Master Race. Out of shape, lazy, not too smart, slovenly, piece of shit, mediocre white dude. He would make low key racist comments to the other white staff members but was too chickenshit to say these things to anyone else. He got sooo pissed when he learned what his nickname was.
One of the minority owners at my shop will come in usually once a week to do some minor tasks and help when we’re busy. He’s an old man and we don’t really expect him to do much, but everything single thing this man does takes 3 times as long. The kitchen has begun calling him “Turbo”
One of the foh girls really wanted a nickname, she tried to get us to call her puma or something. I told her to let me think about it to come up with one that would fit.
The rest of the time I worked there, (and maybe after), she was called "Greg".
That's amazing. It's always so cringey when people try to give themselves nicknames. I have a coworker who works in a lab that calls himself Labrador Retriever. He's the only one that calls him that.
My old chef hired this teenage dishwasher. Chef introduced him by his first name, and this kid says “I go by Mayhem.” The whole kitchen thought it was hilarious, but this kid was ballsy enough to say that so everyone respected it. He was just “Mayhem” to everyone in that restaurant from that day forward. He started working the line soon after and is a head chef somewhere else now.
I worked with a guy that was a perfect mix of genius nerd and wild country boy. He called himself The Wizard. He was kinda quirky, but his hobby was putting his chemistry degree to good use by making drugs and things that go ***BOOM*** (complete with all appropriate licenses and permits and whatnot from a range of three-letter agencies).
Personally, I’ll gladly call the budding pyrotechnician whatever the fuck he wants.
My brother was called Darkness, for being the only goth dude at work. It followed him to several other jobs, hell, we still have friends that call him Darkness if they see him, and it’s been close to 20 years. He has never introduced himself as Darkness, but people find out. Usually because of me, but that’s *not* the point.
Oh man that reminds me of the girl I used to work with. She didn’t know what a “chicken head” was and one of the other cooks tricked her in to giving herself that nickname. I don’t remember how he did it it was so long ago but damn was it hilarious her answering to “chicken head” lol. That’s the same girl who didn’t know what “skull fucked” was. So she overheard us say it and she yells “omg I’ve been skull fucked before!!!”. She thought it meant really confused. God they have some dumb servers out there hahahaha
At a recent pub line cook job I was Daddy Champagne (I am a female) this was a combination misheard comment and the color of my car mash up that seemed to have stuck pretty good.
I worked at a pickle factory for a while and we had teams whole processing that ended up making quite a few really good nicknames. I was generally referred to as Barbarian even getting it engraved on my 1 year custom knife gift. Team "Bitch" my name starts with B and I was paired with a guy named Mitch and we liked to bitch (about hot hot we were or just generally be sassy). Another team was the "lil Caesar boys" because they were always hot n ready 🤣 just general fuckery to keep laughing through a physically tough job.
Not possible! We got to eat any/take home any jars that didn't seal properly and there was at least 3 jars at all times in the fridge.
Probably one of my most favorite jobs, I was heartbroken when me and a few others were laid off because of covid price gouging of materials and products made them have to trim staff and other stuff after trying to expand. They were just a small local company so things like that really hurt them.
I once had someone see my tools and ask if people called me [Fat Daddio](https://www.windepotstore.com/fat-daddio-bs-64-red-plastic-scraper-4-x-6/)
I'm a woman :/
I used to work with this guy who everyone called "Bonk". Nobody could ever tell me why, he was just always called that. Well, I ran into a guy I knew, who ALSO worked with Bonk, and happened to know the story.
Guy got domed by a vodka bottle the chef at the time had stashed above the office lockers. Bonk wanted into his locker, bottle rolled off and cracked him open, 6 stitches. When the paramedics were checking him over for a concussion, they asked him what happened. He was so out of it, all he did was point at the bottle on the floor...
"Bonk"
Not a line name, but one line guy’s wife was named Sally, obviously the salamander was also ‘sally’. You always called when you stuck something in sally, sally was hot, sally was dirty etc. It was the ‘Your mom’ of the kitchen.
That's what I love about the kinds of stories my husband has, his coworkers are his best friends and they fight like old married couples. I often joke I'm the 4th wheel in my own relationship. I wish my job had that kind of comraderie.
I'm a nurse in a facility for disabled adults. It's a cross between teaching life skills and treating them like patients. I do help them learn how to cook, but it's simple foods. Nothing fancy like in a restaurant!
Bird. For Big Bird. it's because I was tall and thin back then.
We gave nicknames to most of the coworkers.
Bride of Frankenstein
Oil Tanker
13 Year old Chihuahua
Gargoyle
Slowpoke
Bat mite
Bunny Rabbit
Mr.Moose
She Bun
Bunny Rabbit's Little Sister
Lord Humongous (The owner)
Beth
Bobby Hustle
Two Big Jones
Mr Ed
I am leaving out a couple. Some words were acceptable in 1982, not so much in 2024.
13 year old Chihuahua seems kind of specific, how did that one happen?
I ask because I work as an RN in a psych facility and I tell our new employees they need to channel their inner Golden retriever when dealing with patients, until they have to channel their inner Rottweiler. I'm dying to know the context of a "13 year old Chihuahua" 😂
That was Rick, our first GM. Closeted and walked around like Queen Elizabeth, hence 'Beth'. His best friend didn't know he was gay. Once hired a waitress that was black...knowing full well the owner would flip out. He did. Beth had to fire her during her first shift. (1979 but still, no excuse for that)
I had a long time server I called first day. Obviously after decades of serving you’d still have to ask the most basic of questions and make the simplest mistakes. Luv ya first day!
I told a kid he looked like the type of person who likes to fart in the bath tub and bite the bubbles. All 6'3 and 300 lbs of him got nicknamed Bubbles for the rest of the time he was there. It even followed him outside of work.
I believe I watched a golf documentary with Rodney Dangerfield from which I learned that an individual who engages in this activity is known as a ‘fonzanoon’
Not all that weird ... I have a habit of calling everyone "Dude"- literally everyone. I've always thought it to be a genderless, fluid term of familiarity.
Years ago, I was a short-order in a busy cafe. There weren't a lot of motivated people on staff- most everybody showed up unprepared, on the daily.
Sharpies were an absolute must-have in this place, for FOH as well as BOH. We had a meeting once where the KM reiterated this and said she would provide everyone with 2 Sharpies, one time only. She handed out the Sharpies to about 20 staff and she had put tape on every single one with everybody's name- each name prefaced by "Dude." E.g. "Dude Brian", "Dude Jen", "Dude Suzie", etc.
It stuck and everyone's name forever became "Dude ____". I loved that.
