Confessions of a Line Cook
I worked for 13 years in the military in various service related jobs (fitness center, lodging, mortuary, food warehouse, etc.) but my main job, and one that I always reverted to for deployments and initial assignments at new bases, was Food Service. The Dining Facilities in the military are much like any other cafeteria style restaurants. You cook the food that waits on a line to be served, refilling them as needed, and we worked a short order grill for all the meals: eggs and pancakes at breakfast, burgers at lunch, and sometimes steaks for dinner. As with any food service jobs, you have your gross things, rude people, and sometimes things just do not work right. I have great sympathy and respect for food service workers.
Compliment the Cooks
My favorite job was bakery. I loved working the night shift, alone with my cookies and decorative pie tops. My least favorite meal was lunch, since that seemed to be when the rudest people were line. The one job that I actually came to love was working the grill. I was so proud of myself when I'd have five omlettes lined up to be served. Unfortunately for these types of jobs, compliments are few and far between. We usually had limited things for food, and we also had to follow Healthy Heart recipes, and so we were limited with spices and other ingredients that made it difficult to make it as tasty as we would if we were in our home kitchens. I watched one cook work all day long perfecting a BBQ sauce that tasted like a dream! That night it was served, hardly anyone ordered it unless she forced it on someone.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not sneer at your food as it's handed to you. If you didn't want that dish, then don't order it.
Do not come in ready to find as many things wrong as possible. You could eat Ramen at home if it's that disgusting. For that matter, if you are THAT picky, why are you eating there in the first place?
Do not place your order, watch it be cooked, sit down to eat it and return 5 minutes later and complain that it is cold because you also had to chat with your friend, make your toast, and run out to your car for something. (One dude did this several times for one meal).
WHAT TO DO:
Multitask gathering your food if it's allowable. If you are waiting on eggs to cook, get your toast and juice.
Be patient with the cook. It takes some coordination to run a grill with multiple orders.
If your plate is dirty, they stuck their thumb or fingers in your food (they should be handling only the bottom of the plate), politely ask for it to be re-served.
No Tolerance
I do have to say I never saw any of the other cooks, including myself, ever do "something" to food because they were upset with the customer. I have seen gross, unprofessional and rudeness exuded from customers though. Some examples: The girl with long blond hair who showed up with a brush in her hand and proceeded to brush her hair over the salad bar while she decided on her next topping. Grilled onions were a rarity on the short order line, but on the busiest day of the year (we were serving an extra 400 people that day) insisted on having grilled onions for his sandwich. I sent him to the back of line until I could get time to do them. By that point, after others seeing the onions, they all wanted onions, and this slowed the line to a snail paced crawl. Then he was nasty with me for taking so long. This was a favorite of ours during the midnight meal: Friday night after party munchies hit, so they came to the dining hall, drop dead drunk. One girl loudly announced she had just been raped (we weren't sure what to do for her...we were Food Service, not the police), another guy insisted on cheese (cheethe is how he pronounced it)on everything, and we had some come in and stumble around while trying to get their toast out of the toaster with a fork (anyone up for a shock?). I have a previous post on here about my sister's experience as a waitress for Olive Garden where she experienced some less than desirable behaviors as well.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not order "over easy eggs" and then return them when you cut into them and the yolk is runny. Know your terms, or at least ask what the term means.
Do not groom yourself over or near food.
Do not get nasty with cooks or servers. It won't be them that looks like a jerk, you will.
If you are drunk, maybe it would be safer to eat at a sit down restaurant where they take your order and serve you.
Do not sample foods off the line.
WHAT TO DO:
Be prepared to wait in line, especially if it is rush hour. Plan accordingly.
Point out to managers things you see happen that could get others sick, like little kids licking all the spoons at the dessert bar and putting them back in the container.
On that note, supervise small children.
If you are at an All You Can Eat buffet, take small servings, or even just a tablespoon of a serving if you wish to sample something you aren't sure you will like.
Your Health
I was at a dining facility for a two week tour one summer, when they brought out pork chops for lunch. I smelled them before they opened the box. For whatever reason, the pork chops had gone bad, and even had green fuzz growing on them. The shift manager instructed them to just rinse the chops off, "they'll be fine". I don't know if their cook could understand us, but we all protested that this was not right. They didn't have anything else they could serve, was their excuse, and so the pork chops got fried up and sent out. Three of us volunteered to run the line that day, and every time someone ordered a pork chop, we stopped them.
This was the conversation:
"Yes, I'll have a pork chop and..."
"No you won't."
"A pork chop. I'll take a pork chop..."
"No, you don't want the pork chop. How about spaghetti or a burger from the short order line?"
"What? No, I want a pork chop!"
