No Respect
I have a love/hate relationship with praise and on some level I think everybody does. Being raised in a somewhat conservative background, I have come to believe that I shouldn't showboat (surprising that I'm a bit of a cocky bastard that likes, at times, to showboat), that actions and, in the end, the final product speaks for themselves. Having praise given to me for something that's already my job is something that just rolls off me, especially the kind of praise that's perfunctory. Just shut up and run the damn food.It's a complicated issue. When I work my station, I know that already I'm better than a good portion of the cooks there, and if I keep working to ingrain some good habits, I will be better than all of the cooks there. Self-satisfaction is a good motivator, but only up to a point. Praise comes in a number of forms, be it money, a friendly word, or some sort of in-house compensation system. Where I currently work, people get rewards points for doing a good job for a customer, be it seen by a supervisor or mentioned by name in a letter from a customer. That's great for the front of the house staff, who get face time with customers, but what about us back of the house trolls that never see the light of day? I never get anything for doing a special order for a customer, even when that item isn't on the fucking menu. It's ridiculous. Me and my fellow cook pushed out a thirteen top today in 12 minutes. Server? Extra gratuity on top of the house cut. Me and my fellow cook? Not even a fucking thank you. The server? Breaks $700 in sales today, gets a free martini. Me and my fellow cook? Nothing.
We actually had a conversation about this with one of the managers today. In the time that me and my fellow cook have worked there, we have never received anything from the in-house compensation system. And yet, the people who benefit the most, front of the house, get all of the gravy. Which sucks considering I'm just starting off and have made a massive shift in salary (I'm currently making 35% of my previous salary in the IT world).
So it's interesting to seeing the hoopla around Thomas Keller's announcement that he is going to be adding a flat service charge to Per Se's pricing and splitting the proceeds between front of the house and back of the house. About fucking time. Very few restaurants in the USA have any sort of system in place to share money between back of the house and front of the house. Front of the house and back of the house are both there to do the same thing: serve the customer. But why in the hell should font of the house keep all of the reward? Yes, they are the ones that deal with the customers, but we're the ones that cook the food, we're the ones that have to actually cook those special requests, and they're dependent on us for getting the food right and out in a timely manner.
But I was warned about the fact that this industry is unfair, that it doesn't make sense, and you'd better be prepared for it. I am. And I'll still show up to do my job. And enjoy it. But it doesn't mean that I'm giving up my perogative to bitch about it.
In the end, one of the servers that I work with has the right idea. If a customer has a special request, is particularly freakish about something, or sees that we in the back of the house are directly responsible for a tip she's getting, she comes back and hands us some cash. It's an extra beer at the bar, but I won't say no to a free beer.
Wait, scratch that. I earned that money. That's my beer. And that's praise enough.
7 Comments:
The never ending discussion about the sales the floor staff does, not to mention the tip. At some restaurants here in sweden, the servers can live on their tip and save the money, meanwhile the kitchen gets zero. And I totaly agree that it sucks when the kitchen not even get a thank you for doing that xtra order that made "the" sale for the evening.
No wonder why we have nicknames for servers... hrm..!
I do too, but they're unfit to post here :D
I've been checking out your blog, and it's cool, but...I'm a cook, and I also changed careers to get into kitchens, and I've also worked in Seattle, in the ONE AND ONLY restaurant in that city that cooks food worth eating (and it sure as hell ain't Lampreia, Rover's or Union-figure it out), and I've got a little advice for you. Unless you plan on spending the rest of your useful career in Seattle, dealing with the Seattle food scene, you need to get the hell out of that little town. The bad habits that you're picking up in whatever hackhouse you're slinging in are going to KILL you in any other environment. Seattle is a little amusement park unto itself, where all of the residents have consented to support each other's ridiculous "realities". "Oh, Seattle has a great food scene!" Hah. "A fifteen hour day is exceptional!" Oh, sir. "I can cook and have time to dance and blog!" Oh, boy oh, boy.
Read Kitchen Confidential again. Then pack up that kit and move your ass to NY, and suffer for your craft.
Or relinquish your claims to credibility right now.
First, the world operates in shades of gray, not black and white. The whole world doesn't revolve around NYC, even if you think so.
