Ah! I am so sorry to not have posted since July 1st. It’s a little embarrassing.
But since July 1st I’ve had band rehearsals, gigs (including one of my favorite festivals, High Mountain Hay Fever), plus getting the house ready – one more time! – for the appraisal.
Michael is in his last week of work. They are short a dishwasher, and like a crazy person I volunteered.
Well, “volunteered” isn’t quite the right word. I’m getting paid. But until this past Sunday, I’d never set foot in a restaurant kitchen in my life. I was a little scared. I know this is a hard job. I kinda figured that if I screwed up, nobody would actually say anything to me because they all know I’m the chef’s wife.
Anyway – every single person in that kitchen was super nice to me. Even the ones who didn’t know who I am. (One of the line cooks, Matt, said to me, “So you know Michael?” and I said back, “yeah, you could say that. He’s my husband.” I thought Matt’s eyes were going to pop out of his head.)
Being in the professional kitchen wasn’t anything like I expected. Granted, it was kind of a slow night (from what I was told), but I was expecting something resembling chaos. Like what you see on “Kitchen Nightmares” or something. Except it was very orderly. No shouting, not even any swearing, I don’t think. I wasn’t paying that close attention. I was trying to stay ahead of everything.
The “moment” for me was the dump at the end of service. When the kitchen cleans up, they send all their dirty stuff to the disher. Matt kept everything at his station – so it wouldn’t pile up at my work area, which was sweet – except that when I turned around to begin I was hit with an absolute wall of items: Pots. Skillets. Trays. Baskets. Utensils. And the seemingly endless variety of hotel pans. (When I finally finished those, the stacks went all the way to the ceiling.) I think everyone got a little kick out of the look on my face…
I had some help but I did (eventually) get the job done. And the staff told me I was awesome, that I kicked ass, etc. I asked Michael if they actually said that to him. Or if they were just being nice to me because, you know, chef’s wife and all.
Michael assured me I really did do a good job.
So.
To the two former bosses who accused me of being lazy, not a hard worker, and not a team player: SUCK IT.