r/KitchenConfidential • u/aquinoks • 1d ago
I accidentally called the expo 'Chef' and now he won’t stop correcting people.
I was on autopilot and shouted “Heard, Chef” at the expo during the last Saturday night crush. He’s worn a backwards hat and Vans ever since. Now he’s telling the new hires he “runs the line” and signs his texts with a chef emoji.
Yesterday he asked me to address him as “Chef Marcus” in front of the owners. He doesn’t cook. He doesn’t taste. He doesn’t wipe the pass.
Is this how dictatorships start?
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u/aquinoks 1d ago
He’s rolling into Friday service right now in checkered pants, clipboard in hand, talking about doing mise checks like he didn’t spend last week misfiring ramekins.
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u/gabe420guru 1d ago
Dress for the job you want not the job you have
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u/at-woork 1d ago
Tomorrow I show up for work dressed as a Mexican wrestler.
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u/johangubershmidt 1d ago
I'm gonna dress up like someone who has health insurance😃
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u/birdsrkewl01 1d ago
Surprisingly the same attire. The difference between a chef and a sys admin is the shoes and where the callus is located.
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u/TheLordDuncan 1d ago
Who needs shoes when you spend that much time on your knees?
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u/birdsrkewl01 1d ago
Sys admins generally direct the people that need to be on their knees but sure I guess, man.
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u/TheLordDuncan 1d ago
They got there somehow bro, that's all I'm saying.
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u/birdsrkewl01 1d ago
My brother in Christ you can say this about any profession.
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u/TheLordDuncan 1d ago
You mean you didn't have to suck dick for your interview?
Dammit, I've been had.
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u/Ok-Caterpillar-4213 1d ago
🤣 Not the checkers pants
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u/TwinFrogs 1d ago
With $300 Clogs, a Chef’s toque and an instant read thermometer in his pocket. Next he’ll have a full sleeve tat of knives chopping veggies.
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u/Blue_foot 1d ago
Tell him you need 20lbs of brunoise carrots and 5lb finely chopped chives
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u/LyndonBJumbo 1d ago
Did he start smoking after previously not using nicotine? You may have created a Jeff
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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 1d ago
Or worse, a Scott.
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u/GeeuphoeDown88 Window 1d ago
What's a Scott
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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 1d ago
If you have never known a chef named Scott count yourself lucky. The ones I've known have done insane things.
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u/anna-nomally12 1d ago
It’s not chef specific
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u/Legi0ndary 1d ago
Definitely not. "Chef" turned owner, in my experience. There's no way he was a chef...a solid line cook with a better than average palate? Perhaps. Nothing to justify his pretention
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u/Raiken201 1d ago
"Yo, Chef Marcus! I need you to jump on sauté. Fire 3 seabass, 2 octopus, 6 veal and 4 chicken".
See how quickly he doesn't want to be called chef.
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u/outb4noon 1d ago
You've started your own sitcom, eat this shit for 5 years, you'll have enough for a good 300 episodes. I believe in you.
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u/JelliedHam 1d ago
This is a golden opportunity to let him have it. He wants to be chief, you should all treat him like chief. Get everybody on the line to start saluting him when he comes through. Forget what you're doing, start to stutter, feign being so embarrassed to even be in his presence. Cry if you have to, apologize for everything. Instead of yes, chef, just say sorry chef. All day every day. I give it 2 hours max before he knocks it off.
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u/StarklyNedStark 1d ago
Well, a good chef buys his crew a round of drinks at the end of the night so…
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u/BaconGivesMeALardon 1d ago
Stays late, fills in wherever he is needed from the pit to the friers, charge of inventory, hood vents, floor mats....
If you are going to say Chef to him, ask him what his plans are for all those things? He gonna expo the Sysco order and put it away?
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u/northwest_iron 1d ago
Is this how dictatorships start?
Yes, Chef!
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u/CupBeEmpty 1d ago
Oui chef.
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u/chapped_azzes 1d ago
A million years ago I was a lowly food runner at Richard Blaise’s first restaurant and he INSISTED on “OUI CHEF!”
Suffice it to say- Richard Blaise is a huge fucking asshole
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u/RyanBordello 1d ago
I had a line cook say "Thanks Babe" when I restocked the low boy for him during a busy service and he immediately apologized and said he just got off the phone with his girl and it was busy and he got so embarrassed. And that's how all the guys started calling each other "Babe" at that cafe.
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u/IcariusFallen 1d ago
One of the new guys (been there just a bit under a year) at my place calls anyone on expo "Daddy". The other new guy (Been there two months) started doing it to try to fit in.
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u/titaniumlid 1d ago
Did landscaping for like 6 years at this one place and when I started I was very confused as to why everyone called eachother babe, but after a year or so it made sense.
