re: Who here has worked in a restaurant kitchen? What was fresh/frozen? What was microwaved?

Depends on brand and what it is they are cooking. Steamed veggies usually = microwaved. A lot of things are cooked in batch pre-proportioned and brought up to temp. Lots of brands bring in more technical things premade. Soups, sauces etc...

some seafood was always frozen, stock bones would come frozen, marrow bones, never non seafood proteins, certain specialty goods would come frozen from across the ocean but that's about it... that's from my experiences in fine dining and high end catering.

Microwaves were in every kitchen but outside of an instant sponge cake for some dessert courses, it was never really used for service.

I worked for 40 years in the F&B business

BenniGans, TGI Fridays, Hilton, Sheraton, Del Lago, Godfather's Taco Bell, Butterfield's Doubletree,

I have worked Corporate stores, franchises,
in Management, line cook, kitchen manager
, waiter, bartender, GM, Owner, front of house, back of house and on the Frickin roof!

If you only knew.....

Bottom line, microwave is not bad if used for reheating precooked pasta, infred is superior for pizza and calzones, frozen ff's are better than homemade,
Frozen seafood, no problem, frozen veggies are shite, Latinos are great kitchen workers, Democrats, not so much!
PC MADD means that beverage profits area thing of the past, and waitresses are the salt of the earth!

I'm just sayin

Was a kitchen manager at Pappas Seafood. Damn near everything is made from scratch except the ketchup, salt, and pepper.

Food is always hot and exceptionally good.

I was a waiter for a few years.

Worked at a shitty chain restaurant. Over 50% was frozen and microwaved. They would even microwave steaks if they got behind and finish them off on the grill.

Worked at 2 high quality restaurants after that. Both didn't have microwaves, and barely used frozen foods (no frozen key ingredients or base dishes)

Nothing was frozen where I worked. A few things understandably made beforehand, like twice baked potatoes and soup. For obvious reasons.