Welcome to a yet another Hot Pans feature, Tales from the Other Side, a column by our secret chef in Charm City. You'll never experience restaurants in the same way again...
You know that popular new restaurant that opened down the street with the fusion menu, the staff dressed in all black, the one with the swank looking décor? You know the one with the display kitchen where the cooks are dressed in crisp white uniforms smiling and laughing as they prepare your meal? You know that feeling you get when you see this, the sense that they are taking pride in their cooking, that they're enjoying their work? Think again. Chances are that they're laughing at you!
Yep, cooks are a strange breed. We look out over the dining room and into a sea of obnoxious customers: the one with the shrill laugh of a hyena, the one who's had one too many and is still stumbling towards the bar. We leer at those who come in five minutes before closing. As for the scantily clad woman with the older gentleman, yeah, we know what's going on there.
Be assured though that we would never do ANYTHING to your food. That's just not our way. Still, we WILL make fun of you and glean hours of enjoyment from your behavior. I've witnessed customers chase waiters through the restaurant, wander into the kitchen to place an order, and yell across the dining room to get attention. It seems that once through the doors of you favorite café, the employees are reduced to
some sort of lower class and that is just baffling. So next time you walk through the doors of your favorite café or into that upscale joint around the corner and are wowed by the open kitchen, be on your best behavior lest you become the butt of the joke that day and above all, an unsavory customer.
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Enjoyed the post. And don't forget to tip your waitron 15-20% for good service.
ReplyDeleteMost industry folk I know consider 20% as stingy as all get-out. Personally, I stick to 20% unless they're really rotten.
ReplyDeleteRead "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain if you want more details about what goes on in those kitchens. And never order the "special," or order fish on the weekend!
ReplyDeleteI read KC when I had just started working as a server at a fancy organic restaurant in DC and underwent the FNG treatment. Not only did I hate the treatment, but I also cringed at Bourdain's enjoyment of the inflicting the same pain on his "crew". Yuck.
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