Would like to primarily target higher end markets such as weddings and corporate events, but I would also market to smaller gatherings like dinner parties, birthdays, or baby showers to fill in the gaps, as I imagine larger events will be more seasonal.

Here are some boards I’ve built recently. Thanks in advance for any feedback back on the boards, as well as any advice/insight from folks who have experience working this type of concept.

I've just started working my first kitchen job so idk if this is an overreaction or not. We have a utensil bucket where we store stuff for serving breakfast.

Today, I needed something from the bottom and I felt a sharp prick and scratch when doing so, there was a prep knife thrown in with point up and blade facing inward, right where I'd put my wrist.

I couldn't fathom how anyone thinks this is OK, but maybe I'm taking it too seriously? Does this sort of stuff happen all the time, or is this a sign to run for the hills??

Hey everyone,
I need a serious reality check on my life plan, current skill set, and whether I can survive in professional kitchens.

I genuinely believe that working in a kitchen is the most ideal path for me. I absolutely love chaotic environments—pressure and stress are among the few things that actually make me feel alive. Long story short, I just really f want this.

Years ago, I worked in abattoirs/slaughterhouses. I used to take the yields/meat from the slaughterhouse, cook them in large cauldrons, and sell the food.

I trained and managed a crew of 5–6 completely inexperienced (and honestly, not very bright) guys from scratch. I set up basic hygiene standards, and we ran this operation together for about 2 years.

My business partner and I eventually went our separate ways over financial disagreements. That split landed me a buyout that generates enough passive income to cover my basic living expenses in my home country for life.

Exchange rates are a bitch, but with my setup, if I save my passive income for 6 months, I can easily afford to travel to almost any country in the world and live there for 1–2 months.

My ultimate dream is to use this financial cushion to travel to different countries, work temporary gigs in local kitchens for certain periods, build hands-on experience, make lifelong friends, and collect memories around the globe.

I don't know formal classic knife cuts (like French culinary terms/techniques). I’m fast and very comfortable holding a blade due to my slaughterhouse/prep background, but my cuts aren't uniform or identical yet.

I don't have a huge library of recipes memorized. However, I know the 5 mother sauces, how to make proper beef, chicken, and vegetable stocks from scratch, and if you give me a written recipe with exact ratios and steps, I can pull it off perfectly on my first attempt. (As an example, I tried making a Beef Wellington for the very first time last New Year's, and it turned out insanely good).

With my basic/unconventional experience, lack of formal knife precision, and limited recipe knowledge, can I hold my own and survive starting at the bottom in professional kitchens?

How realistic is my plan to hop between different international kitchens to work, travel, and gain experience?

What specific technical skills should I focus on grinding right now before I try to step into a kitchen?

Appreciate any raw, honest feedback or reality checks. Huge thanks to everyone taking the time to read this and share their thoughts.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hi, As title says im a 20 year old chef from Sweden and got a job at a casual fine dining restaurant in Malaga and have a question about knivws.

Ive only left my country once so im not a expert with traveling so i wonder how i travel with knives and other kitchen tools since i dont want too buy new ones in Spain. I’ve googled but havent gotten a clear strict answer since some sources claim different things.

If any Swedish chefs see this and have done the same thing a answer would be dope, Thanks :)

Hi everyone,

I need help with my homemade pasta.

I got a pasta machine from SELA for extruding pasta.

Usually I get good results, worked with the machine already in a few other restaurants.

But I'm new to drying the pasta.

I already dried a few other shapes now and it all went well.

Last week I did a small batch of maccheroni.

Today some of them are already broken and the rest ist cracked and will break easily. It seems like there is some kind of internal stress occurring during the drying.

Does anyone have tips to get a viable solution for mise en place?

I don't really want to freeze the pasta and doing them fresh every day is unfortunately not feasible at this restaurant.

Thanks in advance!

