Restaurant Drums

A fancy restaurant with some fancy rules, this is what i felt when i trailed at one of the restaurants in new york city. It was a restaurant (which i would not like to mention here) that has got a name with spanish speaking immigrants working long hours. It is hard to believe in this time and age when slavery has been a word of the past is clearly being carried on by having cheap labour.
As i walked into the restaurant i was asked to wear the uniform and was assigned a station (remember this was a trail to know the flow of the kitchen), I was being called at by every cooks in this restauarant to help them with their preparation. I was willing to work, but never expected it would turn out to be a bad experience after all. I walked into the kitchen at 10.30am and started to work. I was not informed of a lunch break that they had so that i could have lunch. The chef calls me for a interview into his office at 6.00pm, questions asked were what was my visa status, this was a question to judge if this person he was interviewing was for cheap labor or if he had to pay normal wages. As i am a international student (which he presumed i would be), i told him the fact as the government allows me to work on a OPT (optional practical training) status for a period of 1 year he just got his break. He tells me that i will be informed of the position that will be available via e-mail or will have the chef de cuisine inform me in the night. Once i was done with the interview i saw him walk upto the chef de cuisine and tells him something and walks away. At 8.00pm i told the chef-de-cuisine i need to leave, as i had no means of transporation and had been working straight without food for 9.5 hours, but guess what he tells me, if i needed a job i needed to wait until 10.00pm. At about 9.00pm i get the results of this gruelling day, he tells me that i will be offered a position of butcher and my wages would be 10.50 per hour. This caught me by surprise as this was direct exploitation of labour. As i had applied for a position of mid managerial level which would be a demi chef. Getting to know that i was being taken for a ride made me understand that there is no value for educated and experienced people. It just matters if you are a american you get the previledges that every american gets, and if you are a international candidate you are considered to be a payed slave.
PURE EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR IN A RESTAURANT THAT IS ZAGAT RATED.

A days experience shared

As the day begins, at 5.00am in the banquets, there are three cooks and one supervisor who does the breakfast. The breakfast includes, hash brown potatoes, scarmbled egg, crispy bacon and burritos. On a typical day, there is one cook handling the scrambled eggs and potato and another handling the crispy bacon and burriots. This is in co-ordination with the garde manger which has its mis-en-place ready for the sandwiches which are soft tortilla's applied with mayonnaise and filled with mixed lettuce and then it is drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. They are individually filled with turkey and ham. They are tightly rolled inside the tortilla flour. It is cut into two equal pieces in a bias and place in to go container's. This is generally depend on the amount of order placed from for the day from the management.
Once the breakfast is picked up there is a total sanitization process that takes place. Two cooks are generally assigned the task of sanitization. Once cook goes around with a soap filled red bucket and a scrubber to clean away the residues that is left on the tables and counter tops. The next cook has a sqeeze to clean away the soap and the residue into another container. Once the tables are ridden of any soap and residue it is then cleaned with sanitizing solution, this process is repeated every tow hours. The buckets are labeled with time that the last sanitization process took place. So everybody, is well aware of the time and when the next cleaning is due. Once the cleaning is complete the supervisor checks the parties (booking) for the shift, he get's what is called as a master sheet. Once he is confirmed about the parties that are gooing to take place that afternoon, he assigns duties for the cooks on a chart. This includes the timing and the amount of people. It also indicates the no of people for the party. If the party is going to be plated or buffet style (including the special requests). Once this is put up on the chart then the supervisor, calls all the cooks of the banquets which includes the garde manger to attend the standup (briefing). The supervisor explains the layout of the party for the shift and the mis-en-place that needs to be ready.
He also makes sure to explain individual jobs and the deadlines for the job to be done. Once everybody is ready with their assigned duties and it's ready for service, the supervisor makes sure all the utenesils and equipments are working and the cooks would not have any problem once the service flow starts. If the party is a pre-plated request, the hot boxes are bought to each station and also there is a count on the hot boxes that goes for each party, in the cold kitchen there are cold boxes provided by the steward's. Once the hot boxes are ready it is plugged in and the conveyer belt is turned on. The hot plates are placed individually on the conveyor belt, there are about five cooks assigned for one conveyer belt. Each cook has assigned duties when the plate comes to them, it is differentiated by starch, protein, vegetable and sauce. Each person is assigned each duty. Once the plate is all set, it is placed on the table so that every other plate that follows are the same as the one approved by the chef. At the end of the conveyor belt there are stewards, who clean the plate and cover them, and they are counted. These are then staked in four's and then set in the hot box with labels on the door of the hot box telling how many plates are in one hot box. Once the day is come to a close the fridges and walk-in's are cleaned thoroughly and labeleld individually with the date and also the time. There are HACCP (hazard analysis critical control point) being followed in all steps of operation on a day to day basis. The final job of cleaning and labelling has to be approved by the chef who, walks through the kitchen and makes sure that it is according to the health standards.