Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / What Causes The Worst Service Ever? Ep. 9

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What Causes The Worst Service Ever? Ep. 9 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs, you're listening to chefs, PSA podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm your host Entre natera. On today's episode, we are going
• 0:07
  to talk about the worst Services ever what causes them and how to
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  look out for them. There's no way to prevent them
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  but we'll talk about what are the warning signs that you're
• 0:18
  probably going to have a pretty rough night.
• 0:29
  So before we get into the show I just want to start with an
• 0:32
  update on some of the things that I've been working on the
• 0:36
  first one that I want to share with.
• 0:38
  You is there's merch, you could buy it straight from my
• 0:43
  Instagram account, what I'm going to do with the merch
• 0:45
  because a lot of people been saying, oh, you need to create
• 0:48
  some merch of these chefs PSAs. So I put up the first, the first
• 0:54
  line of March, which is a mug and a couple of different shirts
• 0:59
  and then there's Going to be, you know, the chef's PSA for the
• 1:01
  month. And what I'm going to do is I'm
• 1:02
  going to run these for 30 days then they're done.
• 1:05
  And then I'll put up a new chefs, PSA shirt mug, Etc.
• 1:10
  So that way, if you're interested in supporting the
• 1:11
  show that's a good way to support us and what we're doing.
• 1:14
  So, there's new merch. You can find it on the store
• 1:18
  right there. Linked to the chef's, PSA
• 1:20
  Instagram. The other thing that I'm working
• 1:22
  on is I have a book coming out. So I'm working on a book chefs,
• 1:27
  PSA leadership. Fundamentals, which I'm going to
• 1:31
  take people through, you know, if your new executive chef for
• 1:34
  your new Chef De Cuisine, what do you need to know about
• 1:37
  running a kitchen? That you may not know.
• 1:39
  So will cover everything from, you know, intro to food cost
• 1:42
  labor cost, how to organize your kitchen management principles,
• 1:47
  how to negotiate, how to strategize and build a hierarchy
• 1:51
  within your team. So I'm working on that.
• 1:54
  I'm actually in the editing process, I'm hoping to have it
• 1:56
  wrapped up within about 30 days or so.
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  And then I'll be able to share with the world most likely the
• 2:03
  original chefs PS a book. I'm going to update that as
• 2:06
  well. Expand it, maybe take out a
• 2:09
  couple of the PSAs. That maybe I don't agree with
• 2:13
  any more, as my opinion on things has changed because you
• 2:17
  know, I think I think I talk something about Guy Fieri, and
• 2:23
  my Instagram account was banned last week and I think maybe,
• 2:29
  maybe, maybe the Guy Fieri fans came after me, who knows?
• 2:33
  I don't know why I was banned. Someone probably reported me for
• 2:36
  some stupid shit. I said, anyway, I hope people
• 2:38
  understand that it's all it all comes from a good place.
• 2:41
  Don't go band my account again, but if you, but if I do get
• 2:45
  banned, you can find me on Tick, Tock Twitter so on and so.
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  The model, all the social media platforms.
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  So now let's talk about bad service and we've all been
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  there. We've all had those really
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  shitty Services where the wheels fall off the bus and you don't
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  know how you're going to make it through this shift and you're
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  looking at your your other colleagues on the line and
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  you're thinking how the fuck are we going to make it out of this?
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  I think we're all going to go down or we're all going to get
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  fired. There's no way that we're going
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  to have a successful service. We've all been there.
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  And what's interesting to me is that every Chef that you talked
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  to has a very similar worst service ever but what causes
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  those were Services ever are usually the same across all
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  kitchens. It's it's usually can be traced
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  back to just a couple of things like whether or nominal he's
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  people calling off being unprepared for service.
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  The restaurant gets sat And you were expecting a slow night.
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  So when these things happen, everything starts to go wrong.
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  So I just want to kind of talk about what, some of my
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  experiences have been with were Services ever.
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  And I'll start out with the absolute worst Services I've
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  ever had. And in both cases, they were due
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  to weather anomalies. And so, what I mean by that is
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  like, it could be pouring rain outside.
