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Pearldivers Need Love Too

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I have written about cooks, chefs, and wait staff, but have given no love to those who wash and scrub the dishes and mop the floors. 

So here is an ode to those with dish pan hands.

They come in all different shapes and sizes, all kinds of diverse backgrounds, many don’t stay in one place for a long time, and many use the dish room as a stepping stone onto the cook’s line, but there are individuals who strive to be professional dishwashers.

I know there are some of you out who are unfamiliar with the inner workings of a restaurant (thankfully  you have me to enlighten you), but if you can imagine 8 hours of washing plates, bowls, cups and silverware,  scrubbing pots and pans, washing everything the cook can find in the kitchen,  cleaning the restrooms, bussing tables, spraying down the rubber mats,  vacuuming the floor in the dining room, sweeping and mopping the kitchen, climbing up on the stoves to get the grease filters from the vents, and carrying bus tubs full of dishware all day;  all for minimum wage;  then you just imagined a day that the genius ponders and the insane laments.

They are called by many names-dish dogs, pearl divers, burros, dish rats and sanitation engineers, but whatever moniker we attach to their service, the restaurant, would not run efficiently without them.  They are the back bone of the industry, sometimes working harder and making less than everybody else.  Ask any self respecting chef about their dishwashers, and they will tell you they feed them well and they treat them with love and esteem, because if they walk out- guess who has to do the dishes?

Doing Your Best In Spite of Corporate Interference

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In the environment in which I work, we do our best to serve great food and provide excellent service to our guests, but sometimes problems come up in the service, cuisine or the way the dining room was left from the shift before.

I work in a senior living facility where we take care of senior citizens in an independent, assisted living and memory care environment, and our staff does an excellent job in providing the needs of this unique group of people.  The meals are tasty and well presented; the staff is trained to recognize the specific dietary requests of clientele (i.e. food allergies, sodium, diabetic and mechanically altered diets), serve the food professionally and to clean up and get ready for the next shift or go home.

Pretty simple stuff-prepare the food, cook the food, serve the food and clean up, because it is only food.

However, problems do arise.  The meal was not perfect, the waitress didn’t get my ice cream fast enough, you ran out of pie, or the soup was too salty.  This happens and a little understanding and diplomacy goes a long way in alleviating the problem, and you can usually make things ok if you listen and show sincere empathy.  But sometimes you just hire people who are not suitable for the position they are in.

But then somehow the powers that be get involved and things get blown out of proportion and paperwork needs to be filed and policy and procedures need to be re-written and the wheel needs to be re-invented.

Meetings are scheduled and new”action plans” are implemented instead of addressing the mistakes and keeping the employees in the department aware that these mistakes cannot be made and there will be consequence if you continually repeat them. 

We are so afraid of litigation and are so driven by being politically correct, that our hands are tied when trying to produce a good group of employees to do the job.  You need four reams of paperwork in a personnel file before you can terminate bad employees.

My favorite example of idiocy was when the corporate geniuses changed the whole dining concept to be more competitive. Our company already has a high profile for excellence in the community so my first thought was “why do we need to change? Maybe the competition is trying to be like us.” My concept of this industry is to do something great, and do it right consistently.  Everything else will fall into place.  But let’s spend thousands of dollars and invaluable time with consultants instead of tapping the never ending well of expertise and knowledge coming out of our own dining staff.

But I digress.

 We see logic being pushed aside in favor of drinking the corporate Kool-aid.  The people who should be making the decisions for their departments are being advised by out of touch HR people who have never stepped into a kitchen or dining room and performed the duties of a chef or wait staff (and I don’t mean for one day or a shift). We see impractical use of critical thinking to solve an issue when five minutes of common sense could have worked.

I love what I do and the people I serve and work with, but I get irritated when over-reaction occurs to the wrong thing and complacency happens when real issues need to be addressed.

Because in my world it is relatively easy-you prepare the food, cook the food, serve the food and clean up after wards.

It is that simple.

 

Good Cook or Great Chef?

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I knew when I decided to write about this topic I would probably offend a whole lot of people and have death threats made against me.  But in my endless drive to educate the unenlightened proletariat on the truth and madness of the restaurant/ foodservice industry, I had to express myself on this subject.  Please bear in mind I literally have 34 years of blood, sweat, and tears invested in this business, with a myriad of observations, and in no way am I trying to demean anyone, I am just pointing out the truth after interviewing many people like myself in the trade, and drawing from my own humble experience.

