All entries for Monday 25 July 2005

Please Don't Hate the Kitchen.

Paul didn't come in for work at all. Andrew was on his own from 10 a.m. and Robert, who was supposed to be off today, crashed in at noon and we only started serving Sunday lunches at 1 p.m. Scott was late, as usual, but I think I sympathise with him, although I do know that Paul is a single parent and his daughter is still very very young. Robert left the kitchen to Scottie then. Scott has been working this past week with a fever building up and I really worry for him. I think that although I've been working with Robert for longer hours, I understand Scott more.

As the day wore on, the kitchen ran out of soup, ham, tuna (because no one had time to make any more), cod (although we managed to forcefully defrost a few towards the end), gammon (also meaning no mixed grills either), stir fry (so no chicken shitake or minted lambs), salad (lots of other things on the menu we couldn't do) and we had no chocolate cheesecakes. Anthony also had to refund some thirty quid worth of food because people were tired of waiting (more than an hour) for their food. So in a word, the kitchen was properly slammed and gutted today. What can I say? I mean, we were seriously working hard to make things work out right.

Today is the third day I did a thirteen hour shift (11:30 a.m. to 09:00 p.m. for the kitchen, 09:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. for the bar). I think that by working with the bar, I get to experience how tough it is to be bar staff. The truth is, in the worst times (i.e. half an hour before last orders for food everyday) the chefs seriously hate the bar (for making them do special taliored orders) and the bar properly loaths the chefs (for always telling them they're crap).

It was still raining when we locked up. Matthew, Sabrina and I were in Anthony's car since we needed a lift home, Sarah was waiting for her Mom to come pick her up. I told Anthony I was sorry he had to give so many refunds today.

Anthony: "For what? It's not your fault. Don't worry about it."
Sarah: "Aww, you think about that? That's really sweet, Wai."
Me: "In any case, please don't think badly of Scott either."
Matthew: "All I can think is what a bad manager Frank is. Debbie'd never stands for this."

Perhaps not, but then Debbie would probably sack Paul and Scott staight away too. And what would become of the kitchen then?

: 25 Jul 2005 01:01 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem