Hands down the worst week I've ever had in a kitchen was last July in Austin

We had a lunch rush where the AC died, the walk-in cooler broke, and a server dropped a full tray of ribeye plates all within 45 minutes. By the end of service, we were grilling steaks with a fan pointed at us and ice packs strapped to our necks. Has anyone else had a shift where everything just crashed at once like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

harper_foster12d ago

Strap ice packs to your neck BEFORE everything goes to hell next time. That heat just sits in your chest and makes every mistake feel 10 times worse. For the walk-in, keep a few bags of ice and a cheap thermometer in the dry storage so you know right away if it's dying. Drop the steaks and move them to a preheated holding oven if you have one, or just shitcan the whole order and tell the table the truth. OWN that chaos, write it off on food cost, and buy the whole crew drinks after.

wendy62812d ago

Right? @harper_foster is totally right about owning the chaos and buying drinks after, that's basically the only way to survive a shift like that. I had a similar meltdown once where the fryer caught fire and the ice machine died in the same hour, we just started laughing at the absurdity of it all.

lunag3012d ago

Owning it and laughing is basically the only way to keep from crying… you just have to let the chaos win sometimes and roll with it. Honestly, buying drinks afterward should be a standard line item in the budget for nights like that.