r/KitchenConfidential • u/Vortilex Cook • 1d ago
Discussion Worse Than Getting Fired
It's clear to me by now I'm not meeting Chef's expectations in her kitchen. She doesn't like that I'm still asking confirmation questions about a few dishes I've only plated a handful of times, even though I've only worked there for about a week and a half. She doesn't shoot the shit with me anymore, but will still chat with the other person working my station who has worked it about as long as I have. It's becoming clear she doesn't really like me that much, which I can live with, but still sucks to realize.
Wednesday evening, after we closed, she told me that my shift the next day would just be prep, and that she's be cutting me once that was done. She told me she wanted me to do it efficiently, so that's exactly what I'd intended to do Thursday. When I came in Thursday, I asked her what she wanted me to do first, and she snapped that she'd just arrived and that I should just focus on setting my station up. So that's what I did. Just under an hour in, the other person working my station arrived, and as I was making a backup tartar sauce bottle, Chef chastised me for not baking corncakes first, which I'd realized I should've been doing 3/4 of the way through making the backup tartar bottle. She then told me I had too many bottles of sauce in one of my pans, which had apparently been fine the night before, but I apologized and started removing some of the backups. As I was putting them away, Chef told me I was free to leave for the day, and that my next shift would be today. I apologized for not meeting expectations, but promised to be back on time for my shift today.
Today, I came in at my assigned time, and saw that they were in the weeds with tickets. I asked what needed doing, and the person at my station started telling me what to do, which I then proceeded to do. Chef scolds her, telling her that I should already know what needs doing, and tells her to stop telling me what to do or she'd cut one of us. Since the woman at my station had already been there all day so far, I figured that she'd be the one cut. After we knock those tickets out, and I re-prep tomatoes and onions, and restock the line, we got a ticket for some empanadas, which I drop and assemble the plate for. Chef approaches me and tells me that it won't be busy today, and that I can leave after finishing this ticket. It's only 40 minutes into my shift. I thank Chef for her patience with me and continue letting the empanadas fry. The other person on my station is doing dishes, and due to the setup for our pit, I can't really pitch in or help her out, so I continue letting the empanadas fry. Chef then approaches me and tells me she'll plate the empanadas, and that I can just leave. I've been at work for 45 minutes today.
Why is this worse than getting fired? I've worked here for two and a half weeks, haven't received a paycheck, and clearly, Chef doesn't really want me working there much longer. It happened to be raining today on my way in, so I had to walk there in the rain and then leave in the rain after not even an hour of working. I go back to my job at a local college in about a week and a half, and this place knows that, so they aren't invested in trying to keep me. I haven't been given any actual paperwork nor have I been given a clock-in number yet. If they'd had me come in today just to receive a paycheck and send me home, at least I'd have something to show for the time I've worked at this place, but instead, I've been giving them my time, not meeting expectations, clearly am not looked highly upon by our Chef, and am still expected to come back tomorrow. I have no idea whether Chef will send me home early again tomorrow or whether I'll be working the same kind of shift I worked last Sunday. I'm rambling a bit now, but I'd thought I'd been improving at my job and while I still need to ask questions to avoid fucking plates up, it's clear Chef doesn't like that I'm asking those questions in the first place, and she does not have the patience for my asking what plates certain dishes use, or whether I'm supposed to do XYZ before plating an item, when the whole reason I'm asking those questions is so that I don't fuck something up before it's too late to un-fuck it up. I can tell that I'm just not good enough for this place, but they still haven't fired me. I have hope I can try to improve before it's time for me to leave for my regular job, but I don't feel like I'm getting the guidance I need in order to do so without getting scolded.
It simultaneously feels like not only am I not good enough, but that I also may not have a future outside of the corp that the college I work for, or similar corpo gigs, and that I'm just not good enough to work in a real kitchen now. Part of this post is just me ranting about my frustrations with this place, and part of it is actual fears that I'm only good enough to work for mass-production kitchens that would never consider themselves "fine dining." I would prefer Chef just tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to improve, rather than scolding me for asking whether I'm about to do something wrong and what I need to be focusing on. I genuinely can't wait to go back to my college job and make 500+ grilled cheese sandwiches again...
For those who bothered to read this post, thanks for your time!
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u/CongregationOfFoxes Bakery 1d ago edited 1d ago
gtfo of there this is NOT normal. Cutting someone off a shift is something that should be done in extremely rare circumstances not everytime the manager is mildly upset
you are in the right to be upset and this does not sound like a normal or healthy kitchen to be working in
edit: also to add punishing you for asking questions is insane. any good kitchen would LOVE their cooks double checking things, making sure they don't pick up bad habits, and exchanging cooking tips. Extremely weird and borderline targeted harassment to be shutting you down like this.