As some of you already know I used to be a chef. A career which was extremely rewarding but one I, to this day, don't miss at all. A conversation last night brought back some memories though, not all of them good.
Out to dinner with friends last night and the talk somehow turned to apprentices and in particular how I and chefs I have worked under treated them. It wasn't always good and by today's standards we would probably be brought up on charges!!
For example, if we weren't happy with the way a kitchen bench had been cleaned by an apprentice we would make them lick it with their tongue. Just to ram it into their brains that it must be done correctly. Wrong isn't it.
I remember on one occasion observing an apprentice throwing away the ends of leeks. However there was about 10cm of leek left on the end of each leek and over 12 leeks that adds up to one whole leek. I walked over, asked him to step aside, then tipped the entire sloppy contents of that bin out onto the kitchen floor and made him get down and pick out each piece of leek. He was then made to clean the mess up, wash and weigh the leek ends and bring the results to my office. I then made him (no not eat them, that's what you were thinking wasn't it) cost the leek, and then write a 2000 word essay on why he shouldn't cost the company that much money in wasted leek.
I of course am the handsome one :o)....
.... and yes I did used to work with Harry Potter bahaha!!
What else? Being made to drink starchy crab water when they failed to change the steamer water after steaming crabs and then added potatoes, crab flavoured potatoes not being on the menu that evening. Made to eat food that they had left uncovered or out on a bench over night.
Never physically harmed (apart from I guess the chance of food poisoning), but nonetheless I am not really proud of these actions. I can only offer the excuse that it was part of my conditioning, as these kitchens were run like military machines and this was the mentality. Thankfully I stopped doing this in the later years of my career and was one of the contributing factors in my decision to leave the trade.
I will leave you with these wise words of wisdom spoken with a heavy accent to me on my first shift at the Kingfisher restaurant in London. They came from my sous chef Michel, a huge bear of a Dutchman with giant leathery hands the size of dinner plates.
"You think I see fuck all, I see fuck everything"
:gulp:
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