“ After the pandemic is over, let’s not rebuild chef culture.”

[Isabeau]

Opinion: After the pandemic is over, let’s not rebuild chef culture - The Globe and Mail

Food media needs to highlight the good work done by teams, and acknowledge the group, rather than laud the individual, writes food reporter and author Corey Mintz

www.theglobeandmail.com

Not many local places will be left after all this. It’s just a somewhat short opinion piece but touched on many issues within the food/restaurant industry.

The way we treat the people who produce food is atrocious. From field to table, the weakest link in the supply chain, after animals, has always been human workers. So at every opportunity we take advantage. Because we want food to be as cheap as possible, we import temporary farm workers, make them live in shacks andexpose them to pesticides before shipping them back home. We pay servers a sub-minimum wage that incentivizes them to accept abuse from customers in exchange for tips. And we devise schemes to commit wage theft against cooks, expecting them to perform at Olympic levels of perfection while being screamed at.

What’s happening to the hospitality industry is a tragedy, but it’ll be worse if we fail to learn anything from it, if a post-COVID-19 restaurant landscape looks like the one it replaced. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redesign the DNA of restaurants. How do want that to look?

Good food is a given. I wouldn’t knowingly pay for bad food no matter how noble the cause. The issues that bother me are systemic and hard to change: wage theft and abuse of all kinds (physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, racial). They are exacerbated by the structure of chef-driven restaurants and the food media that perpetuates it.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Get rid of tipping and if that means the food goes up a few dollars to pay the servers fairly, so be it.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Get rid of tipping and if that means the food goes up a few dollars to pay the servers fairly, so be it.

I'd be so happy with that. Food service is what I worked before I stopped working in the 'normal' working world. I've waited tables, cooked, cashiered, prepped, handled food bars...

I could run any aspect of a restaurant - but there is no way in hell because, while I love to cook [and bake], I find it hell.

 

[Soen Eber]

Get rid of tipping and if that means the food goes up a few dollars to pay the servers fairly, so be it.

I tip regardless of service because I know it's hell. But I would love to see your scenario become a reality.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I tip regardless of service because I know it's hell. But I would love to see your scenario become a reality.

The service has to be the most horrid in the world for me to not tip; and I can tell hen its bad because of the kitchen, how slammed the place is, between meal rushes [prep is generally done between times and has to be done], and even the waitperson having a horrible day. If they try and be cheerful and friendly, and if they are doing their best to work around other things, cool.

If they are surly and too busy gossiping with their co-workers, then its on them and obviously they don't want to be hospitable or even pretend.

I've a fairly low bar of what I expect, and I tip well, and so do those I deal with regularly [or did when I went out], and I've done the job myself - I know its not an easy one but....