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  And if you're in a hotel, If it's pouring rain outside,
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  that's usually a bad sign for the hotel.
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  If people are trapped and they can't go anywhere.
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  So in in a situation you might have, let's say a thousand room
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  hotel and your restaurant is going to get slammed or your
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  room. Service kitchen is going to get
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  slammed because people are hungry.
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  They need to eat, but they can't go anywhere.
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  So everyone is ordering the hotel.
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  So rain sucks. Your room.
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  Service line is gonna get smashed.
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  The other thing that sucks is snow and the absolute First
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  Services I've ever had in my career, there's two both have to
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  do with snow days. So the first one is we had a in
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  Texas, we had like this winter apocalypse, couple of years back
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  where the whole city shut down. And the roads were full of ice
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  and people were calling off, and everyone was trapped, and they
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  couldn't leave. And in the kitchen, we were just
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  pumping out so much food. The tickets were hanging.
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  We didn't know what was going on.
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  The cooks were going delirious. So it was, it was an absolute
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  wild time, but, you know, the weather cause that and the
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  reason the weather cause that is because it's, it's compounded by
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  cooks that can't make it to work and people that can't leave and
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  everyone's hungry and there's nothing to do and there's
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  nowhere to go. So everyone just starts ordering
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  food, the other extremely terrible service that I had that
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  was caused by weather was I was the chef of a restaurant in
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  Dallas and and we had a movie theater, right next.
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  The restaurant where I was the chef and it was a snow day and I
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  thought, well we're not going to do any business.
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  It's a snow day. I already had a couple of call
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  Lofts. I figured no one's going to come
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  into the restaurant if the roads are bad and and it's snowing.
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  Well, it was stupid on my part. So I call it my sous chef and I
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  was like, I'll work the grill. I know everyone's called off all
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  work to grow, but I'm running late because obviously, I'm not
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  too worried about it, something, and it's going to be an easy day
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  and the roads are a little So bad.
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  So I'm taking my time driving in but I completely miscalculated
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  because next door to the restaurant was a movie theater
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  and the movie theater was showing Frozen and it's snow
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  day. So all the kids are out of
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  school. So all the parents decided that
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  they were going to go watch Frozen with their kids and there
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  was nowhere to eat and where the restaurant that's open.
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  So, not only am I unprepared? Because I've had call offs and I
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  think it's going to be an easy day.
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  But then, the entire restaurant gets sat with all these people
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  that are going to the movie theater to go watch Frozen and
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  it was like, oh shit, talk talk about a disaster.
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  It was honestly, it was probably the worst service I've that I've
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  ever had. And then to top it off, I'm on
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  the grill, which that particular restaurant was the hardest
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  station. But I thought, you know, I
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  thought it was, I thought it was, you know, being a noble,
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  Chef, I'll take the hard station, you know, it's gonna be
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  a slow day. I'll work the grill.
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  What a stupid stupid mistake. I made that day.
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  It was Was maybe the worst service I've ever had.
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  Anyway, something else that causes really bad services and
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  for those people that work in bigger restaurants and if you
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  have a kitchen that kind of doesn't have, you know, I know
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  it's very trendy right now to have open kitchen so you can see
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  what's going on. Well sometimes you're not in an
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  open kitchen so you don't know what's going on.
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  And there's been a lull in service and you think it's going
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  to be a slow night. So what happens on slow nights,
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  the cook start goofing off, they start telling jokes whatever,
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  but they're they're Is not in the game, they don't think it's
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  going to be busy because for the last couple of hours it's been
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  slow. Then all of a sudden the
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  restaurant gets sat entirely and you're unaware, you're unaware
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  of this in the kitchen. And then before you know it, the
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  machine starts going off and it just doesn't stop.
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  And you're like where is this coming from?
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  Why did no one inform us? And the worst thing is like, you
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  know, the hostess didn't come back and tell you that there
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  were that they sat the entire dining.
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  Room or the manager didn't come back and tell you that they sat
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  the entire dining room. But that was compounded and made
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  worse by the fact that the server's pocketed all the
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  tickets and then rang everything in at once.
