Work like an angel ,dress like a Devil, live like a ghost and dream like a human…
From that, going into work as a chef I learnt that the quickest way around a kitchen is 2 simple words, Yes or No followed promptly by Chef.
‘’Yes Chef’’
‘’Listen Son stop all your street s**t from outside ,this is a kitchen, if you want to be a gangster you can be a gangster out of the kitchen you know where the door is, do you understand me chef?’’
I stayed quiet and he asked me again
‘’Do you understand me’’
I Said ‘’yes chef’’
In my head I am thinking who is this guy talking to me like this, he isn’t my dad, he’s nothing to me so why is he talking to me like this, not even my own mother would talk to me like this….lol she 100% would. I woke up with my head held high, and thinking what have I achieved the last four years. Learning how to read French words in the kitchen was overwhelming. I Learnt so many but most of them didn’t make any sense. Anyway I carried on, dreaming about how all the different chefs work, I watched from the commis to the sous and senior sous right up to the executive dreaming that one day I would be just like them. Wishing I was going to be one of them whilst partying on a scene that I didn’t think I would ever see myself on. I Was going from mayhem to mayhem where I would be up partying all night and working all day in a kitchen where there was no fresh air, no natural daylight and non stop people shouting at me. I would dream of sunlight, and walking out of the staff entrance into the sunlight felt like I was walking into the Sahara dessert on holiday, only to have to turn back 1 hour later to complete the second half of my double shift of a 6 day week. What made it harder was going back to the tones of angry chefs shouting:
‘’Hurry up and give me my food you sack of s**t, I have more colour on my ***** then there is on this dish.
‘’Yes chef’’
‘’I don’t want to hear yes chef’’
‘’Just give me my food I don’t want to hear your yes chef, I say 2 minutes you say yes’’
‘’Yes chef’’
In my head I am thinking I hate this guy, I am imagining doing all sorts of things to him but I can’t, I have to keep my head down.
Here comes the golden boys, who would ask:
‘’Chef do you need anything done, I don’t mind staying back’’
In my head I begin thinking I have been up all night with these guys, how are they still motivated to say this and want to give more, I am under pressure to do the same so I do, desperate to get out and home to some precious hours in my bed. It is from this is I learnt to work like an angel, dress like a devil, live like a ghost and dream like a human…
‘’No chefs go home we are good here ‘’