Hist'ry

I've been busting chops on line for quite sometime now, often times working two jobs. I've worked in seven restaurants. Four of which are closed, hopefully in no part to my contribution or lack there of. I'm getting a pretty good Idea why restaurants fail. Why restaurants succeed is a far more elusive set of criteria. I've worked all stations on the line. I was running a line solo for a small misguided suburban bistro. Make no mistake I was no prodigy, it was out of necessity. The place was that slow. The Chef worked the floor and I ran the line. My first restaurant experience was a study in everything that could be done wrong. Wrong to the point that after only a year and a half in a professional kitchen I was running the bistro and planning the menu for their new bar. Once again I need to stipulate that this was not due to any prodigeous talent (I am by no means stupid, nor am I a savant in the kitchen) it was due to the owners inability to trust anyone. More importantly their proclivity to firing chefs when things weren't quite working out, they had no concept of consistency and more importantly they had no firm concept. I am proud however to say that I lasted as long as the previous chefs (about six months) who had legitimate skills. Of course when your a rat on a sinking ship one doesn't necessarily need the skills to pilot the ship, you just gotta now when to get the fuck off. Knowing that I needed to work with real chefs again I gave notice, and was subsequently fired. Good riddance. Since that first experience I have worked under many chefs, all of which I respect. I resolved never to compromise myself by producing food I wasn't proud of and work for someone I didn't respect. So continues the journey. It's been pretty brutal at times, on and off unemployment, working multiple jobs, never knowing if the paycheck is going to clear, or if suddenly hours are going to start evaporating. Of course this is the price you pay for working in small restaurants and, for now, I wouldn't want it any other way. I know where the food is coming from, literally and metaphysically. I know what success of a small restaurant will mean: an individuals dream and vision becomes realized (an excedingly rare thing) as well as the cultural contribution a small restaurant can bring to an area. I know what it's failure means: jobs lost, a dream lost, financial disarray. It is real life played out on a very small personal stage where you really know and care about the actors. Instead of being lost in a corporate environment attached to artificial goals, working solely for those two weeks off and that sweet retirment condo waiting for you in Scottsdale, where success or failure are quickly consumed within the beast and rarely noticed.n So this is the world I exist in and some of where I came from. More will be posited, and expounded upon in the future, but then again noones paying any attention.
XOXO