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should cooks be allowed free employee meal

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I have 5 years experience as a cook. Some jobs you get free food, some discount, some nothing at all. My last job I got free food, but no breaks so I never had time to actually eat. I lost over 20 lbs working there, and I was already skinny. Being a cook at chain restaurants sucks in my experience.
 
PaddyOCanager said:
I have 5 years experience as a cook. Some jobs you get free food, some discount, some nothing at all. My last job I got free food, but no breaks so I never had time to actually eat. I lost over 20 lbs working there, and I was already skinny. Being a cook at chain restaurants sucks in my experience.
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Couldn't you just take the food home at the end of your shift?
 
When you work in food service you have to be there early to prep the ingredients to be made into meals, then you obviously not only have to work through meal time but also the cleanup after mealtime. If you get a break anywhere in there it is not going to be some hour long lunch break where you can easily head off somewhere else to eat. It just makes sense to let the employees eat there since they have to be quick. That also allows them to better know the food they are serving if they are ever put in a situation where they have to answer customer's questions, and helps them care about keeping the kitchen and all equipment nice and clean. If you work long shifts where you have to prepare for dinner it's an even worse situation in terms of getting a proper break. Nobody is going to have you leave for 2-3 hours and come back when you could be helping with after lunch cleanup and dinner prep.
 
pro_gamer666 said:
No you won't. Cooking is simple, you follow a recipe. Any monkey could do it (figurative of course, not literal). They are not expressing any degree of creativity. I can cook as good as any Food Network star.
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Astrodocpan?
 
I worked for a while in a breakfast place where presentation was key. The waitresses had to share their tips, because it was such an integral part.

We also had free food until it became a 50% rebate. But who care when I can make THE BIGGEST PANCAKES IN THE WORLD WITH NUTELA AND STRAWBERRIES.
 
pro_gamer666 said:
I can't even express a fucking opinion on measly cooking without being considered a troll. Maybe I should just cock my cock and shoot myself.
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Why do you care if people think you were trolling? It shouldn't have much impact on your life.
 
pro_gamer666 said:
I can't even express a fucking opinion on measly cooking without being considered a troll. Maybe I should just cock my cock and shoot myself.
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this shit's getting too strange.
 
I'm going to say this again, if you're a cook by profession, and you don't find a way to eat
whether that's allowed or not by the establishment
you're doing it wrong.
 
Kurdel said:
I worked for a while in a breakfast place where presentation was key. The waitresses had to share their tips, because it was such an integral part.

We also had free food until it became a 50% rebate. But who care when I can make THE BIGGEST PANCAKES IN THE WORLD WITH NUTELA AND STRAWBERRIES.
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I must know where this place is. I need nutella.
 
PaddyOCanager said:
I have 5 years experience as a cook. Some jobs you get free food, some discount, some nothing at all. My last job I got free food, but no breaks so I never had time to actually eat. I lost over 20 lbs working there, and I was already skinny. Being a cook at chain restaurants sucks in my experience.
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this is a common scenario im sure. Cooks often time spend the entire shift on their feet. In this i think the employee meal is deserved at least.
 
I think it's a great idea and managers should openly allow it; if they don't, it'd happen anyway, but this way, they can more easily account for stock and people will think it's a nice perk.

My only concern with it is that people should not eat while on their shift. On a break, sure, but while working it should really be avoided when possible for sanitation reasons, depending on the food of choice.
 
Most places I know of, allow it (hotel ,restaurants,..).
Sometimes just 30 minutes, others 1 hour. Depends on the rush.
 
bangai-o said:
the kitchen i work with has 6 cameras watching for if the cooks are eating btw.
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The cost of maintaining those 6 cameras is probably higher than the food that may be eaten by employees. Sheesh.
 
bangai-o said:
this is a common scenario im sure. Cooks often time spend the entire shift on their feet. In this i think the employee meal is deserved at least.
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In most privately owned establishments, you will not get a designated break. You can of course arrange with your co-workers to cover you while you go take a smoke outside or something. In a corporate owned place like a big hotel chain, you'll get designated breaks. I got a 30 min. break at a hotel I used to work at, as well as insurance and all kinds of other benefits. But working for a privately owned restaurant has its perks as well: it's a lot less formal, you can pretty much fuck around all day (as long as you get your shit done) and if you're at a right place you'll actually feel good about the food you're making.
 
