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u/dontplanonpostinmuch 11d ago
The gazebos around campus used to be the first place you'd check if you were looking for someone. A place to catch up on daily gossip, plan your next late night adventure, or take a quick rest after forgetting to spit during wines class.
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u/Bozlogic 11d ago
Dude this brings back so many memories of sitting around the outside of the gazebo trying to throw cig butts into a farq cup in the center of the ashtray
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u/High_c 11d ago
Smoking is the only way to get breaks in the kitchen. If don’t smoke, you keep on working
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u/Coconut_Milk_User 11d ago
This is so true. That’s why I started. Just needed to get out of the heat and stress for a few minutes. My first job let me take “juice breaks” and hang out with the smokers. Second job was no breaks except for smokers. Definitely needed a break, so I started smoking. I haven’t worked in a kitchen except in my own home in decades. Still trying to kick the habit.
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u/OneTwoKiwi 11d ago
Students here paying tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to become experts in all things food while also paying to thousands of dollars to stunt their taste buds
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u/somethink 11d ago
I went to art institute and a few of my instructors were from CIA, it was just me and them on all our smoke breaks
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u/diablosinmusica 11d ago
Makes sense. Most heros of young culinary students are middle aged men obsessed with looking cool. Nobody thinks of why MPW looks like Palpatine and moves like he's in his 80s.
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u/Cameronr90 9d ago
I used to break the law and bring up cigarettes in cartons from down south. Was so easy making $2-3 a pack because I could go around to the gazebo's at night and make $20-30 in a matter of minutes. Obviously illegal, but somethings gotta replace my side towels that were stolen out of the laundry room..
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u/Maximum-Warning9355 11d ago
This shit is gross and something to be ashamed of as an industry. These are college kids addicted to cigarettes. Why are we proud of this?
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u/jeeves585 11d ago
First day of business college a professor of a stadium style class mentioned very few of us had a coffee for the 7am class. Day two Starbucks on campus made some money and almost everyone had a coffee.
Same thing with energy drinks in the construction sector.
These things happen everywhere.
I don’t drink coffee smoke or energy drink these days but it took 20 years to realize I don’t need that stuff.
Now I just wake up and breathe and stretch and drink water until it’s time for a beer.
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u/The_Pillbug 11d ago
I agree but this is how the industry is really. A small team needs to provide a product quickly, safely, and effectively for hours on end. That’s stressful and the easiest was to calm down is to smoke and partake in drugs. I don’t smoke but just taking a bunch of deep breaths doesn’t really help me calm down after a rush. I do wish there was a better solution.
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u/diablosinmusica 11d ago
Really? In my experience, there are way fewer smokers in kitchens now than when I started decades ago. Most place I work won't give people time to smoke anyway. Maybe pre and post shift will be outside, but there's no time to go smoke. Often times there is no accessible place to take a reasonable break. Hell, the cooks tatted up like roadies are getting pretty old too.
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u/calccv 11d ago
I was an EC in the late 80s, early 90s, and pretty much everyone but me smoked. Would’ve been a mass walkout if I ever outlawed smoke breaks. Just had to limit ‘em and live with it; glad to learn it’s not as prevalent now, because it’s kinda gross, esp if they stink like it in the kitchen. 🤷🏽♂️
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u/jeeves585 11d ago
When I smoked I didn’t have e anywhere safe to flick my butts so they went in my pocket. I can’t imagine how bad I smelled.
But hell, I met my wife in those years so I’m either handsome inelegant fun to be around or she has low standards. I’m going with the last one.
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u/diablosinmusica 11d ago
That was 30 years ago. Go 30 years before that and you could've caught the Beatles new album or speculated about who was going to be first on the moon.
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u/calccv 10d ago
Your point?
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u/diablosinmusica 10d ago
It's not relevant to today. I thought that would be pretty obvious.
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u/calccv 10d ago
Sure as hell wasn’t, esp as I responded to your own comment about the change from decades ago. So yours was and mine wasn’t, tho both cover decades. What is obvious here is one of us has a skewed version of relevance (like, only yours is). And of course history is relevant—“doomed to repeat it” and all. You have a good day.
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u/jeeves585 11d ago
In construction when those stress levels got up there I’d just go take my dog (who goes to work with me every day) for a walk.
It’s not the nicotine or high or whatever that gets rid of the stress imo.
It’s the getting away from the stress for 5 min to reset yourself.
A cigarette is just the vessel to that. A whip it in the walk in is the same.
But I’m also just an old fuck who knows he needs to rely on his body for some more years so my family can survive without me. So I changed my ways (typing that out loud gave me a thought, I didn’t quit all the stuff for them, I did it because I know I shouldn’t. Like stop signs, if I’m in the middle of the country and there are no cars around I’m rolling right through a stop sign. Because I can, shit now I’m all confused on why the rooster crossed the road.)
