# The worst head chef I have worked with



## chrisbristol (Feb 16, 2014)

It's my last day of work where I work tomorrow. I'm leaving to go to another place. The place I was working at had the worst head chef I have ever seen.  He worked under 30 hours a week was hardly ever there in the evening. He had no intention of making the place better and he generally didn't care.  He knew the place needed a lot of work but he just didn't want to put the work in.

So who has been the worst head chef you have worked with?


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## beastmasterflex (Aug 14, 2013)

Worked for an alcoholic, xanax popping, coke head, megalomanic once. He usually bought rounds though so...


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

A head chef is so much like an NFL QB.  He or she is the heart of the team but few are elite.


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## alaminute (Aug 22, 2013)

I think we may have had the same chef beast! Doing whippets on the line, I got a sweet picture of him passed out in the back of an f.o.h. preshift.


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## soesje (Dec 6, 2012)

chef at my last place was an example of how not to be an example by getting so drunk, along with his wife, that we BOH people had to support them and take care of everybody getting home safely.

or find him sleeping at the pass in the mornings because he hit it off the night before, again.

I felt sorry for him.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

"And the Chef falls in the soup!!!"


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## beastmasterflex (Aug 14, 2013)

I think there's a lot of them, as long as they're a happy drunk it's tolerable if not amusing at times.


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## hugz2u (Jan 20, 2014)

A veteran chef that was in his 70's. He was a hardcore chef from the navy. He had much respect in the industry, but boy! I can only imagine that his palate was any decent in his prime. The food he was making during the time I was working with him was just horrible. I commend his years in the industry and should give him the respect he deserves. But there comes a time when it's time to leave. I think his time was past overdue.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Small boutique hotel, Chef and Maitre D' were both very French.  The guy could not organize, never worked more than 30 hrs a week, never showed up on Fri or Sat nights, but the guy couldn't organize a traffic jam.  I remember one day, just before lunch service the Chef comes up to me and asks me how fast I could get out a cake, I tell him an hour, tops.  He needs a custom, life sized cake in the shape of a guitar, and he needs it before 3:00.  Oh, and it has to be enough for 30 guests.  I got it out by 3:15.  I later learned that it had been ordered well over a week in advance. 

The final cut came when I found copy of a new a'la carte menu in the store room, hidden under a sack of lentils.  Chef was AWOL so I asked his buddy, the Maitre D'.  He says:

"Yes, it will start tomorrow lunch, have you got all your prep work done?

I left a week later....

Then there was the Chef at a 500 rm Hotel with 6 F & B outlets in S'pore.  Over the weekend he decides to fly to Taipei and see a fortune teller.  She tells him to change his full name for good luck, so he does--overnight......


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## jimmy lauria26 (Aug 24, 2013)

Am sorry to say that drinking and drugging has been a hush hush black side of the industry. I my self took part in it for some time and my actions reflected the results. am currently been clean for 3 years and my professionalism and mannerism has dramatically improved the staff and owners both see a difference not only with my self, but the respect and concern I give to my work.


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## chrisbristol (Feb 16, 2014)

To be honest he was a nice guy. And I would rather work for him than my previous boss who was not a nice person at all.  But I want to be working for a chef who is a good chef and a nice guy.  The head chef where I am starting tomorrow has Michelin experience he seems like a good chef and a nice guy.


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## santona 1937 (Apr 6, 2014)

I am not so sure that drugs ( in particular) and drink were so hush hush  Every place I worked in during the late 70's and early 80's had a high coke/speed user ratio.  I was just a young apprentice at the time.


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## reddirt405 (Apr 30, 2014)

Iranian guy i worked for a few years ago. absolute speed freak and he had no taste for grilled food. it was at a grill/bar type restaurant. he insisted i was burning chicken and steaks by grill marking them. he had me doing all steaks and chicken barely grill marked rare then finishing them on a flat top with steam.. Spongy chicken...yuck.. didnt stay there long.


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## alacarte (Dec 2, 2013)

I work with a mature age chef who can atleast hold down a full time job but she smokes alot of crack, and it refects on the line, some times she can have good days but most of the times its not good days, like example doing minimal prep, and the prep she does , she doesnt folkow recipies, or cant remove all the bones from the fish etc.. and she doesnt care, and atm we are really under staffed so she cant be sacked yet.


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## sirchefalot (Apr 10, 2014)

I worked with a head chef that only enjoyed eating and peeling potatoes even in the busiest of services he would disappear and couldn't organise the rest of the kitchen staff to save his life.he used to go into the walkin fridge and you'd find finger marks in the desserts and only he'd been there.


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