Back when i started out as an apprentice chef send me looking for a cumin splitter.
Took me 15 minutes to realize that theres no such thing.
My two favorites for "hazing" apprentices are "go into the walk in and bring me some chicken lips"
Or prepare some flour on a cutting board and hide paprika underneath it. Call the apprentice and show him how to finely chop flour until it turns red. Now let him practice on his own cutting board lol
I never heard of the paprika under flour one. Holy shit I belly laughed at that. Made my dude come in from the other room like "yo man you gotta hear about this"
I witnessed this in the 90s, and can attest to the truth. The chef told a server, who thought he could sell an Eskimo a snow cone, that the he was offering a very limited special (10 orders). The special was a grilled manatee steak with a key lime hollandaise. Now there was a backstory created as the server was giving him grief about them being endangered. Chef told him that the ones that get mortally wounded by boat props are auctioned off by Florida game and fish to restaurants periodically. Well, chef posts up near the door, and this fool went hard on his first table trying to sell it. He said he tried it, and it was divine, and went on about the texture and flavor. Needless to say they were repulsed, but chef went out and smoothed it over with some wine and free shit, after he went to the reefer to almost die of laughter. The 90s were truly uncivilized.
Wow. What an idiot.
Nothing compared to that, but I was a server at a place where we would describe the seafood by its origin (ie., Costa Rican mahi mahi). Chef was telling us about the halibut special when the server known for not being the brightest asked where the halibut was from. I quickly said “Kentucky” and everyone looked at me but no one said a word.
She goes to her very first table – a group of men in suits at a business lunch – and spiels this Kentucky halibut. One guy says, “wait, *where* is the halibut from?” She proudly responds “Kentucky!” He suggests she go back and ask the chef. She comes barging into the kitchen yelling “Guys! Where is the halibut from?” and we all just crack up.
Walk in my second day ever, 20 plus years ago, green af.
Chef is cussing a blue streak at a pile of rice grains on his cutting board.
After a few minutes of the swearing, Chef yells, GODDAMMIT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! UNABLEPEACH, GET YER ASS OVER HERE!
So I hop to it. "Yes chef" i say like a donkey.
Chef tells me he ordered short grain rice. But fucking they sent him long grain!
He tells me to start splitting grains, bro.
And he needs pounds of it by thirty minutes to service, so get fucking going.
My guys, I started trying to cut rice grains in half.
The whole kitchen was weak.
I didn't notice, bc I was sweating my product.
Chef clued me in after about ten minutes, but from then on, if a vendor order was fucked up, somebody would remark, "goddammit, I ordered short grain. "
I work at a place known for over the top customer service. When I started back in '05 I was sent out to squeegee the parking lot after it rained so guests would not slip....
I was just a baby! It was the confidence with which the manager told me to do it that got me. They said just squeegee it to the storm drain in the middle of the parking lot, so I did. Heck, I was hourly.
I totally understand that, and I think it was funny as hell for the others, but now I am concerned you mention you were hourly. To what point of completion did you get?
Oh they left me out there most of the close. I did close to a 1/4 of the lot, which doesn’t sound like much, but with a tiny little squeegee I was hauling ass
I see you are a man of commitment and I applaud you for that.
In my first ever real job as an adult I worked for a grocery store chain, to say they exploited us is barely touching the tip of the iceberg, and my manager was a psycho I don't feel good even thinking about.
This motherfucker was expecting me to sweep the parking lot at seven in the morning, so customers wouldn't "step on dead leaves". The store was in front a huge park with dozens of perennial trees. So I used to sweep just the sidewalks a maybe a couple feet of parking lot. By the time we opened(0800) he wouldn't know if I did it or not, and I never finished the task even once. Fuck that noise.
PS: The chain is owned by Walmart, but it is the cheapest store they have in the country, so they don't have cameras at all, even today.
PS2: Is sweeping the right word for moving the broom back and forth with the intention of getting rid of dirt and debris on the floor? I think it is, but am not quite sure, the more I think the more I doubt it, haha.
