After 25 + years in the industry I have come to a few conclusions;
Never touch another chef's knives!
There is no such thing as a day off!
Mother's Day is hell on earth!
Don't get me wrong, I love my mother and I am very appreciative and thankful for all she does and had done. I think every day should be mom's day; but in the restaurant business it has a different meaning for me.
Many times in my years I have worked the open to close on Mother's day, the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry. Not only have I worked doubles but I have worked the two busiest positions for each of these positions when doing doubles; eggs in the morning and broil/grill at night. Working at a busy chain restaurant, Milestones (exclusive to BC only at the time) so many years ago, in the late 90's, I was tasked with working a double, and asked at the last minute too! Where a typical sunday brunch at the time would be a $5000 morning (average breaky back then was between $8 and $10) a mothers day we would be looking at around $8000 to $10,000 between 10 am and 3pm. The night time on a busy night would be around $7000 in sales but on Mother's Day it was closer to $12,000.
Now I know you think ok, so your really busy but lets break the numbers down further for the brunch sales.
$9000 = Average Mothers Day Brunch food sales
$9.00 average meal price
1000 meals served
10am to 3pm is service time = 5 hrs of brunch service
1000 meals / 5 hrs = 200 meals an hour
200 meals per hour / 60 mins = 3.33 meals a minute
ideal ticket times is 7 to 8 mins - but Mothers Day is about 12 to 15 due to volume
15 mins x 3 meals a minute means you have 45 meals to pump out in those 15 minutes.
Believe me this is not fun or easy!
Dinner was not much different than brunch in the respect of craziness, and the truth is for the first 3 hours all I did was poach eggs and make 2 or 4 of everything and waited for the finisher to call for something and i would cross with the item. I never even looked at the ticket. Even during night shift on broil.. I would have on 3 or 4 steaks for each doneness, if a rare wasn't selling for long enough i would make it sell as a medium rare instead, same with the other donenesses. This system is not easy to do especially trying to avoid any waste; I had to have complete control over my grill and the hot zones and holding/resting zones of my charbroiler, and was absolutely vigilant at making sure no one touched a thing on my grill, they were not allowed to take or add to my grill without my permission, not even the head chef would have the balls to mess with my grill.
I took complete ownership of my station, no matter where I was in the kitchen because I was a perfectionist and did not want anyone to disrupt my flow of the system I had in place. Once I noticed it was starting to slow down with tickets coming in I would ease back on the loading of the station.
I would start my day with purchasing 4 or 5 gatorades and end the day guzzling the last one down around 8 or 9 pm, drenched in sweat, I would have changed my uniform at least twice. Management would have ordered pizza for 3pm and 10pm for the staff to have something to eat; most of the time pizza would be gone before the main line guys would have a chance for a piece so I would have a steak that would be a casualty of the loading of the grill, there is always one or two that fall through the cracks but a manager would usually have it so as not to count it as a loss. I would tell them I am having a steak or whatever was left over and it would be on them as I was doing a double shift for them. They would moan and bitch and I would not care most of the time. I once had a manager (Pat W) argue with me over a skewer of prawns and that he wanted me to pay for it, I caved and did but I would make it very clear in the future that any favours I do for them would cost a full meal and 2 beers after work on the house, plus my overtime wage.
After 20 years I still remember the feeling and anxiety of working these shifts, the adrenaline rush, the sweat, the intensity, the overwhelming feeling, the feeling of accomplishment when it was over, and the exhaustion at the end of the day; and after all that I would do it all again.
Now a few pet peeves and things needing to be cleared up on Mother's day.
1. Everyone is in a rush, not just you so sit and wait your turn and your table will be ready when it is ready.
2. Clearly we are busy so no you can not get your meal faster.
3. The server has more than one table and you are not more important than any other table, it may take 5 or 10 minutes before your food is rung in so when you say it has been a long time for your food, get a grip relax and it will be up as soon as possible.
4. Dont exaggerate waiting "an hour" for your food, we can tell exactly how long it took to make and send out to you.
5 Always make a reservation for Mother's day at least 2 weeks in advance. DO NOT CALL IN ON MOTHER"S DAY looking for a reservation as I will laugh at you and hang up.
