Posted on 01/08/2020 10:19:54 AM PST by karpov
Cassidee Dabney has one of the more coveted jobs in her field: executive chef of the Barn at Blackberry Farm, an award-winning restaurant, both luxurious and deeply connected to the land, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
But she got her start, and a certain prestige, at an Applebee’s in Fayetteville, Ark. In her town, she said, “telling people you work at Applebee’s was like telling them you worked at Per Se.”
That job, making salads and French fries while she was in high school, has shaped how Ms. Dabney runs her kitchen at Blackberry Farm. She has also hired a number of employees with similar experience.
Ms. Dabney, 40, is one of several acclaimed chefs who prize the lessons they learned — many as teenagers — in the scaled-up, streamlined world of chain restaurants. They include Stephanie Izard, the executive chef and co-owner of Girl & the Goat and Little Goat Diner in Chicago, and Kia Damon, formerly the executive chef of Lalito in New York and now the culinary director of Cherry Bombe, a magazine that focuses on women in the food world.
The influential Southern chef Sean Brock loves eating at the Waffle House chain so much that he took Anthony Bourdain to one for Mr. Bourdain’s television show “Parts Unknown,” and explained how much the restaurant had taught him about hospitality. Even Jacques Pépin, the French chef best known for his TV cooking shows, values the 10 years he worked in research and development for a signature American chain restaurant: Howard Johnson’s.
Chain restaurants are often accused of a sterile uniformity and a lack of attention to quality ingredients, nutrition and the environment. But for anyone trying to enter the restaurant business, they have particular attractions: formalized training, efficient operations, predictable schedules
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’m glad it’s a good career for some. My 2 month experience in the food industry in high school taught me the importance of studying hard and getting good grades so I could get a decent job.
On ‘Top Chef’ they took the contestants to a Waffle House and made them have to work the grill. They were clueless, learned a valuable lesson about work management, etc. If you’ve ever watched a Waffle House cook, they are amazing as to how they can handle such a high-volume grill and not miss a beat.
“nutrition “
Typical liberal from the NYT insulting anything not expensive and stupid. There is far more nutrition at any Waffle House than the Twigs & Berries joint she eats at.
“Even Jacques Pépin, the French chef best known for his TV cooking shows, values the 10 years he worked in research and development for a signature American chain restaurant: Howard Johnson’s.”
HoJo’s used to have the best hot dogs with toasted buns.
Yep. The food service industry for many means a dead end job as a waiter or waitress.
But... there is money to be made. If you are willing to work 70-80 hour weeks and can move into management or ownership - then you can bring home some bucks.
Maybe. Usually. Until idiot lawmakers require you to pay 15.00 an hour to non skilled help.
When I patronize restaurants with open kitchens, I often marvel at the few number of people actually cooking the food, their efficiency, and how they avoid running each other down. It’s rather like an auto assembly line where the correct parts show up all along the line at the precise time needed to build a car to your order.
I can’t imagine doing that work day after day after day. I’d be worn to a frazzle.
You’re describing “management” in most every company!
There are a lot of premier chefs who have competed on Top Chef. One mentioned in the article, Stephanie Izard, won her year’s competition. Since then, she has won the Iron Chef America Gauntlet competition and is the last chef to be bestowed that coveted honor.
I still watch Top Chef. I watch a lot of cooking competition shows, and that is my favorite. Iron Chef America, another of my favorites, is currently on hiatus. Bummer.
“My 2 month experience in the food industry in high school taught me the importance of studying hard and getting good grades so I could get a decent job.”
One of adult children was a chef for 20 years until he realized that it deprived him of any life outside the restaurants. He is now happily employed in a non restaurant career.
His nephew, our grandson could be a good chef, however working as a cook last summer, convinced him to go to a good university to get a good job and to have a life.
His uncle, our son, said that this young man was a fast learner.
A waiter at a high end restaurant can make $100,000+ a year
I worked at IHOP as a waiter at college. Short-lived. I learned there’s more money in being a bartender and obama kids are the worst customers.
bfl
I worked for a couple months at a pizza shop. They hired several of us together and fired us all at the same time. They said someone stole money from the safe and decided to fire everyone. For the record, I didn’t even know there was a safe. Then a couple months at a KFC. Got sick of smelling like chicken. One day as a busboy at a Chinese place. I quit when I saw them re-using uneaten food.
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