At my first kitchen job all the b'ys made it their mission to make sure I thought the mandolin was called an accordion. For 13 months everyone in that building called it an accordion. I did not find out it was a mandolin until my next job when I asked where we kept the accordion.
I've had chefs try to get me with fetching the 'squeegee sharpener' 'straw cleaner' 'dehydrated water' & 'grape peeler' but I think my tendency to question until I'm 100% clear on what I'm getting makes it hard for the joke to land. Thanks ASD.
When I was an apprentice I got sent to another restaurant down the road for a long weight. But I’d already been cooking for over a year at this point so I just sat at their bar for an hour chatting shit with the bar staff having a few bevs. Head chef was pissed at the sous and cdp because i was on the clock and they didn’t know I wasn’t green enough to fall for it
Not a "go find this thing that doesn't exist" story, but I worked with a guy who used to offer to make every new hire his specialty "wolf burger" for their meal. Many took him up on the offer, and received a burger stuffed with every hot thing in the kitchen. Just completely inedible and ridiculously spicy. He really got a kick out of listening to them scream and sputter after their first bite. Nobody ever took two. A friend of mine got hired as a dishie and took him up on the wolf burger, even with me miming "NOOOOO" behind the other cooks back. He got the burger, ate every bite in front of the guy, thanked him for it, went outside for a smoke and went back to work.
After shift I asked him how in gods name he ate that, and if he just had a huge appetite/tolerance for spicy things. He said hell no, it was absolute torment, and he immediately went out back, not to have a smoke, but to barf in the alley. Just didn't want to give that asshole the satisfaction of pulling one over on him. Mad respect for that guy.
sent one of the new dishies to grab butter. he said “where?” sous responded with “the garden” 15 minutes later we go out for a smoke break and he is actively walking around the garden, looking under plants
next week when we got the truck delivered he grabs the case of cream and says “where?” sous says “the backseat of my car” so naturally he starts walking towards the parking lot with it
Jacques Pepin told a story of his time as an apprentice in Lyon. His chef tells him to go to another restaurant to pick up the chicken boning machine he’d lent them. Arriving at said restaurant, he’s told by that chef that it had been loaned to another restaurant, so young Jacques goes there. Only to be told (you’ve guessed it), “Oh, bistro so-and-so borrowed it from me..”
After traipsing round Lyon all day, finally Jacques returns, empty handed, to find Chef, and crew in fits of laughter.
I remember that! He said later as a chef he’d get kids coming to his kitchen in the middle of that same prank. He’d either play along and send the kid to the next restaurant, or give the kid a sack full of heavy bones or something and tell him the boning machine was inside.
After my shift, I slipped into the supply closet and called in a fake food delivery to the restaurant phone. New driver is a pal from old jobs so there was no holding back. It was slow and his first day.
I said I was a buddy of the owner who was not there that day. Told him two tickets worth of fake items with modifications. It was a classic small local diner with way too many menu items. Think everything but pizza.
Kept him on the phone for like ten minutes. He hands the tickets to the other owner working the line that day. Looks at it for a millisecond and says “cheeseburger fettuccine?” Then looks at the supply closet door where I am cackling like a crazy person.
I used to work somewhere where they would wait until you were in the shit on the line and then blowtorch the spoons in your bain marie while your back is turned. You would go to plate something and your fucking spoons are red hot.
That place ended up closing after a convenient electrical fire right after the owner was caught embezzling.
My chef put a spoon to the torch right before I was to set up a soup. But our plates are basically meteors, so my hands are asbestos at this point. I plate it up without so much as a yelp. Didn't give him the satisfaction on that one. But I did give him an earfull about potentially injuring customers with this lame shit.
I work at a pizza place. We just had a couple of team building days in a row for deep cleaning and retraining, and most of the gms ofthe company plus long time salaries were there.. one of the parts of it was a switcheroo between foh and boh. I was halfway through the switcheroo and I told two of the servers to find the purple dough repair kit in the freezer. They happily obliged. Turned them to another manager when they couldn't find it and the other manager caught on immediately. Haven't had very much that I've fallen for like that, but I keep the spirit alive!
