Top Of The Table

Jim Wade

Sept. 2, 2001

Kitchen vs. Waitstaff:

“My job is to wait until YOU piss ME off, and then solve YOUR problem FOR YOU!!”
Was heard recently in a small, hot kitchen. A waitress had forgotten to ring in a meal and was trying to get a medium well filet mignon on the fly. Everyone else was eating and she had just realized what had happened and could she please, please, please get it immediately. Yes, medium well, Thanks! Meanwhile the twelve top has ordered and has a ticket up with three see-servers one of which is “rare, no pink”. And the bar wants five chicken piccatas to go. This is on top of the rest of the full board of tickets hanging on the line. Ticket times are crucial. The heat is on, literally and figuratively, and these guys regularly get scorched and blistered while catching the verbal barrage from the waitstaff.
“Where’s the side for the chop for table three?”
“I said no cheese on the chicken nacho!”

Meanwhile the horse at table three is bellowing for more water, the kid at four has spit ketchup back into the bottle, and the twelve top has decided to move out onto the deck because it has stopped raining. Never mind that they are sitting down in completely random order in another server’s section.
“By the way, I said more water?”
The guy waiting for his steak has drained his water glass twice in the past three visits to the table. Getting back to the line she asks how long on the steak, receives a tirade of multi-lingual curse words and the loop begins again. Round two.

There are few problems more seemingly difficult to solve in a restaurant than the interface between the line cooks and the waiters and waitresses. There are so many factors involved; the personalities of the people, cooking times for various dishes, the ever-present side item availability (“Can I PLEASE get the @#@$#ing fries!!!”), and it’s all compounded by the cramped spaces, high heat, and the noise of a restaurant that is busy, busy, busy.

For the most part waitrons don’t cook, and cooks don’t wait tables. Right away they can’t experience each other’s pain. The servers come in for usually shorter shifts, they arrive later and leave earlier, and can leave with half the cook’s weekly pay in one decent night on the floor. The cooks, however, don’t have to deal directly with the customers. A ticket comes up, they cook it, and their responsibility to the table is over. The servers have to handle the people. They have to deal with impatience, indecision, loud people, quiet people, drunks, drunken owners, drunken owners fathers, and really, really dumb jokes. I’ve worked with many cooks who don’t want to wait tables because they know they don’t have the patience to deal with the customers. They also are getting regular hourly pay and while a server can have a good night it’s the steady paycheck that makes life a little more bearable for the kitchen staff.

Good communication is the key to any smooth operation. If there is a problem with a meal you can’t come back as one of my servers did and throw the plate down on the counter and say,
“Fix this. It’s wrong.”
You must EXPLAIN the problem. In this case the wrong type of cheese was put on a burger. With her explanation, or lack thereof, it could have been anything from the wrong temp, to the entirely wrong meal!

Having an expediter can help immensely. The servers talk to their rep on the line and that person controls the flow of food out of the kitchen. The kitchen only has to hear one voice versus fifteen. All see servers can go through this person and too the kitchen. It works very well. It’s just not efficient all the time. There is no need for an “expo” on a Tuesday lunch. Cross training can do wonders towards improving timing, understanding the plate basics (ingredients, cost, prep time, etc.) but this also might not always be practical.

So the other alternative is just to get people used to not talking shit to one another. Listen to problems. Speak clearly and kindly, and not with an attitude. Some people just sound like they have it. Others really do. Some people pull it off for fun. Whatever the case, leave it at home, and everybody will be happy. The servers need to understand the kitchen problems and vice-versa. It’s different worlds with different responsibilities, perks, and problems. Once understanding is achieved, and communication starts to happen, the attitudes will start to go away, and (in a perfect world) everything will once again run smoothly in the hectic world of the restaurant.