Pretty much what the title says, I was a sous chef at Tao Chicago this past year, and we did a bunch of huge buyout events. When I saw the receipts from the events I was super upset, because the staff are splitting the smallest portion of the revenue. Some of these events we worked with 3 cooks and 3 runners so the 5k in labor is not even close to what was actually spent. I pointed this out, and said that we could easily pay the staff more. I was told that my services were no longer required.
by ChefNicoletti
36 Comments
Karl marx has entered the chat.
Same thing happened to me last year =/ was working at the #2 yacht club in so-cal. brought up our cooks just needing another $2 an hour to be able work 1 job to afford rent and bills and 30 days later I got fired.
This is why capitalists don’t like public education. Critical thinking and math skills too and through statistics will do far more to convert politically, as long as the person experiences empathy of course.
That’s rough. Extra service charge for your boss.
$8 for a corona?
At least you found out for good that place does not give a fuck about their ppl.
Welcome to the industry brother
What’s the open food charge for in pic two
Who’s getting that 24% admin fee….
I book events and mine is 4%
A fucking $20,000 admin fee? JFC.
Absolutely unforgivable greed and abuse, sorry OP.
I’ve never seen a country so primed for class war while so fucking caught up in a culture war. This place rules.
One of the main reasons I got out of fine dining, we had multiple 10k tables a night, restaurant was pulling down milions a year. I could run every station in the kitchen and do all prep tasks. I ask for a $2 raise, they told me it wasn’t in the budget. I walked, lost the 3rd best line cook in that place. 2 years later I am the head chef of a taproom. Those people only keep themselves staffed by pride/ego alone.
Yup. I have worked the exact same job. Fuck those cheap fucks. 50k on an event and 2k for staff is “too expensive” why not just have half the people do all the work to save money? They would say. Mind you this is a private golf club that costs 6 figures per person per year to be a part of (yes there’s family discounts and shit, my point stands) if you can drop 6 figures for golf, but decide leaving a tip line on you checks for service staff is “being to pushy” I will feel no sadness should we go French Revolution all over again. Countless times served tables worth millions-billions as a the chef, because somehow they talked our event planner into understaffing to save money.
I will give a shout out to the owner of the Sacramento Kings. He’s one of the kindest and most reasonable billionaires I’ve ever served. Asks a lot of the staff and the kitchen, but is totally understanding if it takes a little longer or a mistake is made. Countless times he’d share some wisdom or just be kind when we were getting murdered. I did find that the wealthier someone was the kinder they tended to be. It was the dude driving the McLaren with a new Rolex and 15k custom shoes who’s always the piece of shit. Because he’s not actually rich. He’s just cosplaying. Best part? All of the legitimately wealthy people knew that and mocked them behind their backs and to the staff.
These people truly believe we are less, that we don’t deserve basic comforts that should be easily attained through 40 hours of honest work. They believe we are simply lazy and if we’d just gone to Stanford on our parents dimes we’d also be successful.
Good on you. Most chefs won’t fight for their employees.
If they could pay us less, they would.
It’s always good to spread the names so no one else works for them. Eventually they’ll be forced to close and some other shit head will pick up the abusive mantel. We need to always expose these people and break the cycle of abuse and exploitation.
these prices are insane those bottles are marked up like 5x the store price. FOH here, they should 100% be able to pay y’all more. and 22% admin fee is crazy, i understand needing a person to book events but they’re usually salary. Is the admin fee a service charge?
Why not let your executive chef fight this battle? It wouldn’t sit right with me if my sous was fighting my battle.
Power to yuh brother✊🏾
If you’re good, you can find work elsewhere, best of luck to you🫱🏾🫲🏼
Lawyer up. Even in “at will” states, [retaliation](https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation) for discussing pay is illegal.
Tao group settles a new wage theft claim every couple of years.
Another infuriating detail is allllll this fucking money so these assholes can drink fucking casamigos?
well make sure you tell the cooks and staff what they’re worth according to the owner while you walk out.
I used to work banquets at a hotel. One year we were just completely slammed and our sales were through the roof. Everyone associated with banquets was making so much money because of sales commissions/tips. Everyone except the cooks who made the same hourly wages and maybe a few hours of overtime.
They ended up changing it so certain higher level cooks (including me) got included in a bonus pool. It wasn’t much but at least it was something.
That admin fee should be split amongst staff for incentive and moral. Whenever we do these types of events that’s how it’s handled because when the restaurant benefits everyone on staff benefits.
i watched a video yesterday of a blue collar guy who has a business getting big enough for him to hire a sales team and how upset he was finding out just how much more money they will make with their added commission than the people with real skills and doing the real work side of things. it was literally like 8 minutes of him venting about how unfair its going to be and how he has no solution to the problem that wont run every potential sales person off.
Nice… now go to those clients and let them know how much actually went into labor vs actuals and make them lose a customer.
Or go to the news/tik tok
The boss is eliminating you because you’re demonstrating character and realism and backbone. Therefore you’re stoking the boss’s fear that you’ll point up the obvious unfairness, stirring up shit with the more placid/easily controllable fellow employees. Can’t have logic. Can’t have fairness or reasonableness—to some insecure bosses that’s akin to armed revolution. It might shine a spotlight onto their pettiness to the rest of the staff. So therefore it’s unforgivable. Take heart—if only more people were like you and did the right thing.
Tao Chicago. Heard. I think we all know what to do.
There are more of us in the working class.
Feel like it’s illegal to be fired this way, especially in Illinois.
Did you fuck the bosses wife/husband first? Thats protocal
The place I had my wedding at 2 years ago charged a 24% service fee. When I asked “who does that go to” she reluctantly “uhh.. to pay out employees higher wage to retain good talent” I really hope that’s where it went.
What you are observing is **class** in action. Your labor is quantifiably, definitionally always going to be less “valuable” because it will, never ever, be worth as much as your “betters” will be.
The people eating these food are in an entirely different social — and thus economic — class than you live in, and they can “blow” all that money on the food, because it’s not about how much they fairly contribute to the economy, it’s all about how much they’ve ingratiated themselves to the power brokers in the economy.
Is that not wrongful termination?