"No. You. Don't. Trust us. You do not want a pork chop." Then we gave them "the look"...I think it got across then.
"You know what? I think I WILL have the spaghetti instead."
The guy left the line with a sort of wild eyed look, but I slept easy that night knowing we spared him of a horrible case of food poisoning. It was hard not to snicker when the cooks came out and commented that the pork chops just weren't selling that day.
Have any of you watched Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? I cringe every time that show comes on. Its not the discontent they show between the staff members that gets to me, but rather, what's wrong in the kitchen when he does his inspection. Sadly, we've all probably eaten in places like that and paid the price. Most cooks do not set out to revengefully get you sick. For them to work with food, they have to pass a food handler's safety course. Of course, this doesn't help you if the cook slept through the course.
Two of the grossest things I've ever seen and heard of: cockroaches falling into the food and being served (in a submarine galley) and a half-dead fly laying on top of a piece of cake (in a Chinese restaurant...it's little legs were still kicking). One time a co-worker dumped soup in to the pot, soup can lid included, and then later it was served to a customer. One of the worst experiences I had in the kitchen was a combat school field cooking exercise. I loved to make the creamed beef recipe. It was easy and you could add spices and other ingredients that really made it your own specialty. On this particular day, the lid of the pepper fell off and a whole can of pepper fell into the pot before I could stop it. I scooped out as much as I could, but obviously couldn't get it all. Of course, you always have to taste your dishes, and that stuff was on fire from all the pepper. I went out to the dining room to get a drink of milk, and the milk was sour! So, not only is my mouth on fire, the milk was sour on top of that and nothing was cutting the burn or the taste. What I really felt bad about was that I had been instructed to not make the creamed beef too spice, as they had a complaint the day before that it was just too spicy. To warn people, we wrote up on our menu that the creamed beef was "Cajun Style" and HOT. I actually got a lot of compliments that day. Oh, and no milk was served that day either. All of it had gone sour.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not eat all your food, and then complain it was awful.
Do not make an order so complicated it would be impossible for it to come back without some kind of mistake. (Example: I want my eggs over easy, with no brown on them, my water filled at all times, my bacon lightly crispy, butter on the side and not on my pancakes, and can you dim the lights in here just a tad?) (Yes, I've been out with someone who ordered just like this).
WHAT TO DO:
Send your food back if it is cold, tastes off, or has undesirable items in it.
Do a customer critique. Both if you had a good experience or bad experience. It's good for restaurants to get feedback.
If you happen to get sick and can for sure say that it was a certain food from a particular restaurant, call to let them know.
Probably more information that you ever wanted to know, but thought I would share this. Have you had any good or bad experiences in food service?
Compliment the Cooks
My favorite job was bakery. I loved working the night shift, alone with my cookies and decorative pie tops. My least favorite meal was lunch, since that seemed to be when the rudest people were line. The one job that I actually came to love was working the grill. I was so proud of myself when I'd have five omlettes lined up to be served. Unfortunately for these types of jobs, compliments are few and far between. We usually had limited things for food, and we also had to follow Healthy Heart recipes, and so we were limited with spices and other ingredients that made it difficult to make it as tasty as we would if we were in our home kitchens. I watched one cook work all day long perfecting a BBQ sauce that tasted like a dream! That night it was served, hardly anyone ordered it unless she forced it on someone.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not sneer at your food as it's handed to you. If you didn't want that dish, then don't order it.
Do not come in ready to find as many things wrong as possible. You could eat Ramen at home if it's that disgusting. For that matter, if you are THAT picky, why are you eating there in the first place?
Do not place your order, watch it be cooked, sit down to eat it and return 5 minutes later and complain that it is cold because you also had to chat with your friend, make your toast, and run out to your car for something. (One dude did this several times for one meal).
WHAT TO DO:
Multitask gathering your food if it's allowable. If you are waiting on eggs to cook, get your toast and juice.
Be patient with the cook. It takes some coordination to run a grill with multiple orders.
If your plate is dirty, they stuck their thumb or fingers in your food (they should be handling only the bottom of the plate), politely ask for it to be re-served.
