I work in a shitty kitchen rn with (admittedly) shitty coworkers who don’t care— I wouldn’t care either with what they’re getting paid—but help me get them to understand that we’re not serving most of these tomatoes anymore, and why.
Oh, and it’s three layers of squished tomatoes deep.
Help me hit em w science and food safety not just (they look ugly)
TIA
by Icy_Pace_1541
50 Comments
Maybe this isn’t the right place to even post, but I needed help from people who genuinely care at least a **little bit**—fuck.
Y’all got pics of your sliced tom prep for reference?
One thing, those should be in plastic as tomatoes are acidic. You might be over prepping. How much and how fast are they needed? Plust even having a piece of wax paper to help separate the layer may help as well as an insert on the bottom
Why are they so wet?
Why is there a piece of shredded lettuce in there?
Why are there cuts that are so thin they fold over?
Who the fuck wants to eat the hard white part of the lettuce which is on display?
jesus christ did you even alphabetize them
I always ask my staff “would you eat that?” If the answer is no…then why the fuck would we serve it to someone else? Lol
But I do wonder if there is some over prepping involved? It’s good to have back ups but when it comes to produce the shelf life isn’t long and prepping more than you need for the day leads to gross product the next.
I feel dumb but what am I looking for as to why these are bad? Some look ugly but why are we not serving the whole pan?
Your crew needs to wash their knives, cutting boards and surfaces between vegetables being prepped! There’s shredded lettuce all over those tomatoes.
Even if you do need that many, and it isn’t over prepping,I think they should probably be stored in plastic 6 pans.
When you grab them, they will fall apart
Never refrigerate tomatoes
I’m a fan of many small pans that can be swapped out quickly. Unless you’re pounding through that every hour or two it’s just silly for that much veg blobbed into a bigger pan. Also paper sheets for maximum speed.
Are these sliced with one of those push slicers? Cuz those look so bad and mushed up. Can’t to that for tomatoes. They’re usually too tender for those slicers.
I prefer using a slicer for this task, I also get a perf pan to drain my slices as I go. As each tom is sliced, I lay that gently on its side in my perf pan, once I’m done with it, it gets transferred to service pans. Sorry you’re having to deal with that my friend.
Is the bottom tomatoes squished? Yes. Are you overreacting? Also, yes.
Jersey mikessss
Sliced tomatoes are a TCS food and must be kept below 41*F. Unless these were kept cool prior to slicing and prepped very quickly, the middle of that pan will likely not reach or maintain proper temperature within an appropriate timeframe. Keeping food at the appropriate temperature prevents foodborne illness.
Also it looks bad.
Get a drip pan too ya savages
Subway? Those tomatoes are too red.
Bro you cant make people care. If you where the boss you could set standards
Just cut less tomatoes. I think that’s the simplest answer. Look at how much you want to toss at the end of the busiest day and then cut it down by that much, and cut it down by half more on slow days.
6th with a drip please
My question to you, what other items could be fixed ? I think by now, you understand the tomato issue, but chances are, this is only one of some problems there. Here is my advice, do what you know is “right” and then at times, others will either follow or eventually be weeded out, unless management just doesn’t give a chit, then, I would say, maybe take yourself somewhere else where you and these small things matter.
At minimum they should be stacked up in their original structure flat to flat with a strainer at the bottom to keep the product out of the juices.
Hey OP, we diners really appreciate you. Thank you for caring.
This is 100% Jersey Mike’s. Ask your GM to replace the blades on the tomato slicer and to actually teach folks how to use it properly. Blades are inexpensive and easy to replace. They’re smashed because they’re either way too soft, or the blades of the tomato slicer aren’t sharp anymore.
I like the shredded lettuce pull tab; makes for easy categorization and separation…
Yes, as pointed out the real question is why stainless pans for tomatoes?
Tomatoes are a TCS (time control sensitive) food. They breed bacteria faster than many other foods and can be deemed as waste if handled incorrectly. They need health department Training. Is this a burger king??
Beyond everything else, that’s down right beautiful. Pass the pepper; I’ll be here awhile.
I usually ask for the stem end of any tomato sliced for me. Mmmmm… woody.
