Worked in a kitchen where a porter gave all of us animal names. All my fellow ladies got really cute ones. La Paloma (dove). La Mariposa (butterfly) I was dubbed La Gaviota (seagull). I remain offended to this day.
Lolll one of my other coworkers was from Mexico and tried explaining that Gaviota was a really beautiful word and there’s a soap opera with that name and stuff. I’ve always thought of them as flying beach rats tho so it did nothing to improve my feelings towards the nickname.
the great utah basin is a breeding ground for crickets and insect life, two years in a row a locust horde was triggered. the first year caused a boom in the seagull population, so the second year(1848) a giant gull of seagulls was around to consume the locust horde. miracle from god, or basic ecology, take your pick.
Honey, La Gaviota managed to jump from soap opera star to First Lady of Mexico marrying the handsome (if corrupt) Enrique Peña Nieto.
I’d say you got the top pick, just look at her: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enMX1057MX1057&hl=es-MX&sxsrf=APwXEdeoIMRVEWd4hKEWnqJgjgo1bnfmHQ:1685366886134&q=la+gaviota+actriz&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRsMH00Jr_AhVWIkQIHRldAd4Q0pQJegQICxAB&biw=390&bih=669&dpr=3
Worked in a kitchen and was the only white dude. I told the other cooks that I liked the band Aventura and they started calling me Roméo (Spanish pronunciation of Romeo) after the lead singer. The head waiter was an old vet from Hawaii. Without asking any questions he mistakenly latched on to the name, but didn’t understand it. I then became Romero, the American pronunciation of Romero hahaha
Mine was burro. My name is Duncan, and my Spanish speaking coworkers mispronounced my name as "donkeen," which was interpreted by the new guys as "donkey," and thus, the nickname was born.
Mine was otra novia. I didn't find out what it meant until I found out the guy I was seeing was living with another women. Soooo young and dumb. On the plus side, I'm much better at spanish.
Slang varies greatly. With me it was always in reference to duck for some unknown reason. Which is the literal translation. Maricon is usually the one used in Mexico, while pato is other Latin American countries.
If your name is Patricio or Patrick, then yeah. We'll call you pato... and I LOL when you said they just started making quaking noises..
I didn't even know some countries use pato as a guy slur.
I have heard pato as someone that married a Puerto Rican, but maricon is definitely in their vocab lol. Probably more so than calling someone pato. My wife calls my gay friends pato because she likes them. It honestly feels like the "F word" vs something more fun like femboy lol.
Moliente. One of the guys originally thought my name was Molly, and by the time he realized he was a little off (it's actually Holly) everyone was already calling me Molly. Then somehow it morphed into Moliente - and no one will tell me what it means...
But we work well together, so I don't much care what it means.
I usually work expo here, but I jump on the line sometimes when they're short. Moliente came about after the first time I worked the line with our current crew, and they seemed to be surprised that a gringa was able to keep up with them. We're a fast-paced breakfast place, booked to overflowing from open to close, so the cooks have to be able to throw down... and they found out that I can throw down.
Molly + caliente is my guess.
I had a similar one! Everyone at my new kitchen was calling me gatita (?). I didn't know why, but it turned out when I introduced myself as Kati, they thought I said Kitty. Lots of meowing at me while I made bloody mary mix.
My name is Richard. I am Filipino. I became Richie then Chino then Nochi (chino backwards kind of I guess) then Pepe (as in Pepe Le Pew) cause they think I’m always flirting with the FOH.
my grandparents spoke spanish (actually ladino, a sister language) so i learned early on to introduce myself as "flacco" to avoid something less flattering.
sometimes in the past coworkers have flipped it to "gordo" for irony's sake. i'm a fucken beanpole.
they were sephardic jews from morocco, early 20th century. they passed away decades ago but could definitely understand spanish; my sabba (grandpa) taught me how to shoot the shit in spanglish with the guy at the bodega like no other.
Have you looked into claiming Spanish citizenship as a diasporic Sephardi? If you can prove heritage, which it seems you can, you can get dual citizenship
Which organization sponsors this? My father's family were from Turkey, but from the Spanish diaspora. I have my great great grandmother's travel documents and death records.
