Service, please

Service, please. Those two words I never thought I'd actually say. Of course, I dreamed that I would, but I didn't think I actually would!! 

It’s a Thursday evening in June, mid service and we have over thirty covers currently, with more orders stamping out of the machine as I speak. Most guests are having two courses, which is great, great for business but great for use in the kitchen also. Those who come, make the effort of dressing nicely, and then have one course, I just don’t see the point! Why would you go to that effort, travel costs - usually a taxi so they can have a few alcoholic drinks - and then just have one course… Silly! 

The food we serve is local produce, but presented in a fine dining way - small portions, but big flavour. The meat dishes are most popular - even though the vegetarian and vegan lifestyle is popular these days, we certainly have more meat eaters than not! 

Service, please! Another table’s food has just been served, onto the next. ‘I’m leaving.’ I hear this but think I’m imagining it. I'm head chef, no one has left since I was promoted, but I always worry that someone will, I’ve had nightmares over it.  If someone were to leave us, it’d leave the rest of us in a real situation, as the food stations and dishes are shared between the five of us.  

I hear the door swing with force. That wasn’t a waitress or waiter, that was… wait… that was Charlie. No, not Charlie, he’s on meat main courses. No, where’s he gone, why has he gone. I need to speak with him, but I really don’t have the time, I have a tsunami of orders flooding the kitchen. What’s happened? I shout, where’s Charlie gone?. Peter responds with ‘’he’s left, well that’s what he said’’ … I heard that, didn’t realise it at the time, but I did actually hear those words… So why has he left? Peter says something about he can’t be bothered but I think that’s probably just Peter's opinion on Charlie - Peter and Charlie have always been civil, but they wouldn't be friends outside of work let’s say.

So now there is no one on the meat main course station, the orders that are coming are, you guessed it, for meat main courses, so now I need to try and figure this situation out. I sprint over to the meat mains station and get to work; although now there is no one to shout out the orders, we are just going to have to wing it. I make it clear we have four meat mains and another two fish mains. Lucky that I know our food, menu, recipes like the back of my hand and I can just get to creating these dishes. We have forty minutes until service finishes, I’ve just got to keep the kitchen above the water until then. 

Charlie has left, but with him, he’s taken the humour of the kitchen, no one is talking, no one is communicating. It’s my job to keep the communication going and everyone on the ball, everyone serving incredible food, but I can’t do that job, and serve incredible food myself, all whilst wondering why Charlie has left with no warning, and more importantly, no explanation.

A dish is returned. We NEVER have plates returned with a complaint, what’s happened? A fish dish has been served but the fish isn’t cooked. I would have known that, had I been checking food quality before calling service please. But I wasn't there, I was on the meat mains station, so Peter, who’s on the fish station, just called service please when he thought the plate was ready. God damn it. Apologies to the guest, I tell Sarah our head waitress, I will get another fish main plate out. I head over to Peter, the meat mains that have just pounced into the kitchen will have to wait a minute. Peter, I say, we’ve had a plate returned, a fish main, with under cooked fish. ‘’Ah , sorry, I’ll do another’’ he says… almost like he doesn’t actually really care. Make sure it’s cooked this time I say, as I turn back to my meat main station. 

Service, please. The last dish. The last plate of food that this evening, I am so glad has happened. I didn’t think we’d get through it - Peter decided he didn’t care towards the end, and the plates didn’t look incredible - I can only hope they tasted incredible. Charlie hasn’t come back, I’m beginning to realise he did actually mean he was leaving. I say well done to the team and we clean up. Again, no one talks, there is no laughter, there is no conversation. It’s eerily quiet and I’m too tired to make conversation. I'm working out what I’m going to say to Charlie when I call him in a while.

I pick up my phone and find the last text from Charlie - 2 days ago, nothing out of the ordinary. I hit the call button and wait.Charlie, it’s me, what happened this evening? Why have you left? ''I don’t want to be under you any longer, I don’t like how you work'' he replies, and puts the phone down. The phone is still against my ear a minute later, I think I’m actually in shock. He doesn’t like how I work, what’s wrong with how I work? I need the answer to this? Is this why this evening there was no communication after Charlie left, because actually, the kitchen team aren’t a team at all, and are just five guys who turn up to work, do their job, and go home again? Peter showed he didn’t care this evening when that plate was returned, in fact , there were two of his plates returned. I saw how much it affected him - zero, zero percent - he didn’t care at all. I was devastated, and it wasn’t even my dish, but I was devastated for the team, and the guest, that the plate of food wasn’t incredible.

I write a pros and cons list about how I work. I can’t find anything majorly wrong, other than I think I’ve been putting all the effort I have into creating incredible food, and very little effort into creating a team. The team learnt and followed the recipes I created - I didn’t give them any input, maybe that’s why they don’t care, maybe I need to give them responsibility, and not carry it all on me. Maybe that’s what Charlie meant.

I’m sitting in the local coffee shop, people watching and flicking through today’s local paper. The paper rarely is any good, but it’s something to keep up with in the community and can bring about opportunities. That’s when I saw it. I saw something I didn’t expect, not even a little bit. Charlie’s restaurant, opening next month. New menus, seasonal produce, local produce. He’s going into competition with me and my restaurant. My restaurant is something I dreamed of as a teenager and young adult in cooking school. I won't let Charlie take this from me, I have to beat him. How could he? Oh, I realise as quickly as I thought it, he didn’t care about my restaurant, my food, my guests, at all,  it just paid the way for him to create his own restaurant and menu. 

I send a whatsapp to the group chat that I have just remembered to take Charlie out of. I have requested everyone designs and creates their own dish for a new menu to be launched in 28 days, two days before Charlie opens his restaurant. Bring it on Charlie, I will not be beaten, and I will have a team in my kitchen soon, all calling service, please.