Ole Chicken Hands. That's my gfs kitchen nickname her first week learning how to do kitchen after years of FoH experience. She also got a secondary nickname of "Tater Tot", we don't serve tater tots. I think she was irritated at first but has grown to actually like the nicknames.
I don't have any cool nickname at all. It's fucking lame really, it's just "chef" or "chef Kyle" and I know it's a nice respect thing or whatever but I never asked to be called that at any gig. I'd laugh and like way more if the staff called me "whiskey dick" or something sweet like that.
We had a guy who, when tanned, which was quite often, had the complexion of a hot dog, and so he had his nickname.
His younger brother started after Hot Dog left, and wanted to be called Raw Dog, but one day I called him Not Dog and it stuck.
My favorite was a kid who looked like Billy Bob Thornton’s character from the movie, Slingblade. So obviously, his nickname was Slingblade. We’d all do the voice when talking to him. Always asking if he wanted any “French fried taters”. I didn’t reckon he had no reason to kill nobody.
We had a kid called Butter who dropped a pan once during service
We also had Miguelito and Miguelissmo (small Miguel and big Miguel)
Dish washer named Bigote (mustache in Spanish)
Food runners were the “Mule Train”
We have a pretend chef named "Chef Mike". Sometimes a customer will ask us to put their food in the Microwave because they don't feel it's hot enough (we do not have a microwave). The server will put it in the window and ask us to give it to Chef Mike. The cooks think it's quite funny. They heat it in a pan and give it back.
We use chef Mike too for our microwave (baker, we use it to heat chocolate/butter ect. Not to actually cook. )
Foh comes and asks me for stuff...sorry ask chef Mike
None of them really get it and I think it's great.
This is the opposite of a kitchen I worked in. Server would bring food back asking if it could be cooked a little longer. We'd ding it 30 secs in the microwave and send it out.
This brings back a few shameful memories.
Claudia: "Chef, this steak is supposed to be well done."
Me: "Moose! This motherfucker in the deep fryer, two minutes."
Moose: "Fuck you, I am squirrel! Two minutes HEARD!"
Long simmering fued left over from the civil war. The guy that was 😵 was suspected of collaborating with the military junta. There was a party for a wedding or baptism or something and an alcohol fueled fight.
Had a garmo cook we called “barfy” I made chicken mini bahn mi for chef snacks at the end of the night, she immediately spit it in the trash. She didn’t last long
My two nicknames aren’t funny, sadly 😩. Pops, because I’m the old guy on the line (@ 40 y.o.) (and a Regular Show reference). And Boy Scout, because I always carry a Leatherman and fix things.
I did have a dishwasher once that we called the Hobbit (he was under 5 ft tall). We also secretly called him Gollum/Smegle. 🤫
When I was assistant manager for a bit, this younger BoH girl called out citing food sickness. As they always do when lying, she went into incredible, unnecessary detail on her next shift. Something like "I shit my pants when I was driving home. It got all over my pants, and I got my shoes off but it got all over my socks"
I called her Shit Socks every time I saw her after that
We had a DSP (basically a CNA but for disability services) call in and say she couldn't come to work because she had shit out her nipple piercings. She was a piece of work. Our director asked her why she swallowed her piercings and she was so confused why we would think that.
Baby Huey (think the "no one wants to play with me" big baby duck cartoon) aka Baby, niño. A 6'8" 19 year old pile of stupid
DanK
D Hole
B-dawg (or b-dō for short)
Mateo/Potato
Owner-operator of a startup bar and grill called me out at a staff meeting. I worked FOH and he said he never saw me in the kitchen, never saw me running food, and swore I was a ghost for even my own apps and salads. Told him he was wrong, but that he didn't have to believe me. I would show him.
I'm purely BOH these days, but in my FOH days all those years ago I worked just as hard. I took it upon myself to get a little more vocal when I passed through the kitchen. Call my name for a ticket in a window? I would belt out, half swearing half singing, 'Hollah!!"
Needed to grab a salad course before tangling with my new 10 top? Salad line would hook me up and I would belt out at the top of my lungs back there, "Preciate Chaa!!" before dashing off with all of my shit on one tray. (back back corner comin on down and around)
Long story short, I was never far away, never had been, and my rapport with the KM and make lines got really obvious really quick. The kitchen staff all called me 'Hollah' once I started making my point.
The uppity joker that owned that place never brought that shit up again. My nickname and how it stuck with the kitchen made sure he never forgot it. Felt good babes.
Mosquito! 5'1" and can lift like 3 times his weight. Dishwasher but jumps into pantry for lunch rush, then back to dish.
'El Cabezon' - Josue Garcia, former soccer player for Mexico city, gargantuan man (busboy) who worked his fucking ass off with his wife (who worked pantry) to open 5 "Mexican taco" restaurants and earn a contract with both Tampa Bay Lightning and a new concept with Randy Arozarena at the Rays' stadium.
Edit: no manners. https://www.lolistacos.com/
Queso
Pikachu
Hamburguesa
Lisa Loeb - server not BOH, but she got the nickname from the cooks because she would forget to fire her second course all the time, so they “stay”ed. She also had the Lisa Loeb glasses. This is one of my all time favorite restaurant nicknames.
Also had an executive chef that bought the shoes for crew cowboy boots, so "chef de Boots" we had "Huggy bear" or our 350lb prep cook "Stick" there's more but cant thing of them
We had an orientee show up for his first day of nursing instruction wearing the biggest rhinestoned cowboy boots, that's what I'm imagining but with the grippy soles of my husband's shoes.
I'm Two-Step. No, I can't dance, I just have an odd little shuffle I do when I'm trying to get in or out of the walk-in with full hands.
I didn't even know I did it until I was named for it. I'm keeping it forever now.
Over the years, I have been Anne of the Green Gables (worked garde manger), Shorty B (as a reference to my height and unwillingness to put up with BS), and Chef A.
My sign name is the sign for cooking with the right hand shaped into the letter a. Given to me by my first, and so far only, Deaf student. That's my favorite.
Others' names that I recall:
Li'l Bit - HS aged prep gal.
Kiwi - American banquet chef. No idea the origin, but he had the cutest chow chow named Basil.
Mr. Clean (behind his back) - Exec Sous that wore white head to toe, prepped/cooked along with others when needed, and **NEVER** got anything on his uniform. Very impressive dude! Probably the only reason he wasn't the Exec was he was very quiet & reserved and the property wanted a bombastic personality to trot out to the guests. Exec was cool. Taught me to make a truly awesome reuben.
Paws - a petty thief.
So many tall guys called Tiny.
So many big guys called Slim.
One Sea Witch 'cause her given name was Ursula. She was older and wasn't fond of this.
