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So I didn't see the last post, and I haven't read all the comments, but it's a topic that depends on the situation, imo. If it was a large group of people, I would ask again, because that does eat up a lot of one waitress's time. I dined at a nice little place with a friend a few months back, and it was my second time there (pretty sure the waiters recognized me). I had tipped well the first time, as it was a great experience, and the second time, my friend and I completely miscalculated the tip. My waiter came back around and asked us if everything was ok. It was a bit awkward, but I'm glad he did ask, because he deserved more than the $3 we had somehow managed to leave.

I am surprised that only @Divadog mentioned banana pudding - my, my, how well I remember my first taste in South Carolina - would love a real recipe - up here in Canada one can get banana cream pie, but it cannot touch southern banana pudding.

Also, hush puppies, not the mass produced ones, but the lovely crispy, fluffy ones produced in small restaurants - bliss.

Frogmore stew or Brunswick stew - I have seen it called both, but I have reproduced it in Canada to rave reviews - I had to buy my Old Bay seasoning stateside, though I believe if you shop around in specialty stores you can find it now.

Deep fried okra, biscuits, shrimp & grits - need I go on - our vacations in the South necessitate a great deal of restraint.

I have mentioned before how lucky people in the South are, to have both sweet and non sweet ice tea available at almost every restaurant you enter. There is absolutely nothing nicer than to walk in from the torpid heat and humidity and have a large, cold glass of tea!

If that is the case, I would take classes in a more restaurant management or travel/tourism area.

I think you really need both - school and industry experience. I'm actually going through a similar situation. I made the decision to go into culinary after an 18-year career in marketing. I already have a degree, and paying $20 or $40K was NOT something I wanted to expense again for culinary school.

I found a pretty good program at a local community college - they offer an AAS degree or a certificate in culinary management and also baking/pastry. It's not as immersive as an accredited program, but it's perfect for what I need.

By day I do my marketing job, I go to school once a week, I freelance as a food writer, and when I have pockets of time, I volunteer in the various kitchens where I work.

I realize not everyone works for a major company with multiple kitchens on property, so I would start with friends or relatives that might know someone in the business. Ask if you can shadow the chef a few times to see if it's something you will truly enjoy before enrolling in school.

If that doesn't work out, try approaching the manager of a favorite restaurant. Facebook is a GREAT place to build an address book so-to-speak of culinary contacts. Add chefs you admire to your friends list and send them a message to ask if you can shadow.

Chef2Chef.net has a culinary student blog called The Dish. I write about my experience once a week for them, and there are also about 5 or so other students from various schools, all at various levels, that also write about their culinary school experience.

Do you think you want to work in a restaurant, as a personal chef, catering chef, tester, writer...what's your passion?

I wish you lots of luck!
-Dawn
Eat dinner with your family tonight, I meant i!

An in between option is community college, I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I've found it very difficult to get a 'foot in the door' and my local community college has work experience modules, where one is either assigned, or finds somewhere to do work experience for a semester. The teaching at my college (grossmont) is absolutely awesome for the cost ($20 per unit).

I agree with eatingoutwest- there is more to the foodservice industry than fast-paced, high stress restaurant positions. Can you clarify what area you're interested in, and are you getting a certificate or a full-blown degree?

I did it bass-ackwards- I decided I wanted to be a pastry chef so I enrolled in a community college and started the program while keeping my full time office gig. I never worked in a professional kitchen until I got my internship at a local camp. I still work part time at the camp and still have my office job. I'm waiting for the right foodservice opportunity to come my way and I don't ever want to work in a restaurant. I don't want the stress or the harried pace or a chef screaming at me. So until the right job presents itself I'll continue what I'm doing- the camp job satisfies my soul and the office job pays my bills. Good luck!

Tip is left for service which means full-service, as opposed to self-service, right? Even if the server is not what you want or expect, if he/she walked back and forth so you can just sit at your table, shouldn't the server get the minimum 15% unless there are mistakes on the server's part (not the kitchen's)? We expect so much from servers at restaurants, yet accept lousy service everywhere else.

WOW, I feel seriously misinformed. Although, I always tip good, even when I shouldn't, this is what I thought happened in most restaurants. I thought everyone got minimum wage. I thought all the tips were collected and split between all the staff ie; dishwasher, cook etc. I never thought this was good because, a good server deserves more than a bad server, and this spliting up the tips, to me, didn't seem condusive to make a better server out of some of them. Where did I get this idea? Also, do you as a server have to claim tips, and pay taxes on them? This doesn't seem fair to me either, if it's true. I would love some real answers to these myths.

I find this whole debate rather interesting. I do not think that the tip should be added in to the bill. Traditionally a tip is something extra that is given for good service. Unfortunately too often, it is expected, there is a sense of entitlement to the tip. As a former server, I was initially trained on how to serve properly. It always amazes me when a server never returns to see who the meal was? There are some servers who will only return larger bills instead of breaking down the change. Give and you shall receive. If your performance is outstanding you will be rewarded as such. However I firmly believe that tipping for bad service is akin to rewarding for bad behavior.

Tipping is never optional. A 10% tip is mandated by federal law:
http://bit.ly/C7xKC

Many, many years ago (30 + years) I was on both ends, waitress and patron. At this time in my life most of my friends in Philly owned the 3-5 star restaurant, so I knew a lot about the industry. I’m going to agree that I really does have a lot to do with class. You could almost tell by the way someone was dressed, the over the top shiny knock-off’s that even they do not seem to know are knock-off’s or perhaps thinks that is looks close enough to be the real thing so it’s OK. Your choices are either NO tip or a tip that is so small it can barley be seen. A guy and his girl came into the restaurant looking very shiny and the guy flagged me over he wanted to know why he and his friends were treated so badly in restaurants. I took a look at what he ordered and asked what they planned to tip. He replied “What tip?” So I went and got my current pay stub, in short the guy was appalled that 40 hours of work equaled $23. I explained that the rest of my salary came from tips. He now understood and would also spread the word to his peeps.
On the flip side in the 90’s when tip jars started to show up everywhere, I can see why people no longer tip any more or better said why now people are questioning “tipping” in general. So unlike in the 70’s and 80’s where I think it was more about class now I think it’s because of over kill of the “tip jar”

I work at a nail salon every summer and I absolutely hate working there because I work for tips. I get paid about 5 dollars an hour and I seriously curse people when they tip me less than 15%. I work my butt off, run around like a headless chicken for 11 hours a day, six or seven days a week and I deserve that tip.

Whenever I'm out, I tip minimum 25% if service was bad and 35% if great because I know how hard they must work. Amount of tip should definitely reflect the quality of service but I believe it should start somewhere around 20 because minimum wage is ridiculous as it is.

A lot of people have been asking about tipping in takeout/counter service situations, so I figured I'd offer my 2 cents...

I am a barista at a small sandwich/coffeeshop. We have a tip jar. A lot of people tip; a lot of people do not. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will say this: my wage (while probably $5 more than Hannah's, still makes me a measly $7.25/hour) pays for my rent and utilities (and I don't even live in a particularly expensive city). My tips pay for food and modest fun. And we're talking about 20 bucks a day. So every dollar--hell, every quarter--makes a difference!

As for takeout--our tips are split between the counter, barista, and sandwich-maker--each of whom does the exact same amount of work whether you eat in or take out.

Of course, it's usually my regulars, getting only a drip coffee each morning, who tip the best. Inevitably, the customers who order a fancy espresso drink often can't afford that extra buck. After all, there's a recession on.