5 Simple Tips I Learned as a New Line Cook
With no experience whatsoever
When I moved to a new town a few years ago I decided to make a job change as well. I had been working in a grocery store as a lowly stock boy and to say it was unfulfilling would be a huge understatement.
I decided to apply to the restaurant where my roommates worked. They had been cooks for years and I loved the idea of working with close friends, I never had a job like that before. So I applied, but having no cooking experience I began my journey as a dishwasher. Maybe not any more fulfilling than my previous job but I loved the change of pace, I loved the owners, and I loved my new coworkers. So I’d still call it a win.
It wasn’t long before I was doing prep work, building salads, steaming lobsters, and shucking oysters. Speaking of oysters, when you pry open those bad boys, either wear a chain-mail glove or put a thick hand towel between the tool and the hand holding the shell. If you don’t, and you get a stubborn bastard, you may just end up putting that shucker clean through your hand. Or not so clean. That’s tip number one.
After a year of that I finally took the big step of moving onto the line. I still had no real cooking experience, but I started training before summer hit when we became very busy.
