EP08_mixdown.txt 00:00:04:20 - 00:00:17:03 Erich Everyone, welcome to Potluck Food Talks. Today we have our second meaning episode of Our Meaning Serious the Line. So Feel. Did you remember about Sergeant Beetroot? 00:00:17:09 - 00:00:33:09 Phil Yeah, of course. How could I ever forget Sergeant Beetroot? I mean, this. There's so many. There's so many wonderful stories of this very special restaurant where you and I met. Maybe we should introduce the restaurant a little bit. 00:00:34:05 - 00:00:49:20 Erich Yeah. The chef was this guy. Let's call him Pierre Brandenburg. And he was actually a really good chef, but a very bad leader and a very bad manager. And it's one of the places where I lived some of the most fucked up stories in the kitchen. 00:00:50:00 - 00:01:08:22 Phil I mean, yeah, it was a really strange time at this restaurant. I mean, we both spent a really long time in this, obviously, where we met Steve. It was a really inspiring restaurant. He did very, very good food. And it has for me personally, had a very special dynamic and a very small team. A lot of the time and. 00:01:08:22 - 00:01:19:11 Phil And just a really, really strange atmosphere, I mean, in a good way and in a bad way also. But yeah, a lot of the stories that I think about today still come from come from that restaurant. 00:01:20:01 - 00:01:28:05 Erich Yeah. I mean, we also have to say that how many hours would we work there? Sometimes 16 hours a day, you know, like crazy. 00:01:28:09 - 00:01:28:22 Phil Easily. 00:01:29:05 - 00:01:51:09 Erich Yeah. And if I think back about it, there was no reason to do that. You know, we were working as many hours just for evening service. There was no lunch, which is fucked up. I mean, it's just bad organization. There is no excuse. You know, you should organize your kitchen in a way that you don't need to do that. 00:01:51:12 - 00:02:08:24 Erich This guy would put so much pressure, he would be there most of the time. Not not like Clowes is a guy who he also had many things that I respect very much. For instance, on the wall, there was this story with the chimpanzees. Do you remember that story? 00:02:09:00 - 00:02:10:05 Phil Yeah, of course I remember. 00:02:10:21 - 00:02:44:05 Erich Well, the story goes like this. Middle of service and then, like a complete rank of waiters takes a table of ten, which was completely ready plate, warm plates, everything perfect. And they bring it to the wrong table. And this guy goes completely out of his mind, completely crazy. Start screaming like you. All fucking waiters are illiterates. You're a chimps. 00:02:44:18 - 00:02:47:01 Erich Chimps with ties. 00:02:49:12 - 00:03:07:14 Erich And he goes completely crazy and he wouldn't stop. He would go like, And you, you're also a fucking idiot. Only to the service staff. And I remember he would turn back and I was on the on the hotline at the moment, and he would be so completely nice to me. Like, okay, we go with, Are you ready? Okay, you fucking idiots. 00:03:07:23 - 00:03:21:12 Phil You know? Yeah. He was such an eccentric guy. He was like. Like he would feel like he did it on purpose a lot of the time. He was just like he was just letting himself go, you know, as sort of like. 00:03:21:15 - 00:03:22:21 Erich Playing his character. 00:03:23:01 - 00:03:36:00 Phil Playing his character 100%. And like so many times, you know, because you could him from the dining room, it was like a thing like, oh, just like old school famous chef that is shouting at people, you know? 00:03:36:09 - 00:04:00:03 Erich Yeah. And I remember he would like when there were tables that would like, ask staff, like, you shouldn't ask, like in a restaurant or that level. Like, could you please cook my pigeon a little bit more or these kind of things. He would like open the door of the dining room. And I have heard it and turned fucking Italians, fucking Austrians fucking the fucking down. 00:04:00:03 - 00:04:25:04 Erich All kinds of nationalities. And one day, one day there was this table with the mall's annoying table. They wanted everything different. And could you do this and could you do that? And then I see him, and he wouldn't say Not a single word, nothing. And then I asked, like, What? What? What's going on? Like, why is it now insulting the clients? 