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  So now you got this like massive, you know, tickets to
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  the floor, trying to call out orders, trying to figure out
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  where you're at and and then they come, you know, the servers
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  are coming back, ten minutes later is you know as my food
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  ready is like shit what? Which ticket like you just rang
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  in 50 tickets at once. I had why didn't anyone tell us
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  that the restaurant was set. So you know this Happens in.
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  And then of course, it's going to be worse because it's, you
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  know, the tickets are to the floor and you, you know, you're
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  looking at like the first ten tickets in front of you and you
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  have no idea what the next 50 behind it are.
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  And like I said, you were planning for a slow night.
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  And then, you know, one of the cooks looks up at you and says,
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  I don't know what I have hanging but I'm telling you, I'm out of
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  fish. You're like fuck.
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  What do you mean? You're out of fish?
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  Like yeah I have I have 10 right here and I've sold them all and
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  I have no idea what's hanging there and so it's like, oh shit.
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  Now not only do you know that you don't have enough and now
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  you got to you got to you don't even know what's hanging.
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  So then your you go and you scramble and you look through
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  it's like okay I got 15 more fish and you go tell the server,
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  by the way, these 15 people you need to go.
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  Tell him that there's no fish and it just starts this downward
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  spiral of chaos. And you know, angry swearing,
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  you think you're contemplating? Should I just quit?
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  Should I just try? Just walk off the line right
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  now. Should I just leave my job?
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  Because I think I'm going to get fired because things have gone
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  so bad. Like that is what causes the
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  worst Services ever when and it doesn't even have to be that the
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  entire restaurant was sad. It's one of the cooks sometimes
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  like, hey Hey, I don't have those orders and they tell you
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  after the fact that they need to 86 something because they didn't
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  check their Mason. Plus again it's one of those
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  things that like if people aren't checking their mise en
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  place and know where they're at for service, it could really
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  screw you and send you and the whole team into chaos into this
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  downward spiral. Then there's the Staffing issue
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  and the Staffing issue, normally comes in two ways, either you
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  didn't schedule enough people or people have called off.
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  Actually I should say three or they quit and nothing is worse
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  than when you're in the middle of service.
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  And, you know, sometimes I put these PSAs up, like, don't call
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  off on your birthday or, you know, everyone knows you're
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  lying. The reason I say that is because
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  I'm not sure it's, especially if you're a new cook, I'm not sure.
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  If you understand how chaotic things can be, when one person
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  doesn't show up and if you're in a smaller kitchen, it gets even
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  worse. You know, the bigger the
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  kitchen, it's not as bad. But if you're in a small kitchen
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  and you maybe there's a only three cooks and it's busy.
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  If one of those Kooks does it show up, you're working
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  extremely hard to make sure that everyone gets fed and that the
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  food is good and consisted. It's, it's a very chaotic thing.
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  When someone doesn't show up, especially when you expect them
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  to, if you're not, if you're not planning for them to be there,
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  someone calling off throws everything into this downward
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  spiral of chaos, but sometimes that happens in the middle of
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  service. So sometimes people, you know,
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  I've seen it happen, right? People get fired.
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  Heard in the middle of service. Like, you know, there they do
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  something stupid. And, you know, there's a rail of
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  tickets and like, you know what you're done, go home, you're not
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  coming back or they fire themselves and say, you know
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  what I'm done, I'm going home, I'm not coming back.
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  This is, this is too much. And so you have a full rail of
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  tickets and the person station was just abandoned for whatever
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  reason, either, by, by you getting rid of them or by them,
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  getting rid of themselves and you're like shit, where are
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  they? How do we recover from this?
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  And again, Downward spiral chaotic kitchen.
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  How do you get out of it? And the reality is there is no
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  getting out of it. The last one I want to talk
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  about is like downward spiral by your own doing, usually caused
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  by like the chef or the sous. Chef?
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  What? I'll give you an example of what
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  I mean. So the sous chef says, hey, it's
• 12:28
  my birthday. I want to take Friday off and
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  you're feeling generous is the chef and you're like yeah, take
• 12:32
  take Friday off. No big deal.
