question about service/need to vent.

ok so first a little background, i am a Asst. kitchen manager at a high volume theatrepub, fighting for the open position of kitchen manager, i have been with the company for 7 years, started out as a dish dog, and worked my way up, i have been cooking in the industry since i was 14(diner/mountain lodge). last night we were moderatly busy and it was fire all(this is where my i am cooking all the food for the theatre which had about 250 ppl in it, plus my dining room was half full). but i had all my rockstar cooks where they needed to be, so i was at the end of the kitchen at our prep table which is about 4 feet from our ovens/window. my floor manager comes back and askes for a small and a medium half and half both straight up, “on the fly” because my to go person forgot to ring it in after taking there order, which is not a uncommon problem. We fire off the pies and they hit the window 10 minutes later. about 3 minutes after that the FOH manager sends one of our runners back to ask for a small pizza to make up for half of the medium pizza we put out “on the fly” because he forgot to tell us they wanted marinara instead of the sauce that normally comes on it.

at this point i put down the prep i am working on and go to the expoditer station to see what is going on, he says he doesn’t know, the floor manager hasn’t told him about a single refire, he just keeps bypassing him and going straight to the pizza window. i make a mental note to talk to him after service to see what is going on, and go back to my prep work. about 4 minutes later i hear my oven guy yell ohh $^*T and i look over as he pulls a the refire out, the sundried tomatoes are black, one side was loaded way to close to the oven wall as it was burn’t, and the bottom was a bit dark. my oven guy calls for the another pie to replace it, just then the floor manager comes to the window to ask about it. and my oven guy tells him it will be up in 4 minutes, it was overdone and a new one is going in the oven now. the floor manager asks to see they pie, the tells my oven guy to pick off the burn’t tomatoes, cut off the burn’t chunk of crust, reheat some tomatoes on a metal pizza pan and sell it. when i heard this i stepped in and said it was already in the oven at this time, and that i would not let the pizza go out of my kitchen looking like that, it was not up to our standards and when it comes to food quality it was my call. he proceeds to tell me i don’t know what is going on, so butt out and he will handle it. i repeated that i would not let the pie go out as calmly as i could(our kitchen is so small all 4 pizza cooks, my pantry cook, my saute cook, and both burrito cooks all heard everything). the floor manager then proceeded to pull rank since i am a asst. manager and not a salaried manager. the pizza that was refired took 2 minutes longer than the sundried reheat.

after service died down, and i calmed down a bit. i went to the front office, shut the door and sat down with the floor manager, i asked him to please never talk to me in front of my cooks like that, and that when it comes to food quality thats my call, and my butt on the line. he told me he was not going to discuss it with me at that time because no matter what he says i wont get it. i told him all i had to say was i would rather have a customer wait 25 minutes for the right pie, than 20 minutes for a burn’t pie. he then stated “exactly like i said you don’t get it”

what the hell? im so lost as to how the problem is with me worrying about the quality of food i send out. every kitchen i have worked in that was what kitchen managers did, food quality, food cost, cleanliness, proper food handling, menu design, training of new and old cooks.

any feedback welcome, im hoping to hear everyones side to this, whether you agree or disagree

sheb

Customers don’t want burnt pizza. Good call. It also sounds like the other guy is tired of having to cover for the kitchen and mistakes or for mistakes with the initial orders. Sounds like staff meeting time…

Putting out a burnt pizza is stupid though.

“You just don’t get it” would never fly in my shop. My people come to me and we work things out. A meeting with the boss should get you the answers you need.
Taking the blame for others is the managers job. It is so easy to say sorry, make up for it, and than fix the problem.