My best advice for anyone who wants to work in a professional kitchen is to speak Spanish.
No matter your politics, you must be able to speak Spanish to get anything done.
This is my favorite story of bad Spanish and the results..........
It was my first job as "The Chef" at Blue Plate on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
I asked Carlos, my prep cook, to clean the shrimp for dinner service that evening.
I asked him to limpiar the camerones, thinking it was clear that I needed the shells taken off the shrimp.
When I went back down to check on him, the shrimp were indeed clean...in a bucket of soapy water. After laughing like hell, at myself of course, I was able to demonstrate what I needed!
Learn Spanish!!!!!!!!! Unless you like soap in the shrimp!
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Pinchi Cabron,
ReplyDeleteSpanish is extremely important to know in a kitchen especially one in NYC. On my first day working for Francois Payard he started yelling at me in french and called me a cochon and an imbecile. Seeing as he was talking french to me, I cursed him out in Spanish which I am fluent in. He had no idea what I was saying to him but out of the corner of my eye I could see our dishwasher falling over laughing. So with a well hidden smile on my face I went back to work. It’s the little things that help you get through the day when all around you it’s raining caca.
Tom, is this you???
ReplyDeleteI admit the first Spanish I learned were all of the swear words!
Best time was when one of the guys said I had a big ass, (somewhat true) and I told him I could lose weight but his pinga would always be chiquito!
Yes it’s me. Extremely talented (with no ego) unemployed pastry chef now working for the Department of Commerce doing the census. Better hours, better pay, and no french chefs to answer to. Give the boy an electronic gadget, pay for all his miles and let him wear jeans all day. What a Country!! I got to see where Martha lives. Nice neighborhood if you can afford it.
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