Ever Wondered How Many Hands Touch Your Food at a Restaurant Before It Gets to You?
The statement 'I need hands" signals a fast-paced, coordinated effort behind the scenes.
Every step — from dishwashing to plating to serving — showcases the teamwork that powers a restaurant's success.When someone working in a restaurant hears the words 'I need hands,' it's a call to action, akin to the Bat-Signal being flashed into the sky summoning superhero help. Someone needs assistance and they need it now. Very often, that phrase is used because there's food in the kitchen that needs to go to a table immediately, so someone will drop what they're doing to rush that hot plate of food to the hungry customer. But have you ever thought about just how many hands are needed to get that plate to the table?
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A plate begins its day in a restaurant resting in a stack of other plates, freshly washed from the night before. The first hand that touches it is that of the dishwasher whose job is to take that plate out of the dish room and to the kitchen closer to its destiny of being a vessel for delicious food. The dishwasher bids farewell to their charge (or, charger), knowing that it will soon return from whence it came.
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The next hand that touches the plate belongs to the chef or cook who will now do with that plate the purpose was made for. It's pulled from its stack ready for action. Depending on the restaurant, food will be lovingly placed or hastily slapped onto its surface just as the customer ordered it. It might get a hamburger and a handful of fries or perhaps it will host a dry-aged filet mignon and dauphinoise potatoes with yet another set of hands belonging to the saucier gracing this plate with another loving touch. From there, the plate is placed "on the line" until more hands will touch it.
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An expeditor is the next person that might come into contact with the plate. They're the person in the kitchen whose job is to look at every plate of food and determine that it's ready to be served. Maybe it needs a last minute garnish or a quick wipe to ensure the plate is clean without any messy drips or unwanted drizzles. They'll give that plate one final glance before saying, 'I need hands.'
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In steps the food runner. Never has a job description been so apt as this one. The food runner's sole duty is to carry the plates of food from the kitchen to the tables, swiftly moving back and forth from the back of the house to the front of the house. They live in both worlds.
I once worked with a food runner named Michael who loved his job. He told me he got to stay in the kitchen most of the time, only breaching the swinging doors to the outside world of soft lighting and softer music to drop off food and then retreat to the kitchen with its fluorescent lights and the loud clanging of pots and pans. His interaction with customers was minimal and he liked it that way. 'If they tell me they need something, I just nod my head and then go tell their server.' If there's no food runner, then it's the server who runs that food and touches this plate one last time before the customer does.
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After the meal is done, one final pair of hands will hold that plate. The busser will clear the table, taking away each dish to be tossed into a bus tub, the plate's destiny fulfilled. The busser will carry it to the dish room where the dishwasher will take the plate and literally lather, rinse, and repeat. By now, this plate has had more hands on it than a hardbody truck in Texas that twenty-four people are trying to win. Hands Across America was less handsy than a plate in a busy restaurant.
Running a restaurant takes a village. No one person is doing everything and the plate is the through line that connects one employee to the next. It's handed from person to another, seamlessly creating an experience for customers as if it was just one set of hands doing it all. If you ever hear someone in a kitchen say they need a hand, they probably mean they need help, but if you want to give them a round of applause, that's OK too.Sign up for the biweekly F&W Pro Newsletter and you'll get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox, along with insights, pep talks, and wisdom from some of the best people in the hospitality business. Learn more here.Read the original article on Food & Wine
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Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
How North Korea's IT army is hacking the global job market
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"They've been stealing intellectual property and then working on the projects themselves," Michael "Barni" Barnhart, principal investigator at DTEX Systems, told Axios. "They're going to use AI to magnify exponentially what they're already doing — and what they're doing now is bad." Between the lines: It sounds easy to simply weed out North Korean job applicants. But some of the world's biggest firms have found it devilishly difficult. That's because the North Korean operation has become as complex as a multi-national corporation. It involves several North Korean government offices, dozens of China-based front companies and Americans willing to facilitate the fraud. And the undercover North Korean IT workers are often exceptional at their jobs — at least until they start stealing sensitive data or extorting companies that try to fire them. Google Threat Intelligence VP Sandra Joyce recalled the response of one employer when told they likely had a North Korean fraudster on staff: "You guys better be right, because that is my best guy." The groups running the show North Korea has invested years into building up its remote IT labor force, providing training not just for remote job fraud but also corporate espionage and IP theft. Workers are selected and trained at elite institutions such as Kim Chaek University of Technology and the University of Sciences in Pyongsong — some with specializations in software development, AI or cryptography. Research from DTEX shows that the most advanced worker scams are often coordinated with units like APT 45, a notorious government hacking group known for infiltrating companies, running scams and laundering money. Other participants in the scheme include the Lazarus Group, which typically leads the regime's cryptocurrency hacks and has positioned insiders within crypto companies, and Research Center 227, a new AI research unit inside North Korea's intelligence agency. The intrigue: Cybersecurity companies have been discovering and naming new groups running these hacks, with names like Jasper Sleet, Moonstone Sleet and Famous Chollima. The scale Driving the news: Nine security officials who spoke with Axios all said they've yet to meet a Fortune 500 company that hasn't inadvertently hired a North Korean IT worker. Google told reporters at the RSA Conference in May that it had seen North Koreans applying to its jobs. SentinelOne and others have said the same. KnowBe4, a cybersecurity training company, admitted last year that it hired a North Korean IT worker. A smaller cryptocurrency startup told the WSJ that they accidentally had North Korean workers on their payroll for almost two years. In one case, Sam Rubin, senior vice president of Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 consulting and threat intelligence team, told Axios that within 12 hours of a large client posting a new job, more than 90% of the applicants were suspected to be North Korean workers. "If you hire contract IT workers, this has probably happened to you," Rubin said. The intrigue: Even small-to-mid-sized companies that rely on remote IT talent or outsource their IT needs to a consulting firm have encountered this problem, Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, said. CrowdStrike has investigated more than 320 incidents where North Korean operatives landed jobs as remote software developers, according to the company's annual threat hunting report published earlier this month. How it works Getting a job at a U.S. company — and going undetected — is a team effort that involves several North Korean IT workers, China-based companies and even a handful of Americans. 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Politico
