food service workers - Discussion Encouraged!
Posted by carrot_wench on Sep 18, 2007 · Member since Feb 2007 · 2080 posts
Who here works/has worked in food service?
Any interesting stories/complaints/rants about the job?
More importantly, how does your lifestyle mesh/conflict with your job?
I worked for about 5 years at a Country Kitchen (family-style breakfast-all-day sort of restaurant), and am now in my fourth year working at one of the dining centers here on campus. With both jobs, I've had to prepare meaty items, as well as wash all their disgusting, bloody remnants in the dish room. While I would love a job that didn't involve all this grossness, I've stuck with it because of the decent pay and convenient location. I also don't feel that it makes me any less of a vegetarian for willingly participating in these jobs. Any thoughts on that?
I worked in a couple different food service jobs when I was younger, and for a very short while at an Arby's, which was nasty, especially on grease trap cleaning day.
It is a lot of hard work, but when I was a dish boy, I learned about the importance of work, and I also learned how much humans waste. It was also my first time dumpster diving - free dinner!
When I was about 17 I worked in the patient serving kitchen at Mary Hitchcock Hospital at Dartmouth College. Spent all my time playing practical jokes by manufacturing booby traps for my fellow workers out of gross waste food. My favorite was filling silverware bags with grape juice, gravy, etc. and allowing it to ride up eight floors on the "return" side of the treyveyor (a tray elevator). They would get to the top, flip over and fall multiple floors down the shaft. If I was lucky they would slam into a tray just as a white-clad tray carrier placed a used tray in for return to the kitchen. What amazing slop-shrapnel they would create.
Man, did they ever hate me.
I work in food service as well. My boss owns two fast food locations (that his grandfather started) and is about to open a third. I run both of his locations with managers underneath me in each. We don't have much in the way of vegetarian options and sometimes it really bugs me that I support such an industry but my boss wants to move on and sell these locations and do something else. Knowing that it won't always be like it is now keeps me motivated. None of my employees understand my veganism though
I bring in snacks all the time for them and they devour them every time
I worked in the food industry at one time. I was teased about being a vegan and working at Burger King. Like I care what they have to say. And supporting means buying stuff from there not working there.
I worked at a Roy Rogers on the NYS Thruway one year. I hated it. Working the 3-11 shift I was often times the only person doing the cooking for a lot of the night. When it got busy instead of my supervisor helping me she would be outside smoking a cigerette on her 15 minute breaks, which strangely enough I never got because I don't smoke. Whenever someone would complain about a hamburger being too pink or something (seriously it's Roy Rogers and the thing has been on the grill for a very long time a little pink isn't that bad, and no special orders, it's Roy Rogers) I would burn it until it was as hard as a hockey puck. Luckily during my meal break I was able to make my own salads. I wasn't vegan at this time, but I did do all the cooking and knew what not to eat. I can't say it had any effect on my becoming vegan, but it did begin my gradual departure from fast food.
I work in food service as well. My boss owns two fast food locations (that his grandfather started) and is about to open a third. I run both of his locations with managers underneath me in each. We don't have much in the way of vegetarian options and sometimes it really bugs me that I support such an industry but my boss wants to move on and sell these locations and do something else. Knowing that it won't always be like it is now keeps me motivated. None of my employees understand my veganism though
I bring in snacks all the time for them and they devour them every time
Wow man,
You serve death on a plate everyday for profit! To fatten your own personal wallet. Let me ask. Is there is not 1 single other job you can get in your area that does not involve animals being slaughtered for human profit and gain? Your oen personal profit everyday comes from the death of other living things. Shame on you. Shame on you secondbase. How DARE you call yourself vegan. You are the furthest thing from it! it has nothing to do with you being a nice guy or not. It has to do with you personal choice to continue to profit and draw a paycheck that comes directly from the suffering of farm animals. For evey vegan dish you create or eat, you probably serve 100 or more plates full of meat. Again I ask, there is not one single job you can find where you live that does not cause animals to suffer?
TROLL
TROLL
TROLL
DO NOT FEED THE TROLL
OK...ummmm...I think that was a little unnecessary! if you disagree with someone you can tell them in a better way then "shaming" them!
I'm sure the veg*ns that work in the food industry don't want to be feeding the masses with our animal friends! It's not like they are saying they love dead animals and look forward to seeing them served up as food everyday. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do--if working in a restaurant was the only thing paying my bills, hell yeah I would keep it--how is it benefiting animals or other veg*ns if I'm homeless? I'm sure when these veg*ns get the opportunity they share the concepts of our community.
crustytheclown-you're welcome in our community, but please try to be more polite in the future.