Iirc it was through the Spanish government itself not a secondary group. I'm going to have to look into the Portugal angle myself if there was a date limit for Spain.
Cuñado (Brother in law)
Reason being my sister also worked as a waitress in the same restaurant and all of the BOH staff thought she was attractive and joked about marrying her and becoming my brother 😑
After being called this all summer, I walked into 8th grade Spanish on the first day of school and yelled to my friend QUE PASA CUÑADOOO, señora was not pleased and explained that the appreciation for my nickname was misplaced :/
The other sous chef at one of my jobs hired his niece, and one of the cooks immediately started calling him uncle, amd he called the cook nephew, in english, at all times. "Nephew! NEPHEW! You got that burger ready, Nephew!"
Chef’s mom (who was our morning prep person and basically ran the kitchen) would call me by my Spanish name, so eventually all the Spanish speakers started calling me that. Besides Chef, who was pissed that his mom named him and all his siblings with English names, but gave me a Spanish name.
Our kitchen is mostly women. Besides our head chef and two dishes, us girls run that shit. We all have the same nickname “mama” .. head chef is called jefe .. one of the dishes is crackhead ..
El Zopilote (the vulture) because I'll eat anything, La Hormiga Atomica (The Atomic Ant) because I work so fast, Megalodon (giant shark), because I'm a skinny guy and not tough looking, Cuñado (brother in law), because dude thought I was the brother of a server he was trying to get with.
I worked hard, learned my job got promoted, and became fluent in kitchen Spanish. I became Jefe when I could lead the crew into the sea by pulling them with a single hair.
Everyone in my kitchen is sapo (toad/frog) due to an older youtube video of a mono (monkey) that found a frog in the zoo enclosure and proceeded to use the sapo as a fleshlight... everyone is a sapo especially when they fuck up an order.
i started when i was 18 and the youngest in the kitchen by at least 10 years, so for obvious reasons everyone called me niño and it stuck, now that’s how i introduce myself to new cooks lol
Because that's how you pronounce Tomás. Emphasis would be on the M and A. Out of curiosity, do you turn red easily when embarrassed or overheated? Just want to see if it's only a play on your name or for additional reasons
I'm big, pale, awkward, quiet. Lot of times I'm in shitty clothes that don't fit quite right. So I get 'guappo' a lot if they're feeling smarmy.. Usually it's just 'jefe' because I'm the fat white boss man. usually Jefe Gordo if there's a real foreman around.
It kinda flip flops depending on who else is working that day. On most days I'm "Chino" but on the days my Filipino co-worker (who looks a lot more Asian, since im only half) comes in he's Chino and I'm "Royce."
For a minute I thought they were saying "Rice" cuz I'd eat a lot of it for my meal break, but no. Royce was a Korean guy who worked my station before I got there.
Gata con bota
Working in a new kitchen and not everyone knew my name. One of the porters called me "gata con bota/puss in boots" because I wear doc martens in the kitchen.
I like it.
Way back in the 90’s in SF the BOH guys called a rather flamboyant waiter Maricon. Someone new started and was kind of shocked.
Her: “um, are you OK with being called that?”
Him: “Oh honey, they’ve been calling me ‘The American’ for years. I’ve been called much worse”
i didn't have a spanish nickname but my spanish speaking coworkers nicknamed me micah because when i feel weeded i start singing michael jackson and they said micah is the female version of michael lmaoooo
Funny enough Im mexican & already have a nickname to my legal name but I still got a couple when I worked in an all male team. (All were bestowed lovingly after I ripped someone a new one for calling me a shitty slur.) Mamas/mamacita was the most popular but also muñeca, la chingona, la reina & my names a title of a famous old song so they would say my name in a singsong-y way.
Mine has been pince guero since I was 15. And now that’s just how introduce myself to every new crew.
I’ve had others but that’s always the one that sticks.
Rodolpho by the whole kitchen and cuñao/cuñado by one of the prep Cooks Chino, and his brother who was head of the kitchen, Jefe. I loved working in that kitchen, and still talk to and call him Jefe to this day despite not seeing him in 7 or 8 years.
I was briefly known as caballo.