No Tolerance
I do have to say I never saw any of the other cooks, including myself, ever do "something" to food because they were upset with the customer. I have seen gross, unprofessional and rudeness exuded from customers though. Some examples: The girl with long blond hair who showed up with a brush in her hand and proceeded to brush her hair over the salad bar while she decided on her next topping. Grilled onions were a rarity on the short order line, but on the busiest day of the year (we were serving an extra 400 people that day) insisted on having grilled onions for his sandwich. I sent him to the back of line until I could get time to do them. By that point, after others seeing the onions, they all wanted onions, and this slowed the line to a snail paced crawl. Then he was nasty with me for taking so long. This was a favorite of ours during the midnight meal: Friday night after party munchies hit, so they came to the dining hall, drop dead drunk. One girl loudly announced she had just been raped (we weren't sure what to do for her...we were Food Service, not the police), another guy insisted on cheese (cheethe is how he pronounced it)on everything, and we had some come in and stumble around while trying to get their toast out of the toaster with a fork (anyone up for a shock?). I have a previous post on here about my sister's experience as a waitress for Olive Garden where she experienced some less than desirable behaviors as well.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not order "over easy eggs" and then return them when you cut into them and the yolk is runny. Know your terms, or at least ask what the term means.
Do not groom yourself over or near food.
Do not get nasty with cooks or servers. It won't be them that looks like a jerk, you will.
If you are drunk, maybe it would be safer to eat at a sit down restaurant where they take your order and serve you.
Do not sample foods off the line.
WHAT TO DO:
Be prepared to wait in line, especially if it is rush hour. Plan accordingly.
Point out to managers things you see happen that could get others sick, like little kids licking all the spoons at the dessert bar and putting them back in the container.
On that note, supervise small children.
If you are at an All You Can Eat buffet, take small servings, or even just a tablespoon of a serving if you wish to sample something you aren't sure you will like.
Your Health
I was at a dining facility for a two week tour one summer, when they brought out pork chops for lunch. I smelled them before they opened the box. For whatever reason, the pork chops had gone bad, and even had green fuzz growing on them. The shift manager instructed them to just rinse the chops off, "they'll be fine". I don't know if their cook could understand us, but we all protested that this was not right. They didn't have anything else they could serve, was their excuse, and so the pork chops got fried up and sent out. Three of us volunteered to run the line that day, and every time someone ordered a pork chop, we stopped them.
This was the conversation:
"Yes, I'll have a pork chop and..."
"No you won't."
"A pork chop. I'll take a pork chop..."
"No, you don't want the pork chop. How about spaghetti or a burger from the short order line?"
"What? No, I want a pork chop!"
"No. You. Don't. Trust us. You do not want a pork chop." Then we gave them "the look"...I think it got across then.
"You know what? I think I WILL have the spaghetti instead."
The guy left the line with a sort of wild eyed look, but I slept easy that night knowing we spared him of a horrible case of food poisoning. It was hard not to snicker when the cooks came out and commented that the pork chops just weren't selling that day.
Have any of you watched Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? I cringe every time that show comes on. Its not the discontent they show between the staff members that gets to me, but rather, what's wrong in the kitchen when he does his inspection. Sadly, we've all probably eaten in places like that and paid the price. Most cooks do not set out to revengefully get you sick. For them to work with food, they have to pass a food handler's safety course. Of course, this doesn't help you if the cook slept through the course.
Two of the grossest things I've ever seen and heard of: cockroaches falling into the food and being served (in a submarine galley) and a half-dead fly laying on top of a piece of cake (in a Chinese restaurant...it's little legs were still kicking). One time a co-worker dumped soup in to the pot, soup can lid included, and then later it was served to a customer. One of the worst experiences I had in the kitchen was a combat school field cooking exercise. I loved to make the creamed beef recipe. It was easy and you could add spices and other ingredients that really made it your own specialty. On this particular day, the lid of the pepper fell off and a whole can of pepper fell into the pot before I could stop it. I scooped out as much as I could, but obviously couldn't get it all. Of course, you always have to taste your dishes, and that stuff was on fire from all the pepper. I went out to the dining room to get a drink of milk, and the milk was sour! So, not only is my mouth on fire, the milk was sour on top of that and nothing was cutting the burn or the taste. What I really felt bad about was that I had been instructed to not make the creamed beef too spice, as they had a complaint the day before that it was just too spicy. To warn people, we wrote up on our menu that the creamed beef was "Cajun Style" and HOT. I actually got a lot of compliments that day. Oh, and no milk was served that day either. All of it had gone sour.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not eat all your food, and then complain it was awful.
Do not make an order so complicated it would be impossible for it to come back without some kind of mistake. (Example: I want my eggs over easy, with no brown on them, my water filled at all times, my bacon lightly crispy, butter on the side and not on my pancakes, and can you dim the lights in here just a tad?) (Yes, I've been out with someone who ordered just like this).
WHAT TO DO:
Send your food back if it is cold, tastes off, or has undesirable items in it.
Do a customer critique. Both if you had a good experience or bad experience. It's good for restaurants to get feedback.
If you happen to get sick and can for sure say that it was a certain food from a particular restaurant, call to let them know.
Probably more information that you ever wanted to know, but thought I would share this. Have you had any good or bad experiences in food service?
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