00:04:25:04 - 00:04:41:04 Erich What's wrong? And apparently the Jews were Jewish or Israeli. And of course, you don't want to get in that kind of trouble in Germany and in Berlin. That's not something. I mean, you can go to jail like and next day, you know. 00:04:41:05 - 00:04:42:10 Phil Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. 00:04:42:18 - 00:05:12:09 Erich But, well, going back to the story, the chimp story where he called all the waiters, chimpanzees and this kind of things, then that he would bully him so much. Like, are you fucking fat fagot? And this was such a high level professional. I think that's one of the best metaphors I've seen in my life. I went to it to the rest on once and I was really impressed by his way of of leading the dining room, and he would just humiliate him in front of everyone for no reason. 00:05:12:09 - 00:05:40:05 Erich And and, and for, for no professional reason. You know, like, you don't call someone a fucking fat fag for no reason, period. Well, anyways, like, he insulted everyone. This was I remember probably a Saturday because then we had weekend, Sunday, Monday I think, and perhaps we had some the Monday night service and like ten people quit that day. 00:05:40:14 - 00:06:09:15 Erich And I remember that because it was the, the hardest day in my career was that Monday evening because the service that we would normally deliver those people, we were only four. So luckily we had a super good two chef Let's call him Fritz. Fritz super German guy was a super good sous chef and he organized a kitchen. We had to rewrite the whole menu to make it work for the capacities that we had. 00:06:10:08 - 00:06:37:05 Erich So and we pulled it off. We delivered a good service. So in the middle of service, the chef comes in and he sees the whole situation that everybody quit. That is just four of us that we're we've been working there all day. And and that's something I respect that that what he did at that point, he went into the dishwashing station and the conditions for the whole service. 00:06:37:21 - 00:06:47:24 Erich And that something I mean, this guy I wouldn't say I respect him, but there were things that he did like this one that that are respectable. 00:06:48:00 - 00:07:10:21 Phil No, definitely. I mean, he was. Yeah, You definitely had his qualities, for sure. I mean, like, I you know, I don't think highly of him. He did a lot of things that were really fucked up and he was very racist. He was very abusive. But every now and again, he came through with things where you were. You were sort of like, Alright, you know, you're doing this a solid. 00:07:10:21 - 00:07:16:07 Erich So going back to Sergeant Boudreau and this guy, I hated him so much. He was so nasty. 00:07:17:04 - 00:07:18:05 Phil And yet. 00:07:18:16 - 00:07:51:17 Erich And I mean this guy, he, he had these things that are so wrong from someone working in a competitive environment, you know, all that like being all friendly and flattering with the chef and telling his personal things and telling him he's so nice and and this and that. And then being an asshole with his coworkers, blaming everybody for everything and having a superb tone, using a lot of irony, a lot of sarcasm. 00:07:52:06 - 00:07:54:00 Erich Man, he was so annoying. 00:07:54:12 - 00:07:56:10 Phil But this guy, he was super toxic. 00:07:56:18 - 00:08:34:18 Erich Yeah, but he developed this air. That actually was a pretty good dessert. I remember we after he left, we we continue to to develop that dessert, which was a beetroot dessert. Were sheep, yogurt and lime panna cotta. Then it had like a a crumble of cocoa and, and hazelnuts and then beetroot and many different forms like a sorbet and ice cream, business sauces, big gold. 00:08:34:18 - 00:08:40:03 Erich And then it also had the crispy elements of the beetroot and. And the beetroot. 00:08:40:03 - 00:08:41:00 Phil Leaves. 00:08:41:05 - 00:09:08:13 Erich Yeah. Like all of the parts of the beetroot. But it was like, it wasn't like a really hard dessert to, to, to prepare to have everything in place and, and he was leading the stage on at the moment and, and the guy would go crazy about it. I remember he was full of beetroot all the time, Like his chef's jacket was dirty all the time. 00:09:08:13 - 00:09:09:18 Erich He would like it was. 00:09:09:18 - 00:09:31:01 Phil Such a filthy guy. He was such a filthy guy. I mean, like he was he was a little bit chubby, right? He was like a very round, puffy face. And he would he was always kind of dirty and he would always I remember him very, very well because he would always kind of like walk around and just like, pick on things and just shove them in his mouth. 