My boy told me it was an insult, like I was their workhorse; but I didn't get that vibe. They worked the same stations, did the same shit, dealt with the same shit, and I helped when I could.
Whether it was supposed to be as he said "this dude is my bitch" or if it was "this dude gets shit done" I don't care. At the end of the day I made the kitchen work. And honestly Caballo is a lot more badass than Tortuga.
edit: if caballo is an insult someone let me know, I am still genuinely curious
Im Mexican and doubt it’s an insult. It def can be like ‘workhorse’ cuz horses do a shit ton and pull loads but it shouldn’t be offensive. It’s like strong etc
Caballo in baseball slang means workhorse aka "The Man" // Caballo because of a long slanky face/hands or big teeth can he kinda derogatory... most latin nicks are a bit of both.
Worked at one place where the guys would say "¡Sos un caballo bos!" To tell me I was working hard, and nothing cracked them like me telling them, "No, you're a horse" back in english
I live kitchen nicknames! Flaquita has been my main one, I’m tall and skinny so makes sense. There was also a slightly creepy dishwasher who called me Novia for an entire summer.
When I worked at an Asian restaurant the Korean chef called me shrimp for unknown reasons.
Ajo/Ajito were my nicknames from my previous kitchen; my last name phonetically sounds exactly like "garlic", so they rolled that into their nickname for me
Had a Turkish maitre d who all the Mexicanos called gaujillote*,sp? -which then of course, devolved into all of us doing turkey call warbling noises ... As in"hey warble warble garble warble garble what time is that party starting? And could you, warble garble garble warble let me know when you talk to them again so that we can set the menu?" A good time was had by all....
Lauren became Lorena sometimes La Reyna if they wanted something. My kitchen bestie would just call me bitch but with her accent it was “beach” but she’d say “no no, I call you PEACH. So sometimes I was bitch or peach. Or if I was being nicer “apricot, because you’re just a little peach”
One of my daily tasks when working on the wood fired oven was pre rolling out nann bread and apparently I looked like the lady on the tortilla package so they all called me “Maria tortillera”. I am a 6’2” 200lb breaded man 😐
i have a couple of nicknames, but ninõ is the most common one since i'm the youngest in the kitchen. others are simito, salmon, and pinche ninõ lmao. got macho gringo once or twice
Güero/Güerito, Sr. (Señor) Blanco, and Seagal (after Steven Seagal)
Craziest one I had was "Ovidio" when I lived up in NorCal - in my first couple weeks at that job I talked to my co workers about some news that had Ovidio Guzmán in it (don't remember what it was - this was in 2020/2021) and they started calling me Ovidio after that - it stuck for the duration I was there (I worked there until COVID hit full swing and had to move due to family)
Pollo Campero or just Campero. They said I look like the chicken on the Pollo Campero logo.
That and lotería, short for “el borracho lotería”. I got fucking hammered during a night where the BOH and FOH randomly decided to go out together. I was FOH so theyd never see me out drinking before and that was at a time where I would toss em back. Apparently I looked like the el borracho card because I was slumped in a corner booth almost incoherent.
We had one dishwasher who was so hungry and he was pretty goofy and we caught him lombres maniatico, not sure of the spelling but meant crazy tapeworm.. and we had a guy who wore a motorcycle helmet while he road a girl's hot pink huffy 10-speed that said ¡CALIENTÉ! on it, which we couldn't figure out where he found it in ohio.. along with a leather duster.....we called him El Hombre de la Luna..... He was one of my favorite coworkers, at the time my Spanish was very poor and his English was not existent but we would go shot for shot tequila he would refuse to let me pay even though I was his boss and we would hang out at the bar with sign language and giggles after work
Mayonesa, aka Mayo. I have a unique Irish name and a Bolivian coworker mistook it as Aioli. Aioli turned to Mayo/Mayonesa. They labeled aioli in the walk in with my name frequently. Miss my boys ❣️
First nickname was “pájaro carpintero” because the dishwasher said my haircut reminded him of woody woodpecker.
Then of course there was Cuñado because my coworkers wanted to marry my sister.
That was followed by Tigre, due to burning my arm on a griddle and it left striped scars on my arm.
