# New to the industry? Work in a hotel.



## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

Think of the hotel experience as a restaurant but with hundreds of employees on the clock at once and multiple kitchens operating 24/7/365.

Great learning opportunity because not only do you see the RIGHT way to do things,but you get your fair share of the WRONG way: learn from both! Very few kitchens are "perfect" or run like a well-oiled machine;that's just a fact of working anywhere,be it a kitchen or an insurance company.

As long as people are doing the task,there's going to be problems.We ain't perfect...

Try to get into a good hotel,like Ritz-Carlton [the perfunctory "gotta have it on the resume" position],Four Seasons,Hotel InterContinental,etc.Places with a higher profile [and in more prominent "money" cities] will have stunning buffets for holidays and will do functions where you will see some amazing culinary work.

You will also work your a** off,but if you want to do this,get used to it!

What to expect? Well,here is the procedure with Ritz-Carlton [as I recall]:

They are trained to look at you as soon as you walk into the Human Resources Department.You'd be amazed at how many people apply for a job in a kitchen and they don't show up in professional attire.Well,show up in non-professional attire and your resume is going in the shredder as soon as you walk out the door,no matter how polite they were to you.
They look at things you don't think of: your body language,grammar,how you answer specific questions [even how long it takes to respond to questions], and they grade it on a scale.

You'll also take the "personality tests" on a computer and all that tedious stuff...but we all know that those tests are really pointless,because if you have any common sense,you know how to answer the questions in your favor.

A certain number of points overall means you are granted an interview at a later time.You'll go through at least three interveiws and it can take a month to get the final "Yes" or "No"...and drug testing results,too.

So let's talk positions:

Cook Three -the lowest on the totem pole requiring an Assc. Degree and/or one years' experience.You'll do repetitive prep in massive amounts or work a pantry station on the line,which is a HARD station in a luxury hotel.Remember the tournet cut from class? Well,do it with 200 pounds of carrots..all...freaking....day.And depending on who the Chef is,they better all look the same! Most Execs at R.C are European and they can be rough on you.
{Europeans start training for professions as early as 12,and over there,it is old-school discipline where the chef WILL rap your knuckles with the handle of a knife if you don't cut properly.}

With practice comes perfection and it's the Exec's name and reputation that is advertising that particular hotel...don't gripe about it;there's a reason why they are demanding.

Pay Rate : $9 to $9.50

Cook Two- slightly more experience required [three years,I think],degree,and pays between $10 and $10.50

Cook One- also requires a tasting to get the position,even if your being promoted from Cook Two. $12 to $12.50.

Trainer - $12.50 to $13

Sous - roughly $28,000 to $32,000.

Low pay,huh? Well,corporations take the average pay of a certain position for that particular state or area and that's how the scale is decided.

Obviously,the Exec and Exec Pastry chefs are at the top of the food chain.Their salary depends on various factors,so they make a very decent amount [but with a lot of work!].

But Ritz-Carlton [as the saying goes] is the job that pays you back.Many great chefs have done their time at a Ritz and it is the stepping stone to other things.You don't go there to get rich;you go to learn.

You'll also work with people who only want the name on the resume and could care less about the job itself.Bad people slip through the cracks.It happens.
Arrogant,young sous chefs will have you do things that you may know are a waste of time and food costs,but they are doing their territorial pissing contest and you just wait for the guest satisfaction percentages to back up what the line/prep cooks knew all along.You get used to being a vehicle sometimes for other people's reputations and goals...and learn how NOT to manage people by experiencing it!

But they will work you hard.A former Ritz employee friend says "The Ritz-Carlton treats people like lemons;they squeeze the life out of you and throw you away"...and they do....but the bennies are very good,so at least you have decent insurance!

You also learn fun lessons like if you call in sick at all or are late in your first 90 days [a problem I notice with younger people],you don't get a promotion for a full year.

And promotions are based on availability of the position.You could be busting your butt as a Cook Three for two years because no one is leaving the Cook Two position that you deserve to be promoted to.Be too vocal in complaining about it [even if you're right] and it will haunt you later,so be aware of what comes out of your mouth.

They have a specific number of positions and they don't just create one for you...you wait for it to be open and even that is based on the pecking order.

Want to transfer to the banquet kitchen and you're working in Garde Manger? You have to spend a year in each department before you can transfer,and that's only if a position is available and if you're approved to transfer.

And everyone gets a turn doing the overnight/room service shift: 10pm to 6am.Complain about it and they'll remember it come review time!

But all hotels are run differently,so keep in mind one property will just be an incredible experience and another could be a more poorly-run location.It happens...but you still learn from it all.Good and bad.


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## ras1187 (Oct 3, 2006)

As a (reputable) hotel cook, I can pretty much agree with what was said above. We may not be as big or as fancy as the RC, but we still take ourselves very seriously.

We are a small 200 room hotel with a TGIFriday's next door to us, so its usually a 2-man line, cold foods & apps on one side, entrees on the other. All new cooks start off on the cold side, as they learn, they move onto the hot side.

We have 4 chefs, and between them, they execute about 85% of the banquet prep work. They have 2 other banquet prep cooks, and occasionally the restaurant cooks will also give a hand when needed.