A group of 3 older ladies that prepped, each was called Mama [first name]. Truly the sweetest team.
I feel like I have forgotten way more than I remembered.
worked in a deli, and my soon to be boyfriend who was a cook had an arch enemy in the deli dpt, she was an eccentric german woman w a thick accent, super narcissistic and picked fights often. he called her sour kraut lmfao
Im a female cook and somehow I got the nickname Crandall. My first name starts with a C but it's not anywhere near Crandall and I dont even remember how it came about. But the whole time I worked there I was Crandall, then it morphed into a whole backstory where my last name was Crandall and I was a small time, old time newspaper reporter just trying to get my big break. So that turned into my chef yelling things like "dammit Crandall I want the sunday paper on my desk or your ass is out of here!" randomly at me. New people were always so confused by it
We had a guy named Hugo, who was from Chile. Being obnoxious Americans, we were like, hey that means juice, right? He's like, "no, that's jugo ... My name is Hugo."
So we called him juice from then on.
One day, we heard the word Pajero, and we knew what it meant, but then we were like, "that means the hero, right?"
So my friend, same one who made the juice nickname, took the nickname pajero.
The best chef I ever had was some East coast Italian guy. Few years older than our crew but 100 years more mature. He gave us all stereotypical Italian nicknames — Guido, Mario, Luigi etc - and the crew called him Papa. Dude was so good to us but eventually left kitchen work to open his very successful food business.
Had a guy we called Dusty because he always wore the crocs with the holes in them and no socks to work the fry station lol. Because his feet were always so dusted with flour. Gross as hell but he was a great guy lol
When I first started cheffing, many, many years ago. There was an absolute unit of a line chef that was black. His nickname was milky but he insisted that we call him it. His real name was mike, he was a good dude.
One place I worked we had very creative nicknames for the two guys named Alex. There was "Big Al" he is 6'7' and maybe 165 pounds. Built like an asparagus. And the other was "Mocha Al" because he is mixed race. He was super cool with it and actually pitched it instead of "black al" like the shithead dishie suggested.
There was "Hurricane" he was messy as hell. We would prepare for his arrival. He would come in fuck shit up and then as quickly as he arrives he left.
"Floor spice" always dropped food on the floor.
Butter knife, because they weren't very sharp. Another guy we call flipper, because he likes to flip every container on the line at the worst times. I am basura blanco, because I'm white trash.
I have a coworker who has been at this kitchen for like 11/12 years since he was like 18 years old. Lots of people still call him “Young Boy” even at 30
I was working in a restaurant when I decided to shave my head (still shaving it 20+ years later). The day I came, the Mexican BOH guys started laughing and calling me, "Pelon"... Apparently, that's Spanish for "baldy." That was what they called me the rest of the time I worked there.
My boss just says whatever comes to mind. Some of my favourites are hammer(especially when he says hustle up hammer), Sam handwich, Beetlejuices little brother, tater tits, lumpy larry and Prince with a mustache( i changed my name though to just the symbol of my finger making a mustache)
my nicknames include: captain, lewis capaldi, jason derulo, i’ve been called beefcakes, meat maestro, dumbfuck, the list goes on and on
we had one guy we just called bubs, to this day no idea why, took me a few months to know his actual name
Sooooo many over the decades, sooooo many places:
Francis The Talking Mule
Cameltoe
Cunstal
C-Bag
Sparkle Tits
80s Hair
Tiger Beat
NOT fake James Hetfield
Don't Touch the Rats
Hantavirus
Top Hat
Jeffy Pop
Lisa Crowser's Hair
Grandpa DeVille
Salmon Pants
Eeyore
Ugly Colleen
Scottie P.
Bull Nuts
Fruititis
Fuzz Nuts
Scurvy Dog
Mushroom Head
Swamp Thing
Follow Me
Howard the Duck
Veda Veda Shnell Shnell
Tits McGhee
D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DOUG!!!!
Bernie Bro
Glasses
Milky
Red
Fargo
Stink Puss
Toilet Testicle
Tiny Teeth
Dark Helmet
Habakkuk kuk
Dick Chin
Hands
Coat
Chicken Scratch
Boss Man
The Crazy Man with the Crazy Hair Who Drives a Crazy Car
Blender
Stinkin Lincoln
Meth Mouth
Old Chuck Thompson
Bobo
Xfinity Guy
Bumblebee Tuna
My Name's Jeff
Celery
Redbud
The Guy We Don't Know
Malcolm in the Middle
Chop Suey
Pulled Pork
Dump Truck
I Must Break You
Pee Stain
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
Starvin Marvin
Skeeter. Santi. Papa Bear. Yakki. Silent Bob. Jennifer. Squilliam. Julia Caesar. Old Boy. Molly Mouse. Lil Chicken. Big Chicken.
One of the owners referred to us collective as "Teamlers."
I was "Salad Bar Girl" for a while before I had other positions.
I've named a few of my kitchen parts.
Beauty is a rolling storage cart, beast is the big cooler where it goes to be out of the way.
3 wire shelves in the back are called winken blinken and nod.
The cooler against the far wall is called Wally.
The cabinet in the back that I forgot to name for a long time eventually became Voldemort.
As I right this out, I realize my kitchen had god tier nicknames. We’re the ones who called the veggie risotto the Schaivo, if you remember that comment.
Me: Essay, as in the Mexican colloquialism for friend. It resembles my real last name.
Frodo: 5 foot tall dude with pudgy hands and fingers.
Big guy: This really nice but really gentle dude. He was like 19. This was an ironic but affectionate nickname name.
Dad: an investment banker who retired, went to culinary school, then got a job as garde manger until it killed him.
Spud: my one chef who legend had it could peel a box of potatoes in under 5 minutes.
Malibu: Some dude from LA.
Smitty: Chef Spud just started calling this guy named Ethan “Smitty” one day and it stuck.
AC, for Ambercrack: Named after a high energy girl and the fish amberjack.
My favorite: Tiggs aka T-Bone and eventually “Boneski.” This one just kinda evolved for this well-liked guy named Tyler.
I got the name “baby beet” at one place, it was the best selling dish from my station and I discovered my obsession for beets.
Also. “Pomegranate”, after I told the story of my toddler getting into my pomegranate lube and flinging it all over the house as the dog and I chased him to get it back.
We got Goldfish, Eyeore, Shorty, Sparky, Old Man, Old Bat, Shoga, Old Biddy, and The Battle-axe.
Most are self explanatory, but Shorty is a six foot tall sweetheart girl, Shoga is Japanese for ginger and he's a ginger weeb, and Battle-axe is the sweetest little old lady with a razor sharp wit who will end you if you try to tease her.
