Ask Dave
June/July 2000 

Please send your questions to dave@dinersoft.com

Q.  I was wondering if it's common practice for a cook to demand they be tipped for banquets.  We have a cook who expects to be tipped yet refuses to help us at all.  We make the salads and desserts, we set the tables, we do everything but cook the food.  All the cook does is prepare the food, cook it, and put it on plates for us to serve.  The rest is ours to do.  On buffets, we also set up the chafing dishes and bring the food to put it them.  This particular cook has managed to put so much of his job off on us servers that he has made his job much simpler.  He also makes twice what we do in wages.  When we're on the floor, we usually work alone in a restaurant that has a seating capacity of 100 people, and we also are responsible for running room service orders up to the rooms, as well as preparing the trays to take them up on.  We are hostess, cashier, busperson, server and we do a lot of food preparation.  The only thing we don't do is cook the food.  Though we are expected to cook any food that is heated in the microwave.  As well as prepare all salads, fruit bowls, breakfast rolls and Danish, as well as the toast.  When you have customers that only want rolls, toast, fruit bowls and cold cereal, then the cook does absolutely nothing for these customers.  And we get quite a few that order this thinking they're making it easy on us.  I have a problem with tipping a cook who makes more than I do in wages, does very little in the way of helping us, and then demands that we tip them.  I have no problem tipping someone who is helping me do my job, but I don't think I should be expected to give up money I worked DAMN hard to earn.  Banquets are a lot of work, and the cook has the easiest part of the job.   Please let me know if this is common practice, because from what I have found out, is it not, and I want to know if I should  be tipping a cook who does very little for me.  

Thanks,
Jo

A.  Dear Jo,

In many restaurants including the one I am running now tipping the cooks is a common practice but is not mandatory. My servers feel empathy for the cooks because the cooks are making $10.00 an hour or less and have to work extra to run a banquet for no extra pay.  Many of my servers make over $20.00 an hour (including tips) for a banquet and they feel that tipping is only fair.

My servers do not tip the chef they only tip the line cook or dishwasher. My chef is a salaried employee who shouldn't take tips unless it is built into his contract and taxed accordingly. In restaurants where tipping is mandatory there are tax laws that the restaurant needs to abide by based on state and federal regulations. Many restaurateurs decline to do this as it raises their taxable payroll. So if they are ordering you to tip the cook you may have the right not to unless they are following these guidelines.

In your case it does seem that the cook has put too much of his responsibility on the service staff especially in the plating of salads and deserts for banquets. In banquets it is standard for the servers to set up the chafers, the room and the tables so I don't find this unusual. 

Talk to your manager in a positive way and tell them how you feel and see if they might help. Tell them you even contacted an internet site on how to best deal with this they might admire that. You also might inquire that if they require you to tip the cooks they raise the tip to 18% which is fairly common now.

Hope some of this helped!!!

Dave

Q.  Hi Dave,
I have an awesome recipe for a gourmet pie.  I would like to begin selling
these miniature pies to the gift basket industry to use in their baskets!
My main question is how do I increase the shelf life of my pie!  It's a sweet potato pie...  How do these cake companies increase the shelf lives of their mini cakes to last from 2 to 3 months un-refrigerated??? Any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,
DeNelle...Pacific

A.  Hi DeNelle,

This question is a little out of my league as it doesn't actually deal with
restaurants but I did some research and unfortunately only got a little info on the additives to use. Listed below are some web-sites to maybe help you get info. The first two are related to preservatives and additives and the other two are related to selling pies through the internet. 

Happy Baking!!!

http://www.chipsbooks.com/bakfresh.htm

http://www.foodpack.crc.org.au/factsheet03.html

http://www.gtpie.com/

http://www.pieguy.com/menu.html

Sincerely,

Dave