To be really annoyed about boss making a big deal out of this?

[FedupofbeingtoldIcantusemyname]

I work in a kitchen (for context).

We cook a full English breakfast as part of our menu including bacon & sausage. This morning my boss comes in and starts complaining at me because he wants me to dry off each individual piece of meat (bacon/sausage) with blue roll by hand after cooking it in the pan because, in his words, he thinks they look too greasy and 'like a greasy spoon'.

Aibu to think this is ridiculous? I know he wants everything to look perfect but I think people ordering bacon and sausages would expect a certain amount of grease and this is an unreasonable waste of time when we are busy??

I've worked in kitchens OP. I've worked in kitchens when i've had to handle 20+ orders at once.

If you are in a higher end establishment- then people do expect higher quality. If I paid £10 for something that looked like I could get for £3 with a free brew thrown in- I wouldn't be happy. I would make sure I pointed it out as well. Not because i'm petty, but because the price wouldn't reflect the expected quality- and i'd ask to speak to management if I didn't get an acceptable response.

I don't like my breakfast swimming in grease. It takes a couple of seconds. Deal with it.

I get it might seem petty to you but we all have different standards/expectations and at the end of the day you aren't the one who has targets to meet, the one who has to deal with customer complaints and from above.

I'd rather have the grease and my food still hot than wait for all my tables meat to be individually dabbed. So I'm going to say yanbu op.

YABU. If you're taking five minutes per plate and letting the food go cold you're really doing something very very wrong, and yes I have worked in large scale professional kitchens. You're completely BU as everyone else has said.

Reality I'm sorry but with all due respect you don't know what you're talking about. I've worked in many food establishments of all different types and no one ever dries meat off, more for speed or service than anything. When you are doin 200+ covers in a lunchtime you just don't have the time. If people are really that bothered about the fat then don't eat sausages or bacon! News flash - they are fatty!

Thumb he lives in house so tends to just wander down and bark instructions then buggers off again.

Like I said I'm not trying to make excuses it's just very very difficult to do a good job when you are trying to cook commercial amounts of food in a tiny domestic kitchen that shares the space I need to plate up food with the space I need to put the dirty dishes. I also have to wash the dishes, take the food out and clear the tables by myself. It is very hard work and I only get minimum wage so I apologise if I'm being defensive, I really am trying my best

YANBU and you need to find another job.

Cook, waitress, cleaner and washer up, with no professional equipment all for NMW? Fuck that.

Would he pass inspection from the council? Do you have a separate handwashing sink?

User, just for reference it's isn't that fancy, think about half that price. Not greasy spoon but not fancy hotel either. I also work the front of house so I have to deal with complaints too.

Brie it isn't 5 mins per plate but if I got a big order it could be 5 mins per order which Is enough time for it to go cold. I have no heat lamps to keep the food hot and I'm the only one in the kitchen so don't have a team to help me.

Not to be rude or anything but that's your business. You took the job,no one had a gun to your head. You agree to do certain jobs and they tell you how much you get paid. If you don't like it , it's time to look for a new job.

If he wants you to dry off the food, dry off the food. Tell him your time frame or chalk to him about a solution.

And yes I've worked in kitchens. For breakfasts we used to cook it up and throw it in a dish with kitchen towel or some variant already in so it absorbed most of the grease. Thrown it in, shake about and blot. 10 extra seconds per breakfast.

I'm pretty sure they have a 5 star rating from the council bogey, we have a hand washing sink but it's in the front of house section so I have to walk back and forth, go to the bathroom or just wash hands in the dishes sink.

Sure you get customers coming and complaining to you- but when you have someone say to you that they have been a customer for a number of years and say they spend £100 a week in your restaurant and they won't be returning- you find yourself having to explain that to the powers that be when they are asking "what has happend to X?" or "X has written me this letter" or "X posted this 1 star review on trip advisor"- what are you going to do about it? Front of house staff (hell, i've done it) say "I will just go and get my manager for you" like they can wave a magic wand. I have been on both sides of it.

It's one thing the front of house staff brushing it off, but as a manager if you have people frequently coming to you with a complaint you have to deal with it. Once or twice- fine. But more than that the penny starts to drop that something needs to change. Try to see if from his point of view. Just because you aren't in a kitchen/cafe getting your hands dirty doesn't mean you aren't hard at work.

When I was managing a kitchen once and our cook left us in the lurch- I was pulling in nearly double the hours as I had to cook, manage my staff and deal with my other managerial duties. I was only supposed to work in house one day a week out of 5 so when I was working in house 5 days a week- it meant the work I was supposed to be doing 4 days a week had to be done at home or I had to work late.

Your options are simple- hand your resignation in or do as he says. But I think you need to cut him a bit of slack.

If you are expected to do that much in a NMW position- from another point of view, then yes- I think you need to look for another job. Unless it was in your job description that you are expected to muck in if required.

Again where I have worked in the past in a cafe- food stopped at 3pm, but the cafe was open until 4pm so if the cafe was full and staff were struggling I was expected to lend a hand and would be paid an extra hour for doing so.

