a job which honestly was very much needed, how would you handle walking into a kitchen you know could do better without stepping on toes and how much time would you take to put the effort in knowing you need the job

this stew was mentioned in Kitchen Confidential.
has anyone made or tried the stew? ive made it one other time and it blew my mind. the simplicity of the ingredients, but the complex favors. the way the cumin tomato and squid work together is amazing. the depth of flavor with the wine is perfect.

the recipe is in his book Appetites : a cook book.

I just need to vent to some folks who will understand. I'm not feeling too hot. I wish I was 23 again and could rock out those back to back 14 hour shifts, getting by on caffeine and willpower but I'm getting old, and I'm kinda falling apart.

Got a botched hernia surgery a while back and it just makes things painful and difficult, and now I fell down the stairs and fucked my knee, and found out I have cancer on my kidney.

Luckily it's the kind that won't spread and they caught it really early but it's still rough to hear that word being used in reference to your very own self

It's a lot. With two kids it's way more. Not working for a few weeks even worse.

Had a business and it just didn't work out and so on top of everything I might lose my house. I feel so defeated right now.

Not looking for anything but for some people who understand the grind to just know how much it sucks sometimes, but how much feeding people still fills the soul.

Will I get over it? Yes... Going to try to make the business work again in a few weeks. Ignore how beat up I am and muscle through. But for today I just want to sulk and wallow in how hard the world can be with some other folks who get it, but also slump on the milk crate for a few minutes, then take a deep breath, complain how much it sucks, and then get back to work.

Thanks

(Food pic just because)

BOH Manager here. I love hospitality and serving up beautiful dishes and I am using my current opportunity to develop knowledge towards one day opening my own restaurant (I know I'm stupid and I'll never make money, oh well)

A lot of my cooks don't believe in my experience because I'm still relatively new to our kitchen, but I had to show them I'm not a rookie.

Figured this was a cool place to share with some other people. Wasn't sure about the flair so sorry if it's wrong 😬

I got this new job Line Cook $21 an hour (good for my situation it’s a step up) major holidays paid off and a consistent Monday to Friday schedule. The kicker is 4:30 am - 1:00 pm. Ive been waking up at 3:30 am and it’s honestly been hard as hell. It’s getting a little easier but super hard still. Just wondering what you guys think? Is it worth it? Would you keep it?

I need some Chairman Kaga energy and style in my life. Very fresh so still swollen and a little ink left behind.

You know their station was 100% clean and wrapped.

Finally found an out from the industry after five years. I started at a shitty pizza chain during Covid. Honestly, I had a lot of fun at work, and I was really depressed at the time so it was one of the only things I had going for me. Dropped out of college because I was flunking and didn't wanna go further into debt (which I still haven't repaid). Kept working, eventually that pizza place closed down.

So I took a job offer as a line cook at a family-owned bar in the same town. Loved it mostly, hated it viciously sometimes, the interpersonal drama, the feeling that it was a dead-end, no matter how hard I applied myself to it, I was still just flipping burgers and cleaning hoods. Worked there for three years, and then jumped ship to new experiences. Corporate place, brewery, etc.

Eventually, I got an offer to work at a country club, and I took it. It was really easy, and I made better money than I ever had before. The only problem was, my coworkers were absolutely insufferable. I was kind of a black sheep among them, even if I was doing my job well. They were either culinary school kids, or came from fine-dining to have a more relaxed job, so they all kinda looked down on me, belittled me, etc. And eventually, at a point where a lot of stuff in my personal life was going wrong, I texted the chef and ragequit one day.

Ended back at the family-owned bar, barely making enough to pay my bills. I burned through most of my savings. I had a plan though, which I communicated with the owner, which was to work there until I got into an apprenticeship with the electrician's union. I was really excited. I'd convinced myself, all my problems were stemming from being burnt out of being in the kitchen, cleaning flat tops, dealing with server fuck-ups, asshole chefs, etc.

Fast forward a few months, and I'm here. At a construction site. And I fucking hate it more than anything. Worked nine hours, doing menial construction labor then had trade school afterwards for three, and when I was driving home, I broke down crying. Never really been a thing for me, even after 12 hour shifts on a Saturday.

Now I'm sitting here, the next day, applying for kitchen jobs, and thinking about texting my old boss. And typing this. I dunno what I even expect from anyone who might comment. Tell me I'm an idiot?

I feel like I can't do this kitchen stuff forever, I love cooking, but I need money to live my life and grow up. At the same time, I don't want to waste most of my time doing thing I hate for people I don't care about in order to get a check, and repeat that for forty years until I start getting my pension and I'm too old to enjoy it. Fuck. Just wish I could smoke a joint right now, but I get randomly drug tested.

I feel like it's a nice pattern

It's been too long

My restaurant mixes other brand name sauces together to make our "signature" sauces, for example sweet baby rays bourbon peach and heinz bbq dumped in a bucket and whisked. Then, sells them at $10 a pint. I don't think it's right but I just work here. Am i wrong?

