I worked at a very prestigious, Michelin-starred restaurant. The food was art, but the restaurant was inside of a very prestigious hotel and budgets were very tightly managed. The chef was a very charismatic leader and we all followed him into “battle” each night - the kitchen brigade system is militaristic by design. Anywho… We were told that the restaurant couldn’t afford to pay us to do the amount of work needed to meet the very high standard of food we prepared, but we were committed to the mission. So, as hourly workers, we arrived each day and worked 4 hours without clocking in. When it was time to “start work” the first person who noticed would bang the heel of their knife on their cutting board. This non-verbal signal then saw us all silently pause our prep, we’d file into the hall one by one and clock in. We’d then work for our 8 hour shift and clock out… And then go back into the kitchen to clean and prep for the next day for another 4 hours.
8 hours on, 8 hours off. Each day.
This is a bad story. I have more and some that are especially violent. It’s an objectively bad industry, a part of me loves a lot of it, but it’s abusive, exploitative and overall bad for humanity.
I was a kid fresh out of culinary school, hired off an internship I was lucky to get, into one of the best restaurants in the country - “a career maker” as it was framed. The team saw themselves as artists performing at the highest level, it was only ever sold by the other, older cooks (who I instantly looked up to) as extreme privilege that I had to earn from them and from the chef (the hazing can be nuts in these kitchens as well, but that’s a different story…). It was made to feel like an honor to participate and you didn’t question the opportunity. The fine dining industry is very insular and the teams are small (we were dinner service only as is common many for fine dining restaurants, especially back then before the 2008 crash).
Another restaurant owner I’d work with eventually actually bought a small apartment complex next to his restaurant, basically poached an entire multi-Michelin starred kitchen from France to America and held them there as essentially indentured slaves looking back on it - kitchen to the apartment and back only or he held your immigration paperwork over your head and threatened to ruin your career in both countries - I was one of only two Americans in the kitchen so I didn’t have to experience that directly. He was eventually forced into “retirement” when several lawsuits for backpay and sexual harassment stacked up and became untenable for him.
You don’t have to believe me stranger, but you’re out of your depth here and applying your indirect POV to a life you know nothing about. This all absolutely happened, unfortunately, with several people in my life as contemporaneous witnesses. But you go win the day with your righteousness, friend. Tell us more about what fragile people in vulnerable situations and broken predatory systems “not having the wherewithal” should have done instead…
I worked at a very prestigious, Michelin-starred restaurant. The food was art, but the restaurant was inside of a very prestigious hotel and budgets were very tightly managed. The chef was a very charismatic leader and we all followed him into “battle” each night - the kitchen brigade system is militaristic by design. Anywho… We were told that the restaurant couldn’t afford to pay us to do the amount of work needed to meet the very high standard of food we prepared, but we were committed to the mission. So, as hourly workers, we arrived each day and worked 4 hours without clocking in. When it was time to “start work” the first person who noticed would bang the heel of their knife on their cutting board. This non-verbal signal then saw us all silently pause our prep, we’d file into the hall one by one and clock in. We’d then work for our 8 hour shift and clock out… And then go back into the kitchen to clean and prep for the next day for another 4 hours.
8 hours on, 8 hours off. Each day.
This is a bad story. I have more and some that are especially violent. It’s an objectively bad industry, a part of me loves a lot of it, but it’s abusive, exploitative and overall bad for humanity.
Claiming to work a 16 hour workday every day without having the wherewithal to start suing is a pretty bold lie, even for the internet.
I was a kid fresh out of culinary school, hired off an internship I was lucky to get, into one of the best restaurants in the country - “a career maker” as it was framed. The team saw themselves as artists performing at the highest level, it was only ever sold by the other, older cooks (who I instantly looked up to) as extreme privilege that I had to earn from them and from the chef (the hazing can be nuts in these kitchens as well, but that’s a different story…). It was made to feel like an honor to participate and you didn’t question the opportunity. The fine dining industry is very insular and the teams are small (we were dinner service only as is common many for fine dining restaurants, especially back then before the 2008 crash).
Another restaurant owner I’d work with eventually actually bought a small apartment complex next to his restaurant, basically poached an entire multi-Michelin starred kitchen from France to America and held them there as essentially indentured slaves looking back on it - kitchen to the apartment and back only or he held your immigration paperwork over your head and threatened to ruin your career in both countries - I was one of only two Americans in the kitchen so I didn’t have to experience that directly. He was eventually forced into “retirement” when several lawsuits for backpay and sexual harassment stacked up and became untenable for him.
You don’t have to believe me stranger, but you’re out of your depth here and applying your indirect POV to a life you know nothing about. This all absolutely happened, unfortunately, with several people in my life as contemporaneous witnesses. But you go win the day with your righteousness, friend. Tell us more about what fragile people in vulnerable situations and broken predatory systems “not having the wherewithal” should have done instead…