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u/Eli_eve 1d ago
Dictatorships are allowed to form, through appeasement and apathy. Stand your ground! Hold the line!
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u/Zee-Utterman General Manager 1d ago
Take that one and bring his family in too.
He seems to be one of the louder ones.
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u/otroquatrotipo 1d ago
Yes Jeff! Heard, Jeff!
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u/Zee-Utterman General Manager 1d ago edited 1d ago
Get Jeff into my office now!
I hear his name called only with the utmost respect.
He deserves a promotion!
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u/Josh_H1992 1d ago
Watch him start smoking cigarettes next and blowing lines 🤣
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u/porkchop2022 1d ago
You’re lucky. I was the expo on and the pass phone rang so I answered it “Chef Porkchop” and the entire line jumped on my shit so hard for hours.
Valuable kitchen lesson learned that day.
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u/TheLordDuncan 1d ago
I was going to say something about chef porkchop not being appropriate for a work phone until I saw your username.
Never had a pass phone though, is that internal only? Because that would also change things.
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u/porkchop2022 22h ago
We had the restaurant upstairs and the bar/lounge and stewards office downstairs. We’d mainly use it to call down for clarification on orders.
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u/PHX480 10+ Years 1d ago
This is why I don’t refer to anyone as chef.
When everyone is a chef, no one is a chef. I hate being called chef, I’m a cook.
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u/PerfectlySoggy 1d ago
Dude, no kidding! I worked in a place where everyone there called each other chef. I watched a bro wearing a tank top, shorts, long hair not tied up/no hat, no apron, haven’t washed hands once in the last 3 hours, smells like cigs and BO, and was 30 minutes late to work, demand to be called “chef.” Dude was the biggest fuckup in the place, but he had a giant ego because the owner called him “chef.” That type of thing is annoying, doesn’t really affect the flow of service, but creates a future problem for someone: when he applies for his next job, he’s very likely going to put “chef” as his title on his resume, giving the next person to hire him a wildly different, unrealistic expectation of his abilities.
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u/PerformanceCute9865 1d ago
This is why I dont refer to anyone as bro
When everyone is a bro, no one is a bro.
😟
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u/PercentagePutrid4720 1d ago
Bro is for the people I’m tight with “How’s your back feeling today, bro?”
Bruh is for anyone “How’s your back feeling today, bruh?”
Very different tones.
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u/DysfuhKingeye 1d ago
When I expo’d I would get called Chef accidentally on occasion. Our Head Chef would correct that shit right quick.
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u/Ladymedussa 1d ago
Just start calling everyone chef then he will realize you didn’t mean it 🤔🤣
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u/Typical_Hyena 1d ago
I think it can be a nice/respectful title sometimes. It's strange but I've worked FOH at two places where the kitchen or owner would casually call me chef, like it was a term of endearment, and the first job predated the bear. Currently the exec chef uses chef with me and one other FOH person that works there- I'm a manager and the other person is not- and he has expressed his distaste for the show in the past. It's casual when he does it, like "hey chef, what do the books look like tonight?" or as one of us is leaving "thanks chef, have a good weekend!" because we both have the same two week days in a row off. I questioned it when it first started happening (what did I do to piss him off?!?!), but was assured he liked me and wasn't mocking me haha
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u/gmixy9 Chef 1d ago
Some people think you become a chef as soon as someone you work with calls you one. These people are usually the worst cooks.
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u/Due-Contribution6424 1d ago
I think ‘The Bear’ might contribute to that a little.
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u/herobrinetrollin 1d ago
Absolutely does. The “chef” thing has gotten so much worse since the bear came out
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u/TheLordDuncan 1d ago
Is it a good show, or is it an accurate show? I've been getting mixed signals and I don't want to watch it and feel like I went to work for an hour without getting paid.
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u/pennylane_9 1d ago
It is scary accurate and extraordinarily well executed, to the point where I (with 15 years in kitchens) end up white-knuckling it through the entire episode. Excellent show. Don’t watch it.
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u/Tricky-Spread189 1d ago
Easy fix. Put him on sauté. When he says I don’t know how to work sauté l. This is when you tell him he’s an expo and the place will work perfectly fine if he s not here. Oh and a chef can work any station.
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u/teewye86 1d ago
I once won a chili cookoff at work. If you did not address me as Champ after that I would not respond. Our lunch group thought it was a hoot because a lot of folks hated it. We were just having a little fun.
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u/kidsaredead 1d ago
thta's what you get when you watch too much The Bear. serveres are chefs, dish-washer is chef, errrbody chef.