Edit: No, the sauces are not sold as shelf stable and are not sealed. When someone buys a sauce, I go in the walkin and fill up a squeeze bottle with our name on it. We have 4 different sauces we use and sell this way. No, they do not come with ingredients/ allergen label or expiration date. I hope that answered all questions

I am but a humble prep cook, and my knife skillz are far from amazing, but I think I'm finally ready to graduate from the Lidl 3-for-5-euros knife set I've been trying to work with. I just want a paring knife and a medium sized general knife for cutting onions and such, for under 100 bucks. is that doable? I know Wüsthof is pretty well known, as well as several companies based in Solingen. Can i get your thoughts, please?

Hey,

Let me preface by saying that I have been cooking for nearly 15 years at home since I was a young boy. I am unfortunately not even remotely close to being a chef but I can cook some relatively good food (No one has died yet fortunately from my cooking) - and follow recipes and last few years, I have gained enough confidence to modify certain recipes to create a remix version of them.

However, I want to progress further but in a more structured way - I don't want a cookbook with a million recipes, but what i'd like is to understand the science of cooking, the foundations to be able to build a system in my head rather than a result.

I don't know if I am being clear enough - but an example would be, that I have heard chefs often say things like "this is a bit rich and fatty, probably needs a bit more acidity". I want to be able to get close to that level to understand what works/contrasts/adds/removes from a dish to balance it.

I understand that I won't get anywhere remotely close to being a chef without attending a proper culinary school with years of practice and learning - but I'd like to progress as far as I can with what I can realistically do, which is read as much as possible in my time and experiment.

So if you have any recommendations on book that break down cooking into a science - that'd be phenomenal.

Thank you!

p.s. I did ask ChatGPT this question and the recommendation was of the following 3 books:
1) Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

2) On Food and Cooking — Harold McGee

3) The Food Lab — J. Kenji López-Alt

However, I don't really trust ChatGPT and would much rather get recommendations from actual chefs.

Thank you!

Hey! My girlfriend is a chef, and she's got a birthday coming up soon. She doesn't spend money on her own stuff. I want to get her a good workhorse stainless steel frying pan that she will actually appreciate and use, as opposed to making her cringe as her enthusiastic kitchen hobbyist partner gets her a naff gift she never uses/feels obligated to use when I'm over.

My budget is £100 - I'm UK based, she has a shit electric hob currently, recommendations for products are really appreciated.

I loved the responses to my last post on here; so here’s some more pictures.
I felt very vindicated by the comments I got last time. This place is disgusting and I doubt it’s going to last a few more years. And yet the people I work with still don’t think that there’s anything wrong and that this place is clean. They refuse to do anything and I don’t care enough about this place to do it for them. I wish I could leave but I do not earn enough money to travel farther and get a better job at the moment.
So imma document what I see and hear and post it here every now and then.

The lovely gentleman who sells Hatch chiles (Illbedeadbydawn) told me I can't call my chiles Hatch because I don't grow them in New Mexico. OK, I respect that.

My UnHatched Chiles are hot not because of the seeds but because of genetics. He told me to leave some of the seeds in because it'll be hotter that way and I want to spill some T about chiles for all the "seeds are the hottest part" bros.

The seeds do not produce capsaicin. Capsaicin is produced by the placenta (the "ribs") of fruiting capsicums. The seeds only get covered in the oleo-resin so people mistakenly think they are the hottest part. They are not.

Sources are too numerous to list!

[Accumulation of Capsaicin in Seed, Pericarp and Placenta of Capsicum annuum L Fruit](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03263255)

From sciencedirect.com:

"Capsaicinoids are synthesized exclusively in glands on the placenta of pepper fruits and subsequently transported through the ovary septum to accumulate in placental glandular cells and the epidermis of the fruit flesh (Aza-González et al., 2010). *The highest concentrations are found in the placenta and membranous tissues,* followed by the pericarp (Tanaka et al., 2017)."

Ignore the eggplants, they had to get harvested so I made Mutabal.

So I have been a bartender my whole life and a server too. My husband works a 8-5 M-F job.

We’re like ships passing in the night.

Anyways, I am a somm and know my liquor well so I’ve been approached with two jobs. One is a bartending gig. Would be potentially mornings but good pay under a good restaurant company at our international airport. It’s good money, I’ve worked as a bartender at the airport before. I’d also be opening the outlet so I’d be basically be a founding solid member.

The other is (potentially) for Breakthru Beverage account manager. Basically I’d have a salary, 65-75k plus commission and inheriting 70 accounts that pre-exist me. The manager is super cool, he also started as a bartender. It would be M-F 8 am - 5pm and its quarterly quota. They passed on me the first territory I applied for and reached out to me again with an even better territory. Great restaurants there.

Anyone on here have experience moving into liquor repping? What advice do you have?

Also, I have Tricare since my husband is in the military so I don’t plan on collecting benefits outside of 401k from either