[Sca-cooks] Cooking Like a 3-Star Chef in Your Own Home (Almost) - OOP, Not entirely OT

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Siegfried Heydrich:
>     OK, these guys were union, right? The Potato Cutters union wasn't going
>to interfere with the Mushroom Cleaners unions who wasn't going to cross the
>line of the Sauciers union who would never step on the toes of the Meat
>Cutters union who wouldn't even THINK of annoying the Glaciers union who has
>a close working relationship with the Sauteir's union, and are all looked
>down upon by the Line Cooks union, all of who aspire to eventual membership
>in to Pompous Pretentious Pampered Media Chef's union . . .

You laugh. I once lost a job at the Grand Central Oyster Bar (I
survived one, count 'em, one, lunch service) because, after asking
nicely, asking nicely, but slightly louder, for a stack of plates for
my station, going back to the dishwashers and explaining that I was
cooking food and had no plates, and finally going back and picking up
(egad!) a stack of plates so I could plate sauteed scallops.

Actually, most of the best restaurants in New York are non-union. The
bad ones are union, and the various corporate food service companies
are union. But unions in this particular industry seem to guarantee
mediocrity. I don't know how it is elsewhere. (The Grand Central
Oyster Bar is an exception, it's a fine restaurant that _is_ union,
but the quality of the food is in spite of the union, not because of
it. For all the damage the union work habits does to the food,
nothing can completely destroy such beautiful raw ingredients.

>Jayzus Keerist,
>no WONDER it costs so damn much to get a decent meal dining out! Division of
>labor, my ass! So, how much did these pups get paid for their half-hours
>work each, I have to wonder.

Probably about $10 - $12 an hour, on the average. Minimum wage for a
trained cook seems to be about $7/hour. Around here...

Adamantius