Curry Recipes Online

Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: JerryM on October 02, 2014, 07:09 PM

Title: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: JerryM on October 02, 2014, 07:09 PM
yes caught me by surprise. obviously not cooking but working.

not a place i've eaten in so have no idea what its like when open.

2 things of interest: must be hell keeping the place clean and the tandoor is up for sale (too expensive to run).

other than that nothing to report - boss has been on my back to get in and get out.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Stephen Lindsay on October 02, 2014, 07:12 PM
dunno if I've missed other threads but what work are you doing there Jerry?
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: haldi on October 03, 2014, 07:58 AM
undercover jerry  ;)
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Onions on October 03, 2014, 08:05 AM
Unger Oveur, Oveur Dunne!
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: haldi on October 04, 2014, 09:55 AM
nothing to report - boss has been on my back to get in and get out.
you've really got my attention on this one
what are you up to?
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: JerryM on October 04, 2014, 02:20 PM
sorry but nothing impressive and nothing to do with the cooking. the boss being my boss and nothing to do with the restaurant.

i'm supposed to be on another job elsewhere hence the urgency to get finished.

the "cleaning job" that the staff must have to do is quite a challenge - anyone thinking of starting up in such trade would need to factor this in. for me it called out steam cleaning everywhere but the electrics would not take to it. everything pretty much seemed on castors so they could be wheeled about to help cleaning.

i was also taken aback by the amount of kit "behind the scenes" - i put it at something like 20?K in set up costs - a lot to get back in the short term. pretty much everything is stainless steel.

unfortunately there was not much to see ingredient wise. tins of KTC oil. all the usual stuff. massive freezer and an open top "deli" fridge.

the only thing that really caught my eye was a sort of wok burner (which i've seen in Chinese before). it had lots of nozzles all pointing in different directions. if my burner is say 8kw then this thing must be 20kw easy. cant imagine what they use it for - a big round shallow frying sits on top containing oil - as if they cook poppadoms in it (cant really see it though).

the aroma "smell" as reported in posts is really strong. felt i could smell same on the way home in the car.

the work i'm doing is my day job and not exciting. monday should be last day having been 2 days already.

the sale of the tandoori was quite a surprise and i asked why with the answer too expensive to run.

the 8 burner "hob" that you see in the video with the yellow knobs is actually quite small - diddy in fact. the burners look the business though. i think h4ppy-chris said 6 kw - they look easily that. not able to see them working but feel they would produce more of a bunsen burner flame than a slow wrap around. all the pans were ali. the burners have an inner and outer ring.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Garp on October 04, 2014, 02:37 PM
Do you work for MI6, Jerry? Or has your care worker told you that you do?

You seem reluctant to tell us what you are actually doing there.....
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Onions on October 04, 2014, 02:45 PM
(http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x355/dave-random/jq.jpg)

;)  :D
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Peripatetic Phil on October 04, 2014, 02:46 PM
Jerry's /working/ there.  Not working /for/ the establishment, working /in/ it, for his boss/company/whatever.  What work he is doing is none of our business -- if he wants to speak in terms of generic "work", then that should be adequate, should it not ?

** Phil.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Garp on October 04, 2014, 03:22 PM
I refer the 'honourable' gentleman to my previous question  :)
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: JerryM on October 06, 2014, 07:53 PM
Garp,

I was working there. Case of old school I guess the less the www knows of my personal info the better. Difficult not mi for sure. I guess care worker is more like.

I have a trade and use my hands. The boss is actually my wife. I know it gets worse. Will stop digging the hole bigger.

Was last day today and pushed keys through letter box with smile. Waited years to get in one and when it arrived could not get out quick enough.

None of the staff were in and all cleared away.

Ps the hob is actually 7 burner. 4 along front and 3 along the back.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: rshome123 on October 06, 2014, 08:19 PM
Hi Jerry, all sounds intriguing. As you know I used to frequent those premises, though I never saw the kitchen.

Tandoor oven for sale? How much? Also, is it the property of 'the landlord' or the previous 'tenant'?

Hope you are keeping well,

R.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: livo on October 06, 2014, 10:39 PM
My father and I once had the "pleasure" of converting a Chinese Restaurant into a Lotteries Office.  The place was right in town and a popular place to eat both dine in and T/A.  How the operators managed to keep the non-human residents out of the dishes and the dining area in general was amazing.

I guess you really can train cockroaches.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Ghoulie on December 27, 2014, 06:13 PM
re 'cleaning' in food places - that includes general food processing as well as restaurants that have large stainless / tiled areas - one large American chemical outfit I worked for had one product line area for Food & Beverage related industries ( I ran the construction chemicals side).  A lot of their cleaning stuff was applied as a foam by spray lance and left in place for a time to work, then sprayed off to drain away.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Ghoulie on December 28, 2014, 12:44 PM
When I first came back from the Middle East in '84, we found a little local Indian restaurant run by a guy who I used to have the crack with in Urdu.  He was quite tickled by the fact I bothered to learn a few words in Dubai (Same with arabic - I know a few words - enough for people to wonder how much I understand! - which is not a lot!!).   He would tweak dishes to meet my taste.  He sold out to a guy called Lal - Bangladeshi who was an even better chef / cook than the previous guy and he would make similar tweaked dishes for me - even put one on the menu in my honour.

Sadly, as the 90s approached and recession Lal did the unthinkable and started bringing in chicken that was less than fresh to put it mildly - this was around the time when unscrupulous suppliers were exposed on tv for re-fettling condemned chicken by bleaching & cutting out bad meat and selling on.  Lal fell into this area - thinking e.g if he supplied a chicken shashlik sizzler dish - one piece good, the other 'dubious' he would get away with it.  We warned him no less than 6 times that dishes he either served in or as takeaways were not acceptable until in the end his refunds were no longer acceptable as reparation and he lost his best customers for ever.  I learned Lal went bust soon after and was last seen working as a petrol station attendant.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: JerryM on December 30, 2014, 09:51 PM
Ghoulie,

Sounds like a man we could do with finding for a little help.
Title: Re: Working in BIR - Bit of a Shock
Post by: Ghoulie on December 31, 2014, 11:38 AM
Sadly can't do that JerryM - just talking to my m8 about Lal - seems he died from kidney problems 2 years back.  Loss of a good Bangladeshi chef.