Second, I understand the nature of Seattle's food scene. It ain't the greatest. One of the best in the world is just three hours away in Portland, but I'm here because I love this town. I traveled all over the country in my previous job and the only real place that spoke to me was here. I took my quality of life over other aspects and I make no apologies for that. If you like NYC, bully for you, but not everybody does. There are two types of people in the world: those that love NYC and those that don't. I happen to be one of the latter. I personally love the food, but hate the lifestyle and I know what I'll tolerate. I'm not an ultra-urban person, never will be. And as much as I admire what's going on in the NYC food scene, I'll never live there. It's just a compromise I won't make for myself. I understand that being in the Seattle scene limits my chance of one day running a Michelin 3-star caliber restaurant, but you know what? I don't want a Michelin 3-star caliber restaurant. The more I work, the more I come to hate pretentions of food like that. I have come to realize more and more that I would love to run a place like my original favorite restaurant, Cafe Mira, a nice, upscale classy restaurant. White linen, with interesting, but honest food. I've imprinted that image on me and that's what I want. And there's no shame in that.
Third, I have my own habits that are independent of the standards of the place that I work and every day I work to make sure that my food is consistent and the best that's coming out into front of the house. It's something that my chef has noticed and encouraged. He trusts me to do things right and I won't violate that trust.
Fourth, what ever I do on my own time is my business. And you might not think so, but the skills that I learn as an organizer in the dance community are skills that I definitely will need later on in life. Leadership, team-building, organization, negotiations, living up to your commitments, and on and on. It's a way for me to take more responsibility now for something that I can't do otherwise. I'm actually accelerating my learning curve on some of these items so that when I get to apply them in the industry, I have a heads up. Some would consider that smart. And others would consider it healthy. And apparently if you have enough time to read my blog, then you have extra time on your hands and aren't sacrificing enough for your career as you think I should.
And as much as I identify with my craft, I also understand that I do not want to end up being an exec the rest of my life. This is simply a learning experience for me, one that will take me on to my next stage in the restaurant industry.
I don't claim to know everything about the industry, I just claim to know what I see.
Oh, and one last thing ... anonymous comments like this are for cowards. If you want to post a comment again, you'll have to register.
Y'know, I'd like to see anonymous identify himself and then provide a detailed list of all the bad habits that he -- just from reading your blog -- knows you've acquired in Seattle. Sheesh.
That said, excellent post, and I agree on the tip issue, having seen how much it can corrupt certain servers I work with into selfish, evil people who treat the line cooks like crap.
I'm curious about your Portland comment. I'm from Portland originally, but I didn't spend any time in the restaurant scene there so I know nothing of its reputation. Can you direct me toward write-ups or specific restaurants that give Portland its "world class" rep? I suppose I want to know what I missed. :-)
re: Portland as world class. Nothing write-up worthy that I can remember. Just some facts that I have gathered ... Portland is producing some serious food. Portland consistently produces Beard nominees, they have a great focus on local and seasonal ingredient sourcing, and they've got a strong foodie scene that doesn't tolerate bad food (think experiments like ripe).
That it's a small town, with these elements together, makes for a vibrant food scene, where locals go out and enjoy eating. And you see it in nominations, travelouges, etc (one recent show on the Splendid Table kept going on and on about how the food reviewers just love going to Portland and how the town doesn't get enough respect).
These people have a bit of a trend right now with gourmet hot dog stands ... that says something to me, something about how serious they are about their food, to the point where they cultivate a gourmet taste for even the most mundane of foods.
Chefs in Seattle sometimes talk almost reverently about the food scene in Portland and how they would love to be able to have that kind of love of food here. As it is, many of the restaurants in Seattle are beholden to a tourist/unsophisticated palate. It's what I like to term the "salmon" phenomenon. Wherever you go, you always seem to see salmon on the menu. Whenver you poll a professional cook, quite often they'll tell you they hate salmon (I take my salmon like my tuna - raw, otherwise it's cat food). Salmon is a tourist fish. When you fix that problem, you'll have a more interesting food scene here.
Belated thanks for your reply. Interesting that we never heard any of the buzz about Portland while there, but my husband was too busy in culinary school and -- as I'm sure you know -- most culinary students can't afford to eat at any of the higher end restaurants they'd like to work at.
I've read about Ripe, but I find them so pretentious that I don't think I'd want to go there even if the food were considered world class. I don't pay any attention to nominations or travelogues -- I suppose that's an oversight on my part, but that end of things just doesn't hold my interest much.
Post a Comment
<< Home