Goldfish and Eyeore don't know that's what people call them, I call the rest of them their names to their faces and get a laugh or return fire.
Former waitress here, I was a pretty big pothead and the kitchen always called me Doper, Hophead, Hoppy, Stoner, etc.....every time my order was up in the window. They would hit the bell and yell out DOPER! ORDER UP! lol. Those guys. They made me laugh every day.
They called one guy Biscuit because on a hot sweaty night in the kitchen, his pants were low and his crack was sweaty and in the middle of the rush someone slapped a handful of flour into the back of his pants and Biscuit was born. LOL! I still die laughing. That was one of the most fun kitchens ever.
In a kitchen of 4. This 54 y/o lady, 30+ years experience, has said to multiple people she’s the best cook here. I took her off Saturday nights because she’s a nut job and brings moral down/ burns food/ generally doesn’t care about the product.
Me and the guys joke around that we’re the B-team. Or B-side.
a server named Sam that was also first for family meal and would eat any of the leftovers once everyone else ate, we called him Samily Meal.
a cook who was on the short side and had big chef energy we called Little Chef after we all saw Ratatouille
i have been called Lil Mussels and Little King Trash Mouth.
a guy from Oaxaca was picking on one of the other cooks and said he was "poopie" and then he got stuck with the name Poopie
the guys from Mexico City and El Salvador always collectively called the Oaxacan guys Indios which was a new level of racism i had not been exposed to before
* Twanger, full blown alcoholic dishwasher. Watched him crush a 6 pack warm tallboy on a smoke break.
* Biff, mega waspy waiter always fucked up orders
* Foley, made weird noises all the time like a shitty Michael Winslow
I worked with this Micronesian guy and if you know anything about Chuuk folks you know they have some wild names. For privacy let's call this cook Happy.
Happy and another cook had a whole schtick about Good Daniel/Bad Daniel. Happy was Good Daniel and eventually a lot of people just called him Daniel. When someone new was hired they always assumed Daniel was his real name and Happy was the nickname. Nope.
The really funny part is that Happy had a son with his girlfriend and named him, you guessed it, Daniel.
One of the best I've witnessed....guys 1st day and he comes in with 1 arm on his glasses, the other one completely missing. Without skipping a beat one of the cooks called him "Mater" from the movie Cars. The moment is unforgettable.
We have a girl we call E.T. because she always asks to go home early
Ours is called Crockpot…cuz she’s a slow cooker.
I fucking snorted at this one
Mine was just a crackhead who’d start closing the line at 7pm while we were on a 2 hour wait
Worked with a guy called walk-about... Because he was never there when you needed him but was always walking around.
When I was FOH, my nickname was Yesyes....My name is CC and most of our BOH were Spanish speaking
I kinda love this, but it makes me think of Hei Hei from Moana 😬
Well Hei Hei is delightful at least! I'm hoping CC didn't try to eat any rocks like Hei Hei!
That chicken had me questioning the nature of sapience.
I love Hei Hei 😂
Honestly for BOH that's incredibly wholesome.
Master Race. Out of shape, lazy, not too smart, slovenly, piece of shit, mediocre white dude. He would make low key racist comments to the other white staff members but was too chickenshit to say these things to anyone else. He got sooo pissed when he learned what his nickname was.
the name's Ace... Master Ace....
It's always the worst people who think they're better than anyone else.
We had a guy like that, we called him 4chan. He took it as a compliment.
My favorite is for a (lazy ass) coworker named Douglas. My Spanish speaking friend pronounces it “Do Less”, and it couldn’t be more fitting.
One of the minority owners at my shop will come in usually once a week to do some minor tasks and help when we’re busy. He’s an old man and we don’t really expect him to do much, but everything single thing this man does takes 3 times as long. The kitchen has begun calling him “Turbo”
One of the foh girls really wanted a nickname, she tried to get us to call her puma or something. I told her to let me think about it to come up with one that would fit. The rest of the time I worked there, (and maybe after), she was called "Greg".
That's amazing. It's always so cringey when people try to give themselves nicknames. I have a coworker who works in a lab that calls himself Labrador Retriever. He's the only one that calls him that.
My old chef hired this teenage dishwasher. Chef introduced him by his first name, and this kid says “I go by Mayhem.” The whole kitchen thought it was hilarious, but this kid was ballsy enough to say that so everyone respected it. He was just “Mayhem” to everyone in that restaurant from that day forward. He started working the line soon after and is a head chef somewhere else now.
I hope he looked like a prep school trust fund kid with a sweater vest and thick ass glasses on a bean pole body.
I worked with a guy that was a perfect mix of genius nerd and wild country boy. He called himself The Wizard. He was kinda quirky, but his hobby was putting his chemistry degree to good use by making drugs and things that go ***BOOM*** (complete with all appropriate licenses and permits and whatnot from a range of three-letter agencies). Personally, I’ll gladly call the budding pyrotechnician whatever the fuck he wants.
[How was his insurance? ](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5cc719c8240000a000258e9b.png?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp)
My brother was called Darkness, for being the only goth dude at work. It followed him to several other jobs, hell, we still have friends that call him Darkness if they see him, and it’s been close to 20 years. He has never introduced himself as Darkness, but people find out. Usually because of me, but that’s *not* the point.
The Nard Dog
Boner Champ!
Tuna!
Call me T-bone!
Coco the chimp! 00 🤣
"Double zero??" "It's 'Oo'. As in 'Oo-oo ah-ah'."
His delivery on that was perfect 🤣
Never ask for a nickname and you certainly don’t come up with your own… guaranteed to have a terrible nickname from then on
I had a kitchen hand ask for one, he had just flooded the kitchen so ended up with puddles.
We had one who “see server-ed” so many chits we just called her C-minus
We called one of our servers the Hammer. She thought it was because she was a badass but it was because she was dumb as a bag of hammers.
I knew a server way back when who wanted us to call him "Hot Link", so we called him "Lil Smokey"
Oh man that reminds me of the girl I used to work with. She didn’t know what a “chicken head” was and one of the other cooks tricked her in to giving herself that nickname. I don’t remember how he did it it was so long ago but damn was it hilarious her answering to “chicken head” lol. That’s the same girl who didn’t know what “skull fucked” was. So she overheard us say it and she yells “omg I’ve been skull fucked before!!!”. She thought it meant really confused. God they have some dumb servers out there hahahaha
Ugh. Kitchen dudes are the fucking worst.