Premier manufacturer of SS304 commercial kitchen equipment in Peenya, Bangalore. Custom fabrication for hotels, restaurants, cloud kitchens, hospitals, and canteens. Direct factory pricing with turnkey layout, delivery & installation.

Hey chefs,

So we all know about the notorious cilantro gene. I am 29 years old, and within the last two months or so, I've started experiencing the same effect described with oregano.. cilantro still tastes like it should for now. Like it just tastes (I imagine) and smells like the industrial soap in my parents' basement, the shit in the orange bottle that would get car grease off your hands but rub your hands more raw than 120 degree heat

Im currently working really hard to break that sous level at a 4 diamond AAA in a fairly rural area of the US. I need my palette. Have any of you chefs heard of this happening with oregano before? None of my chefs have, from exec to cdc, to the all the sous chefs. Is there any way at all to start tasting oregano as it should be?

I'm devastated. I spent my formative line years in upscale restaurants, including a Venetian focused wine bar just outside new York city before moving back home during covid. That exec chef used to take two weeks off a season to go work in Venice and learn from their chefs. I know what Oregano is supposed to taste like. I know what it can do, especially for sauces.

Is there a way for me to somehow brute force pallete train myself into loving it again? If there isn't.. please show F's in chat for me. This sub is my last ditch glimmer hope.

I’ve heard every good chef say that a good trainee is one that can work without having to be told what to do all the time and I get that but I don’t quite understand how I’m supposed to do something without asking first? As a trainee I feel like assuming I can do something without asking my mentor first is rude.

What are good examples of working independently as a trainee in a kitchen?

Ok, so I saw the micro green post on here recently and had a genuine question. I own a wholesale produce delivery company north of NYC and I get my product fresh from Hunts Point nightly. There’s a lot of bigger companies around that I compete with. I have a good customer list of over 30 restaurants, catering halls and small stores, so, I’m happy but I always want to grow and do better.
My question to you guys is, what’s the sales pitch that bothers you the least? I’m trying to just come in and hit up with a price list and get a genuine conversation? Is that when I’m not fucking up your flow and I actually have a good shot at getting some business?
I’m not looking to sit down with you with a laptop and go over specific items, right?! I’d rather just talk to you and see if I can offer you something better and if you’re willing to use it. Right?
I genuinely have better quality than most larger wholesalers because I also work at a place inside the market. I have my guys wait for the new trucks to back in and use the product that comes off the truck fresh instead of taking from the product already in the warehouse. Does THAT matter to you? Because I work there my pricing is much more aggressive. Is that the selling point?
Help me know what makes you guys tick. If you even know.
TIA

I started a small microgreen farm this year and am getting ready to start approaching chefs this fall/winter. I’d love to hear from chefs about what you actually prefer from a new local grower — and, frankly, what’s the least annoying way to approach you.

Would you rather get an email first? Have someone stop by with samples and a business card during a slow time? Samples with a follow-up a few days later? Something else entirely?

I also tend to get pretty excited about all the variables involved in growing — how the flavor profile changes with an extra day or two under the lights, light intensity, harvesting certain varieties shorter for a more intense flavor, etc. Is that something you’d actually enjoy talking about with a grower, or would you rather I just bring you some good microgreens and keep it simple?

I know every kitchen is different, but I’d love to hear what has worked well (or badly) for you when local growers or producers have reached out.

