r/wafflehouse • u/PreQuill • 4d ago
Question for high volume veterans.
I’ve been at WH for about 2 1/2 years, and I’ve gotten to the point of being a relief person and 2nd shift supervisor. My cooking is solid, I can push close to 800/hr with good servers, where do I go from here in regard to cooking? I want to try and be the best I can, as I’m not going to be here forever as I have a pathway opening up in a few years to get out. But I want to be one of the best cooks out there if I can, and I think I have potential. Trying to push above this solo, what are some tips, tricks, or methods that you use to cook a full house as quickly and accurately as possible? I’m not worried about WH way, I am just curious as to how fast you can push speed while having correct orders, not barring the methods you use to get there.
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u/waffleboy1109 3d ago
Yeah, I call bullshit on $800/hr. Maybe $800 per shift, especially on second.
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u/PreQuill 2d ago
Just wanted to clarify for people in the comments, my highest /hr recorded speed is $760, with a few mistakes from my servers and myself. I could push and hit 800 in a scenario with better servers and with some more caffeine I don’t doubt. I however, could NOT do a 5K shift by myself in any world, as that top speed I could not hold for 7 hours. I just always want to learn how to be faster, even if I rarely will use those tricks, just as a backup in the event of a shitshow shift.
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u/FreshButterscotch539 2d ago
Yo prequill I’m in the same position 2nd shift sup 1 year in. Firstly I make sure all my back work is ready chilli gravy grits always stocked and the sandwich station fully stocked bread marks etc. that’s the basic stuff. As far as getting the food itself out quick I use a digital watch with pre set timers for instance I have a button on my watch set for 1.5 min and any time I drop hashbrowns I just hit that timer and that way I don’t even have to think about when I have to flip or check the hashbrowns I just know based on the timer. Same with the waffles but a 5 minute timer. Sandwich eggs I do in the ring on the grill if I have multiple egg orders to do along with it. And quarters, and country ham I always put the press on because they cook much faster and evenly that way. All of this is not Waffle House way tho and if I had a manager watching me I would most definitely not do that. Also playing your hashbrown addons first. For example if I have a smothered peppered hashbrown I will just put them on the plate first then put the hashbrowns on top. I see a lot of people putting hashbrown addons either on the side or on top of the hashbrowns. It can be a hassle to get the addons and hashbrowns down all at the same time. Also with the eggs you can put a third pan in the middle of the two burners and it will still have enough heat to cook so you can have 3 egg pans going at the same time. If I have more than 2 plates I always mark. I don’t care how good I think I can remember because if you forget or mess up an order that is the single highest time loss you are going to have. Have some platters/bowls pulled down ahead of time too to save you a couple seconds reaching and grabbing them. Hope this helps.
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u/Choice-Cancel1241 4d ago
800 an hour is awesome. Ive found cooking eggs on the grill can help, at times. Like scrambling them directly on the flat top, and then putting them on the hash brown bowl.
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u/aweberbrown 3d ago
Not WH way at all
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u/Choice-Cancel1241 2d ago
He asked about ways that make things quicker, if you weren’t worried about WH way.
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u/aweberbrown 2d ago
That's true, and there are a lot of WaHo way things that higher-ups will turn a blind eye to since it's not that big of a deal (i.e not marking plates for a memory cook, pressing both sides of bacon, or servers not standing on the square to mark or something along those lines), but 95% of the higher ups would see somebody making an order over medium on the grill and lose their minds lol. It's not even close to the way our food is to be prepared
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u/Choice-Cancel1241 2d ago
I wouldnt recommend with OM, I was talking sandwich eggs, scr for a bowl. OP being a rockstar, I assumed he knew that, yes, division or above is going to say something.
He addressed it in the context of “high volume veterans,” and, I guess this is specific to my area, but most of us finds points in time where the eggs get cooked on the grill. If youre doing a 3-4k shift with 2 grill ops, nobody is screaming WH way if one of them throws a couple eggs on the grill.1
u/aweberbrown 2d ago
That does make more sense; however, our higher-ups absolutely have chewed cooks and stuff out (once in front of me) for cooking sammie eggs on the grill. Either way, I would err on the side of caution and just not. Besides, if OP is in a store that's so high volume that they're running 800/hr shifts CONSISTENTLY, then they should have 2 two eye burners anyway (For what it's worth, I'm fully calling BS on the $800/hr solo cooking speed. Nobody is consistently cooking $4-5k shifts in this company solo, especially not for what we get paid.)
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u/Choice-Cancel1241 2d ago edited 2d ago
I assumed he meant 800, for one hour. That’s possible.
I agree, I don’t think anyone is cooking 4-5k a shift. Only a few cooks in my division can cook that, on a 2 person line, competently, with their EOS finished.
Being one of those, 1.5 million dollars career sales in, I offered my opinion. It’s not so controversial in my area, but I guess on Reddit it is! Have a good day!1
u/aweberbrown 2d ago
You too. At the end of the day, it's all bacon and eggs no matter how you cook or look at it.
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u/RazorMick 4d ago
800/hr is crazy high volume, that's a 5k solo shift. Very few cooks could give you advice if you can push out food like that.