What do restaurant workers eat?

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Posted at 12:02PM, 10 July 2008 by Graham Holliday - blogger

Ever wondered what restaurant workers eat before they get to work? Do they all eat together ÃÂ la the best functioning families. And if they do, do they eat off the menu or out of the slops?

One journalist in New York City set off to find out. Erin Bremer talked to the waiters, dishwashers, chefs and managers of eight of the top family meal joints in New York City to find out what they eat, when they eat it and if they eat it together. Workplace bonding, it seems, has just as important a role as family bonding at dinner time.

"Formal family meals take place shortly before lunch or dinner service, giving staff members time to both relax and rev up before their long and arduous shifts. It's a simple concept, and as I discovered while hopping from one acclaimed New York restaurant to the next, if you're lucky to work somewhere that serves caramelized, blanched, or poached vegetables, rather than "bloomin' " ones, you're in for a real treat," (source: Kottke).

However, according to Bremer the staff don't linger - this is New York after all - and the 'family meal' at work is all over within twenty minutes and then it's on to the business of the day - serving the paying customers.

You've got to wonder how the staff at the Gramercy Tavern get through eight courses and still manage to stand up and do a night's work... Phew,

"The impressive eight-course spread was easily the largest of the bunch as well as one of the tastiest. The cornerstones of the meal were a traditional coq au vin Ã¢ÂÂ "Just like grand-mÃÂ©re used to make it," professed .Chef Tournant Greg Marchand

The only restaurant I have ever worked in was a Vietnamese place in the south of France. I did it to find out how your average Oriental restaurant in Europe works. After five hours of blazing woks and boiling beef bones at a kitchen coalface steeped in star anise vapours, we all sat down for the aprÃÂ¨s service dinner. As in Bremer's New York City experience dinner was all off-menu, but the reason for the excursion was a little different. "This is too authentic," the owner told me while ladling from a big soup, filled with pig's heart, bamboo shoots and noodles. "If we served this in the restaurant, no one would buy it."

Comments

tattookitten

10 July, 4:58PM
tattookitten

I work in a restaurant and at breakfast we're normally allowed some toast or fruit during our shift, or if we want to wait until the end we can have some of the left over hot food. In the evenings we eat before we go to work and we pick at the veg and chips if we're not busy (and if the chefs are no where to be seen!). Some times if there are left over desserts that have to be eatten that day the chefs will let the waiting staff eat them. But I think that if all the staff got a meal before their shift the morale would lift tremendously, however from the managements point of view they only want food to be cooked for paying customers!

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James

10 July, 9:38PM
James

20 minutes? That's a holiday. I got it down to under 5 minutes once - from the kitchen to the canteen, lunch, and back to the kitchen via a quick toilet stop. You can't stop a busy chef. Calmed down a bit since then though. Now it's more of a family meal, well me & my brother. Maybe my dad too on occasions - you have to get them roped in. Leftovers is good - you should eat the same food as your customers because then you can see what you're doing right/ wrong and what you can improve on and change. And doing something different with the same ingredientscan take a dish in a different way. It'smore difficult in large establishments where overheads are key and not all the staff will appreciate what the quality of food they have.

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shez

13 July, 8:34PM
shez

Think all waiting staff should be made to eat the food they are serving in order to know what they are talking about when guests ask questions. In my younger days, I worked in a restaurant and we were told to order from the menu and eat in the restaurant before we started work there to sample the food.

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Isabelle

15 July, 3:25PM
Isabelle

The restaurant i work in isn't massive, so thats probably why we get what we do.Fortunatly the manager allows us a staff meal from a smaller list from the main menu and when new dishes are brought in we can try that for lunch or dinner instead. We eat in the restaurant, the waiting staff together if it is very quiet,not in the evenings though. It's good to eat the same food as the customer as you can give better advice and info(hopefully!) for the paying customers. Keeps everyone on good spirits too. free food!

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