Dishes, Dishes, and More Dishes!

Holy cow.

I did my first paid shift in the dish pit last Saturday night (1/04/14) at Le Bouillon and I gotta say: I give mad props to all dish washers everywhere!

You would think that it was the easiest job out there... I mean, come on! All you have to do is put all the dishes into the machine, right?

WRONG!

At Le Bouillon (and most other restaurants) it is much more than that! You not only have to rinse and run the dishes through the washer, but you also have to listen for and be ready to run a dish to a chef (if it's not already in the kitchen) who calls for it, you have to continually check the big containers in the kitchen and empty them of all dirty pots and pans, you have to put the clean dishes back in the kitchen, and (in this particular establishment) you have to plate and finish the desserts!

Don't get me wrong, I really want this job. It was just a little intimidating to be shoved into it with no training, no walk-through of the kitchen, and it being a Saturday night to boot!

But I have learned so far that you have to treat it just like any other station in the kitchen: work clean, work fast, and work hard. I would say that keeping it organized is key, but there are so many "key"s that you can't pin one to be the most important...

Some of the many keys of the dish pit:
Keep it organized
Keep a pace (a fast one)
Keep moving
Keep the washer going constantly (you don't EVER want it to be still)
Keep rinsing
Learn what is high-priority
Get a system down
Don't take any yelling personally
If you have to, Step outside for a breather
NEVER mix up personals

The list could go on. I felt like I should have been sitting there with some paper and take notes on what all should be "done first".

Needless to say, it was crazy my first night. And the only reason I got out of there by 12:30 am was because a couple people stayed to help (but getting a chunk sliced out of my finger by an oyster fork and then bleeding through 6 Band-aids and it taking a good 10 minutes before I got it under control didn't help my situation either....).

All that, plus having a class that same morning at 8 am, totals up to being 14 hours on my feet (with an hour of rest in between). Let's just say that my feet were REALLY sore...

My advice: Don't go into a dish pit job thinking it will be easy! Or any job for that matter! Because most of the time, it won't be.
My other piece of advice: Never give up! Just because it's not an easy job or you don't think you can do it, doesn't mean giving up will solve the problem. Work it out. Ask for help. The earlier you ask, the quicker you can adapt and change.

Well, that's all for now. It can only go up from here, right?

~Kayla