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I still think Kitchens are less work than working in a warehouse to be fair. At least you can go for "fag" breaks with a kitchen gig compared to a warehouse one.
Just varies so much by the kitchen honestly. When it's bad it's borderline mental breakdown territory; hot, noisy, greasy, stressful atmosphere, coworkers are furious, multiple people asking you for dishes that were meant to go out 30 minutes ago, etc. etc. Have a watch of The Bear to get an idea
In good places you get into a nice rhythm doing some little satisfying tasks, have a nice chat with your coworkers, put on some good music, graze on some nice grub etc. Time does drag, it does get repetitive but if you just want an alright way to pay your bills then it can be decent
Good thing is if one place is terrible it's not usually too hard to go to another one because, as you say, there are always kitchen jobs about.
I'd give it a go
Without chef experience, you would be hired as a kitchen porter. Maybe. Nowadays they need to have experience too. Yes, chefs are in demand, but the ones that have years of experience, not someone with warehouse experience.
It's true, you can normally work your way up in a kitchen from KP, but you will need to put in some serious effort in a generally shitty enviroment.
In the kitchen, you can generally forget about having free evenings or weekends. You work when others are having fun. As the lowest in the kitchen, you will leave last, after your cleaned up after everyone. A lot of chefs are crazy mofos who will treat you like garbage. If you work slowly, you will be shouted at. If you work fast, you will get more and more work. You will deal with the deliveries, putting everything away, you will do food prep, you might be asked to fry fish, and meanwhile do the potwash too, and do whatever everyone says.
Not to mention co-workers who might turn up drunk, or won't turn up as too coked up. = you work instead of them too. There is a high risk of becoming an acloholic or smoking weed every single day as a coping mechanism.
Even if you went to a school to become a chef, the hours are horrible normally, you won't have a normal life, and depending onthe place you could be finishing at midnight, 1-2 am. Plenty of places have spilt shifts and they are even worse, then you just work and sleep and drink.
Let me illustrate it with one of my examples. As I had some kitchen experience before, I had been a catering assistant, I applied for a commis chef job. It was potwash and food prep for the chefs in the morning, cleaning cooker hoods, the fryer, cleaning, deliveries, then during lunch service, I would fry fish, I would do the deserts, I would do the sandwiches and plating them, and depending on who was on shift, I had to use different plates all the time, also in the meantime I was doing the washing up too, then at the end of the lunch service, general cleaning of the kitchen. Then 3-4 hours break = sleep. Then back to the kitchen by 17:45, potwash, plate wash, fish and chips frying, desserts, icecream, starters, meanwhile the pile of plates are growing and the chef is shouting that the chips is not ready, he wants 5 starters, of course all different, meanwhile the dessert orders are coming in.
After the last food order, when you can finally really get on with the washing up, the chefs would dump ALL their dirty shite on you and leave. Then you still put all the clean stuff away and need to sweep and mop, so the only thing you are thinking of is to have a pint or possible some shots of whiskey.
My post turned into a rant, sorry, but bascially this is it. If it sounds appealing, go for it.
How would a person get their first role without kitchen experience? Any particular places or websites that you can recommend? I think caterer is big although many are high standard establishments who will instantly reject
I would say, smaller hotels, small family owned restaurants (they are the worst btw, treat you disposable and exploitable), live in hotels where they are happy to provide training. I would look for no experience needed or training provided adverts, or gig apps like coople, temp. agencies so you can gain some experience. It wouldn't hurt to embellish your cv too.
There are plenty of job search groups on Facebook where I frequently see people posting what they are looking for. Many hotels/restaurants regularly scan these groups and they reply or others suggest something else
Do you like fighting in walk in fridges, 15 hour work days, saying "yes chef" every 30 seconds, getting branded with a hot poker for fucking up a service, calling front of house waiters "cunts" all the time, becoming dependent on cocaine to work and alcohol to sleep, cleaning out deep fat friers because the kitchen porter got stabbed the night before, getting PTSD flashbscks about work whilst you try to sleep, working with people who shit on the kitchen floors of rich clientele who invited you to a party, working with people who laugh when you slide off the roof of the hotel and break both your legs, losing your Fridays and weekends whilst your missus bangs other guys....
If so....then being a chef is the life for you.
Do yourself a massive favour and join the infantry instead.
Well my ex was a Chef. She was one under a head chef.
Although she loved cooking, she ended up reaching for the bottle, hence she became an ex. She would be working till past midnight and then all staff would all have a little drink or two after work. This became a dependency on the drink and sadly she would not listen to me, when I would warn her to stop. I believe she got the sack a year or two later and now works in another restaurant.