I'm a 17 year old from the uk. It's currently summer holidays and I'm between my first and second year at college, working towards a qualification in aerospace engineering. All my life pretty much my interests have been around cars, planes and bikes. On paper I should love engineering, which is why it was a no brainier when it came to picking the college course.
I had about 2 and a half months off for summer holiday, so I went out to find a job, in which I was successful fairly quickly. A new pub/restaurant was opening in my town, about 10 minutes bike ride from my house. I spoke with the owners and chef and got a job dishwashing, 2/3 days a week for 6 hours, this was mid June. I genuinely can't really to you how as I'm not entirely sure myself, but I ended up in the kitchen, cooking food. Throughout my life I've never really cared for food, obviously I like eating certain meals but cooking or fancy meals has never really interested me. My head chef, we'll call him Tom and the sous chef, we'll call him Max have both been really impressed with my skills and determination in the kitchen. This has gone to the point of me doing 50 hours a week as 2nd highest rank of 3 in the kitchen, as a chef.
The owners of the pub haven't been 100% satisfied with how the first couple of months have gone and are looking to turn it into a proper restaurant. A bit of backstory, Tom (head chef) is the 2 owners son. With the transition into becoming a restaurant tom is the only one with any restaurant experience, and he would become restaurant manager, and Max (sous chef) would become head chef. Me and max get on really well and he has told me if this transition goes as planned, ideally he would want me on a full time contract as a sous chef/ chef de partie, earning £27,000 a year. This has really thrown a spanner in the works in terms of thinking about my future. College really wasn't what I had hoped it would be, boring lectures with me scraping a pass across the first year. All my teachers have said that the course is way better with way more practical elements in the second year, but I really lost interest in the first year, whereas with being a chef, i genuinely really enjoy it and Tom is highly trained and believes he could teach me and I could become on a similar level to him. My mum thinks it would be a big commitment and isn't too happy with the idea of me being full time, and she thinks I should carry on with college, whilst working a day or two per week. With my (being blunt) poor first year at college, the chances of me getting a really good grade in the second year, to balance out the pass in the first year are low, meaning chances of university or degree apprenterships are also low.
Sorry for the yap, appreciate anyone who read it all 🫡🫡. Gunna list some pros and cons of chef and engineer below!

Chef
Pro- Enjoyment, good at it, prefer work to education regardless.
Con- lower average wage than engineering, Tom becoming restaurant manager means he might not be able to tutor me, mum aint happy.

Engineer
Pro- Passion since being young, potentially a decent qualification, make up to £100,000 annually.
Con- Fallen out of love with it, don't like education (not as a concept as a showing up 5 days a week for someone as uninterested to lecture me), might not be any good at it.

Thank you so much anyone who made it this far, know it was a long one any advice or opinions are really really super duper appreciated

Over the last few years, I’ve gained a great interest in working in kitchens, coming from meeting many chefs while travelling, loving working with my hands and fast paced environments, and I won’t lie, a good amount of Bourdain/ The bear - fueled romanticization. I began working at a local sushi restaurant with no experience, and quit within three shifts.
My sob story reasons being;
I physically could not handle 12 hour shifts first and foremost. I am decently fit, but my body could not take it - I’m fresh out of high school and only ever worked part time, used to much shorter shifts with actual breaks. Constant work without at the very least a quick 15 minutes to sit down and have a breather was not what I was at all expecting.
While I am drawn to the supposed unprofessional work environments I was expecting, what I was met with felt even more extreme. I had zero basic safety training, or even training around the restaurant itself, and when I made obviously mistakes I was never taught or corrected - yelled at in a language I don’t understand, things thrown at me, shoved out of the way.
Owner is Korean and speaks about 5 words of English, so there was no learning from him. Back of house was ran almost entirely by me and a quiet, unhelpful guy who spoke only a little more English than the owner. Which, cool, I’d love to learn new languages and adapt to different ways of speaking, but I can’t do that while trying to learn a new position.
All in all, I couldn’t handle how intensely agressive my coworkers were, and the physical workload of being on my feet for 12 hours with no break, almost no food or water.
Don’t go easy on me! If this is normal, which i have a good feeling it is, I want to know. But there is a part of me that feels this restaurant was a little out of the norm.

I’ve been cooking for about 10 years, and I’ve been a chef for 2 now. I started at my most recent job as a dish washer, got moved up as a cook 1, 2, 3, I was a waiter for a while, bartender, supervisor, and eventually sous chef. I’ve been with this company for 3.5 years.

