this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Cooking is long hours for low pay doing something you love. Serving is whoring yourself out for money. If the money isn't there I won't whore myself out but i can fall back on cooking at any time and it's hard thankless work, but we love it...
I can promise you that 90% of line cooks don't "love" cooking
Then why do they do it? It's not the hours and the wages...
Remember chef, there's a difference between line cooks and chefs. A great chef is rare and people who are line cooks may never understand our passion for food.
Because people have to do something to put bread on the table and cooking in a restaurant is one of the jobs where they'll hire you without qualifications because they're always looking for new staff because people hate it, especially the conditions.
I've been doing this for 30 years, what you're describing is the situation in the front of the house more often than not, but I've mostly worked fine dining so maybe i don't see how it is for those who work, say, at the Cheesecake Factory... How many tv shows are there about front of the house? Every day is sunny? How many are there about BOH? So many I can't even count. But hey I'm sorry your being paid so lousy in the kitchen but what you're describing isn't the job, it's the coercion of capitalism.🏴🏴🏴
Dude nobody has a passion for making fifty Bloomin' Onions a night unless they have like severe autism or something.
BOH is almost always hiring, which makes it a good fallback if you lose your job. The barrier for entry is pretty much, "Can you get here on time for every shift?" There's a reason that kitchen work is one of the most common jobs for people who have been recently incarcerated.
I love cooking for family, but I've also cooked for Denny's and a getting through a meal service is something else entirely. There's a reason cooks in general are one of the most alcoholic professions, and it's not because they spend most of their day doing something they love.
I'm not sure there's causation there but definitely correlation. Personally restaurants saved me from the streets and I've seen people struggling with addiction use the job to survive. I'm struggling in this thread because I'm an anarchist and working under the coercion of capitalism is evil in all jobs. But I've never known anything else and I have a love/hate relationship with the hospitality business. The current model sucks, i can't argue with that but I've seen people try a bunch of new systems and I've worked at a few of those and dined at others and well... they aren't there anymore. I was set to start my own spot right before pandemic and I thought employee owned was the answer but now I'm seeing how that can be just another ploy at exploiting the proletariat. Those hopes puts mine are now gone because i don't know the answer. I'm still coerced to work in the industry because it's what I've dedicated my life to and I'm not willing to give it up, but i am doing FOH now and i hate it but where i live, unless i take a lead position in a kitchen which is more than my family will allow me to do i can't afford to work BOH where i want to be. But i do see people who may or may not hate the work lying about experience to get in the door and that is definitely the coercion of capitalism and not the fault of the work. And yes some of those people get burnt out and leave but others start to rise through the ranks because passion shows in the product. It is known kitchen wages suck, and the tip situation isn't new. In reference to my OP I'm not speaking of the rotating door people coerced by capitalism, I'm speaking of those who make this choice, even under capitalism. So those people commenting against my previous statements, rage against capitalism, rage against tip culture, but for people into cooking and food this is what we have now. And in conclusion (sorry for the wall of text) working in the kitchen is hard work for shitty pay, FOH is physically easy but whoring yourself out comes with another cost and until they find another way to handsomely reward us workers the industry is going to die. Or the revolution will come first...VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!
Fuck off, loving your job doesn't mean you should be paid less for it.
I didn't say that, you did so you can fuck off. Are you in the industry? What are you doing to change things? My point is only that serving isn't worth your soul unless you're paid handsomely and the kitchen is rough but the cost on the soul is bearable. And these are my opinions I'm not asking you to share them, don't be an ass. I wish the kitchen paid more so i could afford to do it longer and more often. It doesn't. 🏴🏴🏴 Capitalism blows
The wait staff deserve those tips for having to interact with the customers and deal with all the assholes. I say this as an ex line cook, I would rather be in the kitchen than have to fake smile and socialize with customers all day
🤘🏿👆🏿