.
For the
past two years I have travelled to Australia to visit my son, where he lives
and works as a chief. Its a great time for me to spent a week catching up with
those things phone calls and emails leave out. Kind of like filling in the
spaces or joining the dots of a incomplete picture.
What i do
is i work for my son in his kitchen as the hours chiefs keep are very
unsociable so it started as the best way to maximise the time spent for one
week. I find the work hard and exciting and illuminating all in one.
The hard side is the fact we worked from mid
morning to the early hours of the next day. It is a life process you arrive at
the kitchen great your work mates talk about whats happened and the night
before. You then start the preparation for the meals this is the most
interesting time you get to talk laugh and see the passion of the cooking
staff, as they swap ideas and plans, be it changes to menus or stubble differences to a recipe they are working on all do to the beat of loud music a
amongst the hustle of a working kitchen.
The excitement builds as plans are completed successfully and dead lines are meet.
Time just seams to go so fast as the day turns into late afternoon when the
staff stop for a meal before service. Indecently this also is discussed new
ideas tried digested and evaluated by all staff . In my sons kitchen all staff
where involved in the decisions even me (my input was embarrassed simple(
Yea I liked it). Finally the excitement lifts again as service begins and has its
own set of peaks and troughs , until the last dinners leave when the work
starts again cleaning, placing orders for the next day and evaluating how the
night went.
The aspect
of illumination is one of my own. Joel (my son) the chief suggested I work with
him and i readily agreed. What I didn't expect was how i was to work. I thought
Ill wash dishes and was happy with that , what else could I possibly do my
cooking is limited to my own kitchen no training but passionate about the taste
i want. The chief had a completely different view and I his father was suited up
a thrown in the deep end to work beside him. I was shown some task once then
expected to complete to his exacting expectations. The pressure was huge, how
could he expect me to complete tasks people train for years and still fail.
Later that night actually much later, as chiefs once all tasks are complete what do they do
, they go out for dinner. We sat down to
eat at 2.30 am in china town. After a meal and a drink, in bed i lay there my
head spinning from the past 15 hours i got to thinking what makes people who
they are? I was still in shock as to
what Joel had had me do in a working kitchen. I was thinking did he trust me,
did he think I was better than what I really am? He had unwittingly turned the
table on me.
When Joel
was just a young boy he too worked with
me, for the same reason if he didn't work with me his time with me was limited.
I too expected him to carry out adult
tasks unaided. I enjoyed working
with him as he was fast on the uptake and could be trusted to complete any task
I set him. In retrospect I expected a lot from a young boy. Did this shape the man he is now and is it
true "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree"?
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