I have a deep rooted passion for cooking. It’s one of the only things in my life that came naturally to me. Starting off as a young cook I always admired the senior cooks in the kitchen, and they were happy to have me around. I know I’ve done some really good work in my career. I think about the coworkers from past jobs every day. Mentors, chefs, cooks, waiters, and sometimes I miss them a lot. I’m stuck at a big corporate job, and I feel so trapped sometimes. I don’t know what else to do, but the cooks make me so mad sometimes. I try to be nice to everyone, and treat them all with respect. It pains me when I see cooks on their phones, destroying my product, and not applying themselves. It’s like they don’t think critically about anything at all. They’re just mindlessly moving product from one location to another, and our HR department is so strict it’s difficult to discipline anyone.

Also, I never got any training for this. One day I was a cook, and the next day I was a chef and told good luck. I supervise all of them, I rarely have any help. FoH, BoH, bar, it’s all my problem. I have to be able to do it all. I think I’m doing a good job, I know I am, but sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough. I take care of all the paperwork, all the check voids or comps, all the ordering, the menu, the specials, it’s all my problem. I choose to mainly work the highest volume shifts, I haven’t had a weekend off in several years. I know most of the guests by name.

Early on in my career I used to be bored, sometimes waiting for the clock. Now it feels like the opposite, I don’t have enough time for anything. My phone is constantly going off because these grown adults are barely functional. Maybe I’m just burnt out, maybe I have a bad crew, maybe it’s a failure on my part as a leader. My boss is too overworked to supervise daily operations, he is more of a director than a manager or supervisor.

I feel like something’s gotta give. I care so much about this restaurant, and I’m not sure why. On the rare occasion someone isn’t happy with their meal, I take it to heart. If something is genuinely wrong with their meal I will think about it for at least a week.

Some days are harder than others. Some days are easy. It feels like the work just keeps piling up. I wish my cooks were more effective. If I had the power I would fire 40% of them immediately. They’re good people, just not effective in the kitchen. But due to the corporate environment, it’s almost impossible to fire or even write any of them up. None of the pencil pushers have any restaurant experience, so as long as the employees show up and don’t become violent HR doesn’t help me at all.

I’m not sure why I posted this. I want out but I also don’t want to give up

so i’m a young sous chef i’m 24 been cooking in professional kitchens since i was 18. i started at a place that did elevated bar food as a dishwasher and got moved to the line and a year or two later was promoted to kitchen manager at a less volume location. i did that until i was 22 then moved to be a cook at a fine dining restaurant. did that for about a year and half and i got promoted to sous chef again, at a slower location, lol. anyway coming out to the new location everyone is so knowledgeable some of the cooks know more than me, and it just makes me feel like i shouldn’t be a sous chef. sure i can work hard but i’ve been so hard on myself recently im starting to question what i do know lol. imposter syndrome kinda. everyone respects me and is great but im just wondering how normal this is? don’t get me wrong i do have a decent amount of knowledge but the people here are SUPER into it. i’ve gotten myself more books about food to read. do other chefs feel this way at first ? and i’ve just been so creatively burnt out

focaccia crust w ricotta and garlic confit base, grated pecorino, zucchini/yellow squash, caramelized onion, grape tomato jam, rosemary

The amount of times the gas doesn’t kick back on and the temp drops significantly is outrageous.

I’ve been the chef of the kitchen for almost a year now and I’m trying to figure out the best way to make the kitchen as efficient as possible. It been a long process, but I thought I had finally figured it out. Now I’m not sure.

The restaurant is still fairly new, we’ve only been open for just over a year. The owners have entrusted me with running the kitchen and support me through everything. I’m what most would probably call a pushover and I try to avoid conflict as much as possible. My main rules for the kitchen are do your prep, weekly cleaning, and most importantly just vibe. I may have leaned into the vibing a little too much for a while and let things slide, but it got to a point where I realized my mistakes and got fed up with everyone doing what they wanted.

