This is Jim Stein. He is a line cook in Charleston, SC and he has worked in kitchens nearly his whole life.
You may think it’s all fun and games.
(honestly you probably don’t)
But we do live by a certain set of rules.
(these aren’t them)
Really it’s all about hard work.
We work incredibly long hours. Sometimes even more than this measly 16 in one day.
And all 16 are spent on our feet.
We go through shoes faster than you can imagine.
We eat standing up…
…all the time, because we’re typically cooking a lunch/dinner/brunch service at the same time, or constantly in the weeds with prep.
We get cuts.
a lot of cuts.
We get burns.
Even more burns.
We plan out every minute of our day…
Every ingredient of our dishes…
every step of our events…
and every item of our inventory.
Failure is NOT an option.
Fucking up is DEFINITELY not an option.
But with all the downsides…There are upsides.
We get really cool high-tech toys like immersion circulators and CryoVac machines.
And we get really low-tech toys too.
Our poor iPod Dock has seen it’s better days. But check out that kitchen ingenuity.
We work with high quality ingredients from Land…
…and from Sea.
A lot from Sea.
Okay mostly from Sea.
We taste EVERYTHING.
Need salt? That’s our fault. We compare dishes and ingredients endlessly until we get the combinations we deem best. And if we’re over or under seasoning the food, we’re failing…which like I said, is not an option.
But at the end of the day, the real beauty is the food.
We strive to make food taste good,
incorporate fresh and local ingredients,
and appeal to the eye.
Even if we ARE just serving Goose Liver sometimes.
(foie gras dish)
Whether it’s beef,
lamb,
fish,
or pasta, we hope you like it all the same.
At the end of the day, we do everything for You.
and sometimes you learn to cook pastries, and write on plates in chocolate.
And sometimes you make a friend or two along the way.
The post What’s It Really Like To Work At A High-End Restaurant appeared first on Caveman Circus.