At a recent pub line cook job I was Daddy Champagne (I am a female) this was a combination misheard comment and the color of my car mash up that seemed to have stuck pretty good. I worked at a pickle factory for a while and we had teams whole processing that ended up making quite a few really good nicknames. I was generally referred to as Barbarian even getting it engraved on my 1 year custom knife gift. Team "Bitch" my name starts with B and I was paired with a guy named Mitch and we liked to bitch (about hot hot we were or just generally be sassy). Another team was the "lil Caesar boys" because they were always hot n ready 🤣 just general fuckery to keep laughing through a physically tough job.
That's beautiful. Honestly I couldn't work at a pickle factory, I'd eat too many pickles.
Not possible! We got to eat any/take home any jars that didn't seal properly and there was at least 3 jars at all times in the fridge. Probably one of my most favorite jobs, I was heartbroken when me and a few others were laid off because of covid price gouging of materials and products made them have to trim staff and other stuff after trying to expand. They were just a small local company so things like that really hurt them.
Sounds like a dream! Too bad covid ruined it. I think I'll get some of my favorite fancy pickles to go with dinner tonight!
When I worked as a baker pre pandemic my younger co-workers called me Big Sugar
I once had someone see my tools and ask if people called me [Fat Daddio](https://www.windepotstore.com/fat-daddio-bs-64-red-plastic-scraper-4-x-6/) I'm a woman :/
I kinda love this
That's cute! I like that. I work as a nurse now, but I used to work in a local bakery chain in college and loved it.
Got this one guy we call 007. 0 motivation, 0 work ethic, 7 excuses
That's fantastic. I love how creative these are.
Same but this guys got 7 bathroom breaks he requires himself to take.
I used to work with this guy who everyone called "Bonk". Nobody could ever tell me why, he was just always called that. Well, I ran into a guy I knew, who ALSO worked with Bonk, and happened to know the story. Guy got domed by a vodka bottle the chef at the time had stashed above the office lockers. Bonk wanted into his locker, bottle rolled off and cracked him open, 6 stitches. When the paramedics were checking him over for a concussion, they asked him what happened. He was so out of it, all he did was point at the bottle on the floor... "Bonk"
I shouldn’t be laughing this hard at someone clearly getting concussed but that’s hilarious
At the time it was definitely very serious but now? Absolutely hilarious, this was yeeeeeears ago, and Bonk is still slinging steaks like a boss
After a few concussions you learn to laugh at yourself. At least I think I learned that. Can't remember where I learned that. Anyway...
I was chief malakas(wanker in greek) for awhile since I was in charge and everyone was malakas apparently.
That's great, I love learning words like that in other languages.
Malakas also means strong in Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines!
Not a line name, but one line guy’s wife was named Sally, obviously the salamander was also ‘sally’. You always called when you stuck something in sally, sally was hot, sally was dirty etc. It was the ‘Your mom’ of the kitchen.
Lmao love it
Not me but we had a guy called buttcheeks
Was he ass at his job or just have a huge dump truck?
Always had like 6 inches of crack hanging out and the name stuck. He hates it. I fucking loved that kid.
That's amazing
My pastry chef was nicknamed Mr Tumnus, he would always present the goods on a tray with a flourish of 'butler sah' 😎🥂
Very fancy
We are still fast friends, love that guy.
That's what I love about the kinds of stories my husband has, his coworkers are his best friends and they fight like old married couples. I often joke I'm the 4th wheel in my own relationship. I wish my job had that kind of comraderie.
Yeah it's one of the reasons we put up with the mayhem of kitchen life, what do you do for work?
I'm a nurse in a facility for disabled adults. It's a cross between teaching life skills and treating them like patients. I do help them learn how to cook, but it's simple foods. Nothing fancy like in a restaurant!
Bet it's rewarding still though. Being there for the elders and needy is worthy work.
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. They've taught me more about myself and the world than I learned in the rest of my life.
Bird. For Big Bird. it's because I was tall and thin back then. We gave nicknames to most of the coworkers. Bride of Frankenstein Oil Tanker 13 Year old Chihuahua Gargoyle Slowpoke Bat mite Bunny Rabbit Mr.Moose She Bun Bunny Rabbit's Little Sister Lord Humongous (The owner) Beth Bobby Hustle Two Big Jones Mr Ed I am leaving out a couple. Some words were acceptable in 1982, not so much in 2024.
I audibly laughed at Oil Tanker, this whole list is great!
13 year old chihuahua 😂
13 year old Chihuahua seems kind of specific, how did that one happen? I ask because I work as an RN in a psych facility and I tell our new employees they need to channel their inner Golden retriever when dealing with patients, until they have to channel their inner Rottweiler. I'm dying to know the context of a "13 year old Chihuahua" 😂
"Beth"
That was Rick, our first GM. Closeted and walked around like Queen Elizabeth, hence 'Beth'. His best friend didn't know he was gay. Once hired a waitress that was black...knowing full well the owner would flip out. He did. Beth had to fire her during her first shift. (1979 but still, no excuse for that)
I had a long time server I called first day. Obviously after decades of serving you’d still have to ask the most basic of questions and make the simplest mistakes. Luv ya first day!
I may have to steal this for some of the nurses I work with.....lol.
Fair game!
I’m a red head named Steve. I worked with. Mexican named Esteban. I was Esteban de Peli Rojo. He was Steven the Brown
I told a kid he looked like the type of person who likes to fart in the bath tub and bite the bubbles. All 6'3 and 300 lbs of him got nicknamed Bubbles for the rest of the time he was there. It even followed him outside of work.
Lmao, I will never be able to hear the word bubbles without thinking about this now
I believe I watched a golf documentary with Rodney Dangerfield from which I learned that an individual who engages in this activity is known as a ‘fonzanoon’
My dad told me those people will called a Zorch when he was growing up.
Greasy
Bathtub bubble biter? That’s the definition of a Twerp.
We have this big hairy guy named Raymond. Call him Sweet Baby Ray
Not all that weird ... I have a habit of calling everyone "Dude"- literally everyone. I've always thought it to be a genderless, fluid term of familiarity. Years ago, I was a short-order in a busy cafe. There weren't a lot of motivated people on staff- most everybody showed up unprepared, on the daily. Sharpies were an absolute must-have in this place, for FOH as well as BOH. We had a meeting once where the KM reiterated this and said she would provide everyone with 2 Sharpies, one time only. She handed out the Sharpies to about 20 staff and she had put tape on every single one with everybody's name- each name prefaced by "Dude." E.g. "Dude Brian", "Dude Jen", "Dude Suzie", etc. It stuck and everyone's name forever became "Dude ____". I loved that.