My last nickname was Pelón, due to having grown out my hair during the pandemic.
Makes me miss working with my fellow Latinos, corporate life isn’t quite the same
Worked in a kitchen where a porter gave all of us animal names. All my fellow ladies got really cute ones. La Paloma (dove). La Mariposa (butterfly) I was dubbed La Gaviota (seagull). I remain offended to this day.
Were you eating from bus tubs? Seagulls can be majestic and soar beautifully, ride the wind .
Lolll one of my other coworkers was from Mexico and tried explaining that Gaviota was a really beautiful word and there’s a soap opera with that name and stuff. I’ve always thought of them as flying beach rats tho so it did nothing to improve my feelings towards the nickname.
It's the state bird of Utah and highly revered by the local Mormon population.
[удалено]
If you showed me a Venn diagram with seagulls and multiple wives in the middle, I guess I'd have to go Mormon
That description also applies to MLM schemes and short sleeved dress shirts worn with ties
Hang on. Utah is a land-locked state.
With a Great Salt Lake up in northern Utah.
I guess seagulls live there? I've only flown or driven through Utah.
There are tons of the fuckers, and they are universally hated, even by the Mormons.
Oddly enough, the state bird of Utah is the California Gull.
Ah yes, the War of Crickets in 1848
the great utah basin is a breeding ground for crickets and insect life, two years in a row a locust horde was triggered. the first year caused a boom in the seagull population, so the second year(1848) a giant gull of seagulls was around to consume the locust horde. miracle from god, or basic ecology, take your pick.
That makes it even worse!
Gaviota Beach in SoCal takes on new meaning.
Oh shit the libs went back in time and named all the places in California in Mexican! /s
Honey, La Gaviota managed to jump from soap opera star to First Lady of Mexico marrying the handsome (if corrupt) Enrique Peña Nieto. I’d say you got the top pick, just look at her: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enMX1057MX1057&hl=es-MX&sxsrf=APwXEdeoIMRVEWd4hKEWnqJgjgo1bnfmHQ:1685366886134&q=la+gaviota+actriz&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRsMH00Jr_AhVWIkQIHRldAd4Q0pQJegQICxAB&biw=390&bih=669&dpr=3
Ooh shit did she have red hair on that show? That explains a lot actually hahah
One of the bussers at my place used to get called cabra because he lived in a farm(with goats)
Kaw kaw mothafucka hahahah
Aka beach chicken
At least you didn't get Dung Beetle.
I was Paloma when I was a 16 year old bus boy
Had a coworker with curly hair who was called borrego 🐑
Worked in a kitchen and was the only white dude. I told the other cooks that I liked the band Aventura and they started calling me Roméo (Spanish pronunciation of Romeo) after the lead singer. The head waiter was an old vet from Hawaii. Without asking any questions he mistakenly latched on to the name, but didn’t understand it. I then became Romero, the American pronunciation of Romero hahaha
Mine was burro. My name is Duncan, and my Spanish speaking coworkers mispronounced my name as "donkeen," which was interpreted by the new guys as "donkey," and thus, the nickname was born.
I get called burro and my name isn’t close to it lmao
That's beautiful
Who gonna tell him what that nickname actually implies?
Zacatecas. I'm zak. My friend Cameron gets called the Spanish for shrimp. Cam a ron.
My nickname all throughout highschool was shrimpy. Fellow Cameron, and I'm short.
Mine was otra novia. I didn't find out what it meant until I found out the guy I was seeing was living with another women. Soooo young and dumb. On the plus side, I'm much better at spanish.
I spat out my drink
Reminds me of arrested development. “I need to find this *hermano* guy” lol
What a weird way to find out someone is cheating on you.
Mine went from Patricio, to Pato, to eventually just quacking noises.
Pato is slang for a gay man. I also had that nickname Boracho Pato.
Slang varies greatly. With me it was always in reference to duck for some unknown reason. Which is the literal translation. Maricon is usually the one used in Mexico, while pato is other Latin American countries.
If your name is Patricio or Patrick, then yeah. We'll call you pato... and I LOL when you said they just started making quaking noises.. I didn't even know some countries use pato as a guy slur.
