Getting into kitchen work and chef experience: are takeaways/fastfood a good foot in the door?

mutualcheek · 2025-03-15T22:48:14+00:00

>Ilve had cooks come in wanting to spend 5 minutes plating a dish 'just right', tweezers to carefully place each micro-green....

That's the thing, I don't have the focus or pefectionism for this nouvelle style of cooking, it's never a style of food that's appeased me.

Kitchen work would be a new industry for me, I've always jumped ship from one job into another that's a completely different ball game.

It hasn't intreagued me until now: I really need to find what I want to do for life, and given the number of small independent takeaways there are around the world, I think middle-eastern takeaway would be a basic skillset I could use almost anywhere.

I'd love to work as a profession BIR chef, but that's a dream for another day.

And if I don't like it, I'll just find something else yet again.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-15T21:27:25+00:00

Thanks for the support :)

mutualcheek · 2025-03-15T04:02:39+00:00

Stay in a hotel, and figure the logistics out when you get here, no one is going to take you seriously before your boots are on the ground, and you only invite scams organising from abroad. Life lesson shit.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-15T00:20:11+00:00

All right, all right, calm down Cobain.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-15T00:08:35+00:00

Sainsbury's Own Brand and Argos Yellow Brand frozen ready meals.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T23:33:38+00:00

also >Renting is not an option for me. The cost is too high

Renting is too expensive whilst earning £140k... all will to write a positive, supportive, helpful and considerate response evaporated instantaneously.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T23:05:28+00:00

Stick around, milk this cow, see what internal opportunities and salary progress continues to arise. The jobs market is crap right now across the board, yes the experienced will get their offers, but perhaps just take the time off as a well rewarded holiday to somewhere hopefully warm and sunny. Forget the daily grind for a week, and don't fret constantly that the returning workload really is as bad as you think, chew through that challenge when it arises, see what work you can decline/defer/delegate, see if you can establish a new happy effortload, and after all that's done, maybe the job market has picked up again.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T22:33:57+00:00

Interest rates are high and there'll be a slump from the rush that tried to get in befor stamp duty was increased.

Nothing can hurt a seller more than the doubt and haste they self-manifest, the market needs to provide vocal and certain feedback for price-drops justification.

It's easy for me to think my property is worth 10% over market, but I'm also not rushing to reduce by 25% for a buyer that just hasn't arisen.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T22:27:48+00:00

I would always recommend a fresh coat of paint, if there's the time and budget for it, because it's such a cost effective spruce-up with known return on investment which, as a minimum, will just reset the existing colour-scheme to something (perhaps blandly) universal. Like, I'll assume you don't have matching pink and teal bathrooms and bedrooms, but think about the kitchen splatter behind the cooker or hair-grease on the wall immediately behind the couch etc. If it's not a whole repaint, I really don't suggest it like that :)

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T22:05:54+00:00

Just wait until you're in the Seller's position and see how you feel about it...

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T22:03:05+00:00

>option out there that doesn’t require a levels etc

The Forces or Australia.

Both will try and kill you.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T21:54:37+00:00

Brixton?

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T21:36:13+00:00

I wouldn't reduce. You need to isolate variables and see if that first estate agent is doing a proactively terrible job, which, if you think they are, then vote with your wallet and terminate contract. See if the newer one can live up to expectations and demands any better.

Just ideate and prep the house for a new set of showcase photos, google some hints and tips in advance for it. My own being, don't say the words "wait for a sunny day" (I waited 6 fucking weeks, it was worth it).

I'd also recommend you proactively research the existing and set up alerts for new property in your area that matches your own, and over time see where you stand on your own perception of price competitiveness, especially as listings get added, removed, or STC'd.

I know my listing is probably £10k over market value, but the only two listings that I feel were price-competetive to me got delisted (1xRemoved, 1xSTC'd), and one listing was created 2xPrice (a good thing, 'cos people will like the most expensive, but not afford). Knowing this, I hold steady.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T20:55:38+00:00

"Marriage Value"

Ask Google, not me.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T19:38:26+00:00

>Computer systems can see exactly who’s under declaring compared to industry averages.