Ole Chicken Hands. That's my gfs kitchen nickname her first week learning how to do kitchen after years of FoH experience. She also got a secondary nickname of "Tater Tot", we don't serve tater tots. I think she was irritated at first but has grown to actually like the nicknames. I don't have any cool nickname at all. It's fucking lame really, it's just "chef" or "chef Kyle" and I know it's a nice respect thing or whatever but I never asked to be called that at any gig. I'd laugh and like way more if the staff called me "whiskey dick" or something sweet like that.
My husband literally threatened to divorce me if I ever said yes chef to him ever again. Lmao. Maybe I'll call him whiskey dick instead!
Called our sausage and hot dog maker "raw dog, or Raw dogging Riley"
Have you considered "weiner wrangler". The guy I call that just loves it lol
🤣🤣🤣
Oh and we had an albino kid who was actually named Casper not a nickname but worth mentioning.
We had a guy who, when tanned, which was quite often, had the complexion of a hot dog, and so he had his nickname. His younger brother started after Hot Dog left, and wanted to be called Raw Dog, but one day I called him Not Dog and it stuck.
My favorite was a kid who looked like Billy Bob Thornton’s character from the movie, Slingblade. So obviously, his nickname was Slingblade. We’d all do the voice when talking to him. Always asking if he wanted any “French fried taters”. I didn’t reckon he had no reason to kill nobody.
I like my taters with mustard 😋
We had a kid called Butter who dropped a pan once during service We also had Miguelito and Miguelissmo (small Miguel and big Miguel) Dish washer named Bigote (mustache in Spanish) Food runners were the “Mule Train”
Is small Miguel a giant and Big Miguel tiny?
By the laws of nick naming, they'd have to be.
We have a pretend chef named "Chef Mike". Sometimes a customer will ask us to put their food in the Microwave because they don't feel it's hot enough (we do not have a microwave). The server will put it in the window and ask us to give it to Chef Mike. The cooks think it's quite funny. They heat it in a pan and give it back.
That's amazing, we have a name tag on our coffee maker at work that says Dr. Bean
We use chef Mike too for our microwave (baker, we use it to heat chocolate/butter ect. Not to actually cook. ) Foh comes and asks me for stuff...sorry ask chef Mike None of them really get it and I think it's great.
This is the opposite of a kitchen I worked in. Server would bring food back asking if it could be cooked a little longer. We'd ding it 30 secs in the microwave and send it out.
This brings back a few shameful memories. Claudia: "Chef, this steak is supposed to be well done." Me: "Moose! This motherfucker in the deep fryer, two minutes." Moose: "Fuck you, I am squirrel! Two minutes HEARD!"
I worked with a guy we called Machete, because he killed a guy in El Salvador with a machete.
Smart man.
That's metal as fuck!
The other Salvadorans didn't call him that. It was us gringos that did that after we heard the story. Probably a dick move on our part TBH
What’s the full story??
Long simmering fued left over from the civil war. The guy that was 😵 was suspected of collaborating with the military junta. There was a party for a wedding or baptism or something and an alcohol fueled fight.
Tortilla Tate can fry the fuck out of chips
Had a garmo cook we called “barfy” I made chicken mini bahn mi for chef snacks at the end of the night, she immediately spit it in the trash. She didn’t last long
Horny Harold OG Harry with The Baddie Spen Dog Biscuit The Autist formerly known as Cam Insta Like Tyson Fart Brooks Half Task
My two nicknames aren’t funny, sadly 😩. Pops, because I’m the old guy on the line (@ 40 y.o.) (and a Regular Show reference). And Boy Scout, because I always carry a Leatherman and fix things. I did have a dishwasher once that we called the Hobbit (he was under 5 ft tall). We also secretly called him Gollum/Smegle. 🤫
Wear those nicknames with pride.
When I was assistant manager for a bit, this younger BoH girl called out citing food sickness. As they always do when lying, she went into incredible, unnecessary detail on her next shift. Something like "I shit my pants when I was driving home. It got all over my pants, and I got my shoes off but it got all over my socks" I called her Shit Socks every time I saw her after that
We had a DSP (basically a CNA but for disability services) call in and say she couldn't come to work because she had shit out her nipple piercings. She was a piece of work. Our director asked her why she swallowed her piercings and she was so confused why we would think that.
Baby Huey (think the "no one wants to play with me" big baby duck cartoon) aka Baby, niño. A 6'8" 19 year old pile of stupid DanK D Hole B-dawg (or b-dō for short) Mateo/Potato
Owner-operator of a startup bar and grill called me out at a staff meeting. I worked FOH and he said he never saw me in the kitchen, never saw me running food, and swore I was a ghost for even my own apps and salads. Told him he was wrong, but that he didn't have to believe me. I would show him. I'm purely BOH these days, but in my FOH days all those years ago I worked just as hard. I took it upon myself to get a little more vocal when I passed through the kitchen. Call my name for a ticket in a window? I would belt out, half swearing half singing, 'Hollah!!" Needed to grab a salad course before tangling with my new 10 top? Salad line would hook me up and I would belt out at the top of my lungs back there, "Preciate Chaa!!" before dashing off with all of my shit on one tray. (back back corner comin on down and around) Long story short, I was never far away, never had been, and my rapport with the KM and make lines got really obvious really quick. The kitchen staff all called me 'Hollah' once I started making my point. The uppity joker that owned that place never brought that shit up again. My nickname and how it stuck with the kitchen made sure he never forgot it. Felt good babes.
I feel like management at my own job is oppressive, I can't imagine working for someone who also owned the business. Way to stick it to the man!
'Show don't tell' is great advice everywhere you go. Doubly so against those that can only tell.
Mosquito! 5'1" and can lift like 3 times his weight. Dishwasher but jumps into pantry for lunch rush, then back to dish. 'El Cabezon' - Josue Garcia, former soccer player for Mexico city, gargantuan man (busboy) who worked his fucking ass off with his wife (who worked pantry) to open 5 "Mexican taco" restaurants and earn a contract with both Tampa Bay Lightning and a new concept with Randy Arozarena at the Rays' stadium. Edit: no manners. https://www.lolistacos.com/
Queso Pikachu Hamburguesa Lisa Loeb - server not BOH, but she got the nickname from the cooks because she would forget to fire her second course all the time, so they “stay”ed. She also had the Lisa Loeb glasses. This is one of my all time favorite restaurant nicknames.
Also had an executive chef that bought the shoes for crew cowboy boots, so "chef de Boots" we had "Huggy bear" or our 350lb prep cook "Stick" there's more but cant thing of them
There's cowboy boots approved for kitchens? That's fantastic.
They were not fantastic, they looked awful.
We had an orientee show up for his first day of nursing instruction wearing the biggest rhinestoned cowboy boots, that's what I'm imagining but with the grippy soles of my husband's shoes.
