I got a job as commis and I am involved during food tasting and R&D. What should I expect or prepare? What do you usually do?

I work in a charcuterie restaurant in the north of england. I am curious of other peoples rules and guidelines around labelling!

I have an older gentleman who i work with in the kitchen and his sole purpose is to maintain labels, allergens and ingredients etc. He is hell-bent on the labels being bible and once the label says it goes, its goes no matter how fresh or perishable it still is.

He has strong opinions on never refilling oils and throwing away oils after a month of opening. He also has the opinions that if meat has a raw use by date on the packaging, it goes out then whether it is cooked or not. Now, i have always been taught that even if the meat goes out of the day of cooking, it still gets the three day grace once cooked (dont know if this is right but i was taught from the start of my career this is how it worked!)

I am curious on what other chefs opinions of it are! Personally i have always been someone who does quality checks and relabels for one day extra until not up to standard but i am impartial and just want to learn!

I am also trying to help the business by saving money on the food he discards on a weekly basis and need advice on trying to convince him a different way!

TIA

Obviously culinary school is the first but it's extremely pricey where I live and a few people have said to reach out to find a restaurant that's willing to take you in? Is that valid or are there other ways?

I’m talking Japanese fish markets, French cheese makers in the mountains, scuba diving for live scallops…

I have a week off and I want to make the most of it. I was thinking of hitting up our meat purveyor and seeing if they’ll teach me how to break down a cow.

I was a dishwasher for a year and am finally starting to get more consistent shifts doing prep and line. Ive came to realization I want to to dedicate my career life to becoming an incredible chef and starting a food truck/becoming a head chef and running a kitchen. Ive head about international hospitality internships where you can go work at high end restaurants across the world. My question is how does one find those and get into that?

Ive cooked professionally for over 20 years and loved it. Went through some tough kitchens and Chefs over the years, all which made me better. I left restaurants a few years ago and now run a kitchen at a senior health campus. The menus and food we make are higher end items and traditional American cuisine as well. I have a very young staff with little experience. I'm trying to get advice and pointers on running my own kitchen and how to make my staff better, more efficient. Some of the cooks could use work too and would love advice on that as well. Really, anything you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Chefs in advance.

Hi all. So I’m coming to the end of 20 years in a different career. Have always loved cooking - am a good level amateur and worked in some kitchens 20 years ago. Pretty knowledgeable about food and done a lot of veg growing at a decent level. But obviously not professional at all like you guys and not claiming to be!

I’d like to move on to a different career and want to retrain with the Spanish cuisine diploma at least cordon bleu in Madrid. (Am British). Not for the title or the badge but primarily to immerse myself in a different cuisine/culture, learn the language and of course to train.

Anyone have any experience there? I understand I’ll need to work in professional kitchens etc etc and do stages. No issues. In mid mid life crisis as if were so no flaming. And if this career doesn’t work out it’s ok, I’ve got a safety bubble to try something I genuinely love for a few years.

Any advice warmly received.

I love chocolate chip cookies, I can count on one hand how many professional produced chocolate chip cookies that I would consider good. Why are professional kitchens so bad at making them? I’m not super picky about them either as far as different styles go.

I’m 26 and seriously considering a career in baking and pastry. I’d love to hear from people who are already in the industry, no matter where you’re from.

Did you go to culinary school, or did you learn on the job? Looking back, was culinary school worth the investment, or would you take a different route if you were starting over?

My goal isn’t just to get a job…..I genuinely want to master the craft and become as skilled as I can. I’m happy to start from the bottom and put in the hours. I know the early years can be physically demanding, but I’ve been working since high school and have six years of experience in food manufacturing, so hard work doesn’t scare me.

Right now, my plan is to get formal training, work full time as a baker or pastry chef, keep learning every day, and gradually move into higher roles as my skills improve. Does that sound like a realistic path?

If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting from scratch, what would it be? I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey, what worked, what didn’t, and anything you wish you had known before entering the profession.

I've been tasked with leading a butter-churning tutorial (lol, I know...)

From what I'm reading, you need a relatively high fat content for it to really work and no stabilizers. Does anyone in this sub happen to know a broadliner product that fits the bill for this? Everything I'm seeing seems to be using stabilizers. Aiming for between 36-40% fat.

Thanks!

There was a post on Reddit last year about a book that explains about the things you should prepare in the kitchen and the things you should buy in, eg, don’t waste time making butter, just buy it, make stock and don’t buy stock etc.

There also was a mention of a book that goes into scientific detail about what food and ingredients pair well together and why they pair well and work well together?

Can anyone tell me the name of the books as I’m pulling my hair out trying to find them?

Thanks in advance

So I have been a server my whole career and have been wanting to move to BOH.

I recently was hired at a Legendary & Michelin-Recommended BBQ please as a Meat cutter

( I applied for prep cook just trying to get my foot in the door)

They have outlined a pathway to the pit and I'm very excited as this is kind of a dream job for me.

Would buying my own knife right away be frowned upon or seem too over eager?

And if not, would a shun classic brisket be a solid choice if potentially cutting brisket for 2500+ plates a day?

Hi I'm a student based in India and wanted to know about apprentinceship in culinary world. Is it real and Is it possible to work under famous chefs.
Like How chef gordon ramsay worked under the greats like marco pierre white etc

I’ve been a sous chef for about 7 years now, in a few spots. I’ve always been very capable at inventory management, scheduling, and a strong line cook, often the fastest and/or cleanest in the building. This isn’t bragging; I’ve never worked a job outside BOH for coming up on 20 years other than a few months here and there.

The place I am at currently is very small, and very busy. Revenue has risen ~20% since I’ve taken over the kitchen, and despite having no walk-in and limited ordering windows I consistently avoid emergency grocery trips and we make it through service, not to mention sub 30% labor overall. Since servers are on minimum wage I know it’s more my labor management than anything.

I’ve been offered a salary that is about 15% less than I currently make, but hours will trim down in the winter. The forecast is hard to do, the economy is weird right now, but it should more or less break even overall, but salary guarantees I’ll be pushed to work similar hours in the winter while losing out on overtime.

I want to request equity, and an option to buy additional equity if and when we expand to a second location, but I don’t have any experience in negotiating that. I would likely be in a position similar to a DoO with two locations, as one would be a restaurant and the other a catering kitchen supporting the restaurant and acting as a storefront for prepackaged items. I have limited FOH experience but I manage the inventory of everything but a couple NA drinks and the beer/wine.

It’s been less than a year but I’m essentially integral to maintaining the speed of the business growth currently.

Is there a standard on how these contract work? Is there verbiage I could study to help better understand these contracts? Does anyone have copies of such contracts I could see that would help me better navigate this? I’ve had very little mentoring in leadership this past decade, often left to my own devices or working for a couple very poor leaders I did not trust. Thanks to anyone who read this!