To be a chef of any kind can feel like living in the trenches. Orders are being thrown at you, the pressure is on, and the last thing you need is some rookie not staying in his lane. It's tough, and the day can only be made all the tougher when an unwanted or complex order comes through. To be a chef, you have to love to cook, but that doesn't mean you have to love to cook everything.
Reddit user, u/usernameredacted, wanted to know what chefs hate the most when they asked:
Chefs of Reddit, what's the one thing on the menu that you HATE making?
When You Don't Need All The Supplies...
We have a pork thing that I only hate making because due to the packaging you have to make a minimum of 6 and they're expensive and rarely ordered so I usually end up tossing at least half the package
When They're Just So Inconvenient...
Chicken fingers.
Being an upscale steakhouse we were always supposed to hand make them from cut up airline breasts and for years we just used frozen ones but we stopped buying them. I see maybe 1 order a week if that so it's just not practical to keep the extra cutting board, flour, batter, eggwash etc on hand at all times. But they always seem to pop up in the middle of a rush when I'm already making 3 other special orders.
So yeah, f-ck chicken fingers.
When It's The Same, But Only Smaller...
I was a cook in a bar briefly at one point. The thing I hate most of all was burger sliders. Same amount of food and same exact taste as a normal burger, but like four times the work.
When The Gingerbread Is Terrorizing...
I'm a cake decorator but we decorate other things as well. Anything gingerbread related around Christmas time. We had giant gingerbread houses that took several days to make and the royal icing that is used to hold it together and decorate, it just kills your hand it's so hard. We would do about 15-20 houses a week, 10 gingerbread sleighs a week, and several cookies (gingerbread people, reindeer faces, and giant 1.5 foot tall gingerbread people).
Every year I would think that was the year that was going to give me carpel tunnel.
When There's More Than One Recipe...
Combo meals or a dish that has a handful of everything.
For example, a breakfast combo might have eggs, mushroom, tomato, bacon, snags and a hash brown. Time consuming to make and can really slow you down when you get smashed with them.
When Heavy Metal Is The Only Way...
To be honest in my previous place. I hated the carpaccio.
B-tch I had to cut that stuff fresh on the day and the actual chef sucked at his job so I was doing that, my own stuff plus 80 percent of his work too. I had 4 hours to prep each day.. I had a regular of 100 -120 diners a night and like 80-90 of them ordered the carpaccio. I spend 3 hours a day cleaning the machine and cutting the meat and had many a breakdown over it. Usually I ended up listening to heavy metal to get me through it and imagining it was my chefs head I was slicing...... oh well hope my guests enjoyed it.
When They Order 10 Minutes Before You Close...
Our German Apple pancake.
First you sauté Granny Smiths in clarified butter.
Then add three ladles of our German batter into sauté pan.
Throw in oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add clarified butter and cinnamon sugar.
Flip delicate pancake with spatula.
Return to oven and cook 5 more minutes.
Flip pancake onto plate and insure it makes it to the table in less than a minute as it deflates rapidly.
Bonus points for when it's ordered 10 minutes before we close.
When It's Just. So. Boring...
I expo at a french restaurant and the cooks hate making the burger. Mainly because it's boring and they want to make the creative dishes, but that burger is one of our most popular menu items.
When The Pizza Is A Taco...?
The taco pizza at the pizza place I worked at. It had like 17 toppings, half of them had to go on after it was baked so you ended up cutting and panning a total mess. 2 metric tons of lettuce would come flying off with every cut. 30 minutes later you had to bus the table and that was an ordeal right there. The table was covered in uncooked toppings. It didn't help that I hated taco pizzas to begin with, so it didn't look the least bit appetizing.
It's Just...So Much Work...
not a chef.
barista.
every frappuchino, especially the "ultra" or "triple" ones
Just Tell Me How You Want Your Eggs!
Can I get me eggs between over medium and over medium well? I want the yolk wet but not runny, and I don't want the whites to jiggle.
F-CK YOU
Foam Is The Worst
Not a chef, but a barista for a little while. I don't mind making the majority of drinks, but the absolute worst request was any kind of espresso drink with a high fat percentage in the 'dairy', with foam.
All of our steamer wands would throw a fit when confronted with a high fat dairy, screaming loudly as they whipped up the foam. And, given how heavy the fat made the liquid, it would take several minutes to get the right amount of foam, all the while with Nazgul screeching up a storm. Plus, it would fling dairy all over my apron, which was not fun cleaning up.
It Sticks So Much
5 star hotel, would ocassionally get the "health freaks" who ask for eggs-white only omelette, and no oil.
Damn thing would stick to the pan everytime ruining the texture and they stare as if that wasnt supposed to happen...
Too Much Effort Involved
I worked at a 150 seat restaurant at a ski hill that did "build your own pasta" I was the only guy working pans. I had 8 star tops and maybe 10 serviceable pans.
I also had to work the ovens and plate a few other dishes.
10/10 would never do it again.
What's The Point?
I'm not a chef, but as a cook and normal person, who the f-ck decided to make wedge salads a thing? Chopping up some iceberg too difficult? Just quarter it and toss some blue cheese and tomatoes and other sh-t on it and you're good!
It just looks terrible no matter how you plate it, and since my place does blue cheese dressing with blue cheese crumbles and a balsamic glaze, its got a bunch of sh-t on it I find disgusting. At least if it were chopped like normal salads I could attempt to make it look good, but wedge salads look like someone puked on a chunk of lettuce.
Because That's What Vietnam Is Known For?
I used to cook at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant owned by a sassy old Vietnamese grandma. Best food I've ever had the privilege of cooking. However, being located in northern Minnesota, where people are famous for being less-than-adventurous, we had a small menu of "American" items. Whenever I heard kids up front, I knew I was going to get an order for a f-cking grilled cheese.
But that wasn't the worst.
The worst offender would be the baby-boomer husband who just has to order a cheeseburger with ketchup. I'm sorry, but why the f-ck did you come to a Vietnamese restaurant to order a burger?! It's not even a good burger. Great, now I have to dig the patties out of the freezer, thaw them in the microwave, get out the skillet (or just say f-ck it and cook it in the wok), pray we're not out of buns and cheese singles, and slap it on the plate for your boring ass. Enjoy your sh-tty burger.
Eat When You're Supposed To, Man!
Does fast food count?
Breakfast food at late in the evening ruins my efficiently, I have to walk all the way to another grill and lay them down specifically and usually requires babying with delicate foods like eggs.
What Even Is That???
My father is a culinary specialist. I messaged him this inquiry. Regularly it takes him around a hour to two hours to react to a content, yet under 30 seconds after the fact he reacts, "Screwing BEEF WELLINGTON."
But It Seems Like Such A Happy Meal
Asked my dad who was a cook in many a place and he said oatmeal.
No two people eat it the same and the only people who order oatmeal in a restaurant are cranky old people.
When The Steak Is Ordered WELL-DONE???
People that have no idea about steaks and think a very well done steak should still be juicy.
Any chefs out there? What's the one thing you can't stand cooking? Tell us all about it!
