What Have I Done & Learnt
Work Experience
Hanna's Lounge and Grill
Fawdry Homes Ltd.
Work Tern Report
Hanna’s Lounge and Grill is a casual/ higher class dinner that serves food and drinks and as well as host’s private parties. Throughout my duration working at Hanna’s Lounge and Grill I held the positions as a Preparation/ Line cook in the kitchen of the restaurant.
My regular shift would always start at around 3:00- 5:30 pm as I was considered night kitchen staff. When I arrive every day I have to do the last prep of the afternoon to get ready for the dinner rush that will later come. I was generally situated at the “sauté” side of the line which in other words is the frying pan side. So when on that station, I have to physically and mentally prep myself for the night. Mentally prepped meaning I have to know the specials for the evening or on the fresh sheet and know any of the changes to the menu which is all informed to me by the Chef or Sues Chef. To be physically prepared I have to go over all my stock and back stock for all my appetizers and entrees listed on the menu or on special. When it came time that I the dinner rush comes alone, it’s go time. I am cooking nonstop for 4 hours sometimes in a rush things such as clam pastas to delicious mushroom risotto. When I am working on cooking for 5 tables at once I am making many quick decisions while I am multitasking with other things such as communicating with the servers on custom orders.
During my experience working I have developed and applied many strong employability skills. I have taken those skills and also applied them to my daily life when off of work. I find during work communication is key, having good communication skills makes working so much easier and less stressful. I’m a cook at a restaurant and the way the kitchen works is we get a bill printed and all cooks get a copy to have in front of them. Some dishes take longer and some are shorter. Communicating with timing and descriptions on when to start and finish bills is the key to success. That’s why I strive to communicate to the best of my ability when ordered or when I need to do so. Another transferable skill I have would be the ability to be adaptable. As a cook I can be working alone or together with 2 other employees on a certain task, therefore I have to be adaptive to others opinions and prospective on the way they cook to get the best outcome. In a regular shift I always encounter problems and issues. In which I have to apply my adaptable skills to overcome problems and preform at my best. My last skill that means most to be is Work Safety, the fact that I am only 17 years of age and I am working in a dangerous kitchen with a bunch of post-secondary trained professionals that are significantly older than me; I have to look out for myself most of the time. Most of the most dangerous tasks done in a kitchen are done alone; it’s just the way it works. I work with 700 degree ovens and boiling hot water every shift that is a constant hazard. I am also around and work with many raw foods that are quite dangerous to the human body through cross contamination. Therefore I have to use self-judgement at all times to know what is save and what’s not to decrease my chance of injury.
During my work experience learnt skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Even though I learnt a lot during school as I stated in my training plan, I also learnt a lot more personal skill over the time of my work experience. I leant the skills of being responsible, managing a task, working with others, being adaptive and being co-operative.
Most people are already “wowed” at the fact that I’m a cook at this level at this age. But not just the title is what “wows” people sometimes. I have had many successes in the duration of working for Hanna’s Lounge and Grill that frankly stun people. In the down times of the season my restaurant tends to host charismas parties that I have to use great management skills with. I have come home with such a wide knowledge of recipes to cook and help cook at home with for my friends and family. And over my almost 2 years working at Hanna’s I have succeeded in many areas which resented in promotions and bonuses.
Overall in the food industry you encounter problems every day, being a cook you are always ready for any difficulties to come in your path to completion. That’s when problem solving skill and being adaptive comes in handy. I accidentally burn food every shift and sometimes myself too, your whole job revolves around heat. So you got to stay strong and fix your mistakes if you burn something and overcome them by remaking it on the fly.
To conclude and be quite honest, a job as a cook that I had really doesn’t have to do much with my future goals as an engineer. The main result to my experience as and cook and what I want to get out of it is experience in the kitchen. This job placement will increase my skills in the future when I have to cook for myself and also a family of mine.
My regular shift would always start at around 3:00- 5:30 pm as I was considered night kitchen staff. When I arrive every day I have to do the last prep of the afternoon to get ready for the dinner rush that will later come. I was generally situated at the “sauté” side of the line which in other words is the frying pan side. So when on that station, I have to physically and mentally prep myself for the night. Mentally prepped meaning I have to know the specials for the evening or on the fresh sheet and know any of the changes to the menu which is all informed to me by the Chef or Sues Chef. To be physically prepared I have to go over all my stock and back stock for all my appetizers and entrees listed on the menu or on special. When it came time that I the dinner rush comes alone, it’s go time. I am cooking nonstop for 4 hours sometimes in a rush things such as clam pastas to delicious mushroom risotto. When I am working on cooking for 5 tables at once I am making many quick decisions while I am multitasking with other things such as communicating with the servers on custom orders.