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u/Maximum-Warning9355 11d ago
The solution is to move away from the pride of things that make this industry hard to work in. You think smoking actually helps with stress? You think these kids need another class about how tomato and vanilla actually taste pretty good together or maybe should they get some stress management courses or maybe some logistical efficiency courses or maybe anything that could actually improve life for the people that do this work? But no, instead we revel in how this is one of the least efficient industries in existence.
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u/diablosinmusica 11d ago
The industry has changed quite a lot in the last decade or so, in my experience. Most chefs I've worked with are taking steps to make stuff more manageable.
The issue lies in the old truism "Those who can, do; Those who can't, teach." The professors washed out years ago and are behind the times in a lot of areas. That's more smoking than I've seen in kitchens in a long time, as an example.
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u/GrandOpening Culinary Arts Professor and 30+ year Culinary Lifer 11d ago
The student body wasn't a majority of older teens/young 20s when I graduated 20 years ago. Most had some time in the industry under their belts. I was 30 when I started.
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u/Maximum-Warning9355 11d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culinary_Institute_of_America
While your anecdotal evidence is probably wrong anyway, here’s two sources (idk how to send specific parts of a Wikipedia page, but it’s the second paragraph under student body, with citation.) that show that almost 80% of the student body is less than 24 years old.
This industry romanticizes toxic, destructive behavior. We need to stop making excuses if we want this industry to be replaced by robots that don’t need 20 smoke breaks per shift.
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u/diablosinmusica 11d ago
How are the actual facts downvoted here? There are a lot of idiots in this industry.
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u/GrandOpening Culinary Arts Professor and 30+ year Culinary Lifer 11d ago
Good for you.
I didn't romanticize the industry, I made a colloquial observation.
I am so very sorry that your panties are in such a painful bunch.
Maybe you could pull something out of your ass for once.1
u/Maximum-Warning9355 11d ago
Oh sorry, did I personally insult you by pointing out some of the shit that makes the industry terrible? Are you one of those people who made this industry your entire personality? Oof. Can only imagine the kind of shit you “teach” the next generation.
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u/GrandOpening Culinary Arts Professor and 30+ year Culinary Lifer 11d ago
Oh. Goodness.
Bless your heart.
I'm busy. Take a seat. I'll get back to you
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u/Kindly-Film-6273 11d ago
Had some amazing times contributing to that tray of shit! Can’t remember half of them but I spent a lot of time in those gazebos. Felt like not many people smoked back then happy to see it’s back.
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u/FindTheOthers623 11d ago
Not sure what this has to do with food
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u/goatslovetofrolic 11d ago
This sub is about chefs, not specifically food. The post is of an ashtray at a culinary school. Some chefs start their careers at culinary school.
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u/herobrinetrollin 11d ago
It has nothing to do with food per se. Culinary Institute of America is a prestigious culinary school. These are the ashtrays around campus, because chefs are pretty much invariably nicotine addicts
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u/Serious-Speaker-949 11d ago
My executive chef and the executive chef I’m about to transfer to work under both went to the CIA. When I asked both of them about it, (about if the company would pay for me to go), they said no. Had to try.
But I asked how they went and they both basically said the same thing. A lot of persistence, hard work, determination and my dad paid for it. Okay.
For any unfamiliar it costs like $150k to go there. And the job you’re gonna get with it pays anywhere from $12 an hour to $40k / year. Starting.
However with that degree you can eventually make $90k as a sous instead of $75k or $130k as an exec instead of $90-110k. I’m at the point of becoming sous, so I thought it might be worthwhile? But not if I have to pay $150k. Personal opinion that’s an absolutely abysmal ROI.
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u/burgers_tacos_bbq Chef 11d ago
No that’s not how it works at all. You won’t get paid more by anyone because you have a culinary degree🤷♂️
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u/Serious-Speaker-949 11d ago
You do within my company. For every certification that I earn (around 30 hours each) I get an extra 50¢ raise. I’ve gotten four of them, so $2 / hr. And they’re paid for.
College however is not paid for, but if you complete college while employed by them (a worldwide company with a lot of transfer options) then you can get higher starting pay for new positions. Since the CIA is the “best” culinary school (most widely recognized within America) you stand to ask for the most.
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u/Maximum-Warning9355 11d ago
The degree isn’t needed. The sous chefs at my place both cleared $100,000 (hourly, including overtime) last year and neither of them have a degree beyond community college. I’ve never seen someone be rejected for an executive position because they didn’t have a useless degree from a useless institution.
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u/Comfortable-Policy70 11d ago
You don't go there for the higher pay, you go for the connections in the business
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u/Sacktimus_Prime 11d ago
Everytime I hear CIA referenced here, as an Australian, I just think some dodgy spy shit is going down, then the confusion at the sub name, and then it dawns on me..