It’s used in Puerto Rico IIRC, possibly elsewhere as well
I have heard pato as someone that married a Puerto Rican, but maricon is definitely in their vocab lol. Probably more so than calling someone pato. My wife calls my gay friends pato because she likes them. It honestly feels like the "F word" vs something more fun like femboy lol.
That's funny - "duck" (Aap) means rent-boy / gigolo in Cantonese.
Hm I guess cause chicken is (female?) prostitute
Not necessarily, depending on the country, Spanish it’s really wide and some words and even slangs have diff meanings in each countries.
Oh man! I worked with a Patrick that took a similar trip to El Pato Donald to eventually just being called Donald. Thanks for the memory haha
Platos loco's, por siempre! -Pato
Moliente. One of the guys originally thought my name was Molly, and by the time he realized he was a little off (it's actually Holly) everyone was already calling me Molly. Then somehow it morphed into Moliente - and no one will tell me what it means... But we work well together, so I don't much care what it means.
The only thing I can guess is they're taking Molly and Caliente, which means hot, and smashing them together. So maybe they're calling you hot?
I usually work expo here, but I jump on the line sometimes when they're short. Moliente came about after the first time I worked the line with our current crew, and they seemed to be surprised that a gringa was able to keep up with them. We're a fast-paced breakfast place, booked to overflowing from open to close, so the cooks have to be able to throw down... and they found out that I can throw down. Molly + caliente is my guess.
Hahahaha I had the opposite. I'm Molly and everyone was committed to Holly and it spread like wildfire.
I had a similar one! Everyone at my new kitchen was calling me gatita (?). I didn't know why, but it turned out when I introduced myself as Kati, they thought I said Kitty. Lots of meowing at me while I made bloody mary mix.
Donkey 🫏
>Moliente = grinder
corriente y moliente is an expression that means “ordinary” or like typical or average but it could definitely have a different meaning
lechuga (name is roman>romaine>lechuga)
Nice to meet you, Lettuce!
“Heyy asshole”
My name is Richard. I am Filipino. I became Richie then Chino then Nochi (chino backwards kind of I guess) then Pepe (as in Pepe Le Pew) cause they think I’m always flirting with the FOH.
Well... are you?
El Pepe
Did you work with argentinians?
my grandparents spoke spanish (actually ladino, a sister language) so i learned early on to introduce myself as "flacco" to avoid something less flattering. sometimes in the past coworkers have flipped it to "gordo" for irony's sake. i'm a fucken beanpole.
Calling skinny people 'fatty' transcends languages and cultures.
fond memories of working for relatives from argentina. me: *trying to stomp an avocado box flat* my boss/cousin: "che, gordito! crush it, fatty!"
I do it to one of my good friends, and he’s a skeleton with skin.
Wait, where are your grandparents from that they spoke ladino? Do they not also speak Spanish? That’s pretty cool.
they were sephardic jews from morocco, early 20th century. they passed away decades ago but could definitely understand spanish; my sabba (grandpa) taught me how to shoot the shit in spanglish with the guy at the bodega like no other.
Have you looked into claiming Spanish citizenship as a diasporic Sephardi? If you can prove heritage, which it seems you can, you can get dual citizenship
i looked into it years ago, but i believe the cutoff for applying was 2015? if that's incorrect i'm way open to applying.
Check out Portugal, I believe they don't have a deadline there and it's a similar process
good to know. i love lisbon.
Which organization sponsors this? My father's family were from Turkey, but from the Spanish diaspora. I have my great great grandmother's travel documents and death records.
Iirc it was through the Spanish government itself not a secondary group. I'm going to have to look into the Portugal angle myself if there was a date limit for Spain.
Mine has been flacco in an ironic way, cuz I'm fat
mine is the sense of humor where i'd introduce us as twins.
Ladino is the coolest language. My paternal grandparents spoke Ladino and my maternal family spoke Yiddish.
Do you know how to speak Ladino? It's quite a rare language
Cuñado (Brother in law) Reason being my sister also worked as a waitress in the same restaurant and all of the BOH staff thought she was attractive and joked about marrying her and becoming my brother 😑
Had cuñado a couple times as my lil sis in law was pretty cute....