20 hours ago
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Jason Miller racks up clients
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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
The truth about the commission airline staff earn on booze, bag charges and scratch-cards
You don't need to watch one of those fly-on-the-wall documentaries to appreciate that working for an airline can be a stressful job – and one that isn't always handsomely compensated. In theory, then, most of us wouldn't begrudge the opportunity for staff to earn themselves a bonus for good performance. In reality, some bonuses can prove more contentious than you might expect, particularly when customers are kept in the dark about them. For a prime example, look at the comments earlier this summer from Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary – never one to avoid controversy – when he said he wanted to see ground staff given extra money in return for enforcing the airline's notoriously strict baggage rules. Naturally, the comments ruffled some feathers from those who fear the low cost carrier is tough enough with its allowances. Ryanair has since confirmed that its ground staff are already paid a small commission, reportedly around €1.50 per bag intercepted. 'That is likely to rise to €2.50 per bag in October,' says a Ryanair spokesman. 'We are determined to eliminate the scourge of oversized bags which delays our boarding process and annoys the 99.9 per cent of passengers who comply with the rules.' It certainly isn't the first time that Ryanair's 'incentives' have come under the spotlight. It's been known since the mid-2010s that cabin crew were being paid a commission on any on-board sales – including alcohol and scratch-cards – to help the airline make more money. There were also suggestions at the time that staff with lower sales figures were being given less choice over their roster – something that the airline denies. An American invention Like many things in the budget airline world, the practice was pioneered by American carriers, who have become notorious for badgering their passengers to sign up to airline credit cards. According to one Spirit staffer, cabin crew can receive as much as $70 when a customer successfully takes out one of their cards. Either way, these incentives have now become an essential part of the deal when working for low-cost carriers and charter airlines in particular. 'When I worked as cabin crew for a major charter airline, around 40 per cent of my earnings was made up of on-board sales commissions,' says Charlotte Crocker, a former flight attendant who now provides training to cabin crew. 'We would sell duty-free products, headsets, food, drinks and anything else that was available. We weren't put under a huge amount of pressure from the airline, but they would offer extra bonuses – like a pair of designer sunglasses or something similar – to the best sellers.' As for the current incentives, Ryanair pays 10 per cent on all in-flight sales, as does its competitor Wizz Air. There are also extra incentives for high performers: when travel writer Rob Crossan attended a Wizz training day for The Telegraph a few years ago, he found that top sellers were given more choice over which routes they worked, meaning they could pick the higher-spending flights. While commission is still a big deal, the pressure from above has eased up over the years, say insiders, partly due to the number of airlines scrambling to recruit cabin crew. Though the ongoing cost of living crunch means that staff have an extra incentive to earn their bonuses, particularly when the standard salary for low-cost airlines can be around £20,000 per year. As for the legacy carriers, the emphasis on bonuses is much smaller. 'On the short-haul flights you can get commission on food and drink sales, but it's generally a much smaller part of your pay,' says a British Airways staffer. 'It's not like Ryanair where people make money from the non-stop alcohol [sales].' Mixed messages It's all rather intriguing given the general push towards responsible drinking, with Michael O'Leary in particular emerging as an unlikely voice of moderation in recent years. Last year, he even called for airports to enforce a two-drink minimum to help prevent on-board misbehaviour. Though when you weigh up the economics of in-flight hospitality, it's not hard to see why Ryanair might take a slightly different approach towards its own alcohol sales. According to IATA, the global aviation trade body, European airlines generate an average profit of just £6.80 per passenger (indeed if you divide Ryanair's profits by its passenger numbers, you get a very similar number). Those kinds of margins mean that hospitality sales can make a sizeable difference, particularly with alcoholic drinks. According to US industry figures, airlines typically make around 50 per cent profit on every alcoholic drink they sell, not least as they aren't subject to the same taxation rules as restaurants and bars. Even if they pay a 10 per cent bonus to the staff member who sold the drinks, they're still making a healthy profit. As for the baggage fees, Ryanair currently charges up to £75 for each item of over-sized baggage that gets stopped at the gate. If ground staff get €1.50 (or £1.30) for each bag they intercept, they're still getting a much less generous deal than their cabin crew peers. Arguably, they're also doing the far tougher job of having to tell disgruntled customers they need to pay more. Interestingly, the idea of paying bonuses to ground staff gets a thumbs up from cabin crew too. 'Sometimes I think that ground staff don't bother about stopping people with larger bags as they don't want the trouble,' says a flight attendant with one full-service airline. 'But that creates problems for us on board when there isn't enough locker space to go around.' On the other hand, if ground staff had an extra incentive to enforce the rules then passengers would be less inclined to try their luck in the first place. It also means that those who have shelled out the extra cash in order to bring on board more luggage won't feel aggrieved for having wasted their money, they suggest. That's the thing about airline bonuses: we might not always like them, but they do tend to make sense – at least from the perspective of those responsible for keeping the industry moving in the first place. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