Tomato slicer rip
It’s all about properly training and pay attention, knowing your usage is a big part of food service, once you roughly know your usage it will totally eliminate wasted products. Cooks usually dont want to under-prep and acting like the sky are falling if you’re running low on products 30 minutes before closing,however it’s all about breaking bad habits and explaining/ breaking it down for staff,literally get them on the same page.
Also,never use stainless steel for tomato products, split them up in several plastic pans.
Don’t know if this will be helpful, anyway, best of luck
Use a knife?
Fist off those tomatoes are shit. A plastic 1/3 pan with a drip set should be used instead of metal. 2nd were these cut wirh a pocket knife? Some of those are mush. Tomato soup is what it should be.
I would never go back to.a place that served that slop.
Has anyone actually taken the time to show them how to do it correctly? I find showing someone then letting them know this is how it will be done from now on ( in a nice way) works wonders.
Yeah unless thats getting used in a few hours, that’s a giant waste. No self respecting cook of any kind at all would serve contaminated tomatoes, much less ones that are as bad as these are in the myriad of ways other comments have pointed out.
I hate when tomatoes are cut too close to the end and the center is green.
Also been to a few restaurants that completely peeled the salad cucumbers. Always appreciated that.
Pan is too big. More likely that someone will top it off with back up toms and older toms won’t get rotated properly. Then some dumbass will slap those old, wilted ass toms on a sandwich and get someone sick.
Want my advice? Find a better kitchen to work in.
Tbh some of those look ripe and others not.
Stacking tomatoes 3 layers high will only guarantee that the bottom layer will become bruised and loose its texture as the gravity from the weight of the 2 other layers will only strengthen over time.
Can we just stop using tomatoes out of season? Mine go straight in the trash.
Tomatoes are best stored in 1/3 or 1/6 pans with a plastic riser underneath to let them drain. Also they need to wash their knife and cutting board between prepping different items (or swap to clean equipment) — there’s lettuce all over those tomatoes — it’s cross contamination and a health code violation. (But also get a tomato slicer if your restaurant goes through a lot of toms!)
Number one you have cross contamination which is a food hygiene risk they have obviously massively over prepped which leads to issues with storage and waste. Those tomatoes are sweating like an old whores noony which says to me they haven’t been stored effectively leading to the breakdown of the cellular structure and making them soggy. There’s not a single thing been done well here and I would be asking uncomfortable questions if they where my staff.
Normally I just hate tomatoes so a tomato hater like me enjoys seeing the death of tomatoes!
But realistically those don’t look great. Slice them on a slicer if possible for even cuts, and quit using the same cutting boards for each veggie being cut. The shred of lettuce doesn’t do any justice, and I know that it didn’t “make its way in there” during service. Finally, smaller pan. Not going to temp in that large hotel pan. Doesn’t work that way.
Nice ripe red maters you got there /s
These should be in a plastic Cambro with a drain tile.
This is a jersey mikes tomato pan. For starters, we use a special tomato slicer so the lettuce is not mixed in because of other items being prepped before it. It’s because people don’t pay attention and just throw lettuce into the pan without looking, and when you have time you’re supposed to pick out any lettuce.
Second, those tomatos are 100% day old tomatos that have probably not been FIFO’d so they’re probably being used late in the day. Hence the mushiness.
On top of telling the employees about it, you should report this to you GM or your district manager and tell them that this is a recurring issue. Jersey mikes has high produce standards so I doubt that nothing will be done about it.
Also, make sure whoever is sorting tomatos is doing it right. I really hope this helps, because I would be pissed off too
i worked at jersey mikes (before they were bought by blackrock), this looks like a bad jersey mikes tomato stack. from when i worked fresh, jersey mikes red tomatoes were a big deal to corporate. ive worked in a good franchise and a bad one. considering your description of shitty coworkers, id expect the case being the GM ordered too many tomatoes and improperly sorted them instead of throwing away a whole box. theyre being cheap and would most definitely get in trouble with this. they know they are no good.
My kitchens been doing that with tomato prep too and it’s been pissing me off. They used to be lined in rows. I feel like anyone who does prep other than the KM and my cousin do a terrible job.
And anyone other than me who closes, does a terrible job flipping and filling the line. It’s rough out here especially during the 4th of July rush, when this sort of cutting corners happens.