It's a whole different kettle of fish though if you are expected to perform multiple duties at once. That isn't acceptable. I can understand people asking you to stick plates in a potwash if it's nearby and your going past- but if you are expected to prepare food, take orders and move from one room to the next continously then that isn't on.

Not to mention (and I might be wrong about this as it's been 2.5 years) i'm pretty sure it's a requirement to have seperate hand washing facilities in a kitchen to avoid cross contamination.

I appreciate what you are saying user but the boss in question doesn't actually work in the business at all in any capacity. He just owns it but doesn't actually put any hours in as such. I understand that it is his business that I'm paid to do the work and that's fine but it's very difficult when he expects you to do things but has no clue how that works in practise (there are other examples of this too not just the meat thing).

I am expected to do multiple things simultaneously - today I was making prep for lunch, cooking breakfasts, taking food out, clearing tables and washing dishes all at the same time (obviously not all at exactly the same time but all duties running at the same time depending on priority iyswim).

Then get a new job. I don't know why you would subject yourself to that if i'm honest. Start looking now.

You have a bigger problem than the one you originally posted- it's clearly the straw that has broke the camels back so to speak and you've clearly had enough.

Surely if you haven't anywhere hot to sit food w hilst you cook the whole order...

Each plate gets a sheet of kitchen roll or two (not the blue stuff as others have said there are proper kitchen rolls for this, most chefs I know use the blue and white checked stuff!), you have another wodge to hand.

Plate up onto the kitchen roll all the fried stuff - blot the top with the spare wodge, pull the underneath sheet out and serve.

The plates are lined with the paper as the other stuff is cooking, then you blot, remove the underneath sheets and then plate up any 'wet' stuff like beans/tinned tomatoes. The blotting must only take 5 seconds per plate, not 10 seconds per item.

Sounds bloody awful, actually - working conditions suck. I would imagine you absolutely needed a job to take this particular one under these particular conditions, and might be finding it hard to get another one - but certainly look out for a new one because this one SUCKS!

I wouldn't want anyone pawing at my brekkie with a bit of blue paper while my lovely bacon gets cold. Sounds vile.

People telling you how to run a full service with bog standard household equipment and no staff have clearly never catered in a professional manner. They can safely be ignored.

like a rubbish job - but you are also coming across as a bit of a jobsworth too. (and yes I too have worked in the frontline )

If you don't like the conditions then find another job -whether we think the boss is unreasonable or not doesn't make a lot of difference as we aren't the ones paying your wages. . Do you have all the usual certs Food Hygene, C&G etc ?

He IBU in view of the timescales involved.

However for me personally HINBU about the grease. I won't order a cooked breakfast in a hotel/B&B/café cos they always come with so much grease that I gag trying to eat them. #fussybugger

Shame that he can't come and see how busy you are at prime times so he understands that while a quick drain onto paper might be do-able a full blot is impossible!

I wouldn't want anyone pawing at my brekkie with a bit of blue paper while my lovely bacon gets cold. Sounds vile.

Blue roll doesn't disintegrate or leave bits on the food. By "pawing" I assume you mean 'touching' and, well, that's what chefs do. Using blue roll on food is perfectly acceptable and common.

People telling you how to run a full service with bog standard household equipment and no staff have clearly never catered in a professional manner. They can safely be ignored.

Yes and no. They can of course sack you. It sounds like you're doing a difficult job and should look for another one due to the lack of equipment more than anything. Without heat lamps it becomes very tricky.

Do you have a hot cupboard?

He's not being unreasonable, no. His caff, his rules.

Yanbu. All the world over people will have a view on how jobs should be done that they have never done themselves.

I think he's unreasonable to ask you to use blue roll,

No it doesn't. That's why it's used in kitchens.

Op I owned a restaurant, didn't cook that much but dh is a professional chef (30 years experience so assume that qualifies him in your opinion) and did the majority. When we did breakfast he managed this in a busy restaurant without the food being cold.

Greasy food looks crap and most people don't want it.

I'd have thought as a professional food preparer you'd be keen to present your dishes (even if we are just talking fry up) in the best way possible, both aesthetically and in terms of taste. Neither boxes are ticked when food is greasy. And obviously, you just make yourself look a bit of a dick by saying 'this is the way I've always done it'. Things change, and tbh, if change means not serving food swimming in grease, then it sounds good to me. You come across as though you know best and nobody can tell you any different. Unfortunately, the owner of the kitchen, can.

Dh was a chef and tells horror stories about how kitchen staff are treated, even in expensive places. Sadly, it seems par for the course and abusive twats like Gordon Ramsay help to perpetuate the myth that it's OK to treat people like shit in the name of your art..

So, yabu about the food itself, very much so, but not about the working conditions.

Drying the meat is a red herring here. Your working conditions are hugely unreasonable, full stop. You need to look for another job!

Take out the meat, put it all on a sheet already laid out. Get another sheet and press over the top. May be more wasteful but only takes two seconds. I always do this with my bacon.
I bet he'll be complaining when he realises he needs to buy so many more rolls.