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  You want to be nice. I'll cover for you.
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  So you're doing your Up and you're doing the Sous chefs job,
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  but he's better at his job than you are, right?
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  So I think people need to understand that is, like, just
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  because you're the executive chef, does it mean that you're
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  good at everyone's job? It's probably been a long time
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  since you've been doing those other jobs so it's not that you
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  can't do them. You're just not going to be as
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  efficient as the sous chef. Who does that day in and day
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  out, whatever those tasks may be.
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  So the sous-chef takes the day off because it's his birthday
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  but in this particular case the sous-chef also wrote the
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  schedule. So the Chef gave their best
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  friend off, who happens to be your best grill cook, and you
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  show up, ready to run service. And you're like, wait my sous
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  chef is off. And my best cook is off because
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  they're out partying together, and then, so you're Rusty.
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  And your best to guys are off. And then the restaurants
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  extremely busy, because it's the weekend, same thing now, weird
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  spiral chaotic and like, why the fuck did I do this to myself?
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  Why did I agree to have him take off?
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  And why didn't I check the schedule?
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  So chefs out there when your shoes, when your sous chef is
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  writing the schedule. And taking time off, you better
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  check with their writing, I've learned that lesson one too many
• 13:42
  times and then of course there's the downward spiral created by
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  the egotistical Chef. So some commune example of what
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  I mean, like sometimes you create dishes and you're
• 13:54
  punching above your weight, like the type of restaurant, that you
• 13:57
  have shouldn't be serving food that complicated, you know,
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  maybe you're, you know, you're just like in a gastropub but
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  you're trying to pump out Michelin star food because You
• 14:07
  know, if you have this young hungry Chef that wants to wants
• 14:10
  to show what they what they know and you I'm going to do this
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  food and you're like serving the wrong food for the environment
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  like you have for line Cooks but they're doing food in
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  restaurants that normally have 20 or 30 and your thing why the
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  fuck are you white? Why why are you doing this?
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  And so then that orders comes in because it's a good special and
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  the kitchen gets backed up because you know, the most
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  difficult dish, the Michelin star dish that you wanted on the
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  menu. Is coming off the station for
• 14:39
  the greenest cook and they're like, putting dots and you're
• 14:42
  like, hurry up what's Takin so long?
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  He's like, well, I got to get the dots perfect chef and you're
• 14:46
  like, but the thing is, the funny thing is, it's like it's
• 14:49
  that even in like a Michelin star dish.
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  It's like you know coconut shrimp with like Chipotle fluid
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  gel dots and you're like, why the fuck are you serving this in
• 14:59
  the restaurant? Like, no one cares.
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  Anyway, I'm busting balls. But that happens, right?
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  You're punching above your weight and you start designing
• 15:07
  food that that puts everyone else in the weeds because you
• 15:11
  don't realize how complicated is because you want to do cool
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  food, be smart about it. Anyway, those are the warning
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  signs. Like, if you start seeing that
• 15:21
  happening, the best thing you could do is, like, bite down on
• 15:23
  your mouthpiece. It's going to be a tough night,
• 15:26
  but there is no stopping it. It's coming regardless so I
• 15:31
  could tell you we've all been through those bad services, do
• 15:33
  not. Quit.
• 15:34
  If you're a cook listening to this, do not quit.
• 15:36
  On those bad Services. It will be better tomorrow at
• 15:38
  the end of those terrible Services.
• 15:41
  Everyone has a beer. They have a drink and they say,
• 15:43
  oh man, that was rough and they all laugh about it later and
• 15:45
  it's a great memory but it does break a lot of people.
• 15:49
  So, you know, don't walk off the job.
• 15:51
  If you're the chef as tempted as you are, don't fire anyone to
• 15:55
  hurt. During those bad Services, you
• 15:57
  all will get through it. Well, anyway, that wraps up.
• 16:01
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  know, as we talked about earlier, there's some merch, you
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  audible. Thank you all very much.
• 16:49
  See you next week at the porno music.