During my experience working I have developed and applied many strong employability skills. I have taken those skills and also applied them to my daily life when off of work. I find during work communication is key, having good communication skills makes working so much easier and less stressful. I’m a cook at a restaurant and the way the kitchen works is we get a bill printed and all cooks get a copy to have in front of them. Some dishes take longer and some are shorter. Communicating with timing and descriptions on when to start and finish bills is the key to success. That’s why I strive to communicate to the best of my ability when ordered or when I need to do so. Another transferable skill I have would be the ability to be adaptable. As a cook I can be working alone or together with 2 other employees on a certain task, therefore I have to be adaptive to others opinions and prospective on the way they cook to get the best outcome. In a regular shift I always encounter problems and issues. In which I have to apply my adaptable skills to overcome problems and preform at my best. My last skill that means most to be is Work Safety, the fact that I am only 17 years of age and I am working in a dangerous kitchen with a bunch of post-secondary trained professionals that are significantly older than me; I have to look out for myself most of the time. Most of the most dangerous tasks done in a kitchen are done alone; it’s just the way it works. I work with 700 degree ovens and boiling hot water every shift that is a constant hazard. I am also around and work with many raw foods that are quite dangerous to the human body through cross contamination. Therefore I have to use self-judgement at all times to know what is save and what’s not to decrease my chance of injury.
During my work experience learnt skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Even though I learnt a lot during school as I stated in my training plan, I also learnt a lot more personal skill over the time of my work experience. I leant the skills of being responsible, managing a task, working with others, being adaptive and being co-operative.
Most people are already “wowed” at the fact that I’m a cook at this level at this age. But not just the title is what “wows” people sometimes. I have had many successes in the duration of working for Hanna’s Lounge and Grill that frankly stun people. In the down times of the season my restaurant tends to host charismas parties that I have to use great management skills with. I have come home with such a wide knowledge of recipes to cook and help cook at home with for my friends and family. And over my almost 2 years working at Hanna’s I have succeeded in many areas which resented in promotions and bonuses.
Overall in the food industry you encounter problems every day, being a cook you are always ready for any difficulties to come in your path to completion. That’s when problem solving skill and being adaptive comes in handy. I accidentally burn food every shift and sometimes myself too, your whole job revolves around heat. So you got to stay strong and fix your mistakes if you burn something and overcome them by remaking it on the fly.
To conclude and be quite honest, a job as a cook that I had really doesn’t have to do much with my future goals as an engineer. The main result to my experience as and cook and what I want to get out of it is experience in the kitchen. This job placement will increase my skills in the future when I have to cook for myself and also a family of mine.
Physical Activity
Accomplishments
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/9/0/17909577/5230520.jpg?201)
In the beginning of my high school years when it came to where I wanted to go after high school I was undecided for the lack of a better term. With that shortage of focus towards post-secondary school I had, the same came with secondary school. I was in average classes in the early stages but when grade 11 came along things got serious. Since then I have pick up my work ethic and challenged myself. In my final semester of high school I am enrolled in Chemistry, Physics and Calculus, making me realize that getting a good career isn’t that easy. I have to try my hardest and put in a lot of my free time into studying all of my courses. To see the success is the best part but even better is to be accepted to universities. It’s basically a form of recognition for your hard work and determination. I being not the most prevalent genius in my classes forces me have to give effort and man hours to keep up which doing so is a great accomplishment, in which so far this year I have been successful at accomplishing this objective.
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/9/0/17909577/6962477.jpg?291)
Not only do I have academic interests, I have my physical activity interests. I’ve been known to be an athletic person since I was a little kid, but later in my teenage I had to pick between a couple sports, hockey, soccer or basketball. So I stuck with hockey. I started playing “AA” tier hockey when I was in grade 9 and since then I have done that same basically every year. I am known to be the fastest kid on my team most of the years and as well as a sniper. Part of playing at the level of tier is the amount of free time you have to sacrifice. During the season we have 3 practices and 2 team workouts a week. This is all not including games in which I am either away on weekends for or busy with at home. By all this I mean, with the busyness that it comes with I have to continue to keep up with school. After I’ve played at this level hockey for the last 5 years I have been successful with achieving good grades still. I’d say I Accomplished something valuable.
![Picture](/uploads/1/7/9/0/17909577/1367209293.png)
This past summer I worked out in my community for Fawdry Homes as a general laborer worker on multi-million dollar homes. I was working 40 hours a week for Fawdry Homes for every week of the summer. Along with that full time job I was working part time as a line cook at Hanna's Lounge and grille around 25 hours per week. Combining to be almost 550 hours worked in that single summer. All so I can save for school and a car for transportation to and from. It also helped me touch on some of the procedures and jobs that go on in the field of construction, which co-insides well with my focus area for post-secondary school. Making this most likely the main achievement of what I've done in my community and school to date.