It seems the term “chef” is given out like candy to anyone who can lift a knife and cut a vegetable.  Someone who graduates from culinary school with no previous experience is called a chef and enters the work force expecting a huge salary and an executive title without paying the dues.  I decided a long time ago I would rather be a good cook than a great chef. I have worked and run the 4-star hotels and resorts and I know how to make the fancy French cuisine that impresses the ostentatious crowd of gastronomic snobs. But by choice, most of my career has been getting down and dirty making burgers, sandwiches and chicken wings for the everyday people who just want a good meal at a good price.  Fancy food is exciting, but no one eats like that all the time.

Now don’t get me wrong, if you graduated culinary school and cook for your family and friends that is great, I am happy for you and wish you the best.  But if you are looking for a job as the executive chef or kitchen manager position on a line filled with people who have worked their way up from the bottom of the kitchen food chain (bus boy or dish washer), you had better be prepared to work 60 or more hours a week, sweep and mop the floors, wash the pots and pans if needed, and scrub down the kitchen like the rest of them.  You can’t sit on your laurels and write the menu and spend all day at the organic produce market and then expect everyone else to sweat to make your recipe and menu ideas come to life.  You will never get the reverence you think you deserve.  I am sure you have great recipes and menu ideas, but I hope you are prepared to make them 40 times a day for 7 days in a row, 365 a year.  This isn’t a dinner party you are doing once, with 12 people showing up, and sitting at the table with their place cards and a glass of the flavor of the month.  And the dish needs to taste the same every time you make it, or when someone else is making it if you aren’t there.

For all of us who work and toil in the industry, we applaud the fact that you went to school, and we pray for your success.  My research has shown that a few things are not mentioned to the students.  There are long hours for low pay and you will have to work holidays. You have to cover when someone calls in sick or hung-over (believe me it happens all the time, especially after payday). You will be the only cook on a busy night and you will have to do dishes or wait on customers. You will have to put the deliveries away and you may get your chef coat dirty.  You might actually have to stock the kitchen yourself, do the prep work and cook all at once. Food you think is perfect is going to get sent back to be prepared correctly (gasp!).  It isn’t an easy life, and that is why we take exception to those who walk into the kitchen with big ideas and no understanding.  I am not bitter or resentful because I never went to school.  I learned a long time ago to keep my mouth shut and listen to those who have been around the block.  School is great, but this is an industry where you never learn everything. It is also an industry that will chew you up and spit you out if you let it.  You could spend a lifetime just learning the food of one culture.  So if you ever get the opportunity to run a brigade, make sure you tell them “great job” after every service, and buy them a round of drinks after you help them clean up.

 

 

 

 

The Bad and Good of the Chain Restaurant

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There are a lot of good things to say about dining out in a chain restaurant, and there are a lot of dreadful things as well.  Let’s start with the good.  Let me think…oh yeah-average, lackluster food and automaton service.  Now don’t get me wrong, the service is great in some of the chains, but it is usually because the server is brand new with a personality that hasn’t been tarnished by the banality of the job, is passing through to better things, or a company drone with a 401(k) that is just biding their time until they are fully vested in the company and can one day reprieve themselves from serving the same dull food day after day after day, like a beat cop waiting for the day his pension kicks in.

And then there is the food.  You can’t blame the cooks and chefs for the dreary fare that is taken from box to plate and prepared with all the imagination of a factory worker on valium.  They bake, broil and grill whatever the corporate goons sitting behind desks 300 miles away decide.  And it is usually a trend or three behind the culinary curve.  If anyone remembers the great pesto obsession of the early 90’s then you know what I am talking about because it is probably on some chain restaurant’s menu right now..  They don’t create food trends they just copy them, and the chef should not be blamed for that.  Most chain restaurants are a great training ground for those just starting out in the culinary field, a boot camp for those out of culinary school who believe they will be an executive chef in Switzerland with a six figure income at a 5 star hotel when they graduate.  I know quite a few that ended up at Applebee’s or Denny’s to learn how the real world works because it wasn’t explained to them in school that there are long hours and you might just get your chef coat dirty while waiting for a phone call from the Food Network.

