Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks. This is another The Line episode.
The Line, because the last one was so good man. I love The Line episodes.
I love that shit. It makes me happy and sad at the same time, you know.
So we were thinking about making a line episode where we would talk about fucked up characters,
which is not that difficult to find in the rest of the course.
I can start everyone. Yeah, yeah, start. You kick it off. Get the ball rolling.
So there was this place, like the chef would come every morning.
And like the routine was that he would walk into the door.
So everybody saw him walking. And it was, you know, you were doing something else,
but you would take like a plate and put it in the microwave so that the plate was nice and hot and warm.
And then he would come and he would take the plate and go away.
So and I would see this all over and over again.
And then I would ask like, what is it for? Oh, he likes his plates warm for his morning cocaine line.
And I was like, OK, OK, OK, nice.
What difference does it make if you have a warm surface for?
I don't know. I guess it makes it steamy.
It steams the liquid and it makes it more powdery.
No idea, man. What country was this in? Germany.
Really? Fuck. That's next level.
You know, you know what I kind of like to believe is that he doesn't make any difference to the cocaine.
He just likes the warm feeling on his hands or on his nose.
It must be like full contact, just like face, laughing into the plate.
You know, some people like their coffee warm, some people like it cold.
Of course, of course.
I have a funny story of a time when I was working in this small restaurant in Germany also.
And the chef was like, he was a pretty young guy, the head chef.
And he he was a bit weird. He had some really strange moments.
Sometimes he was totally fine and sometimes he had just like these freak out moments.
And I was very young and he had a lot of issues with what I was doing, probably rightfully so.
And people, yeah, being totally honest, you know, I was very green, very fresh.
But I remember one time we came into the kitchen.
And I had spent the morning there already, just me and the dishwasher.
And he comes in, he's kind of like doing his stuff, you know, and he looks into the he's kind of talking, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Just like nonstop talking. He looks into the fridge and he closed the fridge.
He's like, where's the staff pasta that was left over from yesterday?
And I was like, I don't know. And he's like, there was pasta left over from yesterday.
I want to know where it went. And I was like, well, I don't know.
And he starts looking for it and he can't find it.
He goes for all the fucking drawers, the fridges.
And he's like, I know for a fact that I left some pasta there yesterday.
I want to know what happened to it.
And I was like, dude, I don't know where your pasta went.
And we're talking about not like kilos of pasta.
It was like I knew what he was talking about.
It was like a like a portion of pasta that was left over.
And he went to the dishwasher, it was Italian.
He was like, you know what happened to pasta?
Just was like, no, no, I mean, no.
And then he just went absolutely crazy.
He said, no, this is impossible.
This is food waste.
Somebody ate it. Somebody threw it away.
I know. And I know it was one of you.
And he just started freaking out.
I was like, man, I really just started flipping out.
He was like, I'm going to find it.
I find out who the fuck it was.
And he just like goes to this like big bin that's full of like garbage of like organic waste.
He just starts like digging, digging through this like stuff,
just like throwing like banana peels and onion peels and stuff like behind him.
While me and the dishwasher just standing around him, we're like, what the fuck is happening?
It's like 11 o'clock in the morning.
And he's like, pa pa pa.
Until he like finds this like scrap of pasta.
And I remember him just like grabbing it in his hand and like raising it in the air,
be like, aha, I knew it at the very bottom of the fucking bin.
I knew it. I knew one of you threw it away.
And we just look at him in disbelief.
And the dishwasher was like, oh, yeah, sorry.
They spoke like really bad English and he was like, oh, yeah, sorry.
I threw it away this morning.
That was me. Sorry.
And he, I remember him just like standing there with the pasta just like squished in his hand
and just being like the tension just kind of dropped.
And I think he just realized himself what the fuck he was doing there.
I remember you told me that story and that it was actually a place where we were together.
And I remember that guy, he was obsessed with making bad staff meal.
It was crazy. It was something like, no, no, no.
I don't want anybody to invest any time in the staff meal or making something special or blah, blah, blah.
And I remember that because you told me that story when it happened many years ago.
And I remember it was just pasta with tomato sauce.
You know, that portion must cost like 20 cents.
Yeah.
You know, and going crazy about that and then making.
And I remember something like, like I saw that place because you learn a lot when you see people doing stuff wrong,
because you actually experience why it shouldn't be like that.
And I remember the conversation during the staff meal was everybody talking about how bad the food was.
You know, like, yeah, what kind of input is that for a team that is supposed to give nice food to people?
