# Musings from a now former chef



## capricciosa (May 30, 2015)

Years ago, before I became a chef, I was a butcher. It was the second job I ever had. The demand for butchers at the time was pretty low, and I mostly did grunt work for the experienced guys, but I tried my best to learn what I could from them. I transfered to another department at the wholesale club a few months later in order to get a pay raise, and soon found a career I loved as a baker. I baked breads, pastries, etc for almost 5 years, and even went to pastry school free of charge from my employer's education program. Then, like meat-cutting, the bottom fell out of retail baking. All of the mega-marts and wholesale clubs began transitioning to either 100% pre-baked or very limited fresh products. I then transitioned into working in the restaurant industry, first as a prep cook before mastering station after station. It's been nearly 5 years since then, and tonight is the first Friday night that I'm not manning the grill and working kitchen-side expo in a long time.

I never thought I would go back to retail food service. No one wanted to hire butchers. No one wanted fresh baked bread. Retail ready-meals were considered a joke, for the laziest of the lazy or those who could afford to spend $20 for $3 worth of ingredients. Even when the jobs were there, they didn't pay nearly what they did 10 years ago, and certainly not what I made as a chef.

Now, nearly a decade later, I started working as a butcher again. Not only is there an extremely high demand for meat, a lot of the meat plants are sending grocery stores less-processed cuts of meat that need to be broken down further at the store level than in years past.

The upside: I'm making good money under any circumstances, and certainly more than I've made as a chef for the past 6 months or so. The downside: I'm still getting used to going to work at 6 AM. I'm used to going to bed at 6 AM, not clocking in.

I'm thankful to be working and making money, but a part of me still wishes I was standing in front of an 800 degree char-broiler with a togo cup filled with Bud Lite (wrapped in a paper towel for plausible deniability) counting down the minutes until I can go smoke.

If I have any advice to other chefs: try to find a way to convert your culinary experience into a retail career - even if it's just for a year or so. In my case, I'm lucky because I started out in retail food service, but it's possible even without a background in retail food service.

Anyways, I'm 4 beers in and going to get some more. Just some random musings and getting shit off of my chest, not that anyone probably cares what I think.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

I've been standing over that broiler for most of the last 25 years! Now I'm the chef of a nonprofit working out of a kitchen that's kind of like a very nice home kitchen, doing much smaller groups. It's kind of an adjustment not getting crushed with tickets at 6:00 pm. I do one or two meals depending on what's going on, usually for 12 to 20 people, then my helpers clean up while I go home. When we're not in program mode I work 9-5 M-F, with vacation, health insurance, etc. The gig is really good, kind of like the country club gigs I used to make fun of. What can I say? I'm 50 years old now, not sure how many more years of 16 hour days I have left in me. While I miss the intensity of the fine dining side I like the intimacy of the small group setting, the benefits and having a lot of control over all aspects of the food.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

capricciosa said:


> Now, nearly a decade later, I started working as a butcher again. Not only is there an extremely high demand for meat, a lot of the meat plants are sending grocery stores less-processed cuts of meat that need to be broken down further at the store level than in years past.


Don't know where you are, but there is a meat shortage going on while farmers are killing their stock cause there's no one to process the meat.
Also your store orders the less processed meats from a list of what's available cause the meat processors have no labor to do it for you


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

I was wondering why I can get chicken for $11/case at RD.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Still don’t know what to make of the original post.

In a way it reminds me a lot of my 22 yr old son, has no real desire to do anything. The kid is smart, coordinated, athletic,. He changes jobs about every two years for better pay, but has no real game plan for life. He says just go with the flow, and I tell him if you go with the flow you eventually end up in the toilet.

The best parts of my life where when I had a goal to reach and was focused on that goal: completing a 3 yr apprenticeship, learning a language, trying to leave a hotel where the scheduling was so erratic I never knew if I was working the next day or not.

Oh, and beer? Maybe I’m spoiled here in Vancouver, we have over 35 micro and midi-breweries in the area, but I’m sure most American cities have real beer as well, you just have to look for it.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

foodpump said:


> Still don't know what to make of the original post.
> 
> In a way it reminds me a lot of my 22 yr old son, has no real desire to do anything. The kid is smart, coordinated, athletic,. He changes jobs about every two years for better pay, but has no real game plan for life. He says just go with the flow, and I tell him if you go with the flow you eventually end up in the toilet.
> 
> ...