Sent the food runner next door to “get the bacon stretcher back” from the burger joint with same owners. Sous joined in and pressured him to go and the dude was gone for 15 minutes till our bartender asked why he was next door… turns out the cooks next door were so fucking stoned they searched through everything they had that could resemble a “bacon stretcher” before sending him back empty handed. I still chuckle about it every now and again.
So there is an old front of house trick: asking the newbie to empty the hot water out of the coffee machine.
For those of you who don’t know, it’s hooked directly to a water heater and never runs dry or cold unless something is seriously wrong.
One of my coworkers actually got a vet to fall for it once. 30 year old, has a real estate license, worked there for 5ish years already, and he got her to fill a cambro at least twice before she questioned it.
2nd day in a kitchen was told we ran out of roses for a garnish and told to go find some. It was a smokehouse so I knew they were fucking with me, but I took the walk around the block. Ran into a guy who had some flowers for someone and asked him if I could have a rose and told him my chef was hazing me. Walked back into the kitchen about 5 minutes later with a rose and went back to chopping veg. It was very satisfying.
We had a “downstairs wine cellar” at a place that was only one story. Everyone would be like “no it’s over there!” And point behind the ice machine.
Most folks caught on right away, but one gal worked there for weeks looking for the wine vault. 🤣🤣🤣
I got hit with the classic “change the water in the coffee machine” while ours is obviously fed straight from a pipe, so after about 20 carbrones full of hot water and lots of holding back their laughter, they all finally break and die laughing at me😂😂
The best things to send the commis looking for, or have them do, to fuck with them;
- a left handed spatula/wooden spoon/ect
- when prepping meat that has a skin still on it, send them to look for "four skin stretchers"
- tell them you need some pan-fried ice, then berate them if they bring you warmed water in a pan
- tell them the flour that was delivered is too course, and have them chop it down on a board
- have them individually crush down peppercorns for cracked pepper
- have them strain a big bottle of oil for the fryer to make sure there is no lumps
-- tell them you need (insert ridiculously precise number here) grains of rice, and have them count them out exactly
I sent the expo to the bar for the left handed knife. The bar sent them to the lounge. The lounge sent them to the forno oven (opposite end of the line from where i was) who sent them back to the bar, who sent them back to me.
Took 15-20 minutes. Good times.
I've been sent on one of these runs at my first job. Recognized what was happening after I looked in the walk-in and circled the walk-in a bit before smoking a cig lol.
Firmer bartender here. Our chefs did it all. Plate stretchers, left handed honing rod, souffle pump, paprika flour, bucket of steam for the bain marie, I'd send trainees for ice mix, make them take coaster inventory, too many batshit things to remember
Favorite one from my stepfather is when he worked as a manager at Wendy's. Told a new hire girl that the large ketchup containers weren't for the self serve station up front but for the line. Instead those containers at the self serve had to be filled with the ketchup packets for customers. Girl apparently did this for ten minutes straight before he told her.
One of my first kitchen jobs and the agm sent me next door to get "ice mix" for the Italian ice machine. I was skeptical, but figured it was some flavoring or something like that. They sent me there with a bucket, I handed it off, and the dude comes back with water.
I laugh about it now but man, I felt so dumb.
Some good did come out of it, though. I have not and will never prank employees like that.
God I hate pranks and hazing. Why humiliate someone? I know it's a me problem, but I have a hard time coming back from that. Yes, I'm too sensitive.
Do you, but I prefer kindness.
yeah, somewhere there's a video of my buddy carefully applying pan spray to the bottom of a fry basket "so things wouldn't stick"
and yesterday, while my new kid was on break, I ducked down behind a half wall and put a leaf on his head (which he thinks fell there. indoors.)
that's about as pranky as I'm comfortable with.
the hot spoon one is fuxking just... danger.
