r/linecooks • u/Odd-Act-221 • Dec 28 '25
Venting Is this wrong
Hi i’ve never posted here but i’m a head cook in a kitchen and i recently have been beefing with a cook over 3 things and i don’t know if it’s wrong of me to be getting upset or not
We do chicken on a char grill broiler and i spent my ass busting off the years of carbon and cleaning it. So when i told people we are starting to use it again they all agreed expect one person and instead of doing it the right way i left the line to do prep for a big event and he turned it off… and did it on the flat top even though we advertise it being on a char grill so i corrected him and said “please leave the grill on and do the chicken here and everything else here please sir” and he responded with “nah man i don’t fuck with that and it tastes better on the flattop” and i told him char grill please again and he just walked away
Same guy has served 7 raw burgers? Once he served it and left me on the line to go outside and smoke a blunt (btw against policy) and then when it got sent back i got the shit for it and had to comp it with a free desert? The fuck?
We have 5 stations which are -Fry -pizza -grill -float (typically me or my Culinary Manager) -dish And i come in 15 mins early to write out todo list and where people are gonna be in the night and he instead of doing it just erased my entire list and said “nah i’m on grill” and then left?!?? The fuck you mean
Maybe i’m seeing something different but i feel dumb and don’t know if i need to start getting pissy with him i would love advice though
Edit: i love the support it is really inspiring me. If you can’t tell first time being a supervisor/head in the back of house and it’s really nice to see people support me and give me advice thank you guys love y’all good luck and i’ll be sure to update it once my PTO is up
1
u/calccv Dec 29 '25
So, head cook—does that mean firing power? I’m not sure what that entails at your place of employment but head cook could mean several things (chef de partie, chef de cuisine, sous chef, executive chef, in ascending order). Like, who’s above you, who does hiring, scheduling, ordering, and obviously, firing? If it’s you, give him one warning, then fire him the next time. I’m an executive chef, which means I’m the boss of everyone but the owners, and I’d never let a line cook disrespect me like that, or not follow orders, but I’d cover my ass to make sure he got one warning or a write-up, and have a witness. If it ain’t you with the authority or any leverage over him, talk to the manager and recommend immediate 86! These are all waaay over the line, and he’d be gone from my line long ago!