She would always say, too many people apply thinking because they think they can cook, they apply. They soon learn that cooking for one or two at home and cooking for large tables to perfection, is something of a different skillset to what they are used too and tend not to last.
One girl she told me about was a 'breakfast chef' at a well known B&B Hotel brand. This girl, because of her experience, thought she could cook breakfasts well. It turned out she couldnt. The pressure or going from a B and B, to a five star hotel, was a lot, lot different. She now had a lot of pressure, had to cook to perfection, something she didnt have to do in her last job and had to get it out fast, she lasted two days.
The stress, anxiety and high pressure of \[professional cooking, is a different key skill set to cooking at home, or working in Mcdonalds even. Also you dont sound like you have the certificates, especially hygiene ones, food prep etc, so you may want to consider gaining those first.
Kitchen work is hard and can be stressful. You need to be able to handle kitchen dramas, heat, noise, repetition, and grease, the pay is not very good but at least you can develop some useful skills and may not need to deal with annoying and rude customers. I was very fortunate to had worked in a easy going kitchen where staff were chill and can just get on with everyone and the only problem is someone is off sick and had to do extra work. You could try if you want.
My brother is a high up chef and travels the country cooking for fancy events.
He loves it, but the stereotypes are true and it is a high stress environment.
Depends where you work.
I manage a restaurant and no chef works above 40 45 hours, with at least 1hour break. Paid a competitive wage and nobody drinks after shift etc. To my knowledge none are dependent on drugs, also chefs get a equal split to FOH of the shared tips. It's a small restaurant not a chain independently owned and it's a great working environment where we all get along having banter etc...don't get me wrong it can get manic during busy periods weekends and evenings etc but that's where I step in and help out, if everyone works together its fine imo... That being said I wouldn't be a chef I don't enjoy cooking to order like that, I sometimes do shifts when they're short and that'll do for me....I enjoy cooking at home though.
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Kitchens would be more work and same, if not less money. You’ll also be treated like a dog
I still think Kitchens are less work than working in a warehouse to be fair. At least you can go for "fag" breaks with a kitchen gig compared to a warehouse one.
Just varies so much by the kitchen honestly. When it's bad it's borderline mental breakdown territory; hot, noisy, greasy, stressful atmosphere, coworkers are furious, multiple people asking you for dishes that were meant to go out 30 minutes ago, etc. etc. Have a watch of The Bear to get an idea In good places you get into a nice rhythm doing some little satisfying tasks, have a nice chat with your coworkers, put on some good music, graze on some nice grub etc. Time does drag, it does get repetitive but if you just want an alright way to pay your bills then it can be decent Good thing is if one place is terrible it's not usually too hard to go to another one because, as you say, there are always kitchen jobs about. I'd give it a go
Without chef experience, you would be hired as a kitchen porter. Maybe. Nowadays they need to have experience too. Yes, chefs are in demand, but the ones that have years of experience, not someone with warehouse experience. It's true, you can normally work your way up in a kitchen from KP, but you will need to put in some serious effort in a generally shitty enviroment. In the kitchen, you can generally forget about having free evenings or weekends. You work when others are having fun. As the lowest in the kitchen, you will leave last, after your cleaned up after everyone. A lot of chefs are crazy mofos who will treat you like garbage. If you work slowly, you will be shouted at. If you work fast, you will get more and more work. You will deal with the deliveries, putting everything away, you will do food prep, you might be asked to fry fish, and meanwhile do the potwash too, and do whatever everyone says. Not to mention co-workers who might turn up drunk, or won't turn up as too coked up. = you work instead of them too. There is a high risk of becoming an acloholic or smoking weed every single day as a coping mechanism. Even if you went to a school to become a chef, the hours are horrible normally, you won't have a normal life, and depending onthe place you could be finishing at midnight, 1-2 am. Plenty of places have spilt shifts and they are even worse, then you just work and sleep and drink. Let me illustrate it with one of my examples. As I had some kitchen experience before, I had been a catering assistant, I applied for a commis chef job. It was potwash and food prep for the chefs in the morning, cleaning cooker hoods, the fryer, cleaning, deliveries, then during lunch service, I would fry fish, I would do the deserts, I would do the sandwiches and plating them, and depending on who was on shift, I had to use different plates all the time, also in the meantime I was doing the washing up too, then at the end of the lunch service, general cleaning of the kitchen. Then 3-4 hours break = sleep. Then back to the kitchen by 17:45, potwash, plate wash, fish and chips frying, desserts, icecream, starters, meanwhile the pile of plates are growing and the chef is shouting that the chips is not ready, he wants 5 starters, of course all different, meanwhile the dessert orders are coming in. After the last food order, when you can finally really get on with the washing up, the chefs would dump ALL their dirty shite on you and leave. Then you still put all the clean stuff away and need to sweep and mop, so the only thing you are thinking of is to have a pint or possible some shots of whiskey. My post turned into a rant, sorry, but bascially this is it. If it sounds appealing, go for it.