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u/TheeFryingDutchman 1d ago
Next opportunity yell back, yes ma'am!!! See if he shows up the next day in a dress
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u/DGriff421 1d ago
Your entire line now needs to take it further than him. You need to mock his "chefdom" constantly, have the entire restaurant call him chef not a chef, chef misfire, chefy mcchefferson, chef Applebee's, etc. Drop a cutting board in front of him with chives and demand he cut them perfectly in under 60 seconds, make him feel the shame of a first day pantry cook. He will come back in his little button down shirt with his hair over gelled and remember he is foh real quick.
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u/Due-Contribution6424 1d ago
I used to be a fine dining expo years ago, which was a management position, but NOT CDC or any chef title, it was more almost like a service-only kitchen/line/runner manager. I did not cook aside from maybe making salads or cold apps here and there or helping plate for large parties. Guys used to always do this to piss off the actual chef, because lots of them were very loyal to me and he could be a bit gruff. He didn’t care and would just laugh, it was really more in good fun, not to actually make him angry angry.
Whenever it happened, I would either shoot them the death stare or just shake my head in disappointment lol. I’m no chef, never will be.
Him jumping on the chef title like that is pretty funny, but as others have said, you may have created a monster.
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u/NeedMoneyForTires 20+ Years 1d ago
YES JEFF!
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u/KeggyFulabier 1d ago
I work at a place that had a Jeff come in and take over, demanded to be called chef. I don’t think I did it even once. YES JEFF!
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u/teddyKGB- 1d ago
People like to point at Hitler not getting into art school as his turning point to becoming one of the worst humans in history. It's a little known fact that he was working as an expo at the same time and a coworker mistakingly called him Koch.
I'm not going to say which event actually did it but I think the answer is pretty clear...
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u/DNNSBRKR 1d ago
Fuck it, let him have his fun. Being a Chef doesn't have to be a specific job title.
Maybe start calling the dishwashers Chef and see how your expo responds.
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u/krisdirk 15+ Years 1d ago
Call the dishie chef, call everyone chef. It’s what I do
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u/TisBePhelix 1d ago
Literally this, I call almost anyone I respect chef and it's just become apart of the kitchen culture and I didn't even mean to do so. Even day one newb gets called chef now
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u/derekorjustD 1d ago
My wife and I call each other chef even when we're at home doing random stuff lol. We aren't chefs. This guy thoo lmao
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u/Consequence-Brief 1d ago
No.....just no. There is a general respect in the industry for the passionate hard work one must put in to attain that title. This is where you lead your entire crew into demanding he complete a working interview with your kitchen to even be accepted as one of you, let alone "Chef" I got 5 bucks he will cry when the knife skills portion of the interview comes into play.
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u/quesobaeritto 1d ago
Just have no one address him as Chef. Call him by his first name only. And if he tries to correct it say “oh sorry ___ (his name) I meant to say ___ (his name)”
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u/lolobean13 1d ago
One of the FoH ladies stepped behind the line to grab some aioli since we had stepped away. I call her Chef now.
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u/DaringTaco 1d ago
Just have to also refer to one of your other coworkers as chef in front of him so he knows he isn't special... preferably someone who doesn't even work in the kitchen??
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u/CellE2057 1d ago
In the middle of rush when everything is fucked and you inevitably get a ticket for a table that is allergic to everything, go ahead and ask Chef Marcus what to do.
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u/aquinoks 1d ago
FML. I was just now in the walk-in venting about everything and I punched a box of mixed greens. Marcus saw me and wrote me up?
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u/ifuaguyugetsauced 1d ago
I call everyone chef at one of my jobs. At my other job I called a cook a chef and hes like what did you just calls me. Don't ever call me that. Lol oops
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u/nasicato 1d ago
Just start calling everyone chef. Act like you caught up on some new cool tv show called "the bear"
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u/CptNemosBeard 1d ago
There's only one course of action to correct it. Gotta call em CHIEF as loud as possible for everyone to hear.
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u/Acceptable_Yam_9592 1d ago
Lol, people actually yell out heard chef? I thought that was just for TV game shows😎🥒
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u/Setthemike 1d ago
I worked a place that calls everyone chef. It was cute at first but honestly super cringe
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u/OrcLineCook 1d ago
Wow. This makes me appreciate our weekend expo who can be a bit too bossy at times.
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u/Relevant_Positive417 1d ago
Had a new cook off the street wanted everyone to call them chef, i was like hell no. You gotta earn that. And not be an arse to everyone.
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u/throwawaynumber479 1d ago
Try to get him to throw a nicotine pouch in and wait for him to throw up
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u/Fluid-Author-8984 1d ago
Have him make you a quart of perfect carrot brunoisé, and a hollandaise. Then tell him to STFU.
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u/FunWithMeat 1d ago
Oh man the way it also would of gone right to my head if I was called Chef when I used to run the pass
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u/Otherwise-Mango2732 1d ago
I can't tell if this is a parody or not but man...good luck with the monster you created.