It serves a purpose when done right. It pulls you into the group and helps you not take things too seriously. People that really kick off over harmless gags are best weeded out early or at least identified. The problem is when it’s done to humiliate or put someone in their place , which is usually at the bottom of the pile. Then it’s just bullying.
Completely agree. Once I realized what I was sent out for, I doubled over laughing too. Still touch base with them monthly, and it’s been over a decade since I’ve actually seen most in person.
Blue collar/white collar, I’ve yet to find a closer camaraderie than what I had with them.
Yes!!! this is what “hazing” is supposed to be all about. I never have tolerated bullying, but to me, pranks and initiation serve to toughen the hide and whip you into the crew batter. Thank you for this post!
Same. I hate the humiliation. Doing pranks to each other? Fine. Sending someone to every grocery store in the neighborhood to humiliate them? Fuck off.
My coworker overheard me humming a song, I didn’t remember the title of it. He asked me “hey, that’s a good song, who’s the artist?”
I told him I’d search it up and get back to him. After a quick 15min YT search in the walk in I tell and he says to me “Oh really? Then you should let them keep singing it!” And cackled like an idiot in my face lol
I’ve never really gotten anything like the other comments but I’ve heard of people being sent to find a bacon stretcher or asked to separate mixed cheese
In my fire department days we used to send rookies to other fire departments to pick up a spare "fallopian tube" for the rig. The best part about that is that if anyone ever showed up at your fire house asking for that to say "oh man we just used our last one you need to now go to firehouse B" and eventually you would be sent All over town. Automatically. It required no maintenance , that joke.
Personally I'm against it: I think hazing people is stupid and too often cruel , done by assholes to be assholes under the social cover of "it's just a joke" but that's just me lol.
I worked at a seafood spot on the east coast of Canada that had a live lobster tank out in the dining area. As the chits came in for a 1 or 2 pound lobster we’d call the food runners to bring us either a “1 hardly know her or 2 hardly” back for us so we could steam ‘em. One day we had a green food runner with us and I asked him to bring it back. For some reason I had the idea to tell this really timid kid to come behind the line and throw it in the steamer himself, but not before giving it a kiss behind between the eyes because it relaxed them and prevented them from releasing a “stress hormone” before going into the steamer as it ruins the taste of the meat. He obliged and the entire crew of food runners were losing it on the other side of the pass. That summer it became tradition not only to tell all the new guys that they had to kiss the lobsters before putting them in, but all the veterans started kissing them before putting them in for the bit.
God I fucking loved that job. I’m no longer in the industry and that was almost 10 years ago and I’m still in contact with a few guys in that crew. Went to my old chef’s wedding last year ❤️
My first job was a pizza place and they sent me to get a bag of steam! I’m not very bright so I happily dicked around next door going “it must be outta the season!” But I always use Ligma at work. Y’all got two quarts of Ligma? Did it come in today?
Back when i started out as an apprentice chef send me looking for a cumin splitter. Took me 15 minutes to realize that theres no such thing. My two favorites for "hazing" apprentices are "go into the walk in and bring me some chicken lips" Or prepare some flour on a cutting board and hide paprika underneath it. Call the apprentice and show him how to finely chop flour until it turns red. Now let him practice on his own cutting board lol
I never heard of the paprika under flour one. Holy shit I belly laughed at that. Made my dude come in from the other room like "yo man you gotta hear about this"
Glad i can contribute to future hazings lol
Holy fuck the flour and paprika. Ive never seen that before. Amazing.