pro_gamer666 said:
No you won't. Cooking is simple, you follow a recipe. Any monkey could do it (figurative of course, not literal). They are not expressing any degree of creativity. I can cook as good as any Food Network star.
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You must be 12.
 
agrajag said:
In most privately owned establishments, you will not get a designated break. You can of course arrange with your co-workers to cover you while you go take a smoke outside or something. In a corporate owned place like a big hotel chain, you'll get designated breaks. I got a 30 min. break at a hotel I used to work at, as well as insurance and all kinds of other benefits. But working for a privately owned restaurant has its perks as well: it's a lot less formal, you can pretty much fuck around all day (as long as you get your shit done) and if you're at a right place you'll actually feel good about the food you're making.
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I found that this situation doesn't really apply in Canada. Most private establishments do have designated breaks as it's strictly mandated by law.

On the other hand, I've never seen Chinese restaurants offer breaks...
 
pro_gamer666 said:
Fuck me? Fuck me?

Hey, pal...FUCK YOU!

I say what I want when I want, my opinion is my own.
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2qbb2uh.gif


YES.... YES!

/grabs popcorn

Also, that's a bad tagline if you want to be tagged with it.
 
SRG01 said:
Haha, I had a feeling that it would be France or Quebec. Wish I spoke better french :(
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Hey, if you ever come to Rimouski, you won't need to speak French to eat these crepes.

Magic carpet rides notwithstanding, I can show you a whole new world.



EDIT: Regarding gamer666 in general:

Dis-Gon-B-Gud.gif
 
SRG01 said:
The cost of maintaining those 6 cameras is probably higher than the food that may be eaten by employees. Sheesh.
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Yeah. Nobody has ever stolen large amounts of food and cases of beer and other things form a kitchen. They aren't there to prevent people from eating.
 
pro_gamer666 said:
Fuck me? Fuck me?

Hey, pal...FUCK YOU!

I say what I want when I want, my opinion is my own.
Click to expand...
and my opinion is, fuck off, or don't, I don't fucking care about your opinion.
 
Let the employees eat cheap stuff like pasta free, so they won't try and take the more expensive steaks, shrimp, lobster, etc. At least that's how the higher end places I've worked always saw it. Especially dishwashers, the philosophy was always yeah they get paid like crap, but you make sure they're well fed.
 
I think so. I've never managed a restaurant and I'm aware that it could become a very costly practice, but ideally, yes.

When I worked at Mellow Mushroom for a year, 2006-2007, we could have whatever food we wanted if we worked a shift. If I came in at a random time, there would just be an employee discount. I no longer work there, but a friend does and I heard that the policy has changed to be always employee discount and never free. I think it changed in 2008. I'm not sure, but it probably wasn't corporate policy, probably a store owner decision.
 
Its up to the employers, I've worked in a lot of restaurants; Some places let you eat all you want, some people restrict you even nibbling on scraps.

One thing I'll say though, if you are giving the cooks a free meal you'd better be prepared to give the rest of the kitchen and wait staff some grub too.
You can't expect the cooks to be sitting there chowing down while the dishwasher and waiters don't get shit.
 
I ate the most when I worked at a hotel. There'd be a lot of walking around and transporting speed-racks and hotboxes from one kitchen to another. Go to the garde manger and get fed a sandwich, go to banquet kitchen A and eat a chicken breast, go to a banquet plate-up and eat a salmon filet smothered in buerre blanc that was left over in the hot box.
 
max_cool said:
and my opinion is, fuck off, or don't, I don't fucking care about your opinion.
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If that's the case, how can you expect anyone else to care about yours?

Incoming, "I don't care if anyone cares about my opinion".

That, sir, would include yourself. I maintain that what they provide is simple, though can be distressing considering the workplace situation.
 
Kurdel said:
Hey, if you ever come to Rimouski, you won't need to speak French to eat these crepes.

Magic carpet rides notwithstanding, I can show you a whole new world.
Click to expand...

Wait, really? I thought Quebec outside of Montreal was all francophone. That, and Rimouski is hours away from Quebec City.
 
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