During this time of closures in the Hospitality Industry due to the world pandemic, I have been lucky to still be working. I am employed in a union which gives me seniority because I am full-time, although where I work is different than my usual 6-3 job. Different in that it isn't feeding 60-80 hungry pro athletes, coaching staff, and auxiliary staff, but rather back to my beginnings, flipping burgers as a line cook. I am currently placed in the kitchen at one of the university pubs and the work is ingrown into my blood. I spent most of my career leading the kitchen in sports bars and pubs, creating similar menus and flipping my share of burgers on the grill. I feel like I have gone back in time, and obviously the "higher-ups" know this as they trust me to close the kitchen every shift I'm scheduled. This puts a wrench in my day a bit considering the business is so slow that I am planning on bringing a book to read during the day. I am so used to working early, where I can do something after work, that now I just go home. Convenient for these times of self-quarantine, but not if the city is in Stage 2 where people can go out and socialize a bit, perhaps enjoy a meal or drinks at a local restaurant that newly opened. Yes, I am not jumping at the chance to enter Stage 2 with bells on, but I would like the chance to do so, but this mid-day shift is quite the deterrent.
While working at this pub, I am trying not to do anything to appear highly interested, as I don't want to go back and work in this type of foodservice. I spent too much of my life running kitchens, and in the pubs that I worked, the menus I created raised sales to the point of controlled chaos in the kitchen, nevermind a hefty increase in sales and customers, similar to a video going viral. I didn't do this on purpose, creating a monster so-to-speak, but just had ideas of what people wanted to eat and how to make it efficient to serve to the people fast. Good grub at a pub is a staple for any local watering hole no matter what the theme, and I have success at being that kind of kitchen leader. It did create a large crater in my life though, working long hours, with little days off, and I grew a load of gray hairs. I missed out on family stuff, having proper relationships, and spent more time socializing with everyone in the industry instead of saving my hard-earned money.
Don't get me wrong, I like being busy, and enjoy working alone where I usually work, another form of my controlled chaos, but I don't want to be back in that environment. I naturally try to make things more efficient, it's in my blood I guess, and daily I have changed tiny little procedures to doing things my way to make the flow work. I know it doesn't matter right now as it is so slow testing efficiency is pointless, but I need to do this regardless. The other cooks, with whom I worked at Catering, are watching my skills in this cooking format, as they seem a bit less confident in line cooking. I was not confident working in catering, as there wasn't much training. I am always training when I'm with other cooks and have no problems doing so. I find most cooks don't want to take the time to train, and would rather point out things done wrong after the fact because there was no instruction in the first place. Not the most positive environment to create for cooks in new kitchens.
So the circle is complete, or perhaps it's a crazy eight formation. I seem to always find myself back in familiar territory no matter how far out I reach away from working in a pub setting. I hope this doesn't last much longer, and I can cruise back into the middle point of the crazy-eight symbol, feeding the team I so dearly miss, while teaching an apprentice my "ways of the force". I find more accomplishment and gratitude from cooking for them, where there is that Mom familiarity of "what's for lunch today?", while the compliments and requests from the team fill my boots daily. The smiles and team comradery is hard to recreate in a slow pub atmosphere. If it does begin to happen, I hope I don't fall into the pull of the black hole...