Ideal Restaurant Candidates

[eve...@hotmail.com]

So here's my list of ideal characteristics for the management of
restaurants and hotels to have. All bullshit aside:

(1) Promise - make a promise and stand by it - Promise a wage increase
or title increase and do it. Make no excuses later about how or why
someone didn't live up. If the employee doesn't live up then fire them.
Don't just let them think that they have some promise when they don't.
That sort of double take is the trait of a lying sack of shit, and most
managers in this city are the masters of the two face double take. Next
job interview you go for realize that Janus is asking the questions.

(2) Character - I can't think of many restaurants that have character.
Of them all, in NOLA, only K-Pauls did I find to never let their guard
down, and never sell slop. Otherwise, even Commander's Palace
hardboils their poached eggs come Sunday Brunch, to say nothing of
places in the French Quarter like the Embers where they will pack
customers in beyond capacity like a whore who screws until she passes
out. Once they ran out of red beans and rice, jambalaya, and almost
everything else, and instead of turning people away they started
serving mashed potatoes and french fries on the same plate. That lack
of character is horrendous. If in this life being good means having
some standards beyond which one won't fall below then not having
standards is being bad or evil, which equates to not caring about
sanitation or anything else. When a customer complained at The Embers
the management literally said, "Get the fuck out!" and called the cops
if they put up a fight.

More later, after I have another thought. (Post Katrina, nobody will
hire me at my level so I have nothing to do but think!)

[New-Orleans-Restaurant-Jobs-That-Suck]

Consideration:

There's two kinds of consideration. The first is the sort which is
where your boss tells you to take your break and eat something on the
house because he knows that you're working thirteen hour days without
eating. The other kind is offering raises when you train others, or are
a major producer or line worker, before you have to beg for some
appreciation. This consideration is a sign of someone respecting your
output, your existance, the fact that you are there for them.

I received that sort of consideration from Sante Fe Restaurant where
the owner made me take a break to eat each day. That was kind. However
it didn't make up for his wife cutting my salary when I managed to cut
the closing time by an hour each night due to my diligence. Salary is
salary, whether you work fast and thorough or slow and sloppy.
Moreover, one shouldn't be rewarded for the latter.

I didn't receive consideration when I applied at C'est Ci Bon for the
chef slot and the owner said he was paying 32-35 thousand a year salary
for his chef, who he expected to work 60-70 hour weeks. What did he
think that he was hiring a slave or a mule? Obviously. Nobody can live
like that, nor should they. It's just plain inconsiderate and wrong.
Evil even.

[Eve__69]

Consideration. Back when I worked at Windsor Court the 2nd time, when I was working breakfast and lunch, and I was lead cook and interim hotel saucier they were only paying me 7.51 an hour and I was only a 2nd cook. You think someone, anyone there would have noticed the fine turtle soup or soup du jour, the fine breakfast, the fine lunch, besides Conde Nast that is, who ranked us 5 star each year I worked there. But No! No one noticed and when I asked the chef for a raise or a promotion it was as if I didn't even exist. So tell me then if I shouldn't have developed a chip. 

 

I tell you, the chefs, the back of the house management, and the very hotel owners changed so much it was pointless even working there if one wanted to get something out of it in terms of pay, promotion, or anything else. The Man never stayed put there long enough to follow through on any executive notice. People might say, but what about the valuable experience you gained there, didn't that help you?  No. Fact is. I taught myself. Not one single person at Windsor Court even showed me how to do anthing. I was the chef for what I produced for all purposes. I was my own motivation. And now when I reapply for a job there under their new management they don't even give me a call back. 

 

How the tables turn. Where once I worked for a chef who used to do whacky shit like squeel in the middle of the shift out of the blue just to freak people out, who squeeled like a dragon was pinching his scrotum between razor sharp claws, now those self serving and self congratulatory whackos cannot even give someone who went all out supporting their star rating a second interview for a sous-chef position.  Granted, after I developed the chip I got an attitude but things have changed now. Besides, they are on the third ownership since Sea Containers and the Orient Express owned them, and I worked there, and they no longer probably even have any record of me. 

 

But hey, Windsor Court isn't half as tasty as Restaurant August now anyway, they never did learn how to use Chicken or Seafood base.