>At 05:28 PM 12/17/01 -0600, tucker wrote: >> One of the restaurants I worked at closed, and the employees left with all >>kinds of lovely "parting gifts". >> >> This message got me to wondering exactly how many of us have done the food >>service gig at some point in our lives... And how many of us have vowed to >>never do it again. ;-))) > >I washed some dishes and bussed tables for just a bit while in college. >Quickly vowed that from then on when entering a restaurant it would be through >the front door only! Lousy, dangerous environment, bad hours and small pay... > >=Mark Long hours, bad pay, no bennies (insurance/etc)...yep, that's the restaurant life... i cooked professionally for about 9-10 years...vegetarian, Italian, "family-style", and classic French cooking along with basic pastry skills and a decent baking background (one gig was baking 3am - 9am, cooking 9am - 3 am...was still drinking at that time <g>)...cajun and Thai being my personal interests...line dog, pot washer, sous chef, chef, all names i've answered to...revamped a hotel restaurant on my own and stupidly, turned around and opened a retirement community foodservice next...last gig was revamping (as sous chef, not the top dog, thank god) a million dollar-plus 700-ish membered country club facility: 2 kitchens, service 7 days a week, lunch, dinner, sunday brunch, frequent banquets/private parties in Jackson TN where you can golf damn near year round (some members did)...around 70 hours a week for 9 months is what did me in... yet i miss it sometimes. Go figure. (masochist and addict, that's what) -- Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles....... Rael64 Monk of the TCS Order of Enlightened Twister [TM!]