Anthony Bourdain is one of my dad's heroes. Dad has a habit of sharing the things he loves with me, so Bourdain is quickly becoming one of my heroes too. This is why I may have been abnormally excited to get a job answering phones at a local pizza place. At first, the excitement was practical; an income is an important step for me if I want to be able to stay in Chicago this summer. Then I thought about Dad's copy of Kitchen Confidential that I got half way through before I had to leave, and I got really excited.
I turned up to my first shift fifteen minutes early, as per the overlap of Bourdain's standards and SEA's standards. A thrill of excitement ran through me as I was directed back through the kitchen to begin my training. Ellie joked, when I first got the job, that I wouldn't be very busy because people order online so much now. It turns out that answering phones includes online orders. All in all, my job includes answering phones, taking orders off of online transactions, packing take-out orders, and helping to make sauces and breads, so while there may be lulls, I will be plenty busy during rushes.
Last night's shift was more relaxed than I imagine they'll continue to be, because I was training and wasn't allowed to do much of anything until near the end of my shift. For the first hour or two, I just studied the menu. The manager would go through one section of the menu with me, then tell me to go out and sit in the restaurant to study it and take notes. Most of the notes felt superfluous because it was something the online order screen would take you through, but a few things he told me that were not on the menu were useful to write down.
About half way through my training, the dinner rush came on, and the manager had to stop training me to help out both in front and in the back. At that point I wasn't really trained enough to do anything, so I helped out with carrying things and passing people things where I could, but other than that I just did my best to stay out of the way. I took the time to watch what was going on. It's not every day you get this kind of behind the scenes! Two sisters make the pizza together, and they play music and talk with each other in rapid-fire spanish while they do. A pizza cutter would be too blase, so they cut it with a giant pizza machete. Drivers come in and out, watching whatever sports game is on the TV and talking while they wait for orders.
Having actually spent time on a ship, I can see why Bourdain compares the workers in a restaurant to a crew. People interacted with the manager in a way I would never imagine talking to a boss. He got called an asshole more than once, and a waitress, bothered by people not showering, demanded he smell her armpits when he implied the smell might be her. There was teasing and light sexual innuendo, and the familiarity of moving through tight spaces together. Add the heat from the ovens and the fatigue of a five-hour standing shift, and it almost felt like being at sea again.
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