I have no shame. I was digesting the latest episode of LOST last night in bed when I came to a revelation: "If I had to work in a restaurant I think I'd like to be a butcher. I think I'd be good at analyzing a slab of meat and deconstructing it."
To which my lovely chefhusband replies: "You could never be a butcher, you'd have to sharpen your knife every night".
Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out, I was just about to quit my amazing teaching job to be a butcher! GEEZ, can't I just have a stupid, silly pipe dream? Seriously!
What would you want to do if you had to work in a restaurant? Would you be a pastry chef with a clean, precise job? Would you be a sommelier decanting and suggesting? Or would you be a chef, demanding, compulsive and powerful?
DCW_NYC
-Hilary-
19 comments:
The Owner!!!!! Ha-Ha-Ha!!! (When you start that means all of the above...if you are successful- that means like JG or Father Keller- (as in the church of Thomas Keller)
Seriously,
Not really knowing all the tasks are that are involved in what these people do...I am going with Sommelier. From the outside looking in, this "appears" to be the most classy and romantic of the positions...I am wrong aren't I?
Out of my league here :)
~PassionFoodie
I'd probably end up doing front of house. Maybe I'll have a real answer to this soon, because my chef is opening his own restaurant! I keep saying I don't want to be involved, but I have the feeling I'm going to end up hostessing or bartending or possibly even managing, who knows? I'll keep you guys updated!
bb
BB, I think you should work at your chef's place! At least in the beginning so you can see your restaurant baby grow. If my chef opens a place there is no way I wouldn't be all the time. He thinks he has paid his dues to the kitchen world...what about me?
Passion, You are right on about the sommelier..seems very romantic. We should track one down to really find out.
I wanted to share with all of you the extent that Hilary is not cut out to be a butcher (even in this fantasy world of hers). When I asked her to take a brisket out of a brine solution and cook it in the pressure cooker she asks, "Do I actually have to touch the meat?"
I think that she would be good at several jobs in a restaurant... But the butcher is not one of them. Analyze and deconstruct a potato, then we'll move on to meat.
Love you Hil...
-Erik
I love love love this blog but...just a little correction when you give the definition of CHEF'S WIFE should the term not be PPX that means VIP not PX, UNLESS that is a term I am not familiar with. We know PPX AS THE CORRECT TERM BUT sorry trying to be nice and make sure thAT THIS BLOG IS NUMBER 1 b/c in my eyes it is. Just tryig to be helpful!!!
Sommelier
lol!! A blog post has inspired a ChefHusband response! I love it. What else can we say to rile our chefhusbands?
bb
Hey I wanna be the naked dishwasher...
Sommelier, definitely.
Owner? No, not unless I have a faithful minion of a manager. You really DO have to be there. Silent partner who gets a cut each week is fun. Love the cash- and comps.
After sommelier, bartendresssss. But if I had to break with the booze theme, then hostess. You get to dress your best, stay relatively clean, and flirt with the manager when things slow down. Incidentally, the manager is my husband, and it's a good thing he doesn't like "dumb chicks" or else I'd be seriously jealous of the hostesses. Thankfully, on the whole, they ain't the sharpest knives in the kitchen. (And I can say that b/c I've hostessed.)
To the chefwife who envisions herself being at the restaurant all the time when her husband's the owner, I did that for some time, and I have great memories of my husband's place and the staff, who became our best friends out of convenience.
However, I've cut back on that b/c I found myself coming home depressed to realize how much fun he's having while I'm on the couch waiting up for him -or at my relatively lonely job. That, and you realize that these people get more of your husband's energy and time than you do (at least during the busy seasons), and you realize that he's got a whole family in addition to yours. No matter what, you're the boss' wife and kind of on the outside. It's a tough gig. But yes, the free food and booze, and always having a place to go "where everyone knows your name" is pretty great! Helping out is complicated - there are those moments where even the coolest husband resorts to "what do YOU know about this business" (regardless of the fact that I waitressed, hostessed, and am still in touch with the customer's view). Just be prepared for strange dynamics and try not to take it personally. The rewards are there if you keep the lines of communication open. Sorry so long and babbly.
First, I love the when the chef comments and the picture is awesome!
Having worked front of house, I now know with certainty that I would prefer working in the back away from customers. They can be awful!
Although I love my profession, I dream of being a pastry chef. Working with sweets, how can that be bad! But as a side note, I totally understand the attraction to being the butcher - something about the knives.
Hey Restaurant Bride, your comments are very helpful! I've been wondering what it's going to be like when he opens, and it's so great to get the other side of it. I have a feeling my experience is going to be very similar...
bb
I'm a hostess at my boyfriend's restaurant. I think my glam appearance in my hostess gear every night is what attracted him to me in the first place... he's discovered now that when I get home, I look like a complete slob.
I have dreams of moving to France and becoming a pastry chef though... *sigh*.
PS restaurantbride - Like you, I'd also like to think of myself as one of those 'sharper' hostesses, my boyfriend isn't a big fan of those "dumb chicks" either, otherwise he'd long have been involved with most of the hostesses and waitresses who throw themselves on him.
Ahhhhhh so great to hear from people in the same boat!
I met my chef while working as a restaurant manager, and once I left to have a baby, I said I would never go back. Well, now we're opening a restaurant. I wanted to be his pastry chef, but alas, he had me pegged as his maitre'd. It's a small kitchen, so maybe he was worried that after a few weeks surrounded by desserts, my bottom would no longer fit. A girl can dream, though.
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