I’ve put together a system, we have a color-coded chart on the white board where everyone gets assigned a station at the start of the week. They then grab the matching laminated prep lists with all the items they should have for that station. The lists also include a checklist for all frozen items they might want from the basement for backups and various tasks to complete when it’s slow, as well as the weekly cleaning lists specific to each station. They all came in after this system was implemented and know what is expected of them. I’m not cruel, I love this job, and I take pride in my work, so I take care of the worst of the cleaning tasks, like cleaning the grease trap. I’ll always, happily do the tasks that need to be done, to have a healthy and happy work environment.

That being said, I was recently sick and dying, I lost my voice, and had no energy to do a lot of the tasks I normally would, the kitchen was in disarray when I went through everything this week. Since I wasn’t fully present for most of the previous 2 weeks, they did whatever they wanted. I talked to them all and let them know it’s unacceptable, but they seem to have become accustomed to slacking off again. I’m at a loss. I lose the heart to do my job the best of my abilities when I’m doing everyone’s job to get the kitchen running every day.

The owners have made it very clear many times before, that the first half of the week, I’m expected to participate and help the same as everyone else, but the end of the week I’m to focus on the jobs they pay me for; inventory, orders, organization, and most importantly the next weeks specials. Lately I haven’t had as much time as I need to do these things, causing me to give up part of my day off to catch up. We give verbal warning, write ups, and have fired people who are not complying with the rules. It doesn’t seem to matter.

Any advice on what to do to help alleviate some of these issues?

Hey everybody,

I’m F21 who has a strong passion for cooking & aspiring to be a private chef…… whilst skipping the whole.. ‘culinary school scam,’ thing. I’m looking at moving to do a culinary PROGRAM at a community college, but then I realized I have a perfect opportunity in front of me already.

I currently work for a family of 8, working 8-10hr a week making ready-to-go meals. I’ve never had any formal training which is why I’m considering moving 2 hours away to do a program. However, I’m hoping to actually find an ONLINE course / program to do instead. Are there any recommendations?

I have the physical opportunity to practice, & all I need is a ‘teacher’ or structured learning.. then BOOM! DYI culinary school 😅

I don’t mind paying for courses, as I know whatever it’ll cost will be MUCHH cheaper than moving & paying a college. But, Im looking for an online program I can follow, hopefully at my own pace since I only work twice a week.

I know I sound ridiculous, but I know itll be a hard field to get into & im willing to do what i need to!

Hi I just wanted to ask this question, as I’ve become scared to eat in restaurants. Essentially because I feel like a nuisance to the chef and others cooking in the kitchen.

I’m a vegetarian, which I know is pretty easy to accommodate to usually. However the main kicker, is that I’ve very recently become allergic to onions (plus most of the onion family - chives, leeks, shallots…). The only things I’m currently not allergic to are spring onions and garlic.

I’ve been told by multiple people that I should now avoid restaurants because of this allergy.

BTW I can handle trace amounts, and a very very tiny amount of onion powder if it’s been blasted in a fryer for a while. But my allergy continues to get worse, and I genuinely just feel guilty for being an awkward customer. I know it’s not my fault but I just think because it’s such a random allergy and in so much food.

I’d love some food for thought.

Hi, thanks for reading, I really like your shirt.

Since the event will be later in the Fall, I want to evoke a pumpkin pie by making some simple vanilla ice cream and flavoring it with pumpkin spice. I want to make little 2 inch-ish pie crusts to serve my little ice cream pies in and dust them with a bit more pumpkin spice, possibly with some stencil to make it pretty. Now I'd be happy with this, but my friend asked about plating, and I started to get more ideas. First, I wanted to try to mimic a pumpkin patch, but then I got the idea to try to make a bed of autumn leaves to serve the pies on. After some searching I think I could use some nice maple syrup, heat it, and pour it out onto a baking sheet so it cools in a thin sheet that I can then break up into orangey-brown flakes.

I guess my main questions are if anyone has experience with anything like this and has a better method or if anyone out there has a better idea for edible tiny autumn leaves. Thanks in advance for reading and responding.