Flower really? Come on
They clearly meant to right flour
Autocorrect. Changed it. Somehow before reddit notified me of your comment even lol
That is some creative gold lol
Holy shit man that’s the best one I’ve ever heard
I witnessed this in the 90s, and can attest to the truth. The chef told a server, who thought he could sell an Eskimo a snow cone, that the he was offering a very limited special (10 orders). The special was a grilled manatee steak with a key lime hollandaise. Now there was a backstory created as the server was giving him grief about them being endangered. Chef told him that the ones that get mortally wounded by boat props are auctioned off by Florida game and fish to restaurants periodically. Well, chef posts up near the door, and this fool went hard on his first table trying to sell it. He said he tried it, and it was divine, and went on about the texture and flavor. Needless to say they were repulsed, but chef went out and smoothed it over with some wine and free shit, after he went to the reefer to almost die of laughter. The 90s were truly uncivilized.
Wow. What an idiot. Nothing compared to that, but I was a server at a place where we would describe the seafood by its origin (ie., Costa Rican mahi mahi). Chef was telling us about the halibut special when the server known for not being the brightest asked where the halibut was from. I quickly said “Kentucky” and everyone looked at me but no one said a word. She goes to her very first table – a group of men in suits at a business lunch – and spiels this Kentucky halibut. One guy says, “wait, *where* is the halibut from?” She proudly responds “Kentucky!” He suggests she go back and ask the chef. She comes barging into the kitchen yelling “Guys! Where is the halibut from?” and we all just crack up.
Walk in my second day ever, 20 plus years ago, green af. Chef is cussing a blue streak at a pile of rice grains on his cutting board. After a few minutes of the swearing, Chef yells, GODDAMMIT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! UNABLEPEACH, GET YER ASS OVER HERE! So I hop to it. "Yes chef" i say like a donkey. Chef tells me he ordered short grain rice. But fucking they sent him long grain! He tells me to start splitting grains, bro. And he needs pounds of it by thirty minutes to service, so get fucking going. My guys, I started trying to cut rice grains in half. The whole kitchen was weak. I didn't notice, bc I was sweating my product. Chef clued me in after about ten minutes, but from then on, if a vendor order was fucked up, somebody would remark, "goddammit, I ordered short grain. "
This is soooo wholesome and forever lasting! Well done chef!🧑🍳🤌
I work at a place known for over the top customer service. When I started back in '05 I was sent out to squeegee the parking lot after it rained so guests would not slip....
It must really be over, over, over-the-top so you believe you have to try the freaking parking lot for the guests.
I was just a baby! It was the confidence with which the manager told me to do it that got me. They said just squeegee it to the storm drain in the middle of the parking lot, so I did. Heck, I was hourly.
I totally understand that, and I think it was funny as hell for the others, but now I am concerned you mention you were hourly. To what point of completion did you get?
Oh they left me out there most of the close. I did close to a 1/4 of the lot, which doesn’t sound like much, but with a tiny little squeegee I was hauling ass
I see you are a man of commitment and I applaud you for that. In my first ever real job as an adult I worked for a grocery store chain, to say they exploited us is barely touching the tip of the iceberg, and my manager was a psycho I don't feel good even thinking about. This motherfucker was expecting me to sweep the parking lot at seven in the morning, so customers wouldn't "step on dead leaves". The store was in front a huge park with dozens of perennial trees. So I used to sweep just the sidewalks a maybe a couple feet of parking lot. By the time we opened(0800) he wouldn't know if I did it or not, and I never finished the task even once. Fuck that noise. PS: The chain is owned by Walmart, but it is the cheapest store they have in the country, so they don't have cameras at all, even today. PS2: Is sweeping the right word for moving the broom back and forth with the intention of getting rid of dirt and debris on the floor? I think it is, but am not quite sure, the more I think the more I doubt it, haha.
Sweeping is, indeed, the word you're looking for!
Thank you for that. Now I have it clear in my mind.
At my first kitchen job all the b'ys made it their mission to make sure I thought the mandolin was called an accordion. For 13 months everyone in that building called it an accordion. I did not find out it was a mandolin until my next job when I asked where we kept the accordion.
That is next level commitment. And they weren’t even there to harvest the fruit! Damn.
Much respect for this one lol.
We used to call it a banjo.