 

I recently moved to an area in Minnesota that has one of the largest malls in the metro area, and there are chain restaurants far and wide.  My wife and I have eaten in our share of them, because it is difficult to find a unique restaurant or bistro, and convenience is always a huge factor.  But we are bored and almost in tears to find a place that will excite us and make a distinct impression.  After eating breakfast at a place that must have had a job fair at the local trailer park, we both said “enough” and are on a quest to find decent digs at which to eat.  Hence I am writing this story to exorcise the demons.

 

Give me a chef driven restaurant that uses local produce and out-of-the-box ideas in the kitchen, with servers that labor for their tips out of love for the industry and the food.  Give me a ponytailed chef with tattoos and a lip ring that has figured out a new way to prepare calamari or a tapenade, and can make caramelized onions and a béchamel sauce without looking in the standardized corporate cookbook.  Give me a chef that has worked 12 days in a row, but still comes in to work because this is where they belong.  Give me a server that loves their customers and can do their job well without the benefit of the company manuals to show them how.  All of us would benefit greatly.  Especially the culinary field.

 

 

 

 

Pleasing a Vegan in a Restaurant

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The grill is full of chops, steaks and hamburger patties and the waitress comes back into the kitchen and tells you there is someone out in the dining room that doesn’t eat meat and would like to know what you can make for them.

Here are some questions the chef should ask:
-Are they lacto ovo vegetarian? Lacto ovo vegetarians exclude meat fish and poultry, but include dairy products and eggs, which means they eat eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt and foods made with these ingredients.
– Lacto vegetarians? This is the same as above but they also exclude eggs and all foods made with eggs, but still can eat cheese and dairy.
– Vegan? These people avoid eating and using all animal products and their by-products.
-Pollo vegetarian? They avoid red meat and fish but eat chicken.
-Pesco pollo? Avoids red meat but eats chicken and fish.
-Some other examples include fruitarian (fruits and nuts) and a raw food diet is an adaptation of vegetarianism; eating only raw uncooked foods.
So once you are knowledgeable of the needs of your customer, you should be able to prepare a delicious and nutritious meal, as most restaurant s are well supplied with an abundance of alternative foods that will suit any classification of the above.
Some examples would be a fruit and cheese platter, vegetable Kabob, most salads, chicken breast with grilled vegetables, or fish and barley risotto. You being the chef should talk to the customer if you have the time, to be sure you are doing it exactly right and they will certainly appreciate your concern and extra effort.
Depending on the skill and experience of the chef, and the time factor, you will be able to have a happy customer leave full and satisfied, with the promise of coming back again.

Over Indulgence-Trend or Way of Life?

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Over the last decade we have witnessed portions of food growing increasingly larger in their placement on menus and in advertising. Cheese-stuffed pizza crust, bigger burgers, more toppings, deals involving more for less, burritos as big as your head, and huge appetizers served before the salad , soup, entrée and dessert. And currently there are ubiquitous eating competitions and a show on television that shows an idiot trying to eat enough food to feed a small community.
This is disturbing on many levels.
One, there are too many families that are going hungry, and we are feeding our faces more in one meal than some people see on their plates in a week.
Secondly, we have a severe obesity problem in this country that needs to be addressed immediately, a subject that was never discussed in all the gibbering and raving in the debate about health care reform. With heart disease, cancer and diabetes on the rise in children and young adults, it astonishes me that no one brought up the gluttony and lack of exercise that has become pandemic in our society, that Lipitor is being prescribed to 5th graders and teen agers are getting lap band surgery to control their weight. Health insurance coverage cost less if you are in good shape and you may stay out of the hospital and avoid all the diseases if you are healthy. You cannot do this by eating a truck load of food at every meal.
Lastly, I am in the food service industry and wish the propaganda of gluttony would stop. Food was meant to be enjoyed. Other cultures have the “little dishes”-the Maghreb from North Africa, Tapas from Spain, Antojitos from South America, dim sum from China, the amuse-bouches of France, Meze from the Middle East, Zakuski from Russia, and the Smorgasbord from Scandinavia. Unlike hors d’oeuvres’, which means “outside the meal” as an appetizer; the little dishes are the main serving of food but served as smaller portions and enjoyed casually and with rich tradition. In the America we are slowly arriving at this idea with tasting menus and fusion foods that combine different cultures and their customs of eating.
Excessive eating may be a trend we are going through, but I can’t remember the last time I was asked if I wanted my fruit cup super-sized.