MONTREAL – As Montreal restaurants adapt to rising costs and impending deadlines to repay loans issued during the pandemic, one well-known chef says she worries about the future of the city’s fa...
The restaurant industry as a whole is in need of a rethink. It’s an industry which survives off (and helps to maintain) a permanent underclass of underpaid workers.
If any industry needed unionizing badly, it’s this one.
I’ve always thought the value proposition of restaurants could essentially get cut into automats and fine dining.
The whole fine dining concept is mostly fine, and not overly exploitative; mostly due to the high salaries involved.
Chain/Mid-range is pretend servancy to let the middle class feel like they have agency over other humans, even underpaying servers to increase supplicancy.
Fast food has cooks busting their lives, for food that would not decline in quality if pre-prepared.
Chain/Mid-range is pretend servancy to let the middle class feel like they have agency over other humans, even underpaying servers to increase supplicancy.
Having been in the industry, this is simply a strange take.
Only the vast minority of guests I’ve waited-on in my time have even tried to exert authority over me. A quick reminder that they dictate their meal needs but not my time has set them straight quickly. And usually it’s external stresses - ie a bad day - that has them acting up. Lend an ear and make a tippy friend if you can.
It’s a job. The job includes relaying orders to the real heroes in-back and grabbing what they may need but they’re paying for it. Then they leave.
The restaurant industry as a whole is in need of a rethink. It’s an industry which survives off (and helps to maintain) a permanent underclass of underpaid workers.
If any industry needed unionizing badly, it’s this one.
I’ve always thought the value proposition of restaurants could essentially get cut into automats and fine dining.
The whole fine dining concept is mostly fine, and not overly exploitative; mostly due to the high salaries involved.
Chain/Mid-range is pretend servancy to let the middle class feel like they have agency over other humans, even underpaying servers to increase supplicancy.
Fast food has cooks busting their lives, for food that would not decline in quality if pre-prepared.
I’m undecided on counter only / food trucks.
Having been in the industry, this is simply a strange take.
Only the vast minority of guests I’ve waited-on in my time have even tried to exert authority over me. A quick reminder that they dictate their meal needs but not my time has set them straight quickly. And usually it’s external stresses - ie a bad day - that has them acting up. Lend an ear and make a tippy friend if you can.
It’s a job. The job includes relaying orders to the real heroes in-back and grabbing what they may need but they’re paying for it. Then they leave.
Don’t read some class struggle into it.
Fair enough; but there is no excuse for tipped workers to be paid less than others.
Have you never eaten a McDonald’s burger that’s been sitting around for a little while?