You know, like, it's so stupid, right?
It's just so stupid.
It's so stupid.
And it's like, it was a really good like showcase of like how not to be as a head chef.
And as a manager and as a person, because, yeah, it's important not to waste food.
It's important to have transparency and, you know, honesty and blah, blah, blah.
But he wasn't actually worried about any of that.
He was making a show of ego, of power.
He was like, I want to know the truth.
You know, like just because he was like, I am the one in charge here.
I want an answer right now.
You know, it was really misguided.
And like you were saying, like the thing about star food,
I always, I'm a strong believer that if you have a place that has bad star food,
it's a bad restaurant, you know, like it's a bad kitchen team.
It's, I mean, like as in not the chefs are bad, but the culture is bad.
Absolutely.
The culture is bad.
The work ethic is bad.
And it's not a place that you want to stay because if you don't take care of your people,
they're not going to take care of anything.
I've never seen like a very good place with bad star food.
Exactly.
It doesn't exist.
It doesn't work like that.
And I've seen places where, you know, the workers bring their own food
because they want to eat the food that is given with, which is such a no-go, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
And it's really hard to get people there, you know, like to,
to make certain people understand that, you know, I often, you know,
when I was working in openings, um, other people sort of like, oh yeah, you know,
star food and I was saying, no, star food is very important.
And it was sort of, yeah, people can just order something off the menu.
And like, we're not going to have like a break.
We're just going to have people, they get that time and then they have like,
you can take 20 minutes.
Then afterwards you can take 20 minutes.
I was like, no, that's not going to work.
I mean, it's going to work, but it's going to make you,
it's going to make your restaurant shit.
I mean, I've worked in places that work like that, but it's just super inefficient.
You know, like, there are places that work like that.
You take something off the menu, you take your time.
And, but I think it's very important to give that half an hour break, you know,
like it's important for everything for mental health, for the quality of service
and everything.
And also not being, I remember in one place, it started like, yeah,
you take a half an hour break, but you're not getting paid for that half an hour.
You know, people were getting paid at that place, like eight euros per hour.
So it was a discussion about giving you four euros.
I mean, seriously, like at the end of the day, did this, this kind of saving money
in the corners backfires if these are the wrong corners, you know?
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, from a business point of view, if that's where you're saving money,
that's the wrong part.
Like, that's like, if you can't do that, you can't employ the people that you need
for the restaurant that you have exactly at a good rates, you know, like if it
doesn't work, it's not the fault of the people that you hire, it's the fault of
your system and the way that you've built your business.
So like, you know, it's, that's not the right cause of action to take.
You need to change other things that you can control.
But you can't just tell people, I'm not going to have you take a break, you know?
Well, there is also the, like the opposite extreme, which would be people
going too crazy about the star food.
Yeah, of course.
You know, like making people cry or these kinds of things.
I had a, there was a really funny situation in a restaurant in the Basque
country, which is a very, very high-end restaurant.
And they took star food very seriously, as in star food wasn't great, to be
honest with you, like if I think back of it now, it was okay.
But like they did have two chefs on permanently who only really took care
of star food and it always had to be like a starter, a main course, a salad,
and often like a dessert and it had to be varied and stuff like that.
And they would always like on a certain day make paella, you know, and just
try to make it as nice as possible.
But you know, what becomes apparent for a lot of people, that's also why star
food is so important, is that you put a chef who's like working on the fish
section, right?
And he's like making all these like nice dishes, put him on star food, let
him cook seven dishes throughout the week just by himself.
And it really shows you if he's a good chef or not, you know, because you can
replicate something that somebody else makes really well.
But if you're like left on your own, then it really comes to show like if
they're a good cook or not.
And yeah, so a lot of people then realized that they weren't actually as
good as they thought they were, I think.
One example that comes to mind is like where this chef was making star food
and the owner of the restaurant, the head chef, who was usually never ever
there, he came in for star food that day.
And obviously the guy was very scared and he made lentil soup for star food,
which is, you know, should be very easy to make, right?
But it's the thing is like, if you make it just kind of half-assed, it's got
to be very mediocre.
If you make it really well, it's a delicious thing.
But he didn't, he made it really half-assed.
And so the owner of this restaurant is a very famous chef, comes in and eats
the soup.
And I remember he's just kind of like very serious, like no emotions, just
gets a plate, sits down.
Everybody's like, oh, he's here, you know, oh cool.
Eats a couple of spoons, puts the spoon down, goes to the serving place.
