I walked back in to the kitchen a
few days later, for my next shift and Richard (The Sous-Chef) looked across as
I walked through the door to line up for inspection. “So, perhaps our young assistant, can give us some advice
about cooking eggs?” I froze mid-step. I looked at Richard who was looking
sternly in my direction. My mind raced. Eggs? What had I done, what mistake before I left
the other evening? Did I leave some eggs out or something? Had I wasted some
egg mix? I ran through what I had done? I looked up as all heads turned towards
me. Even the executive chef paused in what he was doing to turn and look. This
was pressure of the worst kind. I turned red, I remember that. I probably
started shaking, as I carried a certain nervous fear with me. And having worked
in the kitchen long enough to already see several staff given their marching
orders, my mind groped for an answer. I opened my mouth and my voice squeaked
out “hunggh (or something like that)’.
I tried again. The stares were
very intense until I realized what he was referring to. George Orwell’s
dreadful experience in accidentally allowing a rotten egg into a large batch of
eggs. He then had to race out and replace the entire lot, out of his own meager
earnings before it was discovered, so he could retain his job. And his
earnings, were a pittance. But the
need to keep the jobs essential. I
managed to croak out “Always check each egg before breaking it into the dish of
ingredients”. I am sure that my voice started to trail off as I wasn’t sure if
it was my place to say in a kitchen of mainly very qualified chefs.
The Executive Chef looked over to
the Sous-Chef. The Sous-Chef looked to the two Working Chefs, who looked back
to the Executive Chef. Then, they all laughed. I smiled. Relief flooded over
me. The Executive Chef stopped smiling. I stopped smiling probably even faster.
Then he said, “See, reading pays off. There, now you know how kitchens work…”
he said. I started to smile and nodded. ‘Believe me it hasn’t changed”. He
continued. I suddenly lost my smile. “Now get out there to the stores and get
the tubs of potatoes peeled. As I headed out the back to the vegetable store
room, I looked back to Richard, as he turned back to his station. I saw a wink
visible only from my side and out of the corner of my eye the scowl on the face
of the executive chef had returned.
The introduction to the world of
foods and flavours definitely started with this job. I think the biggest
discovery for me at this time was ‘the wok’. I had never seen one before
(except in National Geographic®) and since we didn’t go out to eat, a Chinese
takeaway or restaurant dinner encountering one had never happened before.
(Continued tomorrow)
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