The family meal @ work

I couldn’t agree more.
What is put up for the family is representative of the preparers abilities.
It’s a shame more people don’t feel the same way.
We have all worked in a place where it was an afterthought and usually disgusting.
Luckily, where I work, the philosophy agrees with coolname.
So, thank you to all the cookers who care!

I agree it is important to have good family meals. For starters, it encourages teamwork between the front and back of the house, and puts people in a good mood before service.

The problem is, where I work, there is such a high workload that on some prep-heavy days, family meal is forced to be an afterthought. It’s very hard to put time and love into family meal when you’re scrambling to finish all your prep before service. Some people might say, “That’s no excuse,” but when you’re neck high in various prep items, that family meal now becomes a huge pain in the ass and it’s in my best interest to find something quick and easy to make. It doesn’t mean my family meal will be inedible - I do make sure sure everyone is at least well nourished, but it’s not going to be the tastiest thing you’ve ever eaten. This happens about 1/5 times I am responsible for family meal.

Of course there are other issues that causes family meal to be not-so-great on a given night. For instance, my chef rarely orders anything specifically for family meal, so proteins aside from two day old fish that needs to be used up are hard to come by.

So family meal,,,

I have made family meal at many diffrent restaurants, and Done some really nice stuff and people hated it and done some crap and they love it.

My problem is knowing what people want, i ask them any i always get the awnser “whatever.”

It needs to be fast, last for about 30 to 40 people some times more, and be good. I do not like to make Mamma sysco food, I dont want to expose the staff to that. My rule #1 is do not give them anything that i would not eat.

What to make?

I will tell you what I do if you tell me what you do.

It’s hot, it’s free, some one else cooked it. If you do not like it go F*** yourself.

If a good cook has time he will put something up that will rock out, that same cook might have a crazy day of prep work so one pot Scott shows up. He wants to do some thing awesome but it is just not possible.

Then there is the other people who just do not care if you eat anything.

I like to put out for employees a crazy amount of different good stuff, if they eat hot dogs, it is a hot dog buffet.

I was the chef at some well known place many years ago, and I will never forget that when they interviewed me for the position, they didn’t offer me dinner. I was coming from a sous chef position where I was given not only dinner, but a room for the night during that interview process.

People, like businesses, either have hospitality in their nature, or they don’t. Some people are naturally great lovers, others just never catch on. It’s part of our personalities. I can’t even begin to tell you how different those two employment experiences were. Where I was a sous chef, everyone was genuinely consumed with wanting to please, and it was reflected in the morale and team unity of the staff. Where I was the chef, no matter how well known the business, customers were numbers, and employees were numbers. This was also reflected in the morale and team unity of the staff.

The long and the short of it is simply that some people feel a need to please, regardless of circumstances. These people make the killer staff meals. They also are at a serious advantage when it comes to getting ahead in their careers. After all, it is the hospitality business.

Just to chime in about family meal. Those of you who don’t give a sh*t about cooking a good meal -leftover fish with pasta and a sauce of ketchup and mayo ring a bell? You might as well stick with what you do best - act like a little bi$ch and keep complaining about how underappreciated you are.

Family meal is ideally meant to bring staff together everyday to build a bond but let’s be realistic. Most everyone who eats family meal is either trying to save money, was running too late to bring lunch or a combination of both. Of course people interact but family meal can be a clicky time too. The few times I can honestly say that there were no groups were when the meal was great. Maybe the chef took a little extra time to prep a mexican theme meal. Maybe it was a really good pasta dish - even a suped up version of an old favorite like chicken parm - who really gives a sh*t if it looks like whoever cooked it took more than 38 seconds to make the meal AND it tastes good. Point is, if your BOH staff doesn’t care enough to make a good meal (hell, we’ll take halfway decent) then the one and only message being sent is “f-off and when you bring back the filet that is OC, don’t worry, I won’t give a sh*t about that either, you know why? Because I’m not the one dealing with the people. ” Hey, guess what? I already know that - jackass. Just don’t expect me to give a sh*t when you come in on a first date and the meal sucks - now you know how we feel.

Got to admit, there are still a few cooks/sous chefs out there who really do give a crap about what is served at family meal. What these restaurants/hotel kitchens need to realize is that the FOH and BOH staff do not need a GREAT meal that takes a couple of hours to prep. Something tells me it can be done with a little bit of organization. Hey why not boil the pasta alongside the other sauces? Why don’t I put some burgers on the grill while i prep this station? While I’m making this sauce, why don’t I just batter these chicken tenders and fry ‘em up? We all know that family meal is not a four course splendor but these restaurants that continually cheat their employees are not making friends.

I understand that family meal is a perk and although it normally tastes like the bottom of my shoe, I still eat it and thank the guys in the sweltering kitchen for it (except for the days I bring steak bombs). I do believe that most cooks, if they had the time and tools, would cook a very passable family meal and this blog would be non-existent but the reality is just as we all say - the cooks are brought in right when they are needed (to keep payroll at a feasable amount) and if work needs to be done early (excluding kitchens) the FOH staff is brought in at $2.63 and hour and told to get ready because opening sidework has expanded today.

Indisputable fact of the day - most restaurants cannot afford to add payroll, especially expensive hourly payroll like cooks, etc. Just like in the real world, what used to be an 8 person job is now done by 5 at most and still needs to be done in the same amount of time. Me thinks we need to get more used to pasta with ketchup and mayo. Just cover it with enough salt to change the entire flavor!

For those of you who acknowledge “staff meal” as a perk I would like to thank you for your understanding. I’ve worked in alot of places where there was no staff meal, yes that’s right, noo staff meal. Most of these places didn’t even offer a discount for employees ordering off the menu. In fact the first time I worked in a place that did a staff meal and watched the sous pull together some leftovers and serve the staf I thought “Wow what a cool idea”. For those of you crying about one or two bad staff meals, why don’t you call your mommy, maybe she can make you up a grilled cheese or something.
In the real (and by that I mean white collar) world “regular” folk with “real” jobs don’t ever don’t ever complain about a bad staff meal, why becaUSE just like when you were in elementary school unless you were on the “free lunch” program you brought your lunch or your milk money and took care of it yourself, like every body else.
for soo many so called “adults” to have somehow missed some of the most basic life skills we were all taught as toddlers is kinda disturbing to me.
thinking that a restaurant or any other food service venue should automatically feed you FOR FREE just because they happen to sell food for a living(or profit) is like thinking that because you work for a car dealer you automatically get a free car just for showing up to work.