r/linecooks

Current culinary student nearing graduation in late June. I have two interviews next week for line cook and oh boy am I excited. This will be my first official line cook position and both are for fine dining experiences. I’m proud of myself and wonder if you all might have some tips ?

Hello everyone I’m going to be a new hire at Cinemark and I was wondering if I could get some advice on becoming a line cook thanks.

Staging tonight for a line cook job at a restaurant in northern Chicago. The restaurant is more upscale than the places I’ve worked in the past. I’ve never done this before and I don’t know what to expect. I am incredibly nervous right now. I don’t want to screw it up because my buddy who works there also helped me to get the interview. Help!

I’m a line cook. I started my first line cooking job at 20 in 2021. Ever since I started, with my only kitchen experience being a few middle and high school culinary classes, I knew I sucked. Bad. I was slow, unreliable, stubborn, and I lacked confidence. Overwhelmed at the sight of a screen full of orders or a rail full of tickets. It would slow me down. I’d try to make everything at once rather than focus on three or so tickets at a time, which would bring everything to a halt. I got the axe at my second restaurant for my lack of experience. But above all else, I was hungry. I wanted to get better. Every single day. I didn’t always put in the effort, though. A lot of days felt like autopilot. Another service. Another day to get through. Same mistakes. Same bad habits. I eventually entered into a kitchen that had real chefs. The type that would make you nervous. Constantly analyzing. Always having something to say about how you’re doing things. That’s where I grew the most. Under the constant anger. The resentment that drove me to stop making the same mistakes as always, my way of saying “fuck you too.” I feel it’s kind of a shame I could never evolve through sheer willpower to be better. I only ever grew to make sure my chefs knew I wasn’t as bad as they believed me to be. It hardly worked. I did grow. I became more observant, more knowledgeable, and I raised my standards for myself and others. I’m not the same cook I was two or three years ago. I want everything done to the proper standards. I hate cutting corners. Whenever another line cook acts like this is just a paycheck to them, it makes me feel a certain level of disrespect. To the rest of us who do this because we love it. I understand I can’t be angry with them. Not everyone is here because they want to be. But I still flinch when someone tells me I should rinse my pasta, or not worry about keeping my station too clean. I internally shake my head when people cook things how they want, not how they were told to cook them. I want more. I want to rise up to the bigger ponds. Where I feel small but feeling small makes me want to climb higher than anyone could have ever expected me to. What do I do to make my breakthrough into a kitchen that is obsessed with their art? How can I continue to get even better, until the mediocre amateur cook I am today becomes unrecognizable once again two to three years from now? I’m becoming tired of casual dining. But I’m still not satisfied with my skill set to the point where I feel I’d make a meaningful contribution to those I look up to. I’m hungry, as always, but I’m stuck. Being a cook at whatever restaurant will hire me had its benefits for some time, but the standards are stagnant now and I’m not qualified to raise them as a line cook. I can’t tell the chefs how to run a kitchen because they’re much more experienced, and it would be arrogant of me to do so with my barely almost five years of experience as a line cook, and no significant talent to show for it. All I currently have is heart. Dedication to the craft, a willingness to be better, but no real ability to create art and manage cooks the way chefs do. How can I get better from here? What can I do to break my own mold?

As i’m looking towards the future I’m considering going to culinary school after completing undergrad. Cooking seems to be the only thing i’m passionate about (i’ve tried almost everything) and i don’t really enjoy the work that comes with my major.

I’m not primarily driven by money alone and purposeful meaningful work that I enjoy is much more important, however, I’m very scared to make the decision between pursuing the corporate world or the culinary world.

My goal would be to work in a Michelin restaurant, but from what i’ve read online i’d have to give up my relationship, family and all free time in order to pursue this route. I’m very close with family and friends and I have an amazing girlfriend and I would hate to cut everyone off.

I would like honest opinions on whether my assumptions are correct, whether there’s any way I could balance my social life and work life and finally how I could make a more informed decision.

Looking for advice on ticket sequencing and managing flow during busy services.
I work with a cook who frequently works out of sequence, which throws off timing and prioritization on the board. During a rush, there’s usually not much I can do besides adapt and try to keep us from getting buried.
For those with more experience, what techniques have helped you in situations like this? Have you found effective ways to manage the board, communicate priorities, or recover when timing gets off? I’ve heard of some cooks intentionally pushing certain tickets ahead to reset the flow — curious if anyone has strategies like that or other methods that work well.

Appreciate any advice.

I am trying to figure out if I am just shit and can't do my job or if the kitchen sucks or and I am being set up for failure and can't win no matter what I do because I am the new guy. Im somewhat early in my kitchen career but have worked in kitchens for a few years and do have some education in this feild so when I started this new job a week and a half ago at a newer place that is pretty in my wheel house so I thought I would be all good but so far I have been told I've basically only been fucking up. When I'm working the line I am doing okay/am progressing well with my training but with prep I can't win. Someone says make item A with the recipe in the binder , I grab the recipe I check in say is this the one? they say yes, I go and make it and turns out it was the wrong one. I make item B according to the recipe and I'm told its not the result they wanted and I am a cook and should know how to tweak it to be right for what they wanted. I make item C accoridng to the recipe and let the lead try a bit and they say add some of this so I do , lead says yup great, later I am scolded for not following the recipe exactly. I go to make a recipe , half way through one of the cooks training me comes over says oh its good now dont add the rest of flour or it'll be too dry, its finished as is this recipe is kinda like that, I go okay we try a sample trainer says thats good, I go to put it away and guess what 30 minutes later I am in trouble for it being wrong. I keep getting different information from everyone training me, I am instructed to do what I am told exactly and only that and to ask everyone questions about everything but then by someone else told that I need to be independent and figure out what to do on my own and not ask questions. I have never had problems like this in any restaurant or even any job that I've worked before and I feel like I'm going crazy. I'm having a very hard time figuring out if this is more so standard and I am in fact the problem and I just need to lock in and figure it out like everyone else does or if this is a bad situation I am in and I'm getting bad training setting me up to mess up. Any advice, thoughts, just anything would be super helpful to hear.

Hello all,

I’ve got a really solid state cooking job interview lined up and I’m stressing a bit about how to handle one of my last kitchen jobs on the exam/background stuff.

The kitchen was honestly toxic. The owner constantly talked down to the staff, everything felt Jerry rigged and unsafe, and on top of that I ended up with pretty bad arm/nerve pain from working there. I tried pushing through it, but eventually my arm got so bad I called before service and quit on the spot. He offered me a couple weeks off to recover, but I declined because I knew my arm needed more than that and I already wanted out of that environment.

Later I filed a workers comp claim because my medical coverage had been canceled and I couldn’t get treatment otherwise.

Part of what bothers me is the pay situation too. I was there 7 months, never got a raise, then out of nowhere the owner hired his buddy at $10 more an hour and suddenly the guy was bossing me around on the line. Tips were terrible too, slammed nonstop and walking with like $15-$25 some nights.

I honestly need to use this place as a reference because it’s only one of two restaurants I’ve worked at, and it was the only kitchen where I was literally the sole line cook. For basically 7 months there was nobody else there to even cover me!

My concern is whether I should even list this place, because I’m worried the owner could be vindictive since I quit suddenly, and filed a claim. I wasn’t trying to screw anyone over, my arm genuinely was wrecked and I knew I couldn’t keep doing it.

What would you guys do in this situation? Should I just not put their phone number down?

I’ve never made meat loaf. I want to make one.

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