Being a short order cook can be difficult for a variety of reasons.
- It’s admittedly a high stress job, but it can be rewarding for those who enjoy the challenge and love cooking and serving up customers the best meals that they can craft.
You know the saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Well, obviously that’s not an option for me if I want to keep my job! My boss is not too keen on running the air conditioner most of the time, simply because it would have to work so hard to combat the heat and humidity that is produced within the kitchen of the restaurant I work in. I know that sounds insane, but it’s something I’ve just learned to deal with along with the rest of my co-workers. That being said, turnaround can be quite quick in the kitchen, and we’ve come to expect the vast majority of “new recruits” to wash out rather quickly. Some can still handle the heat, pun intended, and I have to admit that one of my favorite co-workers who has become a good friend of mine was one that I thought was surely going to quit after the first week. However, she’s stuck with it rather admirably. Anyway, there are a few things we have learned to do when we’re getting overheated during the day. As you would expect, we all love visiting The walk-in freezer as often as possible. In fact, when things are a little slower, we tend to congregate there as much as possible without it becoming conspicuous. I swear, if a water cooler was in there, we would actually stand in there and have a conversation! The other thing we tend to do is to stay hydrated all the time. This means that we tend to need to use the restroom a lot, but I’ve learned to hold it as long as I can! Like I said, this job isn’t for everyone!