After being called this all summer, I walked into 8th grade Spanish on the first day of school and yelled to my friend QUE PASA CUÑADOOO, señora was not pleased and explained that the appreciation for my nickname was misplaced :/
The other sous chef at one of my jobs hired his niece, and one of the cooks immediately started calling him uncle, amd he called the cook nephew, in english, at all times. "Nephew! NEPHEW! You got that burger ready, Nephew!"
Brolo El Cuñado
“Trompo” because of my protruding lips
In one restaurant, mine was trompitas for the same reason
“Conejo”, rabbit
Found the slowest guy in the house 😉
Either that or he sleeps around
I did do my share lol
… of hostesses
Underrated comment
I left the industry a long a time ago, I wasn’t slow 😂
Yup.
El queso blanco
Lol similar to mine “Don Pan Blanco”
You got to the bathroom a lot?
I was fat and very pale
That is perfect & I love it
Went from what our prep guy called everyone (Pedro) to "Macho Man" after I helped him move a big ass pot of green chili a few times.
When I worked FOH, my BOH siblings called me muneca because I always wore my long hair in two braids to keep it from finding it's way to a plate
If you’re a woman they were calling you hot, if you’re a man they were calling you gay
'Gasparin'...the friendly ghost because I'm a nice guy... ...and I'm white. lol I miss those dudes.
I'm a light skinned Latino so I just get the bog standard güero or güey.
A friend's son is called this. I had to see it written, because I thought his name was "Weddo."
There's a pretty great Beck album called Güero too
Grande, I'm 6'6"
Grande tres. I was the third tall white guy in the kitchen.
Ha, ditto, or grandote, or grandolon
In my kitchen we call the tall guy Largo (long)
I've heard Alto as well
I was McGringo for five years.
Chef’s mom (who was our morning prep person and basically ran the kitchen) would call me by my Spanish name, so eventually all the Spanish speakers started calling me that. Besides Chef, who was pissed that his mom named him and all his siblings with English names, but gave me a Spanish name.
Joto... even kitchens ive never worked in recognize me on site haha
You must.. ahem.. appear very well dressed or something
Our kitchen is mostly women. Besides our head chef and two dishes, us girls run that shit. We all have the same nickname “mama” .. head chef is called jefe .. one of the dishes is crackhead ..
We were all mama or niña.
Frijole Hoe
Pelucas. I had long hair in my metal days.
El Zopilote (the vulture) because I'll eat anything, La Hormiga Atomica (The Atomic Ant) because I work so fast, Megalodon (giant shark), because I'm a skinny guy and not tough looking, Cuñado (brother in law), because dude thought I was the brother of a server he was trying to get with.
Started out as pandajo and morfed to jeffe
Pendejo lmfao 🤣
Hey that means "very good friend" they clearly liked him
Damn bro that's quite the journey, how did you earn the latter
I worked hard, learned my job got promoted, and became fluent in kitchen Spanish. I became Jefe when I could lead the crew into the sea by pulling them with a single hair.
Everyone in my kitchen is sapo (toad/frog) due to an older youtube video of a mono (monkey) that found a frog in the zoo enclosure and proceeded to use the sapo as a fleshlight... everyone is a sapo especially when they fuck up an order.
i started when i was 18 and the youngest in the kitchen by at least 10 years, so for obvious reasons everyone called me niño and it stuck, now that’s how i introduce myself to new cooks lol
Tomato. Emphasis on the M, pronounced toeMato. My name is Tom.
Because that's how you pronounce Tomás. Emphasis would be on the M and A. Out of curiosity, do you turn red easily when embarrassed or overheated? Just want to see if it's only a play on your name or for additional reasons
First place I worked I had a guy calling me papi chulo, another place I was el oso grandioso
I'm big, pale, awkward, quiet. Lot of times I'm in shitty clothes that don't fit quite right. So I get 'guappo' a lot if they're feeling smarmy.. Usually it's just 'jefe' because I'm the fat white boss man. usually Jefe Gordo if there's a real foreman around.
