Opening A Restaurant: the people.

Have you ever talked to a cook? Chef? Waiter?
Have you ever asked them why they do it? The brutal hours. The physical injuries. The grueling services. The un -social lives. The airless basement kitchens. The vermin. The sleepless nights. The rampant drug & alcohol addiction.

The People.

We do it for the people. The Crew. Family.

The People are those we work for and with. The friendships we form, against every odd: cultural, language, race, gender, religion, sexual preference, political affiliations, body type. These aren't just any friendships. We are not ambivalent. No.

The people. How we feel about them is fierce.

And if we don't? Well I'll just repeat an expression used in every culture:
    If you can't stand the heat, get out of the fucking kitchen.

The difference between a cook and a chef is one word: management.
But not every chef is a teacher, a leader, a force, or inspiring. Or, some chefs teach in quieter ways than others. When I saw Claudia Fleming this past summer we laughed about what it was like working for her at Gramercy Tavern a decade ago. When I arrived at The French Laundry about 2 years after being at GT, I called Claudia to thank her. It took that long to see just how much I had learned under her wings.

She and I laughed about the insanity. We talked about the people who made up that team.

The People.

Who are these elusive humans? How do they find each other? How come they apply for this kitchen or that? What draws them to certain chefs and not others? How many of them take a job just to have one and are transformed by the people, the relationships? How many of them bounce from one stove to the next with no compass? How many of them move from city to city to get A Specific Education? How many of them have the same job over and over with slightly different walls but

            keep hitting that same ceiling.

If you keep doing the same thing
You'll keep getting the same result.

The People. They teach. Inspire. Anger. Annoy. Love. Embrace. Sex. Drink. Shoot. Stab. Prod. Poke. Laugh. Learn. They speak to us in their mother tongue and we reply in ours.

And even though they are not the same. We listen. We enter service together as one team.
We build a rhythm together. We go to bat for and play defense

                                                            and steal the ball and run miles for and share stamina and trade faith and come up for air and we dive gracefully                         and we dance a silent ballet and we crush and we pileup and
we slap each other's asses and we high five and we become bloodbrothers and we sob in each other's arms

                            and we root for each other and we sit out the next set and we bench and we gargle and we wipe the sweat from each other's brow and we whisper and we curse and we fuck and we fight and we tattoo and we pet and we hold our breath and we jump in to help and

we get in the weeds and

we kick ass and we get pummeled and we feel defeated and we are victorious and we pour champagne on our heads and we cackle and we

    we

            ::the magic word::

                                                                                    are a team

we

are

The

People.

We are Plural. We are twos and threes and baker's dozens and a baseball game and a basketball team and an Olympic divers and we are a school of fish.

we are what keeps us going.

                                    {we admitted we were powerless over alcohol}

                                                ::the first word in step one is we. because we do not do it alone::

The People.

I do not have enough line breaks to describe what I feel when I think about them. te amo

----------

Opening A Restaurant, the series: I have lost count of the days.
And although we are not yet open, we have lost someone already. {I am quite sad as he was my favorite.} He has disappeared and is not answering calls.

::when one door shuts another one opens::

On Tuesday my first assistant starts. O Happy Day.
I do not take it lightly that I am about to have 4 full time students. The emotions I feel around this responsibility are visceral. I want to do right by them. I want to learn from them.

And I want to make food that will make them to proud to make and serve and evolve. {O. so much hope}

.......I wonder how much sleep I'll get tonight.

Comments

[Jill]

Shuna, I am so enjoying reading this, especially since I think I may never see you again! Seriously, this piece brought tears to my eyes. I am also hoping you'll eventually write about how pastry cheffing actually works timewise...when do you arrive? What do you do when you arrive? Do you leave and then come back when it's time to plate and serve? Or does someone else do that? I've always wondered. Love to you, and please take care of yourself during this time of initiation!

[Aaron]

It is so weird how many times it feels like we cook for those around us, our fellow cooks, chefs, managers, and not the people that actually are going to eat the food. We cook for the organism that is the restaurant.
Maybe it is not "we," but rather me. In any case, that is how I often feel.
On another note...your assistants have no idea how lucky they are.

[Raspil]

i felt the same way about where i worked in Austin. everyone was a space oddity weirdo freak alcoholic cokehead and i loved them all. i am, in vain, trying to find that feeling again and i am failing big time and it is frustrating as shit. i'm not going to find it anywhere but in that place i worked. if i want it again, i have to go back to Austin. if i go back to Austin, i have TRULY failed.

/that was dark, sorry
//i am supposed to be evolving and evolution hurts

however, i have learned something else -- to be close with my co-workers but not get so close that it hurts when they leave. people come and go every day; to get wrapped up in them sets you up to be hurt time and time again.

right now, i work with people who are lazy and don't give a shit about what they're doing aside from drawing a check every other week. i had to tell my chef today things that i see on a daily basis that he apparently can not see, something i really don't think i should be doing. what this guy doesn't understand is that he is leading by example -- when he tells me he HATES working there, he is part of the problem. he doesn't realize it though. i thought for sure today would be my last day but a girl's gotta work. i'm just not sure if i'm ready for the Strip right now. maybe tomorrow.

xoxoxoxoxo

[French Laundry at Home]

Shuna, I am so proud of you... and so happy for you. Your words are flying off the screen with an energy like no other. Fan-fucking-TASTIC!

[excelsior]

What you've written about working in restaurants is what I've felt about working in social services (though without the active alcohol and drug addictions). You're not there for the "great" hours and "wonderful" pay, or for the clients - you're there because you and your colleagues/friends/co-traumatized folks/ people in the same damn handbasket as you are there too and you love them, even the ones who make you crazy.

[lindsey]

Saw bits of the menu on tablehopper today and it sounds exciting! But are there going to be peaches to even put on the menu in Oct?

I was given something to take back to SF for you by the good folks at my favorite turkish-north african restaurant.

I'm ready to get back to SF...but NYC beckons tomorrow.

[Anita]

today is also the day that Sens got a writeup on Tablehopper :)

http://www.tablehopper.com/newsletter/070911/index.html

I'm crushed that I'll be out of town for almost 2 weeks when you open, though -- I need to make a reservation for the day I get back.

[surbhi]

felt that was right there in the damn kitchen even though I am on a wonderful vacation right now.
made me miss every person I ever worked with in my life...thanks for that.......in a funny way it morally uplifting just to know that someone else knows.

[James]

Bravo! I couldn't have put it better myself. I always liked Bourdain's take on it:
"we work while you play, we play while you sleep"
It's an underculture that we are all very proud/desperate to be a part of.

I feel your pain on losing staff members, we lost our first head chef 1DAY before open a year ago! It actually turned into a wee blessing in disguise as it forced all 3 partners in our business to get off our backsides and REALLY work to fill the gap. We are a better team now because of it.

I have one difference of opinion though. I have always viewed someone who calls him/herself a chef as an artist, I view a cook as; just that, someone who cooks. Maybe this is through bad experiences over the years but this seems to have developed into our kitchen's basic principle. We are a kitchen full of cooks, we cook good food well, simply, quickly and without fuss. (garnishes be damned).

But this is only a matter of opinion.

Regards
James