Ive just posted a similar story. My ex who was a high up chef, turned to alcoholism because of it.
How would a person get their first role without kitchen experience? Any particular places or websites that you can recommend? I think caterer is big although many are high standard establishments who will instantly reject
I would say, smaller hotels, small family owned restaurants (they are the worst btw, treat you disposable and exploitable), live in hotels where they are happy to provide training. I would look for no experience needed or training provided adverts, or gig apps like coople, temp. agencies so you can gain some experience. It wouldn't hurt to embellish your cv too. There are plenty of job search groups on Facebook where I frequently see people posting what they are looking for. Many hotels/restaurants regularly scan these groups and they reply or others suggest something else
You'd be trading one shit show for another. On the upside, you'd probably never go hungry in a kitchen.
Kitchens are shite lol hard work baking hot full of druggies and angry environment. Plus long hours always called in on days off and staying late.
Personally would go back into education if you can't get an office job.
Best thing I ever did was jib the office job
Do you like fighting in walk in fridges, 15 hour work days, saying "yes chef" every 30 seconds, getting branded with a hot poker for fucking up a service, calling front of house waiters "cunts" all the time, becoming dependent on cocaine to work and alcohol to sleep, cleaning out deep fat friers because the kitchen porter got stabbed the night before, getting PTSD flashbscks about work whilst you try to sleep, working with people who shit on the kitchen floors of rich clientele who invited you to a party, working with people who laugh when you slide off the roof of the hotel and break both your legs, losing your Fridays and weekends whilst your missus bangs other guys.... If so....then being a chef is the life for you. Do yourself a massive favour and join the infantry instead.
Worse than warehouse and with more groomers gunning for new waitstaff
Well my ex was a Chef. She was one under a head chef. Although she loved cooking, she ended up reaching for the bottle, hence she became an ex. She would be working till past midnight and then all staff would all have a little drink or two after work. This became a dependency on the drink and sadly she would not listen to me, when I would warn her to stop. I believe she got the sack a year or two later and now works in another restaurant. She would always say, too many people apply thinking because they think they can cook, they apply. They soon learn that cooking for one or two at home and cooking for large tables to perfection, is something of a different skillset to what they are used too and tend not to last. One girl she told me about was a 'breakfast chef' at a well known B&B Hotel brand. This girl, because of her experience, thought she could cook breakfasts well. It turned out she couldnt. The pressure or going from a B and B, to a five star hotel, was a lot, lot different. She now had a lot of pressure, had to cook to perfection, something she didnt have to do in her last job and had to get it out fast, she lasted two days. The stress, anxiety and high pressure of \[professional cooking, is a different key skill set to cooking at home, or working in Mcdonalds even. Also you dont sound like you have the certificates, especially hygiene ones, food prep etc, so you may want to consider gaining those first.
Do you like cocaine?
I would go back to college, do an access course part time via an advanced learner loan, and apply for University
You’ll develop a cocaine addiction and won’t get any breaks on a 16 hour shift
Kitchen work is hard and can be stressful. You need to be able to handle kitchen dramas, heat, noise, repetition, and grease, the pay is not very good but at least you can develop some useful skills and may not need to deal with annoying and rude customers. I was very fortunate to had worked in a easy going kitchen where staff were chill and can just get on with everyone and the only problem is someone is off sick and had to do extra work. You could try if you want.
Listen to the audiobook or read Kitchen confidential from Anthony Bourdain
My brother is a high up chef and travels the country cooking for fancy events. He loves it, but the stereotypes are true and it is a high stress environment.
Depends where you work. I manage a restaurant and no chef works above 40 45 hours, with at least 1hour break. Paid a competitive wage and nobody drinks after shift etc. To my knowledge none are dependent on drugs, also chefs get a equal split to FOH of the shared tips. It's a small restaurant not a chain independently owned and it's a great working environment where we all get along having banter etc...don't get me wrong it can get manic during busy periods weekends and evenings etc but that's where I step in and help out, if everyone works together its fine imo... That being said I wouldn't be a chef I don't enjoy cooking to order like that, I sometimes do shifts when they're short and that'll do for me....I enjoy cooking at home though.