GoTravel

Thank you Patrick.


My husband pays his line cooks, chef, exec chef, and sous chef a lot of money. I'd say on average the line cooks make over $30,000 per year with great benefits.

Any restaurant owner who only pays the line cooks min wage is going out of business quick unless he/she has an unlimited amount of cheap labor lined up.

jor

$30,000 a year for a line cook? I should have stayed in the business and forgotten about the college education! But I am sure that in certain parts of the US like E and W coast pay higher wages and saleries but the cost of living is also higher.

To those who tip the waiter instead of a tip which gets divided into supposedly bad waiters, don't forget that many times a small portion of the tip kitty is given to the bus boys at the end of the day. They work hard as well and free up waiters to spend more time with customers to get tips. I was a bus boy (in London near Soho) before I became a line cook.

GoTravel

jor, you must pay good money for good help.

I'm sure my husband would be out of business if he didn't.

crys

I'd always heard that, for bad service, you should tip six cents. I did this once in Quebec, for particularly horrible service. As we left the restaurant, we were approached by the manager who asked--in a very polite and concerned way--what we disliked about the service. There was nothing accusing in her tone. It was clear that she knew that the tip was intended as a message, and that she had gotten the message. I guess no tip could be an oversight. A 10% tip could be cheap. Six cents is indeed a statement.

jor

GoTravel, Where was your husband back when I was a cook? I've been robbed! BTW I was a good cook and got great references from the head chef, a German man named Helmut Harbig when I moved on. He was the best boss I ever had prior to becoming my own boss.

jor

GoTravel, something completely unrelated. Was it you who had the problem with sea gulls on your patio railing? I live in the center of the continent and there are so many sea gulls aroung my home it sounds like the sea shore with the gulls squawking and the wind blowing.

GoTravel

Yes, I have seagulls. In the winter I feed them prime rib trimmings from one of the restaurants.

They poop all over the deck and someone called it my 'poopdeck'.

A fake owl will scare them off.

rb_travelerxATyahoo

There's an old joke in the restaurant business that you can pay the help as little as you want --- they will steal the difference between what they're paid and what they think they're worth. A stereotype, I realize, but like most, based on a grain of truth.

beachdreams

I just finished reading everyone's posts and want to point out an example of what happened to us this weekend when dining with some coworkers.

There were about 12 of us in all. When the bill came around, hubby and I figured ours out. If we ordered a dish that was $22.00, we figured it to be $24 etc to cover tax. Then we added our 20% for the tip. On and on the bill got passed around until I noticed that the last couple realizing that the bill was paid, only laid down a 20% tip for their portion of the food. My husband was so annoyed that he ended up paying the balance of the tip owed to the waiter as we were leaving because he did not want him to be screwed out of his tip. Interstingly enough, the cheap couple was also the most demanding of the waiter.

Because this happens so often, I hate eating with a group of people. You find out that people you are/were very close to can be the worst. There is really only three couples I like to eat out with because I know I can count on them to tip appropriately and not leave us holding the bag.

Also of note, this restaurant did not enforce a mandatory service or gratuity charge for large parties (maybe they should have). I did notice last night at a restaurant we were eating at listed the charge for large parties as being a gratuity. With the recent ruling, I wonder how many menus will be changed?

jor

rb, there Is a grain of truth to it. The person I replaced in my cook days made off with several boxes of prime beef cuts and got caught. It pays to pay higher wages.