6. Tip your server extra well on Mother's Day as we are all sacrificing time with our mother to take care of yours, show us some respect.
7. WE ARE NOT BABY SITTERS. YOUR CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE RUNNING AROUND THE VERY BUSY RESTAURANT. KEEP YOUR LITTLE MENACES AT YOUR TABLE!
8. Don't be an asshole and complain for the sake of complaining! Have some common sense, we are busy, if we see steam coming off your food it is still hot, don't say it isn't just to prove a point.
9. If you have a legitimate complaint we will gladly fix the issue but nothing is instantaneous but please know your complaint if legitimate will be taken seriously and made the top priority in the kitchen.
10. Smile and be polite, we do remember who you are if you have a shitty attitude and you will get bare minimum attentiveness back in service.
Dinner was not much different than brunch in the respect of craziness, and the truth is for the first 3 hours all I did was poach eggs and make 2 or 4 of everything and waited for the finisher to call for something and i would cross with the item. I never even looked at the ticket. Even during night shift on broil.. I would have on 3 or 4 steaks for each doneness, if a rare wasn't selling for long enough i would make it sell as a medium rare instead, same with the other donenesses. This system is not easy to do especially trying to avoid any waste; I had to have complete control over my grill and the hot zones and holding/resting zones of my charbroiler, and was absolutely vigilant at making sure no one touched a thing on my grill, they were not allowed to take or add to my grill without my permission, not even the head chef would have the balls to mess with my grill.
I took complete ownership of my station, no matter where I was in the kitchen because I was a perfectionist and did not want anyone to disrupt my flow of the system I had in place. Once I noticed it was starting to slow down with tickets coming in I would ease back on the loading of the station.
I would start my day with purchasing 4 or 5 gatorades and end the day guzzling the last one down around 8 or 9 pm, drenched in sweat, I would have changed my uniform at least twice. Management would have ordered pizza for 3pm and 10pm for the staff to have something to eat; most of the time pizza would be gone before the main line guys would have a chance for a piece so I would have a steak that would be a casualty of the loading of the grill, there is always one or two that fall through the cracks but a manager would usually have it so as not to count it as a loss. I would tell them I am having a steak or whatever was left over and it would be on them as I was doing a double shift for them. They would moan and bitch and I would not care most of the time. I once had a manager (Pat W) argue with me over a skewer of prawns and that he wanted me to pay for it, I caved and did but I would make it very clear in the future that any favours I do for them would cost a full meal and 2 beers after work on the house, plus my overtime wage.
After 20 years I still remember the feeling and anxiety of working these shifts, the adrenaline rush, the sweat, the intensity, the overwhelming feeling, the feeling of accomplishment when it was over, and the exhaustion at the end of the day; and after all that I would do it all again.
Now a few pet peeves and things needing to be cleared up on Mother's day.
1. Everyone is in a rush, not just you so sit and wait your turn and your table will be ready when it is ready.
2. Clearly we are busy so no you can not get your meal faster.
3. The server has more than one table and you are not more important than any other table, it may take 5 or 10 minutes before your food is rung in so when you say it has been a long time for your food, get a grip relax and it will be up as soon as possible.
4. Dont exaggerate waiting "an hour" for your food, we can tell exactly how long it took to make and send out to you.
5 Always make a reservation for Mother's day at least 2 weeks in advance. DO NOT CALL IN ON MOTHER"S DAY looking for a reservation as I will laugh at you and hang up.
6. Tip your server extra well on Mother's Day as we are all sacrificing time with our mother to take care of yours, show us some respect.
7. WE ARE NOT BABY SITTERS. YOUR CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE RUNNING AROUND THE VERY BUSY RESTAURANT. KEEP YOUR LITTLE MENACES AT YOUR TABLE!
8. Don't be an asshole and complain for the sake of complaining! Have some common sense, we are busy, if we see steam coming off your food it is still hot, don't say it isn't just to prove a point.
9. If you have a legitimate complaint we will gladly fix the issue but nothing is instantaneous but please know your complaint if legitimate will be taken seriously and made the top priority in the kitchen.
10. Smile and be polite, we do remember who you are if you have a shitty attitude and you will get bare minimum attentiveness back in service.
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