OK--crusty I take it back--you're not welcome here.
again, I will warn everyone to NOT FEED THE TROLL.
a troll, by the way, is someone who intentionally stirs up drama in forums like this, by making personal attacks in the hopes of getting angry or defensive responses.
do not feed the troll, and he/she will get bored and find another forum to bother.
*sigh*
and I just wanted a little intelligent discourse....
again, I will warn everyone to NOT FEED THE TROLL.
a troll, by the way, is someone who intentionally stirs up drama in forums like this, by making personal attacks in the hopes of getting angry or defensive responses.
do not feed the troll, and he/she will get bored and find another forum to bother.
*sigh*
and I just wanted a little intelligent discourse....
You're right Carrot! I was tyring to be accepting of a new member--but since they seem to be more interested in engaging in hostile behavior I will digress. We can continue this thread w/o acknowledging the troll.
I worked in the food industry for years--everything from fast food to fine dining. I can honestly say that working in them made me really hate waste! And watching people eat is the grossest thing ever! I am so glad I don't have to work there any more--and I feel really bad for those that still do. Any kind of customer service job always sucks!
Any good stories anyone?
Thanks, admin person!
and now, storytime, kiddies...
this summer, the dining center got a few new cookbooks and were in the stages of testing out various new recipes. I found a stack of xeroxed copies at the cook's station in the kitchen for recipes that were going to be tested within the next couple of days, but which hadn't had the ingredients measured and weighed yet. I read through and found two otherwise vegan recipes that called for chicken stock and worchestershire sauce, respectively. I quickly grabbed the stack of post-its and wrote two notes which I then stuck on the recipes before putting them back in the pile: "Sub veg. stock for chx stock" and "Sub soy sauce for wrc. sauce"
I have no idea if these recipes made the cut and are being served, however, because I'm not working back in the kitchen this semester...
i worked as a breakfast server for many years, and man, watching the era of the "fatkins" diet blossom was pretty nasty. nothing like bringing out multiple side plates of bacon, sausage, and ham...for one person to eat...i still don't understand how people ever thought the atkins was a safe or healthy diet.
i also first learned about the dangers of aspartame while i was serving, and a *conscious* friend and i wrote little notes all over the sweet 'n low packets: "danger - poison - educate yourself" things like that. hee. only a couple people ever said anything, and though we were usually shrugged off, i recall seeing a few concerned looks.
Thanks, admin person!
and now, storytime, kiddies...
this summer, the dining center got a few new cookbooks and were in the stages of testing out various new recipes. I found a stack of xeroxed copies at the cook's station in the kitchen for recipes that were going to be tested within the next couple of days, but which hadn't had the ingredients measured and weighed yet. I read through and found two otherwise vegan recipes that called for chicken stock and worchestershire sauce, respectively. I quickly grabbed the stack of post-its and wrote two notes which I then stuck on the recipes before putting them back in the pile: "Sub veg. stock for chx stock" and "Sub soy sauce for wrc. sauce"
I have no idea if these recipes made the cut and are being served, however, because I'm not working back in the kitchen this semester...
this is what i was going to talk about. even though you are serving meat that people would eat no matter what you are able to have apositive influence on the people who eat there and the institution. i am very non-wasteful so i try to waste as little as possible (if someone else worked there, they wouldn't care so much about it and more would be wasted-- not just food but other things, less seran wrap, more recycling...), also if the customers ask you about what they can eat as a healthy choice you can say something along the lines of the plant based you are a vegan... blah blah. ALSO... i don't know how many of you work at places that can fudge a little bit and do some subbing but a few of the cooks at my job know that i enjoy things being vegan so when i am there they won't put chicken broth in the soup or egg noodles in the dish.
I waited tables all through college and grad school...Denny's, upscale seafood rest., Barnes and Noble cafe, and the best/most interesting was a bar that was owned by the deli next door. We served breakfast, lunch ,and dinner...real food, not bar food.
I was also working when the Atkins craze started. At one place, we actually had a "low carb" feature everyday. Most days it was a kielbasa (?) and a pork chop with a side of lettuce. Gross.