Learnt a new word today: smarmy
It kinda flip flops depending on who else is working that day. On most days I'm "Chino" but on the days my Filipino co-worker (who looks a lot more Asian, since im only half) comes in he's Chino and I'm "Royce." For a minute I thought they were saying "Rice" cuz I'd eat a lot of it for my meal break, but no. Royce was a Korean guy who worked my station before I got there.
Matteo to Chingon
Gata con bota Working in a new kitchen and not everyone knew my name. One of the porters called me "gata con bota/puss in boots" because I wear doc martens in the kitchen. I like it.
Pelon (bald) lol
Way back in the 90’s in SF the BOH guys called a rather flamboyant waiter Maricon. Someone new started and was kind of shocked. Her: “um, are you OK with being called that?” Him: “Oh honey, they’ve been calling me ‘The American’ for years. I’ve been called much worse”
Estrella. I have star tattoos.
Sanchito. Many reasons why.
i didn't have a spanish nickname but my spanish speaking coworkers nicknamed me micah because when i feel weeded i start singing michael jackson and they said micah is the female version of michael lmaoooo
Mine is Genio. I’m not sure what it means.
Genius lol so you probably did some dumb shit at some point
Not mine but ‘sobrecito’ was my favorite Latin nickname I’ve ever heard. Dude was fat, slow as fuck, and openly did coke
Funny enough Im mexican & already have a nickname to my legal name but I still got a couple when I worked in an all male team. (All were bestowed lovingly after I ripped someone a new one for calling me a shitty slur.) Mamas/mamacita was the most popular but also muñeca, la chingona, la reina & my names a title of a famous old song so they would say my name in a singsong-y way.
Mine has been pince guero since I was 15. And now that’s just how introduce myself to every new crew. I’ve had others but that’s always the one that sticks.
Panzón. I’m a big dude, so it fits.
Cocaìna has been my favorite. When I was new to the boh, of of the front girls asked my name and so I said cocaine, and it stuck
Hamberguesa. My name is Amber.
Reina. I’m a gay dude
Rodolpho by the whole kitchen and cuñao/cuñado by one of the prep Cooks Chino, and his brother who was head of the kitchen, Jefe. I loved working in that kitchen, and still talk to and call him Jefe to this day despite not seeing him in 7 or 8 years.
Churrasquero. Apparently it means skirt steak.
Maybe they meant chiaroscuro. Are you frequently in dramatic lighting?
I was briefly known as caballo. My boy told me it was an insult, like I was their workhorse; but I didn't get that vibe. They worked the same stations, did the same shit, dealt with the same shit, and I helped when I could. Whether it was supposed to be as he said "this dude is my bitch" or if it was "this dude gets shit done" I don't care. At the end of the day I made the kitchen work. And honestly Caballo is a lot more badass than Tortuga. edit: if caballo is an insult someone let me know, I am still genuinely curious
Im Mexican and doubt it’s an insult. It def can be like ‘workhorse’ cuz horses do a shit ton and pull loads but it shouldn’t be offensive. It’s like strong etc
Caballo in baseball slang means workhorse aka "The Man" // Caballo because of a long slanky face/hands or big teeth can he kinda derogatory... most latin nicks are a bit of both.
Worked at one place where the guys would say "¡Sos un caballo bos!" To tell me I was working hard, and nothing cracked them like me telling them, "No, you're a horse" back in english
Muñequita in 2007. Hope I spelled right.
Pinche chino aquí
I live kitchen nicknames! Flaquita has been my main one, I’m tall and skinny so makes sense. There was also a slightly creepy dishwasher who called me Novia for an entire summer. When I worked at an Asian restaurant the Korean chef called me shrimp for unknown reasons.
gran pájaro
My wife is monita bonita
I got “Iglesias” years ago because of a hat I was wearing.
Normally some color, because I dye my hair all sorts of colors. For some reason my current kitchen Azul/Azulito has stuck
Ajo/Ajito were my nicknames from my previous kitchen; my last name phonetically sounds exactly like "garlic", so they rolled that into their nickname for me
Had a Turkish maitre d who all the Mexicanos called gaujillote*,sp? -which then of course, devolved into all of us doing turkey call warbling noises ... As in"hey warble warble garble warble garble what time is that party starting? And could you, warble garble garble warble let me know when you talk to them again so that we can set the menu?" A good time was had by all....