It's nostalgia, which always seems better than it actually was. A lot of people, myself included think about the good old days of the grind in restaurants but in reality would never go back to that dumpster fire. The crap we used to get away with is a thing of the past and my patience and body can no longer deal with the demands.

On the other note, we have a ton of micro breweries here, just not a lot of good ones.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

My spring/summer 2010 collection. ( in winter the labels freeze and fall off...) 
Not saying they're all good, but different. The mega:- breweries are like Mickey d's or Starbucks-all about consistency and blandness that doesn't offend anyone.

IMHO there never really were any good old days. The days we could drink on the line were the same days the employers would fire you because they didn't like the way you combed your hair, or that you "bugged" them when you complained that pay checks were a week late.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

foodpump said:


> View attachment 68480
> 
> My spring/summer 2010 collection. ( in winter the labels freeze and fall off...)
> Not saying they're all good, but different. The mega:- breweries are like Mickey d's or Starbucks-all about consistency and blandness that doesn't offend anyone.
> ...


We have an over abundance of IPA style breweries here, and for some people I'm sure that's great but I hate IPAs, so I'm a little biased.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Well I can respect that, I hate sours—sour beer, seems the biggest seller here is passion fruit sour, which I personally think is on the same level as vapid bat vomit. 

On another note, did we just hijack this thread?


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

passion fruit does not belong in beer.


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## Apprentichef (Oct 21, 2010)

capricciosa said:


> I'm thankful to be working and making money, but a part of me still wishes I was standing in front of an 800 degree char-broiler with a togo cup filled with Bud Lite (wrapped in a paper towel for plausible deniability) counting down the minutes until I can go smoke.


It's a matter of location and culture.

Bakeries do very well here in Montreal and Quebec as a whole.

However the competition is stiff as there is a high bar of excellence that has to be met.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

jcakes said:


> passion fruit does not belong in beer.


Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for Raddlers in the summer time.


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## redbeerd cantu (Aug 7, 2013)

The original post made me nostalgic for last night's beer...

Maybe I'll have one, pre-shift! whoohoo!


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## ShelteredBugg1 (May 1, 2019)

Hello boomers.


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## capricciosa (May 30, 2015)

Thanks for the responses and thoughts, everyone.

Still settling in to life as a butcher, but certainly more used to the routine than I was a month ago.

As far as drinking on the line, in response to Foodpump's post, I work in somewhat of an anomoly - the Memphis area. Most GMs are happy to allow drinking on the line if it means that you aren't smoking meth (which I have witnessed being smoked on the line at at least one major chain restaurant). Yeah... Alcoholic chefs are the lesser of two evils. This just brought back memories to the time one of our grill cooks went on a drug-induced tirade about the federal reserve, the IRS, ancient Egyptians, the federal database of sovereign citizens and Uncle Tom's Cabin while plating raw hamburger patties to placate our GM who had bitched the previous night about ticket times on burgers. Yeah, alcoholic chefs are definitely the lesser of two evils... lmfao

Cheers, redbeerd! Hope the pre-shift beer was great!

Phaedrus - sounds like a cool gig!

But, yes, Seoul Food, it's nostalgia. I still miss being at TGI Friday's, but I also recognize that my stress levels at work are lower than they've been in my entire working career and that, despite missing my old job, I love my new job almost as much - just in a different way.

Apprentichef, bakeries aren't much of a "thing" here outside of tooti frooti cupcake/desert shops run by bored housewives with hubby's money to waste - not my cup of tea. I've always been preferential to Austrian/continental bakeries and techniques.

Halb - the manager probably ordered too much and is trying to offload it - we've been doing the same thing lately. Great for customer service and building brand loyalty even if we don't make any money on it,

Chefross - the labor shortages at the meat plants are the main reason why stores have started hiring more butchers and paying us more money. My only fear is that it's a bubble and someday soon I will end up having to look for another job if/when this all passes over. I always go into a job with the hopes of staying at least 5 years, but I'm also never afraid to prepare for when the shit hits the fan.

If I missed anyones posts - you're all awesome! Even foodpump for hijacking my thread. On a side note - Stiegl Radler is the only semi-beer that I've ever really enjoyed. Other radlers tend to taste too artificial and most shandies are absolutely aweful. I do enjoy most of the beers by Abita if we're talking microbrews and drinking specifically for taste - but I also enjoy a nice Bud Lite or Fatty Natty for a refresher when it's hot and I just want a beer to cool down and de-stress a little.

And yes, I did write this post while inebriated. They had a magnum of Yellow Tail Shiraz for 25% off at Wally World the other day, and I just couldn't pass up the bargain!


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