Any recomendations/advice for a chef helper/apprentice? I recently

just watch good eats and you'll be g2g

What the fuck is a chef helper? Do you have to blow him in the walk in?

If he's keeping you by his side ask him directly what he thinks would be the most important things to learn and pay attention to at that stage of your training. If he's any good he'll just say something like, "everything" - the point being that you need to learn through experience, and your worth will be determined by how quickly you pick up on things on your own, and asking questions like this is completely pointless because there are no simple shortcuts in the kitchen and oldtimers and pros recognize their own.

Oh yeah, write down fucking everything. Everything. Take pictures too; just don't be a douche about it.

I am currently an apprentice chef, and really, if your boss knows you've never worked in a kitchen before, he will know that you will feel lost, and that he will have to keep an eye on you for a few months, and that you will ask/do/be stupid things sometimes. My chef and I talk about my fuck-ups from when I was new and laugh about them now. It just takes time to get your feet under you before you'll feel like you can run. Nobody pops out the womb as a baby knowing how to do any of this stuff, your chef had a first day in the kitchen,too. (S)he's probably felt just like you do when they first started. Everyone in that kitchen has felt it. If they haven't, they're an asshole and a liar.

Take notes about certain techniques like blanching, or how to butcher different cuts of meat, or what a spice you've never heard of can go well with. Recipes are important, sure, but just take note of anything you might have to do by yourself later that you wouldn't want to have to ask over and over again to have someone show you how to do it. As long as your chef sees that you're really trying and really investing your heart and mind into this, he will know he is not wasting his time with you. Till you've built that rapport, just keep your head down, your knife moving, your brain working, ALWAYS arrive early (this industry is VERY CRITICAL OF THIS!), and the whole thing will just gradually come to you. It literally took me probably a year and a half to feel like I actually kiiinnddaaa was confident in a commercial kitchen. But now that I do, I can't imagine investing my heart and soul and 50+ hrs a week in anything else.

If it means anything to you,

A couple points about old timers (careers line cooks).

While you don't want them to train you, you do want to watch everything they do in detail.

On the one hand, they are completely set in their ways, and will do something stupidly ass backwards just because they've been doing it that way for 20 years and are never going to change.

On the other hand, they have a huge bag of magic tricks to make a few dozen frustrating little tasks seem somehow effortless that they've learned over the decades/been taught by other veterans, and that they'll only teach you once you've gained their respect on the line. This is the kind of shit that they will be snickering about behind your back while giving you all the shitty shifts because seniority when you first start and are still proving yourself.

Once you see the turnover rate and how many burnout fuckups pass through the kitchen you'll understand.

>>8409692
Very useful words. Thanks!

>>8409692

>just take note of anything you might have to do by yourself later that you wouldn't want to have to ask over and over again to have someone show you how to do it

Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "don't ask where it is! Find it for yourself!"

Basically you shouldn't have to ask something more than once or twice (if it's a complicated technique). Asking more than once where to find an ingredient/tool when you could have written it down, or how to plate a dish when you could have taken a picture with your phone the first time - assuming you don't have a great memory (You Don't) - pisses people off who have a shit load of their own things to do (They Do).

>>8409704
Seeems like a tough industry.
Good to know. Thank you.

>>8409723
I've thought about taking pictures of the plating a couple of times, but I've never been sure if they'll get mad at me fot taking pictures while the service is running (my boss gets stressed a lot about serving times and all of that). Or even asking if there are some kind of rules on how to decorate servings.
I'm simply clueless.

>>8409742

Take pictures early in the service, not in the middle of the rush. Don't you also have do demo plates of the specials of the night for the waitstaff?

>>8409748
No, I usually see the plates we've worked all day for until the moment they're served to the clients. That's why I feel so confused over the journey.

>>8409788

Huh? How exactly are you the "chef helper" if you aren't around the chef, seeing him putting the specials of the day together and whatnot? What exactly are you doing throughout the day? Prep work? Cleaning? Random errands?