Hi chefs,

I started working as a cook a week ago for a five star hotel, and a few things I noticed:

1. 80% of the chefs including the exec sous chef don't really care about cross contamination. Wrong colour cutting board, dirty plates despite them already washed, picking sauces and dip with fingers and didn't wash their hands afterwards, washing hands in prep sink or washing things in handwashing basin, and the one that I felt shocking the most was the sous chef picking up outer layers of lettuce from the bin, saying it fits for staff canteen.
2. Chefs are really not the best people to give instructions, especially the young ones (they happen to be my senior and have to train me). Cutting fruit plate can be interpreted differently in terms of how to place the cut and cut into quarter or half wedges etc. But every time I ask before I begin the task, most of them say just make it look presentable only for them to say that I can do better if doing it this way or that way, but there's not really a standard of doing it. I can understand that they probably wanting to gauge how I do things but it's somewhat annoying if they complaint that I'm being slow on my first day of training if they don't show me how they want me to do things.

My question is, are above common practice? Thanking you all from down under.