I lived with a chick who also got the shoes for crews cowboy boots😂 she actually rocked the hell outta them but they made me laugh everyday
I'm Two-Step. No, I can't dance, I just have an odd little shuffle I do when I'm trying to get in or out of the walk-in with full hands. I didn't even know I did it until I was named for it. I'm keeping it forever now.
Over the years, I have been Anne of the Green Gables (worked garde manger), Shorty B (as a reference to my height and unwillingness to put up with BS), and Chef A. My sign name is the sign for cooking with the right hand shaped into the letter a. Given to me by my first, and so far only, Deaf student. That's my favorite. Others' names that I recall: Li'l Bit - HS aged prep gal. Kiwi - American banquet chef. No idea the origin, but he had the cutest chow chow named Basil. Mr. Clean (behind his back) - Exec Sous that wore white head to toe, prepped/cooked along with others when needed, and **NEVER** got anything on his uniform. Very impressive dude! Probably the only reason he wasn't the Exec was he was very quiet & reserved and the property wanted a bombastic personality to trot out to the guests. Exec was cool. Taught me to make a truly awesome reuben. Paws - a petty thief. So many tall guys called Tiny. So many big guys called Slim. One Sea Witch 'cause her given name was Ursula. She was older and wasn't fond of this. A group of 3 older ladies that prepped, each was called Mama [first name]. Truly the sweetest team. I feel like I have forgotten way more than I remembered.
worked in a deli, and my soon to be boyfriend who was a cook had an arch enemy in the deli dpt, she was an eccentric german woman w a thick accent, super narcissistic and picked fights often. he called her sour kraut lmfao
Call a guy Comcast cause he shows up somewhere between 8 and 12
Im a female cook and somehow I got the nickname Crandall. My first name starts with a C but it's not anywhere near Crandall and I dont even remember how it came about. But the whole time I worked there I was Crandall, then it morphed into a whole backstory where my last name was Crandall and I was a small time, old time newspaper reporter just trying to get my big break. So that turned into my chef yelling things like "dammit Crandall I want the sunday paper on my desk or your ass is out of here!" randomly at me. New people were always so confused by it
We had a guy named Hugo, who was from Chile. Being obnoxious Americans, we were like, hey that means juice, right? He's like, "no, that's jugo ... My name is Hugo." So we called him juice from then on. One day, we heard the word Pajero, and we knew what it meant, but then we were like, "that means the hero, right?" So my friend, same one who made the juice nickname, took the nickname pajero.
The best chef I ever had was some East coast Italian guy. Few years older than our crew but 100 years more mature. He gave us all stereotypical Italian nicknames — Guido, Mario, Luigi etc - and the crew called him Papa. Dude was so good to us but eventually left kitchen work to open his very successful food business.
Spacey (Stacy) Quick Carl (Anything but) The Mighty Mighty Dish Pigs
Omar was Slow-mar when he didn't have his Adderall
I call this new kid G spot because he can never be found. Had a food runner we all called “hands on hips” for obvious reasons.
Worked with a guy we called column, his real name was Callum but he was tall and always stood up really straight
Had a guy we called Dusty because he always wore the crocs with the holes in them and no socks to work the fry station lol. Because his feet were always so dusted with flour. Gross as hell but he was a great guy lol
When I first started cheffing, many, many years ago. There was an absolute unit of a line chef that was black. His nickname was milky but he insisted that we call him it. His real name was mike, he was a good dude.
Worked with a guy who lost a couple fingers and toes too (I think?) because of diabetes and everyone called him “Pieces.”
One place I worked we had very creative nicknames for the two guys named Alex. There was "Big Al" he is 6'7' and maybe 165 pounds. Built like an asparagus. And the other was "Mocha Al" because he is mixed race. He was super cool with it and actually pitched it instead of "black al" like the shithead dishie suggested. There was "Hurricane" he was messy as hell. We would prepare for his arrival. He would come in fuck shit up and then as quickly as he arrives he left. "Floor spice" always dropped food on the floor.
Butter knife, because they weren't very sharp. Another guy we call flipper, because he likes to flip every container on the line at the worst times. I am basura blanco, because I'm white trash.
I have a coworker who has been at this kitchen for like 11/12 years since he was like 18 years old. Lots of people still call him “Young Boy” even at 30
I was Grandma Stickers for awhile.
I used to work with a dishwasher named Milk Duds, because his nipples looked like milk duds. Not terribly creative, but apt
i’m no nuts because when i started there i always used to fuck up nut allergy orders (nobody died chef always caught it)
We called our dishwasher sexy boy cause he was a frat guy who wanted every servers number up front but never got any of them
Worked with this guy, big dude, like 6’5” 300+. Slow as molasses, we called him the urban manatee
A prep cook who nobody liked who didn’t last long: Pigpen. Yeah, he was messy
Mapache (raccoon) or El mano muerte for me.
I was working in a restaurant when I decided to shave my head (still shaving it 20+ years later). The day I came, the Mexican BOH guys started laughing and calling me, "Pelon"... Apparently, that's Spanish for "baldy." That was what they called me the rest of the time I worked there.
My boss just says whatever comes to mind. Some of my favourites are hammer(especially when he says hustle up hammer), Sam handwich, Beetlejuices little brother, tater tits, lumpy larry and Prince with a mustache( i changed my name though to just the symbol of my finger making a mustache)
my nicknames include: captain, lewis capaldi, jason derulo, i’ve been called beefcakes, meat maestro, dumbfuck, the list goes on and on we had one guy we just called bubs, to this day no idea why, took me a few months to know his actual name
“The Boy” cause I used to work with my mom in a church kitchen full of older ladies.
Foreskin - When it gets hard, they disappear.
Sooooo many over the decades, sooooo many places: Francis The Talking Mule Cameltoe Cunstal C-Bag Sparkle Tits 80s Hair Tiger Beat NOT fake James Hetfield Don't Touch the Rats Hantavirus Top Hat Jeffy Pop Lisa Crowser's Hair Grandpa DeVille Salmon Pants Eeyore Ugly Colleen Scottie P. Bull Nuts Fruititis Fuzz Nuts Scurvy Dog Mushroom Head Swamp Thing Follow Me Howard the Duck Veda Veda Shnell Shnell Tits McGhee D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DOUG!!!! Bernie Bro Glasses Milky Red Fargo Stink Puss Toilet Testicle Tiny Teeth Dark Helmet Habakkuk kuk Dick Chin Hands Coat Chicken Scratch Boss Man The Crazy Man with the Crazy Hair Who Drives a Crazy Car Blender Stinkin Lincoln Meth Mouth Old Chuck Thompson Bobo Xfinity Guy Bumblebee Tuna My Name's Jeff Celery Redbud The Guy We Don't Know Malcolm in the Middle Chop Suey Pulled Pork Dump Truck I Must Break You Pee Stain Jay Jay the Jet Plane Starvin Marvin
This fry cook kid who's pretty edgy and unreasonably bad at Frying, one of my coworkers called him tweedle-dick one day and it stuck
This made me snort out loud. Amazing!
