This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2008.
To all waiters complaining about tips:
I don’t think you realize how good you have it. If you are a waiter working in a nicer restaurant (by that I mean something other than Pizza Delight) and you think you have a rough time when you have to tip out, let me introduce you to the cook’s side of
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Dude, you can’t make less than the waitstaff, they make min wage. I don’t think even dishwashers start at min wage in most places. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and thrown on an apron and wait some tables, ha ha.
If you’re a cook working for “wages much lower” than the mininum wage servers get, perhaps it’s time to turn in your apron. And please don’t forget that the server who is tipping you out has to give you that cash whether the customer has tipped them or not. I certainly hope that your food preparation skills are higher than your level of empathy for co-workers, who just happen to be also giving you tax free income.
Cooks and chefs are the heroes of the service industry, especially in the upper echelons of culinary enterprise. I never understood work ethic until I started in a kitchen… I reccomend it to anyone who wants to learn what it really means to work hard.
You’re so right, OP. Us cooks work much harder (in general) than the servers at my work. We have a higher wage, but when a server has a good tip night, they are making more than us. That’s why I have been trying to get the fuck out of the kitchen and in the dining room more often. I love my occasional serving shifts.
Really? I have yet to meet a cook that makes more than floor staff do, or a cook who doesn’t complain. It’s a tough job and it makes even the happiest people very fucking cantankerous. New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, big concert, doesn’t matter, forget your plans, you’re working. Dishwasher calls in hung over, you’re staying late. Burned your hand? Have fun with that in the middle of a rush grabbing something out of the steamer. If you’re working nights you’re sleeping until 2 in the afternoon, and any friends you have that work day jobs, you lose touch with. The only thing to do after work is drink or eat, because it’s late. That shit takes its toll after a while, unless you’re lucky enough to work days doing prep and lunch. All that said, the wait staff who’ve been posting here bitching seem to be new to their jobs, or they wouldn’t complain about simple tasks that are a basic part of the job. Picking up dropped food and wiping tables and not getting tips from some customers is the reality of working the floor in a restaurant.
Best bitch I’ve read in a while. I’ve worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant, and I don’t even know how the chef did it but he worked 12 hour days sometimes in the blistering heat. My job wasn’t much better but it was for a much shorter period of time. He gave me some good advice; don’t become a chef.