And he's sort of like, did you cook this lentil soup?
And he was like, yeah, tell me the recipe.
And the guy was like, I don't know, I take the onion and I sweat it and blah.
And he was sort of like, yeah.
And he was like, why do you like it?
And he's like, no, it's shit.
It's crap.
And he was like, really, he like didn't freak out at him, but he was just so ice
cold and like in his face.
And he was sort of like, do you want me to call my mother to come in here and show
you how to cook a proper fucking lentil soup?
It's like, I can't believe that you're cooking in my restaurant.
You don't even know how to make a lentil soup.
You should be able to make delicious star food with nothing else but potatoes,
onions and eggs.
You know, like that should be enough for you as a chef to make something delicious.
And he just like kept talking to this guy.
And while the guy was like standing there, just crying quietly to himself, you know,
just in shame, because also it happened in front of everybody, the whole team,
front of house, some of the old chefs sitting there eating together.
And yeah, it was really, it was really horrible.
Yeah, I've heard stories of places like that, when the chef would come in, a chef
that would, you know, be like that about star food and the star food was not good enough.
All the head chefs, all the chef, the parties would stand up and leave.
Somebody, they rather not eating, not having lunch instead of seeing that spectacle in
the middle of midday, you know, like.
Yeah.
But if you make good star food, you can quickly establish yourself as like one of the guys,
you know, like one of the people, because you're taking care of people also, you know,
you make it, you make the little extra effort.
You're like, okay, I got to make a salad for stuff.
I don't really want, and I don't really have the time.
But fuck it.
I'm going to make it as nice as I can.
People appreciate that.
Yeah.
No, no, no, that's something I really learned.
And also, I mean, be smart.
If you don't know how to cook lentils, staff meal is the perfect place to learn how to
do that.
Putting in practice, learning new dishes, traditional dishes that you will never cook
in a restaurant.
Exactly.
Because like mom and grandma recipes, that's a place to experiment with that.
It's like a lab, you know, that you can take advantage of instead of taking it as a, oh
man, I have to cook here instead of being in the plating section at the pass, you know,
like you can't be there without knowing the first things first, you know?
Absolutely.
100%.
And it's like a misguided thing.
It's like, what do you want to do?
Do you want to, do you want to know how to cook really well, you know, or you want to
be the guy in the fancy jacket at the pass who calls out the orders, you know, you can't
be one without being the other.
Or you can, but you will not be good at your job.
Well, other fucked up stories I remember was there was this place, you know, that they
didn't have a dishwasher, which is again, like a super stupid thing to do.
Yeah.
And their solution was, well, the chef can stay half an hour, half an hour, one hour
after service, cleaning all the dishes.
And then they go, you know, like, I'm so clever.
That's such a, easy.
Yeah.
Such a smart solution.
And of course, if you do that to a team of chefs, also it's need to be said that people
that work in kitchens are not fancy intellectuals.
These are people that you will find in punk rock concerts or, you know, like all sorts
of street environments.
Used to be anyway, used to be.
Now it's hipster kids that want to rebel against their parents.
With tattoos of kitchen utensils.
Of a fucking chef's knife.
Anyways, like the, what was I saying?
The dishwashing.
Yeah, exactly.
So the solution was, okay.
So we just throw the plates away.
Systematically every day they would throw like, you know, three bags full of plates,
like fuck them, you know, like you want to save money here's your savings asshole.
That's crazy.
So crazy.
I would have a good example of like, Hey, if you treat people like shit, they're going
to not give a single shit.
Exactly.
I mean, if you treat them like rats, they're going to become rats.
Actually.
Yeah, absolutely.
No, that's very, very true.
You know, it's, um, and that's why it's like cultivating like a kitchen culture, you know,
it's so important where, you know, you have people that like ride and die with you, you
know.
The best like relationships with people that I've had in kitchens where, where you were
in, you had a relationship where you as a manager, they knew that you wanted the best
for them, right?
And that you were there to look after them and to teach them and to guide them.
And it was like a mutual benefit, you know, and like, when you were able to like push
them really, really hard and afterwards, you know, after you give like 110%, you know,
110% be able to kind of like finish service and like pat each other on the back and be
like, Hey, that was really good.
You know, like that's, that is the best.
But like, if you just take and take and take and you say, Oh yeah, Hey, just work a day
extra.
No, no problem.
Hey, you, you, you don't have anything to do, right?
Just stay another hour.
You know, it doesn't matter.
I know it says this in your contract, but aren't you committed to the restaurant?