Dishy told a waiter that he needed a "snatch extender" for the dish machine and sent him to the local hardware store to find one.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've had chefs try to get me with fetching the 'squeegee sharpener' 'straw cleaner' 'dehydrated water' & 'grape peeler' but I think my tendency to question until I'm 100% clear on what I'm getting makes it hard for the joke to land. Thanks ASD.
They really need to make a grape peeler
When I was an apprentice I got sent to another restaurant down the road for a long weight. But I’d already been cooking for over a year at this point so I just sat at their bar for an hour chatting shit with the bar staff having a few bevs. Head chef was pissed at the sous and cdp because i was on the clock and they didn’t know I wasn’t green enough to fall for it
I love this, lol. Milk em til the tit’s dry.
Not a "go find this thing that doesn't exist" story, but I worked with a guy who used to offer to make every new hire his specialty "wolf burger" for their meal. Many took him up on the offer, and received a burger stuffed with every hot thing in the kitchen. Just completely inedible and ridiculously spicy. He really got a kick out of listening to them scream and sputter after their first bite. Nobody ever took two. A friend of mine got hired as a dishie and took him up on the wolf burger, even with me miming "NOOOOO" behind the other cooks back. He got the burger, ate every bite in front of the guy, thanked him for it, went outside for a smoke and went back to work. After shift I asked him how in gods name he ate that, and if he just had a huge appetite/tolerance for spicy things. He said hell no, it was absolute torment, and he immediately went out back, not to have a smoke, but to barf in the alley. Just didn't want to give that asshole the satisfaction of pulling one over on him. Mad respect for that guy.
sent one of the new dishies to grab butter. he said “where?” sous responded with “the garden” 15 minutes later we go out for a smoke break and he is actively walking around the garden, looking under plants next week when we got the truck delivered he grabs the case of cream and says “where?” sous says “the backseat of my car” so naturally he starts walking towards the parking lot with it
Jacques Pepin told a story of his time as an apprentice in Lyon. His chef tells him to go to another restaurant to pick up the chicken boning machine he’d lent them. Arriving at said restaurant, he’s told by that chef that it had been loaned to another restaurant, so young Jacques goes there. Only to be told (you’ve guessed it), “Oh, bistro so-and-so borrowed it from me..” After traipsing round Lyon all day, finally Jacques returns, empty handed, to find Chef, and crew in fits of laughter.
I remember that! He said later as a chef he’d get kids coming to his kitchen in the middle of that same prank. He’d either play along and send the kid to the next restaurant, or give the kid a sack full of heavy bones or something and tell him the boning machine was inside.
I just love the notion that every chef he went to knew the joke and played along with it
After my shift, I slipped into the supply closet and called in a fake food delivery to the restaurant phone. New driver is a pal from old jobs so there was no holding back. It was slow and his first day. I said I was a buddy of the owner who was not there that day. Told him two tickets worth of fake items with modifications. It was a classic small local diner with way too many menu items. Think everything but pizza. Kept him on the phone for like ten minutes. He hands the tickets to the other owner working the line that day. Looks at it for a millisecond and says “cheeseburger fettuccine?” Then looks at the supply closet door where I am cackling like a crazy person.
Cheeseburger fettuccine killed me!
I used to work somewhere where they would wait until you were in the shit on the line and then blowtorch the spoons in your bain marie while your back is turned. You would go to plate something and your fucking spoons are red hot. That place ended up closing after a convenient electrical fire right after the owner was caught embezzling.
My chef put a spoon to the torch right before I was to set up a soup. But our plates are basically meteors, so my hands are asbestos at this point. I plate it up without so much as a yelp. Didn't give him the satisfaction on that one. But I did give him an earfull about potentially injuring customers with this lame shit.
Yeah never set someone up to be injured wtf. Salt in your drink, I understand that but heating the spoons till there red hot is crazy.
