Have You Been Employed in the Food Industry?

[68BabyBlue]

I've spent the vast majority of my career working in food production factories.
Dairy products of all types, juices, sauces, meat etc.
It's recession proof.

Wegmans by any chance? I worked with their in house bakery, they were one of the more impressive corporate producers I dealt with.

 

[Don Frelier]

Wegmans by any chance? I worked with their in house bakery, they were one of the more impressive corporate producers I dealt with.

Just a bit I did some work on a cleaning system for their soup kitchen. Another company had done the original installation.

 

[JackR]

When I was 15 lied about my age got hired at Villa pizza. Slung dough through high school.

 

[WileE]

Part-time during high school and college. Worked in a deli. Among other tasks, I made you a great sammich. ( Me ? Didn't eat sammiches for decades afterwards. )

 

[WileE]

When I was 15 lied about my age got hired at Villa pizza. Slung dough through high school.

Was that a chinese pizzeria ?

 

[SlingLow]

Almost. I was hired as a busboy at the local Sizzler restaurant back when I was a poor teenager and they had all you can eat ribs on Tuesdays. My buddies and I would go in on Tuesday and for every rib we ate, one would get stashed in a baggie for later (we had already been 86ed by the manager of the local Skipper's fish and chip house on their all you can eat night). I thought a job there might get me better access to ribs and maybe other free food. When I showed up the 1st day, they walked me over to the dishwasher that was spewing steam next to a huge pile of dirty dishes and told me to unload and load. I said nope and walked out the door. That was the only job I remember walking out on. I didn't get paid for my quarter hour so technically I didn't work there.

 

[SlingLow]

I was one of only three guys, and I think the other two were gay.

I dated four of my co-workers there before I graduated.

Not the gay guys, right?

 

[68BabyBlue]

Not the gay guys, right?

Just the hot girls. The last one was a real looker, and knew it. I took her out just to prove I could, and never asked her for a second date. She was furious, and asked me if I was gay, or if she had bad breath. My wife of 48 years was the next girl I dated.

 

[cosgig]

Well, I graduated from culinary school and have worked in countless restaurants over the years. My favorite restaurant job was at The Lord Fox, a 100+ year old restaurant that Hemry Ford and Harvey Firestone frequented in the 20’s. Everything was made from scratch, all the herbs were grown on site and fish, poultry and meats came in whole and had to be butchered on-site. It was a great experience, despite the owners, who were lesbian former lovers who hated each other. On any given football Saturday we would have 800+ reservations.

Here’s a picture of me and my “Sous Chef” getting ready to go on Good Morning America, she was in town to campaign for Big George. I also fed the entire secret service and all the media who were there that day for the show. I also bought Gabe Kaplan his lunch when he stayed at the hotel I was working at. In town for the same reason.

 

[mmissile]

First paycheck job, was at Burger-king in the early 70's. It was fun, met a lot of great girls....and ended up sleeping with my smoking-hot, divorced, 30 year old boss.

 

[SlingLow]

Well, I graduated from culinary school and have worked in countless restaurants over the years. My favorite restaurant job was at The Lord Fox, a 100+ year old restaurant that Hemry Ford and Harvey Firestone frequented in the 20’s. Everything was made from scratch, all the herbs were grown on site and fish, poultry and meats came in whole and had to be butchered on-site. It was a great experience, despite the owners, who were lesbian former lovers who hated each other. On any given football Saturday we would have 800+ reservations.

Here’s a picture of me and my “Sous Chef” getting ready to go on Good Morning America, she was in town to campaign for Big George. I also fed the entire secret service and all the media who were there that day for the show. I also bought Gabe Kaplan his lunch when he stayed at the hotel I was working at. In town for the same reason.

View attachment 1954441

My Mom watched Julia Child religiously back in the 60s. She was the queen. That other guy, Graham something, aka The Galloping Gourmet, couldn't hold her ladle. That's a cool photo to have! She looks genuinely pleased to meet you.

 

[ckessel]

As a kid, we grew Avocado's. Later on, those got replaced with Lemon's.

 

[Dennis H]

Not sure time frame. Probably 1968-1972. Allentown or Lehigh Valley Vicinity.
City View Diner: Bus Boy
Osteopathic Hospital: Dishwasher
Clark Catering, Central Motor Ramp. Stories here big time. Stuck in the mud at the Devon Horse Show. Beyond bizarre.

Gas, cigarette, and girl money. Blessed. Not Drafted. No Viet Nam. I got off easy and had the life of Riley. Right-time. Right place. Right Parents. I had little to do with anything.

 

[MarPar]

I own a wholesale meat business for the past 25 years...does that count?

 

[cosgig]

Now if you’re talking a straight up food job, when I was a kid we picked asparagus and strawberries for a couple local farmers. In between baling bay and working on our own farms. Our garden at home was almost an acre. We had more potatoes and beans than a family of 4 could ever eat. Our potato bin was 3 old doors nailed together in an U and another door cut in 1/2 and nailed to each end. It was mine and my brothers job to pick one grocery bag of beans each day, and my parents would can them on the weekends. That’s 14 grocery bags of beans a week. Not to mention the tomatoes. It was crazy to grow all that food, but my parents went crazy with it. We went to a lot of auctions when we were kids so my parents could buy up every mason jar they could find so they didn’t have to pay retail.

 

[kiwigtx]

Bread crumbs? What on Earth does one use bread crumbs for?

Most supermarkets use it in their butchery departments for filling - meatloaf, sausages etc...and crumbed sausage or chicken - as examples.

Coated fish product - fish fingers, fillets etc....a multitude of uses. These guys also export a huge amount to Australia. Supermarkets and food Outlets sell it for home cooking - for coating meats and chicken, fish etc. Different grades of crumb - Panko, fine, Golden....

Most of my photos are of the machinery ....not many of product as a lot of the process is proprietary knowledge. This a multideck conveyor for drying the pellets before the milling process turns them into the correct sized crumb.....

I had to replace four of those gearboxes the day of the Christmas Staff BBQ a couple of years ago - nice and toasty warm in the room....and I was sweating like a Pedo parked outside a Primary School..... job done in record time though.

 

[kiwigtx]

I did too for a very short time. They wanted me to wear a white shirt with a bowtie....white shirt was ok but wasn't about to wear a freakin bowtie lol

 

[Coelacanth]

I installed a couple dumbwaiters in restaurants.

My first job was a dishwasher for a pizza franchise, Boston Pizza. I knew a few dumb waiters too.

 

[Belvedere408]

My first job was at a restaurant called G Willickers. My older brother was a cook there I was the dishwasher. My parents and my grandpa liked to hang there at the bar, drink and gamble. I was still in high school.

 

[QuickBpBp]

Yep 25 years growing grapes.. Had all kinds helping at harvest time. It was always funny when we picked by hand or machine hearing “workers” say oh when do they pick out the insects sometimes snakes, mice and small birds that ended up in the mechanical harvester… I was like yeah whatever comes out of the de-stemmer the rest will get pressed… They had no clue about the farming industry.