Young me had it all. He worked 8 hour days, took lunch breaks and had more free time than he knew what to do with. When young me wasn’t feeling so well, he would take the day to recover and watch The Price Is Right. Young me thought he was awesome, but I think young me is an asshole, and not just because he listens to Coldplay (their early stuff was better). Young me is an asshole because he didn’t do what I do almost every day: work for free.
Most days I’m on the schedule for 2pm, but I wouldn’t be caught dead sauntering in exactly on time. Instead, I can be counted on to show up an hour early, even earlier if I’ve got a big list. Sometimes the morning gets away from you (see: pretending to be a writer), and before you know it you’re late for being early, a circumstance only a fellow cook could understand. Some places get around this by putting their cooks on a salary, but ultimately it’s no different. I need to clarify that I’m not asked to start early, I do it to myself. With the hours before service so few and precious, the extra time is a gift, one that is unique in its ability to provide sanity in exchange for sore feet and big huge bags under your eyes.
I hate to say it, but if you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about, you don’t work in a very good restaurant. You may work in a good restaurant, but most certainly not in a very good one.
Remember that episode of Seinfeld where it was deemed that only 5% of the population is dateable? Well, the same could be said about restaurants, but instead of dateable (because you can’t date a restaurant, Jared from Subway) we’ll say workable. Anyways, it works like this: because there are so few options in the field, most cooks are willing to give their left arm to work in a great place. Since it would render them useless as labourers, and only mildly useful as replacement drummers for Def Leppard, they choose instead to give their time. These high level restaurants in turn churn out demanding menus for their cooks/minions to prepare, something the cooks are more than happy to do because it makes them better. If you’re a chef and you’re writing a menu, you must consider both what your team is capable of, and also what they’re willing to do. If you know that they’re going to show up early, you can more or less count on that time and then put them to work accordingly. The extra time means better cooks cooking better food for a happier clientele. According to my calculations this means more better for everyone.
Looking back, I think that young me would have donated some of that tasty free labour if there was reason to. Unfortunately a steam table filled with ready to scoop mashed potatoes and “seasonal vegetables” just doesn’t call for that kind of generousity.
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Line Cook,
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Gotta love it, when the one chef I worked for was writing a menu and going how much free labour we going to get, then realizing not as much the menu changes.
These articles should be compiled and handed out to new cooks at the cooking schools.
Screw Daniel Bouloud’s Letters to a young Chef, your articles are the guide for the practical cook.
Well done chap.
Shit, I stop getting paid around October – how good does that make me?