I think Barnes and Noble was the worst. We had a low carb cheesecake. This man would come in AT LEAST once a week and order 2 slices of it. Yeah, it only had like 5 carbs per piece, but each piece had 37 grams of fat!!! Then there was the "Frap family" (aka fat family). I know it was mean, but so were they!!!! They would all order Venti Frappacinos (500+ calories) and cheesecake! If you skimped on the chocolate or the whipped cream, they would yell at you! The best was the drink my bff and I deemed the "Lardo-cino." This lady ordered a Venti Iced Breve (Iced half and half with 3 shots of espresso :P) with extra whipped cream!!! DISGUSTING!
I have to stop. I loved waiting tables, but I have waaaayy too many stories.
i put myself through college waiting tables, mostly at a very non-vegan french restaraunt. even dated one of the chefs for two years. i never thought it made me any less vegan.
i do, however, think it made me not too keen on eating out in restaraunts. those "a" ratings are such a sham! and you haven't seen chefs prepare food until you've seen french chefs prepare food. that whole 'washing the hands' thing--- not so much. :P
Ugh, I worked in fast food for.....about ten months. They started doing roasted chicken. Those whole chickens on skewers in front of a heat lamp, spinning. Yeah.....I wouldn't do it. Someone else always did. When they started to put the pressure on for me to do it, I quit. In my eyes it wasn't worth it, and all of the meat-preparing things made me uncomfortable, so to be fair, I should have been in a different job altogether.
And the crazy thing....I would see families come in THREE times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the American miliary overseas, so they have fast food on the bases to accomodate them. I can understand how you miss something that reminds you of home, but three times a day?!?! In Belgium, THE CAPITAL OF HAUTE CUISINE! It was maddening. No wonder the nation has a weight problem.
I haven't eaten fastfood in about 4 years after reading Fast Food Nation, and I definitely cite that job as one of the worst I've had. But I really wish the United States as a whole would get off the whole fast food band wagon. Its so incredibly bad, on so many levels- health, economy, international reputation, farming practices, not to mention animal rights!
There was this once story that was pretty funny. One time someone in drivethru pressed the alarm button by accident. It wasn't me though.
And there was this cop who always came in for lunch. Another cop came in talked to him and the cop who always had lunch there came up to me and said,"Are you being robbed while I'm sitting here and eating?" ;D ;D
And the crazy thing....I would see families come in THREE times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the American miliary overseas, so they have fast food on the bases to accomodate them. I can understand how you miss something that reminds you of home, but three times a day?!?! In Belgium, THE CAPITAL OF HAUTE CUISINE! It was maddening. No wonder the nation has a weight problem.
But I really wish the United States as a whole would get off the whole fast food band wagon. Its so incredibly bad, on so many levels- health, economy, international reputation, farming practices, not to mention animal rights!
Is it just me, or am I the only one kinda offended by this generalization?? :o I'm an American. I am a proud serving member in the United States military. I hardly ever never (even when I was an omni) eat fast food. Not everyone American does. And even though I am extremely healthy and physically fit through regular exercise, I probably hold an extra 10lbs of weight that I shouldn't. And it doesn't come from deep fried fat cheese-stuffed cow burgers. Thank you very much.
I worked at Outback Steakhouse for 2 years. That was super fun. I do remember being totally creeped out by the rare meat all around me, but it was the best serving experience I've ever had. I've also worked at Subway for 2 years, Noodles & Company for 3, and McDonalds for 2 days. Out of all of these places, Noodles was really the only place I could comfortably eat vegan. I mainly did saute line, so i got good with using non-dairy sauces, and making my own raw bowls to make sure there was no cross contamination.
And the crazy thing....I would see families come in THREE times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the American miliary overseas, so they have fast food on the bases to accomodate them. I can understand how you miss something that reminds you of home, but three times a day?!?! In Belgium, THE CAPITAL OF HAUTE CUISINE! It was maddening. No wonder the nation has a weight problem.
But I really wish the United States as a whole would get off the whole fast food band wagon. Its so incredibly bad, on so many levels- health, economy, international reputation, farming practices, not to mention animal rights!
Is it just me, or am I the only one kinda offended by this generalization?? :o I'm an American. I am a proud serving member in the United States military. I hardly ever never (even when I was an omni) eat fast food. Not everyone American does. And even though I am extremely healthy and physically fit through regular exercise, I probably hold an extra 10lbs of weight that I shouldn't. And it doesn't come from deep fried fat cheese-stuffed cow burgers. Thank you very much.
I agree, it's not our whole country. A lot of people here really don't eat a lot of fast food, but are overweight for other reasons. It's kind of hurtful to make a generalization like that. And we're not the only country with McDonald's in it either....We've got a lot of people, and thus we've got a lot of problems
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