r/Chefit

I’m a Chef de partie starting my first contract as a commis chef on a European river cruise soon.

Anyone here worked on river cruises before? What should I expect from the kitchen and living onboard? Any advice for a first contract would be appreciated.

I don’t have any experience but I wanna take cooking classes and just to learn cooking for myself. Anyone else have this internal conflict and follow through?

Is starting as a dishwasher the best way? Work my way up slowly or would anyone hire an 18 year old without higher education as a line cook

So this is something I have talked about with my boss, one of my coworkers is not paying attention to anything.

If you stand in her way, or she needs something beside you. She will go right into you, I have tried this so many times. At some point, after she had pushed me into the counter I just stood still and just looked at her? Like what the fuck are you doing?

She looked at me, and said “is something wrong”?

My boss says it’s just how she is, and yes it’s annoying. She has her head in the clouds (my boss’s own words)

She has been working there for years, and i have always been kind to her. But im afraid that im going to crack, because it’s have been like this the hole summer. And most times I would move away from her, so I could do plating in peace. Without her pushing to me or walking into me, but my legs are still full with bruises after this summer.

Any advice for someone like me, to deal with someone like this?

Hello all,

Hoping this group may be able to help me figure out how to move forward. I've been planning a weekend getaway at Lake Anna VA on the 22nd for my best friend's bachelor party. He's a huge fan of fine dining, so a private dinner this Saturday was going to be a highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, our provider cancelled on us at the last minute.

Any advice on the best ways to go about finding an alternative option on such short notice? We're going to be in a somewhat rural part of VA 2 hours southwest of DC (Lake Anna), so the options I've been able to find online are already somewhat limited.

Thank you!

Hi,

So i am from the UK. I would like to get into the culinary industry.

I cannot afford culinary school so I thought to develop professional kitchen experience through restaurants. I plan to try and get a kitchen porter role however, I am not sure how I could get one with only volunteer experience at community kitchens. I do hold a certificate of food hygiene and safety.

I am not sure if this works but I was thinking of walking in to restaurants locally and asking the manager or chef if they need extra help in the kitchen/ have a kitchen porter role needed. But I feel like I would be rejected either way with this approach especially given job markets these days.

Most local restaurants open at 5pm and I’m also worried about the dinner rush and disrupting the service.

If I do not managed to get a kitchen porter/dishwasher role I am also not sure what to do, as I don’t think volunteering counts as kitchen experience.

Just a cook trying to max out on the lit that inspires me: looking for books where food is treated more like a character, a relationship, than an ingredient.

Already blown through our lord and saviors, Bourdain and M.F.K. Fisher’s bibliographies.

Hey Ya'll, I've done a lot of testing with olive oil based dressings and they keep breaking after going into the walk in. I'm curious if people have any ideas? Seems like the olive oil when it get's cold and then comes out of the fridge doesn't like to stay together. I don't want to use a different oil. Have tried more mustard/xantham gum. Any ideas? was thinking about getting ultra tex.

I’m a teacher who will be doing traveling knife skills courses for high schools in my area. This means I will be bringing 10-15 knives and cutting boards from school to school from my own suv. I have my own classroom of all my regular classes kitchen gear already, and want to avoid schlepping those in and out of their cages every time, so my school will be purchasing new knives and cutting boards specifically for these traveling classes. And because this is meant to be a proper/professional class, I don’t want to use thin plastic or bamboo cutting boards. I want the students to get the full experience. So I’m planning on using the 1/2 inch thick poly boards.

What do you think would be a good way to store and/or transport these cutting boards so they have airflow around them and are more or less protected from the outside? The only thing I can imagine is something that looks like a hotbox with rungs for the boards. Is there a better solution that doesn’t just stack them in a bus tub?

Hello I'm a 21 year old kitchen helper from Italy.

I usually help with washing the dishes and appetizers but when the restaurant is busy I help with only the appetizers.

I started this june part time 7 hours a day 5 days a week. Meanwhile I helped during sundays for 12 hours circa from May.

There are 4 types of appetizers.

Cheeses with marmelades/ honey

Pickled vegetables with a mix of cold cuts

Crostini Mix

Appetizer mix (a mix of all the three above)

I have only a oven grill that I can use for the Crostini and many times there are more combos of appetizers so it usually is enough.

Today there where so many appetizer that I couldn't be phisically fast enough and the chef had a breakdown, not with me, but she was rather sad.

I had too many of them and 3 tables had to wait a lot of time (45 minutes circa).

Every appetizer I start making/ putting in the oven is signed with a dot on the order paper and when I send them out I cancel it with a slash too so I can keep track of them.

We usually have 80/90 people per dinner these weeks.

Is it because I'm slow at this point or do you think there are other problems?

Tomorrow I will ask what I can do to improve but in the meantime I wanted to hear other opinions. if you have any suggestions it will be greatly appreciated.

P.S. The kitchen staff is composed of:

A dishwasher (not me these weeks)

A first courses cook which is also the chef

A second courses cook

A second courses helper

An appetizer "cook" which is me

Hey everyone,
I need a serious reality check on my life plan, current skill set, and whether I can survive in professional kitchens.

I genuinely believe that working in a kitchen is the most ideal path for me. I absolutely love chaotic environments—pressure and stress are among the few things that actually make me feel alive. Long story short, I just really f want this.

Years ago, I worked in abattoirs/slaughterhouses. I used to take the yields/meat from the slaughterhouse, cook them in large cauldrons, and sell the food.

I trained and managed a crew of 5–6 completely inexperienced (and honestly, not very bright) guys from scratch. I set up basic hygiene standards, and we ran this operation together for about 2 years.

My business partner and I eventually went our separate ways over financial disagreements. That split landed me a buyout that generates enough passive income to cover my basic living expenses in my home country for life.

Exchange rates are a bitch, but with my setup, if I save my passive income for 6 months, I can easily afford to travel to almost any country in the world and live there for 1–2 months.

My ultimate dream is to use this financial cushion to travel to different countries, work temporary gigs in local kitchens for certain periods, build hands-on experience, make lifelong friends, and collect memories around the globe.

I don't know formal classic knife cuts (like French culinary terms/techniques). I’m fast and very comfortable holding a blade due to my slaughterhouse/prep background, but my cuts aren't uniform or identical yet.

I don't have a huge library of recipes memorized. However, I know the 5 mother sauces, how to make proper beef, chicken, and vegetable stocks from scratch, and if you give me a written recipe with exact ratios and steps, I can pull it off perfectly on my first attempt. (As an example, I tried making a Beef Wellington for the very first time last New Year's, and it turned out insanely good).

With my basic/unconventional experience, lack of formal knife precision, and limited recipe knowledge, can I hold my own and survive starting at the bottom in professional kitchens?

How realistic is my plan to hop between different international kitchens to work, travel, and gain experience?

What specific technical skills should I focus on grinding right now before I try to step into a kitchen?

Appreciate any raw, honest feedback or reality checks. Huge thanks to everyone taking the time to read this and share their thoughts.

Hey y'all,

I'm looking for recommendations on a propane grill and a smoker to serve ~100 people working in a remote exportation man camp in the middle of no where Alaska.

I use a classic charcoal Weber at home, but need something bigger and propane to accommodate this size camp. I would prefer to stick with Weber, but any other recs would be great.

Also, I am leaning towards a Pit Boss smoker based on some friend's opinions, but I'm not familiar with many smoker brands/set ups.

Any help y'all could offer would be appreciated, thanks!