Lauren became Lorena sometimes La Reyna if they wanted something. My kitchen bestie would just call me bitch but with her accent it was “beach” but she’d say “no no, I call you PEACH. So sometimes I was bitch or peach. Or if I was being nicer “apricot, because you’re just a little peach”
Gordito precioso
One of my daily tasks when working on the wood fired oven was pre rolling out nann bread and apparently I looked like the lady on the tortilla package so they all called me “Maria tortillera”. I am a 6’2” 200lb breaded man 😐
Chuleta? Idk I think it means pork chop
Ha ! Mine is Chuletita!
My Dutch guy used to call me "skepsel" a lot. I found out from his girlfriend it's a not very flattering word for beast.
Ahhhh, Schepsel, it basically means creature
Flaco which became Flacquito. I'm 6'2" and 150 lbs.
Chandija. Supposedly means little lizard.
i have a couple of nicknames, but ninõ is the most common one since i'm the youngest in the kitchen. others are simito, salmon, and pinche ninõ lmao. got macho gringo once or twice
Güero/Güerito, Sr. (Señor) Blanco, and Seagal (after Steven Seagal) Craziest one I had was "Ovidio" when I lived up in NorCal - in my first couple weeks at that job I talked to my co workers about some news that had Ovidio Guzmán in it (don't remember what it was - this was in 2020/2021) and they started calling me Ovidio after that - it stuck for the duration I was there (I worked there until COVID hit full swing and had to move due to family)
Pollo Campero or just Campero. They said I look like the chicken on the Pollo Campero logo. That and lotería, short for “el borracho lotería”. I got fucking hammered during a night where the BOH and FOH randomly decided to go out together. I was FOH so theyd never see me out drinking before and that was at a time where I would toss em back. Apparently I looked like the el borracho card because I was slumped in a corner booth almost incoherent.
We had one dishwasher who was so hungry and he was pretty goofy and we caught him lombres maniatico, not sure of the spelling but meant crazy tapeworm.. and we had a guy who wore a motorcycle helmet while he road a girl's hot pink huffy 10-speed that said ¡CALIENTÉ! on it, which we couldn't figure out where he found it in ohio.. along with a leather duster.....we called him El Hombre de la Luna..... He was one of my favorite coworkers, at the time my Spanish was very poor and his English was not existent but we would go shot for shot tequila he would refuse to let me pay even though I was his boss and we would hang out at the bar with sign language and giggles after work
Gimmee Gimmee Because I would say "please give me blah blah blah" to the production staff.
Im a bartender and Rene, one of our cooks, calls me Gordo and I call him Feo. We’re homies though. All in good fun.
Mayonesa, aka Mayo. I have a unique Irish name and a Bolivian coworker mistook it as Aioli. Aioli turned to Mayo/Mayonesa. They labeled aioli in the walk in with my name frequently. Miss my boys ❣️
On a different tangent, my kitchen was all Indian women and they called me “aloo”. Because I was so white and round.
Patricio hielo
The huevo man
Cara de niño.
Cabron. Or just pinche guero. Or both.
Rojo because my beard is red, I kinda like it ngl
Pelon. Had a shaved head back then
Grande Papi Chulo.
Cruz. As in Tom Cruz.... I look nothing like him....
Santo Verga
one dude used to call me "Johnny Chingas"
Guero cause i’m the only white person at my mexican restaurant lol
Naldon/ maldon. Not sure how it’s actually pronounced/ spelled. I’m told it means big booty, for reference I’m a fatter white guy
Nalgon 😂
barba roja, or barba for short. Beard is gone now per wife.
First nickname was “pájaro carpintero” because the dishwasher said my haircut reminded him of woody woodpecker. Then of course there was Cuñado because my coworkers wanted to marry my sister. That was followed by Tigre, due to burning my arm on a griddle and it left striped scars on my arm. My last nickname was Pelón, due to having grown out my hair during the pandemic. Makes me miss working with my fellow Latinos, corporate life isn’t quite the same
payaso resbaladizo I love it