It's like, well, if I commit to the restaurant, what do you commit to me?
Yeah.
And also, I mean, this, uh, I had a friend just recently, he was called for, for a job
interview, right?
Yeah.
And he was like, I'm not sure about the payment.
Not sure about it.
The guy calls him and says, uh, no worries.
You come here, I'll, I'll invite you, you know, so, so you have a meal and we talk it
over.
Everything's going to be fine.
And of course you come here means you have to buy a, a flying ticket, you know?
And he was like, uh, look, I'm, I'm, I'm not convinced.
I'm saying, I'm not going to take it.
I need to take a ticket now, but besides the salary you're offering me, it's not what I'm
looking for.
So let's leave it like that.
He sent like a, whatever, an SMS.
The guy calls completely mental because how does he dare to, to, to, to, to, to, to
you know, to not accept this offer and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, again, like this, uh, this shares that things are gods in their little world,
you know, and they have to be praised as such is so absurd.
And you get to see the till today.
I'm talking about the, this was just last week.
I heard this story, you know?
Well, what ship was it?
We can, we can, we can cut it out or we can beep it out.
What ship was it?
Tell me.
I, I think it was.
Okay.
Yeah.
But it's like, Hey, but it's good, you know, because he got the confirmation that his
decision was right.
You know, exactly.
It's like a red flag.
Absolutely.
Because I mean, if you were like some, some, someone, I don't know what word to use
elegant or more sophisticated, you say, okay.
Thanks for everything.
Period.
End of the conversation.
Goodbye.
That's it.
You know, you don't call him.
How dare you not to take the job I'm offering you and blah, blah, blah.
You know, like who does that?
Yeah.
You know, psychopaths.
Yeah.
But it's like you say also kind of like, all right, you know, I think it's like totally
normal.
And it took me a while to also accept this in my, in my head, you know, that if somebody's
like wants to hire you, like if you're already an established professional and you know,
they say, I want you to come to cook in my restaurant to manage this, blah, blah, blah.
And they want to hire you from like, you know, the other side of the globe, you know,
it's not like nobody should expect you to buy a plane ticket.
It's very simple.
If they want to hire you, if they want to hire internationally, they have to pay for
the plane ticket for the accommodation for one day, you know, et cetera.
And you know, like ideally, you know, show you the restaurant also where they're at.
I think that's like a super normal.
It should be anyway.
Yeah, exactly.
No, and going crazy about it, you know, going crazy, someone crazy.
Well, and the other story about fucked up characters, I wanted to tell, I had this,
this chefs, you know, they were related like cousins and they became like really
like famous afterwards and I was working with them and I also was in contact with a guy who
worked with them for a long while.
I think he was even his head chef for a while.
So we were talking and telling stories because these guys were so fucked up, man.
They would do things like, you know, you would see them coming on the,
on the day on their day off to the restaurant and taking like a pineapple and a steak and
take them out.
And this is for a test I'm going to do at home and would leave it like this.
So that was so, so crappy.
We would go to this, you know, like a nice, you know, like an old school beach restaurant
and we would do a catering there.
So he was like the invited chef goes to this restaurant to give a dinner for a special event.
So we would use this host kitchen.
So to say the instruction, the instruction was to steal everything we could to take trays,
what the fuck, because we had so many problems with topper wars and all these kind of things.
And after that event, we had everything, you know, like tons of topper.
That's so crazy.
And this guy would do this kind of things over and over again.
And you would see him talking in interviews, like making things up out of nowhere.
You know, like, yeah, we took some plankton and infuse it with sand and the reporter like sad.
Yes.
So all the chefs looking like, what is this?
Well, that also happens a lot, you know, like people bullshit talking about dishes.
Oh yes, this was this herb taken from the forest where a nun grew it and would sing to it every day.
And it's bought from the supermarket, you know, like this kind of thing.
Oh man, I've seen that so much, you know, also like, like Nordic restaurants,
sub restaurants.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, like you see the Netflix shows, the chef's tables and it's like, look at this carrot,
you know, like, oh, this is the most beautiful carrot.
And then when you go work there, you know, it's like the fucking supermarket truck, just like.
Even lying about seafood origins, you know, like, yeah, this is an Atlantic cake and this and that.
And it's whatever, man, you know, like.
Yeah, it's pretty shameless.
And that's why, you know, it's like, I'm glad that we're moving away from that a little bit,
you know, and we're just sort of like, I think like less pretentiousness is the way to go.
You know, that's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks.
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