Hello, this is the first time posting here.
I am currently in college becoming a chef, what I need most was experience in a real kitchen. I search around and was lucky enough to find a semi fancy restaurant around where I live.
I found their website and applied to become a cook at the location. In the interview I met one on the head chefs who works at the location. I explained at the interview that I would be only be working there for 3 months until school starts up again where I have another job working at the campus.
He explains that I would be a pantry chef ( basically I would with cold food like salads) and would be an extra pair of hands I someone didn't show up. I was excited and when I ask when I could start he said immediately, this was my second job so I just though at the time that this was normal in the industry.
I was immediately stuck in the back of the restaurant with the dishwashing machine. I don't think this was race related since the chef I met first was African American but I saw some signs.
I am a Hispanic and I born here in united states and only speak English. The only people working the dishwashing station were the same race a me but couldn't any english.
I original though that I would raise myself up and wait for an opportunity. I met the other head chef, an irish man who after my first week of work says that he would take me under his wing and train me. This brought my hopes up and gave me false hope. I wash dishes every day for 8 hours until closing, and I wash usually chose to take the trash from the wheel barrel and carry to the dumpers where its a 15 min walk.
It became worst when they will over fill trash bags and it would rip the bag. I don't have a strong smell but it was one of the worst things I have ever smelled before. The only good thing that I met other trash dumpers from other restaurant who complain why I still work there.
Maybe their was hope for me because they did gave a job to do prep one or twice when I started but after messing up once that stopped no matter how many times I volunteered. A gripe I also have that they never put gave me an account in the location, they keep saying they need to set it up but they never did. They keep giving this annoyed look when I asked them to sign me up manually.
After every week the irish chef keep promising me that they would move me into the first shift and start actually cooking. In my second month, 2/3 there until school starts they say that their moving me. I got real excited, they move me right beside the people making the actual food and stuck me behind another dishwashing location except for I clean hot and greasy full pans.
Now my job was to deliver clean pans while dodging actual cooks while their cooking and place clean pans right above their station where their hot sizzling pans where juices from the dish would splatter my arms since my uniform didn't have longs sleeves. (I was still assign to taking the trash out, they would wait for me to start my shift so the room where the trash was kept was full or they will just over fill trash cans again.)
I was sick of it but I was so full of disillusion thati kept doing that job another week, before I gave an ultimation. Either I actually cook something today or I would or I would quit. They wanted me to do regular dishwashing again so I just left. I 2 weeks untill school starts again so I was planning on quiting anyway but I their treatment made me so bitter that I left with giving my notice, (then gave crap about when I collected my last check.)
Thank you for listening
( Apparently the chef that hired me quit a month after I left so Idk how it was for everybody else.)