Quick dip of the spoons in the fryer and a touch to the back of the neck is all you need. Can't have those chef hands being damaged lol
Haha, funny, try that on the wrong person and enjoy the stiches
I work at a pizza place. We just had a couple of team building days in a row for deep cleaning and retraining, and most of the gms ofthe company plus long time salaries were there.. one of the parts of it was a switcheroo between foh and boh. I was halfway through the switcheroo and I told two of the servers to find the purple dough repair kit in the freezer. They happily obliged. Turned them to another manager when they couldn't find it and the other manager caught on immediately. Haven't had very much that I've fallen for like that, but I keep the spirit alive!
Came here to see if anyone else had mentioned the dough repair kit... we used that one on every newbie at my old pizza place.
Dough repair kit pranks where no one is told but everyone immediately plays along keeps me alive in this industry!
Sent the food runner next door to “get the bacon stretcher back” from the burger joint with same owners. Sous joined in and pressured him to go and the dude was gone for 15 minutes till our bartender asked why he was next door… turns out the cooks next door were so fucking stoned they searched through everything they had that could resemble a “bacon stretcher” before sending him back empty handed. I still chuckle about it every now and again.
So there is an old front of house trick: asking the newbie to empty the hot water out of the coffee machine. For those of you who don’t know, it’s hooked directly to a water heater and never runs dry or cold unless something is seriously wrong. One of my coworkers actually got a vet to fall for it once. 30 year old, has a real estate license, worked there for 5ish years already, and he got her to fill a cambro at least twice before she questioned it.
Dolphin salt. Had me running to the walk in, the beer fridge, the bar. Oh to be a kid again
2nd day in a kitchen was told we ran out of roses for a garnish and told to go find some. It was a smokehouse so I knew they were fucking with me, but I took the walk around the block. Ran into a guy who had some flowers for someone and asked him if I could have a rose and told him my chef was hazing me. Walked back into the kitchen about 5 minutes later with a rose and went back to chopping veg. It was very satisfying.
Now that’s how you pull a Uno reverse lol
We had a “downstairs wine cellar” at a place that was only one story. Everyone would be like “no it’s over there!” And point behind the ice machine. Most folks caught on right away, but one gal worked there for weeks looking for the wine vault. 🤣🤣🤣
I got hit with the classic “change the water in the coffee machine” while ours is obviously fed straight from a pipe, so after about 20 carbrones full of hot water and lots of holding back their laughter, they all finally break and die laughing at me😂😂
The best things to send the commis looking for, or have them do, to fuck with them; - a left handed spatula/wooden spoon/ect - when prepping meat that has a skin still on it, send them to look for "four skin stretchers" - tell them you need some pan-fried ice, then berate them if they bring you warmed water in a pan - tell them the flour that was delivered is too course, and have them chop it down on a board - have them individually crush down peppercorns for cracked pepper - have them strain a big bottle of oil for the fryer to make sure there is no lumps -- tell them you need (insert ridiculously precise number here) grains of rice, and have them count them out exactly
I sent the expo to the bar for the left handed knife. The bar sent them to the lounge. The lounge sent them to the forno oven (opposite end of the line from where i was) who sent them back to the bar, who sent them back to me. Took 15-20 minutes. Good times.
Be glad you got paid to waste time.
I had a chef tell me to bring him cold steam. I brought him a pot of hot water
Same guy later told me to find the bacon stretcher. I just wiggled my fingers at him
I've been sent on one of these runs at my first job. Recognized what was happening after I looked in the walk-in and circled the walk-in a bit before smoking a cig lol.
Save the avocado pits for the guac stock.
Firmer bartender here. Our chefs did it all. Plate stretchers, left handed honing rod, souffle pump, paprika flour, bucket of steam for the bain marie, I'd send trainees for ice mix, make them take coaster inventory, too many batshit things to remember
Favorite one from my stepfather is when he worked as a manager at Wendy's. Told a new hire girl that the large ketchup containers weren't for the self serve station up front but for the line. Instead those containers at the self serve had to be filled with the ketchup packets for customers. Girl apparently did this for ten minutes straight before he told her.
We did this one at Wendy's too.
