How is it like to work in a commercial kitchen?

For my internship during polytechnic year 3, I have never done kitchen duties before. I never knew how it was like to be in a commercial  kitchen, how is the life like, what do they usually do. I have completely no idea. I did service for 6 months, 3 months in a hotel and 3 months in Disney, as my teacher wanted us to focus on service more in preparation for Disney. I didn't hate service, but I don't exactly like it either. Dealing with workload is an issue, but handling customers... I'm not someone who can hide their feelings, so if something upsetting happen to me, I would probably show it on my face. You know what they say, customers don't pay to see black faces. They want smiles, laughter and manners. Basic respect. However some customers are beyond that scale. Almost half of them are ignorant, ridiculous, rude, downright mean. Just because you dine in the restaurant doesn't mean you can treat us as servants. Moreover I had been doing F&B for quite a while as waitress/servers/counters, not that I'm experienced or whatever, I'm just not willing to deal with customers anymore. No matter how nice and amazing some customers are.

So I requested for kitchen for my 2 years bond. I didn't know what to expect going into this program. I just know I want to see if I'm passionate and willing enough to work in this line of business. This is the period of time whereby I can earn and save money for my future studies. I know about the long hours, but I treat this as a learning opportunity.

In a male dominate work environment, there are bound to be politics and hypocrisy. I guess it's more on the ego side, pride and whatsoever. They like to bitch around people's back actually. Example: I'm in the cold kitchen. Person A and Person B would be talking about Person C. Then when Person C comes into the kitchen, they will all gossip about Person D. I presume this is how kitchen is like. Hopefully they tell me off in front of my face instead of "backstabbing". The funny thing is that they all know they don't like each other, somehow they are professional about it. Keeping personal away from work? Sometimes they are so fake it scares me? Although I just stay out of it. I understand most of the time, but it's best to shut it. You know if someone is nice when "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals".


Most of them think they are the boss, and there are rarely leaders. Maybe 1 or 2.

Opinions and ideas everywhere. Since I'm new to this place, I don't know what's going on. The placement of ingredients, where are the stocks coming from, how to cut this and that, what to do in the morning. Everyone have their ways of teaching. It's frustrating because I'm new and I don't know what is the best way to do stuff around here. I just learn to adapt accordingly. Ways that allow me to stay safe and still do it fast enough. I'm still experimenting, looking at how certain people do things. Sometimes it feels as if it's just speed and no quality.

Everyone expects you to know everything since you graduate from a polytechnic. And the cold hard truth is, I don't. There are so many things I'm still learning and attempting. We are in a controlled environment in school. Although we should strive to be fast, we must still have quality. Moreover we study both business and practical, I doubt I remember half of the things I have studied for these three years. I personally do not have much knowledge about being in the kitchen. Only limited to those practical classes and TEP in L'Rez. We don't train much on knife skills and etc. And also in the commercial kitchen, nobody actually bothers to teach you step by step how to do this and that. When I first started, most of the things are so blurry to me. Confused is what I would say. I don't even know what time my break is, what time I end work, I didn't even have a schedule. I just do what I'm told. And if I'm doing nothing, I would ask if there's anything to be done. However nowadays it's better, I know what's there to be done. Things I have to look out for and stuff like that.


Remembering. I feel like this most of the time. Like this particular vegetable is supposed to be cut a certain way for certain dishes, they will expect you to remember as you have done it before. But for a scatterbrain like me, I can't. Sometimes I have to ask them again, they don't fault me for it though, (I have a feeling it's because I'm new and I'm a girl). Still... I have to remember. I can't get past their accent and they talk so fast I can't catch what they are saying. They have to repeat twice or thrice for me to get to completely. Also, I ask a lot of questions. When they answer, I can't seem to get into my head. I forget instantly.

Okay that's the end of the post! Feels lengthy but I'm sure I have a few points I left out. Like I said, I have a poor memory. Bye!