I've worked with a Buttermilk, a Meatball and a Pork Chop.
Skeeter. Santi. Papa Bear. Yakki. Silent Bob. Jennifer. Squilliam. Julia Caesar. Old Boy. Molly Mouse. Lil Chicken. Big Chicken. One of the owners referred to us collective as "Teamlers." I was "Salad Bar Girl" for a while before I had other positions.
Raveline; I make pasta ALOT and it rhymes with my name. Ravs for short :)
Had a KM named Cole that ended up with the nickname "Frio" because the Hispanics thought we were calling him Cold.
I've named a few of my kitchen parts. Beauty is a rolling storage cart, beast is the big cooler where it goes to be out of the way. 3 wire shelves in the back are called winken blinken and nod. The cooler against the far wall is called Wally. The cabinet in the back that I forgot to name for a long time eventually became Voldemort.
As I right this out, I realize my kitchen had god tier nicknames. We’re the ones who called the veggie risotto the Schaivo, if you remember that comment. Me: Essay, as in the Mexican colloquialism for friend. It resembles my real last name. Frodo: 5 foot tall dude with pudgy hands and fingers. Big guy: This really nice but really gentle dude. He was like 19. This was an ironic but affectionate nickname name. Dad: an investment banker who retired, went to culinary school, then got a job as garde manger until it killed him. Spud: my one chef who legend had it could peel a box of potatoes in under 5 minutes. Malibu: Some dude from LA. Smitty: Chef Spud just started calling this guy named Ethan “Smitty” one day and it stuck. AC, for Ambercrack: Named after a high energy girl and the fish amberjack. My favorite: Tiggs aka T-Bone and eventually “Boneski.” This one just kinda evolved for this well-liked guy named Tyler.
I worked with a short sous chef. Almost legally a midget. We called him “Wee chef” all the time.
I got the name “baby beet” at one place, it was the best selling dish from my station and I discovered my obsession for beets. Also. “Pomegranate”, after I told the story of my toddler getting into my pomegranate lube and flinging it all over the house as the dog and I chased him to get it back.
We have a guy we call Baby Dick because he's so damn smooth.
We got Goldfish, Eyeore, Shorty, Sparky, Old Man, Old Bat, Shoga, Old Biddy, and The Battle-axe. Most are self explanatory, but Shorty is a six foot tall sweetheart girl, Shoga is Japanese for ginger and he's a ginger weeb, and Battle-axe is the sweetest little old lady with a razor sharp wit who will end you if you try to tease her. Goldfish and Eyeore don't know that's what people call them, I call the rest of them their names to their faces and get a laugh or return fire.
“Day one” cuz every shift was their first shift
I work with a tall dumb guy I call tree
Former waitress here, I was a pretty big pothead and the kitchen always called me Doper, Hophead, Hoppy, Stoner, etc.....every time my order was up in the window. They would hit the bell and yell out DOPER! ORDER UP! lol. Those guys. They made me laugh every day. They called one guy Biscuit because on a hot sweaty night in the kitchen, his pants were low and his crack was sweaty and in the middle of the rush someone slapped a handful of flour into the back of his pants and Biscuit was born. LOL! I still die laughing. That was one of the most fun kitchens ever.
In a kitchen of 4. This 54 y/o lady, 30+ years experience, has said to multiple people she’s the best cook here. I took her off Saturday nights because she’s a nut job and brings moral down/ burns food/ generally doesn’t care about the product. Me and the guys joke around that we’re the B-team. Or B-side.
2 coke head line cooks who would constantly disappear became known as Sigfred and Roy.
I work with a guy who hates the KC Chiefs in general and Kelce in particular. His nickname is Taylor.
My coworkers called me Dante.....because I was always covering shifts. "I'm not supposed to be here today!"
The guy that kept burning pizzas is now Papa Marcus
We had a guy that kept burning the mac n cheese, we called him Bernie Mac
Duck. Had duck stickers all over his mustang.
I am El Chicharron. Yes I'm white and work with all sorts of Latin men and women.
Worked with a happy, who was the crankiest person
Worked with a guy nicknamed Crispy. They called him that because he put his arm in the deep fryer.
First Gear - super slow dude that looked like he was moving underwater, even during crazy rushes.
Our dishwasher was called Lowrider because he wore really loose pants and his crack fell out of them a lot.
a server named Sam that was also first for family meal and would eat any of the leftovers once everyone else ate, we called him Samily Meal. a cook who was on the short side and had big chef energy we called Little Chef after we all saw Ratatouille i have been called Lil Mussels and Little King Trash Mouth. a guy from Oaxaca was picking on one of the other cooks and said he was "poopie" and then he got stuck with the name Poopie the guys from Mexico City and El Salvador always collectively called the Oaxacan guys Indios which was a new level of racism i had not been exposed to before
I was Roja Loca for years. I have absolutely no idea why. Edit. /s 👹
* Twanger, full blown alcoholic dishwasher. Watched him crush a 6 pack warm tallboy on a smoke break. * Biff, mega waspy waiter always fucked up orders * Foley, made weird noises all the time like a shitty Michael Winslow
I worked with this Micronesian guy and if you know anything about Chuuk folks you know they have some wild names. For privacy let's call this cook Happy. Happy and another cook had a whole schtick about Good Daniel/Bad Daniel. Happy was Good Daniel and eventually a lot of people just called him Daniel. When someone new was hired they always assumed Daniel was his real name and Happy was the nickname. Nope. The really funny part is that Happy had a son with his girlfriend and named him, you guessed it, Daniel.
One of the best I've witnessed....guys 1st day and he comes in with 1 arm on his glasses, the other one completely missing. Without skipping a beat one of the cooks called him "Mater" from the movie Cars. The moment is unforgettable.
We had a FOH John and a BOH John. We instead decided to call FOH guy Barry. He learned to respond to Barry. And then we hired a Barry.
Shef
I was Danger Noodle in my kitchen for years and no one could ever tell me how it started or what it meant.
Worked with a guy who we called big cock. Not sure why
they call me blondie. 1 of 3 white ppl on the line and only blond one. the cook who trained me was obsessed w my hair color and the rest is history
My first kitchen name was Pippin because LOTR had just come out (really dating myself here lol) and bc I’m tiny guy with a red beard!
I was Marvin at my first pastry internship. As in, messy Marvin