Friday, May 15, 2020

Living the Dream

That is the catch phrase of  Chef O, every time someone asks him how he is doing. I must admit that in the middle of all this upheaval (or maybe we should refer to it as a downheaval) I find myself  subscribing to that catch phrase.  I'm living my dream of working as a chef. Not only that but also starting to enjoy work and everyone I work with.  I can actually now look forward to working with these guys with anticipation and not so much anxiety. Anxiety born of my insecurity at not having as much experience as all of my colleagues even though I'm older than all of them. I'm so used to being the youngest in a group when I was teaching seniors, that it feels conflicting that I can be the most inexperienced and yet the oldest in the kitchen department.

I have been trying to taste all of the food that all the other chefs knock up mostly to learn what it is that they think the students enjoy, but also to understand the standard that I must deliver to. Last year I experienced a brief honeymoon with the students, where some would go out of their way to thank me for the tasty food. I modestly put that down as due to being the new chef, they just got used to all the other chefs that it was great to try something new.

I was also modestly disappointed that I did not experience that positive feedback the following term. Perhaps, it really was just a new chef honeymoon and the honeymoon was over. What if I am an impostor trying to pass myself off as a chef?

Well tonight was crazy. Fridays are traditionally slow easy nights as not many bother to come out to buffet. Instead we got hammered. We had plenty of food but we were struggling just to keep up with the continuous flow of diners for the entire 60 minutes of service.  Wait what?  Who gets slammed on a Friday night? Nobody.  Except maybe the impostor mwahahahaha.

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