Dishie

“ Get the Bok Choy, capers and the thyme, it should be behind the sage in the downstairs kitchen, oh and while you’re at it could you clean up the dishes they left from breakfast, they are a bit dirty so use the steel wool and hurry up because it’s getting hectic in here!!!!”. Once you figure out what all the vegetables actually look like it’s not something unusual to hear on a regular Friday night working at the Hotel Heritage. Being the kitchen hand, dishie or dish pig whatever they want to call you (us), is like being on the bottom of the food chain. It’s the place where you start to work your way to the top and you have to go through all the ranks. For someone looking for easy casual work just to make some extra cash, working at the restaurant of a hotel is not the ideal job you are looking for. The people there have a distinct vibe about themselves, especially the chefs. I like to look at the chefs as very passionate group of individuals that revolve their lives around blending flavors and food. Much like scientist who consistently try invent various technologies or artist try create masterpieces, chefs combine both these factors to create a inspiring plate of food that portrays a message or expresses a notion, whereas someone like myself looks at food a s a necessity that is simply needed to survive not something that should be fancy or expressive. When you get someone that’s has this crazy passion for food and someone who really does not care but just wants to eat it, and you put these two people in a kitchen, you’re going to get fireworks. When you got 400 tourist to take care of on a Sunday morning you know there is going to be plenty of tension amongst staff. Two waiters, one passionate chef, one young dish pig and 400 customers who don’t speak you language, you can figure out the rest. When you thing about it coming from a dish pigs point of view (like myself) each person will use on average 4-5 plates, one for cereal, two for main course (because they are too lazy to reuse the same plate) one for pastries and one for fruit. That combines to about 2000 plates that need to put thought the dishwasher not including cutlery and glasses. If that’s not enough you have to help the chef with cooking the eggs, bacon, getting the pastries ready and all the rest. You’re the slave amongst all the staff, you have to deliver all the essentially to everyone so they can do their job, you even have to get the waiters the linen form the downstairs kitchen because they can’t leave the floor. All in all if you’re going to be a dish pig don’t expect any respect for the work you do and expect to clean peoples leftovers that go soggy once the plates start piling up. Bon appétit!!!