Chapter 4 : Why

THE CHRONICLER OF THE KITCHEN                                         Winter 2008

Mike Campbell

    

WHY – PART 1

WHY -          do culinary federations create a program like “Share Our Strength” to help the less fortunate, but do little to help the people they work with on a daily basis earn a decent wage?

         -         is the customer always right?

-         did anyone ever think that wearing a white paper stovepipe hat, toque, was a good idea

-         is the slowest person in the building always in front of you when you are in a hurry?

-         is the “robo-coupe” never stopped by using the off                         button?

-         is there always lots of pots except the size you need?

-         do people lose their tempers in the kitchen all the time but not get stabbed?

-         do cooks wear white jackets, when they are going to get dirty, greasy, stained, and turn gray no matter what you do?

-         do customers always want something that is not on                        the menu?

-         do servers ask a cook, instead of their manager, how much to “up charge”?

-         do cooks complain about their food getting cold when it is sitting under a heat lamp in a hot kitchen?

                   do cooks have to wear some sort of head covering but servers and food runners do not?

-         do sauté cooks leave all the burners on during their shift and then complain about the heat?

-         do cooks accept promotions that increased their hours by twenty-five (25) percent but their wages by ten (10) percent?

-         do people who are paid by the hour, move fastest at the end of their shift?

-         do cooks do all the cooking but so little of the eating?

-         does management expect a cook to be happy when they are extremely busy? We are paid the same whether we serve five of five hundred?

-         can smokers “go burn one” but non-smokers can’t “take five”?

-         do you have to relay a message to every single server? Can’t they talk to each other?

-         do you get an order for a vegetarian meal from a preplanned party?

-         should it be necessary for so many cooks to have two jobs?

-         do so many cooks eat standing up in the kitchen, when the “family” has time to sit down?

-         CAN’T THEY GET WHAT THEY WANT

I owe, I owe, its off to work I go.

Into THE CAULDRON!

Is tuisce deoch na sceal