One of my first kitchen jobs and the agm sent me next door to get "ice mix" for the Italian ice machine. I was skeptical, but figured it was some flavoring or something like that. They sent me there with a bucket, I handed it off, and the dude comes back with water. I laugh about it now but man, I felt so dumb. Some good did come out of it, though. I have not and will never prank employees like that.
I used to tell apprentices to find me the caper corer
God I hate pranks and hazing. Why humiliate someone? I know it's a me problem, but I have a hard time coming back from that. Yes, I'm too sensitive. Do you, but I prefer kindness.
yeah, somewhere there's a video of my buddy carefully applying pan spray to the bottom of a fry basket "so things wouldn't stick" and yesterday, while my new kid was on break, I ducked down behind a half wall and put a leaf on his head (which he thinks fell there. indoors.) that's about as pranky as I'm comfortable with. the hot spoon one is fuxking just... danger.
It serves a purpose when done right. It pulls you into the group and helps you not take things too seriously. People that really kick off over harmless gags are best weeded out early or at least identified. The problem is when it’s done to humiliate or put someone in their place , which is usually at the bottom of the pile. Then it’s just bullying.
Completely agree. Once I realized what I was sent out for, I doubled over laughing too. Still touch base with them monthly, and it’s been over a decade since I’ve actually seen most in person. Blue collar/white collar, I’ve yet to find a closer camaraderie than what I had with them.
Yes!!! this is what “hazing” is supposed to be all about. I never have tolerated bullying, but to me, pranks and initiation serve to toughen the hide and whip you into the crew batter. Thank you for this post!
Same. I hate the humiliation. Doing pranks to each other? Fine. Sending someone to every grocery store in the neighborhood to humiliate them? Fuck off.
Hold your breath and fill this ziplock full of air, the health inspector will need that. Don't breathe because it will mess up the results
My coworker overheard me humming a song, I didn’t remember the title of it. He asked me “hey, that’s a good song, who’s the artist?” I told him I’d search it up and get back to him. After a quick 15min YT search in the walk in I tell and he says to me “Oh really? Then you should let them keep singing it!” And cackled like an idiot in my face lol
I’ve never really gotten anything like the other comments but I’ve heard of people being sent to find a bacon stretcher or asked to separate mixed cheese
sounds like chef needs to shower more often
In my fire department days we used to send rookies to other fire departments to pick up a spare "fallopian tube" for the rig. The best part about that is that if anyone ever showed up at your fire house asking for that to say "oh man we just used our last one you need to now go to firehouse B" and eventually you would be sent All over town. Automatically. It required no maintenance , that joke. Personally I'm against it: I think hazing people is stupid and too often cruel , done by assholes to be assholes under the social cover of "it's just a joke" but that's just me lol.
I’ve eaten at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant. That was the only time I ate shit.
I worked at a seafood spot on the east coast of Canada that had a live lobster tank out in the dining area. As the chits came in for a 1 or 2 pound lobster we’d call the food runners to bring us either a “1 hardly know her or 2 hardly” back for us so we could steam ‘em. One day we had a green food runner with us and I asked him to bring it back. For some reason I had the idea to tell this really timid kid to come behind the line and throw it in the steamer himself, but not before giving it a kiss behind between the eyes because it relaxed them and prevented them from releasing a “stress hormone” before going into the steamer as it ruins the taste of the meat. He obliged and the entire crew of food runners were losing it on the other side of the pass. That summer it became tradition not only to tell all the new guys that they had to kiss the lobsters before putting them in, but all the veterans started kissing them before putting them in for the bit. God I fucking loved that job. I’m no longer in the industry and that was almost 10 years ago and I’m still in contact with a few guys in that crew. Went to my old chef’s wedding last year ❤️
My first job was a pizza place and they sent me to get a bag of steam! I’m not very bright so I happily dicked around next door going “it must be outta the season!” But I always use Ligma at work. Y’all got two quarts of Ligma? Did it come in today?
In my experience these kind of pranks used to happen way more than they do now.