I’ve been in the restaurant biz for about 20 years now. I’ve always been FOH and have done everything from serving and bartending to F&B Operations for a resort. I’m making a change to follow a dream and move into woodworking here over the next year or so. I had an opportunity come up to mix my past experience in restaurants with the direction I’m heading into with woodworking. I took a job with a nonprofit that does historic preservation of historic building on public lands (forest service stations/fire lookout towers/old mining buildings/etc). We are mostly volunteer based with about 6-8 volunteers that come in per week and my job is to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for everyone as well as help out with restoration of the buildings. We camp at or near the sites we work on and I cook out of this tent. We work in a lot of remote locations so logistics of cooking, cleaning, and food storage can be pretty interesting but it’s been a great experience so far. It feels great to cook some good meals for volunteers that are doing some hard labor and my stress level has never been lower. I work 6 days a week with some long hours but it never really feels like it. If anyone has any questions about the job, let me know! My service is extremely limited though so responses may be delayed.
by Smkabwlwme
15 Comments
Sounds absolutely amazing! And those views are an awesome benefit. Good luck with your future in woodworking and enjoy this experience!
Much respect for you my friend, so happy to hear you get to do something you love to help those that are putting in the hard yards.
Propane inside a tent?
Congratulations on following the dream. What kind of budget do you have? Do you have full control over the menu? What’s shopping like? Thank you!
That is insanely cool as a cook who likes history and appreciates public lands. Keep it up!
That’s amazing. It reminds me of every movie with an archeological dig. Congratulations on your new journey! If you post photos of the rehabs in another subreddit, please share.
*Rehab wasn’t quite the right word.
Taking any applications?
Looks like doggo is enjoying the life, too!
Well done and thanks for sharing your journey. Sounds awesome.
Nice work, chef. Im jealous of those views, man!
What is this non profit? What states are you in?
I think I found the organization. It says that you volunteer for five days? Is that right? It is so much better to have a cook for an entire season, and it is way better to have a cook simply be a cook! The cook is the main thing that keeps everyone happy lol.
I have been a camp cook for years. This actually looks like a nice set-up for camp cooking.
That is outstanding!
As someone who loves to cook and go camping – and cook *while* I’m camping,
I am seriously envious of this set up! And thank you for your dedication to preserving our beautiful lands. Very cool.
All I see is a potential NOMA popup.
With the kinda soul inherent to these images I bet magic is being served, several times a day.
Amazing! How’d you get this job??
I thought this was an outdoor kitchen on one of my bushcraft/camping/hiking subs at first… very nice set up friend…