Working at a chain I was a cook that only cooked, working in a hotel I am a cook that cooks, cleans, and preps simultaneously in-between orders. We have no other prep cooks, and we run 5 different menus every day that a guest can order from at any given time (Egg white frittata at dinner time, yep we do it.)

Its all about time management and prioritizing. When I come in, I immediately jump on prepping food for the concierge lounge, then I begin my prep for my line beginning with the difficult prep first while the restaurant is closed. Once the restaurant opens, I do the easy prep as I go.


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## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

You hit the nail on the head with the last paragraph:

"It's all about time management and prioritizing"

You learn that in a hotel quicker than anywhere! My experience was like watching the occassional "controlled" chaos and then right into Mongolian Clusterf**k. I was at a "lesser" Ritz,so I was actually disheartened by the whole thing;I expected better...but I'm glad I did it.

The prep in the restaurant/room service kitchen was horrendous at the R.C. I was at.I was on nights and we would have three hours to get a mountain of prep done for service at 5pm.But that kitchen never closed,so all the while you're attempting to hammer out your work and tickets are coming in from the lobby or bar...oy vey!

The pantry station alone had over 25 items per day to be prepped,and I'm not talking simple "have sliced tomatoes on hand and a back-up" stuff.Tuna tartare,Kobe carpaccio with panisse croutons,various gelees that had a 24 hour shelf-life,cooking/cleaning lobsters and shrimp daily [the cursed seafood displays!]....not to mention salads with time-consuming components all over the place.Even the sous hated that station! You had your mandoline out on that station all shift.

It would literally take two days of serious prep on each station to get up to a manageable par.The veg station [busier than a grill station any day!] required one day of prepping the veggies and the following day was blanching.

I estimate I'd waste over an hour a shift just waiting for an elevator to get from kitchen to kitchen or even the storeroom JUST to gather what I needed,depending on what station I was on that night.

The sous were not exactly strict [if you could find one...they would wander about the hotel],so day crew would deplete prep and tear the place up and bail out before we even walked in the kitchen at 2pm.To me,there is kitchen courtesy between shifts;you know,help each other out and don't give me the "That's not my job/station/shift" crap either! We are all there for one reason: to serve the customer who is paying our bills,so shut up and help out.

But we also had a serious problem with cooks [and some of the sous] having the following day off,so they could care less about prepping for the next person;they would do what they needed to get through the night.We knew who would shaft us and who wouldn't,so every day was an adventure in picking up slack and assuming responsibility without being asked....or thanked! If you didn't know how to organize your time,you were weeded before you even got off the elevator!


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## ras1187 (Oct 3, 2006)

Yeah, how it works ona usual day...

I come in at 4pm and knock out concierge, hot apps & entrees, crudite, cheese plate, and dessert for about 30 ppl per night; like the RC, our kitchen is open throughout the day, so it is a pain getting room service or bar orders during my only hour of prep.

whatever time left between concierge and 5pm (inbetween orders) is what I have to prep. Our prep is simpler, it is chopping, slicing, basic sauce-making prep, nothing intense like tartares or gelees.

I try not to shaft ppl, but sometimes prep can be overwhelming and there is only so much I can do with 2 hands...


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## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

Ah,simple or complicated, 30 covers or 130 covers,prep is prep.Don't think for one second that because you work at a smaller place that I don't appreciate how hard you work.You sound like you love what you do and that you "get it".

The tartares and gelees weren't really "hard",but they were time-consuming and just didn't sell.The only thing "intense" about them was the pain in the *** making them,knowing they'd be in the trash at the end of the night.

When I was there,they had just gotten a new chef de cuisine and he was young and from one of the "better" properties that had the fine dining restaurant....so he wanted to do all the complicated stuff that he was accustomed to,and our customers weren't interested.He had tweezers and would hold up an entire table because he would re-plate something on a whim.

Then food would come back because it was COLD from him screwing around with a sliced beet and a sprig of frisee for 5 minutes...we'd all be looking at each other and getting really uptight because we're looking at the ticket time going "Holy S**t,sell it and quit making love to it!"
But he was used to doing a 5 course menu where you did have the luxury of taking a full 5 minutes to plate one course...and he was the worst expo I had ever seen!:lol: 
You know the kind:take a steak off of another table because he lost track of where the **** we were on tickets,so the timing would be off and it would take an hour to get the flow back. We felt bad for him because he meant well,but he just got a position he wasn't ready for.

Oh,and you might find this amusing: when he came to do his tasting for the Exec,he came with his food already prepared and in hotboxes AND an assistant [the sheer audacity!].Uh,how are you supposed to test someone's skill and how they handle pressure if they bring their food already prepared? Well,we found out.....


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## angeliab (Jul 25, 2006)

do those hotels take on interns??? Because after attendeing culinary school in New York i interned at Jean George in the Trump Toxer, and they basicly did all the cooking for the hotel and the restaurant and they used the interns as the prep staff. 

There was at least 10 interns in that place a day and then the regular working staff of cooks and sous chefs and such. So we basicly made their lives much easier because we did all their work for them. lol


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## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

Greetings,Angelia!

RC will do externships from culinary schools.I don't even know if they do internships,but we would all dread finding out that we had externs coming in,because we knew there was going to be...uh..issues.
Sure,we'd get the occassional kid who really bust his butt,but you knew at the end of their time that they would run screaming from the building because it was too hard.


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