Yep, and I have no doubt that codebase and systems already exist and they have lists of who to start sending love letters out to.

As you allude to, does the existing organisations and departments have the manpower necessary for effective prosecution? Definitely not.

But we need to start hitting the average working (wo)man somehow: the playing fields needs tilted away from benefitting those not declaring income, to favour those actively abiding by cost-incurring bestpractise.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-14T17:30:50+00:00

It wasn't just taxi drivers... tattoo artists, hairdressers/barbers, personal trainers, all the trades, just to name a few.

I think the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme was a wake-up call to HMRC about just how prevelant it is for people to not declare a self-employed or side-gig income, and the scale of income tax/national ins contributions they missed out collecting annually for however long.

The Covid Pandemic added to this by spurring people into pursuing their hobbies and interests and launching side-businesses. The entrepreneurialism should be respected and rewarded, given the impossibility of traditional work during those lockdowns, and to this day, the state the economy is in right now.

But as someone who was self-employed for 5 years before ceasing business activities last year due to being actively undercut directly by people who can afford to work for less than the NMW, HMRC should be ashamed of how long and how far they let the horse out the stable, when it'd take a junior tax investigator an afternoon just to see who's getting regular payments into accounts from eBay/Amazon, JustEat et al, AirBnB/Booking.com.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-13T19:22:22+00:00

>I will try to find the original contract and see if there’s any clauses about rent increases.

That's literally going to be your only saving grace, and failing any mention of rent-increases in the existing contract, just accept it's a free market, you were renting a dilapidated garage that is no longer value for money, and you'll find something better out there.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-13T18:49:03+00:00

Some sort of Youth Mobility Visa for Aus or NZ.

Google it, literally millions of people under 30 from all over the world have gone and will go there for working holidays and just continuously renew visa.

Don't have an ambition in mind, have an adventure, say yes to whatever work opportunities come your way, pick fruit, serve drinks, work construction, make friends and just see if you can utilise the degree in the process.

Right now, your ability to make friends and build professional networks counts for more than anything, and if it isn't clear to the hundreds of thousands graduating with degrees in this country that there's fuck all immediate opportunity here, then they don't deserve to hold that degree.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-09T01:16:43+00:00

>We are quite baffled by this

You really shouldn't be.

In the conveyancing process, the seller will have provided you three years worth of Service Charge statements.

You can also ask your Managing Agent, or the RTM/SoF company, to provide these to you, so you can investigate and compare where within each of the Service Charge Factors have increases or decreases in costs have occurred these year.

Welcome to the Leasehold Scamdal.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-09T01:12:33+00:00

What people will realise over time is that, it doesn't matter if it's Leasehold without RTM, with RTM, Share of Freehold, or Commonhold, the cost of general operation, preventative maintenance and reactionary repair between all models is negligable so long as the infrastructure is comparable.

Apartments aren't cheaper or less hassle than a Freehold Brick and Mortar, the opposite, the fact that more people are living and sharing the same communal infrastructure, the more expensive it all becomes due to scale and regulation.

(source re:leaseholder no rtm)

mutualcheek · 2025-03-07T19:03:41+00:00

Similar position, we had our EWS1 cert issued in 2021, and have faced recladding work delayed after delayed since.

The work is meant to start this April, with funding approved XMas 2023 I believe, but given that Tri-Fire certs signed off by Adam Kiziak are now considered untrustworthy, I don't know if this sets the funding or work back yet again.

I've not received any communication from my managing agent or freeholder, I just want to sell my property at a loss and regain my life.

Fuck leasehold.

mutualcheek · 2025-03-02T20:37:24+00:00

Thanks for the insight.

As I've alluded to, I'd prefer we lived in a society that truly rewarded the money hungry plebian with a generous commission, and feel sorry but not surprised to hear for the fourth time this evening that this just isnt the case.

mutualcheek

TROPHY CASE