00:09:31:17 - 00:09:50:00 Phil And I remember that he was like, whenever you were prepping something, he would just like, come by and just start talking to you, just like, start eating whatever you're doing. I remember at one point I was slicing butter and he was like stuffed next to me and he was kind of like, you know, dirty, dirty Chef white. And he was just kind of talking to me. 00:09:50:00 - 00:10:05:22 Phil Then absentmindedly just started like putting cubes of butter in his mouth. And I turned around to him. I was totally eating cold butter. And he was like, Yeah, what? And he'd just like, walk off. Yeah. There was just something about him that was just kind of grimy. Yeah. 00:10:05:22 - 00:10:34:01 Erich And, and then he had this. He was like a fanatic, right? He would like. Yeah. And we do this because we were so passionate. Like, really exaggerator. Really Like you felt it wasn't honest. He was just like, also playing his character. And then exactly from one day to the next was the opposite. You know, one day he's telling you, belittling, playing this fantastic role of the passionate chef, and the next day he was like, Oh, that just doesn't make any sense. 00:10:34:01 - 00:10:56:19 Erich I don't know what I'm doing here. There's this associati. I hate everything. This doesn't like this dishes and everything. And I was like, Dude, what the fuck? What? Why don't you just fuck off? And he did. He he quit, and. And I was like, okay, this is payback moment. So he was he had like a week before leaving. 00:10:56:19 - 00:11:13:17 Erich And for that week I remember having, like, like a big part in the fridge and I would put every big root related thing to that pot. Rest of sauces, beetroot stalks, pieces of beet root, whatever I found, like for the whole week. 00:11:13:17 - 00:11:31:06 Phil I think we have to like notes that for people who don't know that it is a tradition in kitchens that when somebody leaves that you I mean how would you call it? I mean, like if somebody leaves and like on their last day they get a lot of sort of like random shit dumped on them. 00:11:31:14 - 00:11:45:01 Erich Yeah. And there are places where you just get a bucket of cold water and that there are other places where people get really crazy about it and use like rotten fish start guys, stuff like that. 00:11:45:12 - 00:11:56:03 Phil Yeah, I've seen horrible things happen. Yeah, definitely. I've seen rotten fish guts that have been left outside for seven days and yeah. Was definitely a horrible thing. 00:11:56:07 - 00:12:22:19 Erich Yeah. Well at the end of the day my, my action was, and I was crazy a lot, but the funny thing is that he wasn't expecting it so it was his, his last day. I remember this guy, the sous chef. I asked him for permission to do this, like kind of a dump, like ten liters of beetroot stuck on the head of this guy. 00:12:23:01 - 00:12:25:08 Erich Yeah, sure. Do you remember how it happened? 00:12:26:14 - 00:12:50:19 Phil It was amazing because. Yeah, so. So it's he was a he was a very strict and very disciplined guy. And so when you asked him for permission, you know, you could really sort of like see it in his face. I was kind of like thinking about the situation. He was like, Yeah, okay, so it is good. And then he was like, Yeah, I'll give you the sign when the air is clear. 00:12:50:22 - 00:13:03:03 Phil So basically when Chef has left, he's going to the office and it's your cue to get the stuff and to dump it on this guy. And so service finishes and we're kind of like finishing off and he just. 00:13:03:09 - 00:13:09:21 Erich Gets this sergeant bit just finished cleaning his station like the last millimeter of his station. 00:13:10:06 - 00:13:22:23 Phil Exactly. Yeah. And it's kind of goes like it, you know, and everybody's kind of like looks at him and he's like, that was the same. 00:13:22:23 - 00:13:47:13 Erich So I went to the fridge and went to the fridge. I take my pot of ten liters of beetroot juice and stock and stuff. And I which was ice cold, by the way. And I poured on top of his head and the guy goes like and he turns around and he sees me. He wasn't expecting it at all. 00:13:48:12 - 00:13:49:21 Erich He wasn't happy either. 00:13:50:07 - 00:14:10:11 Phil He was not happy. And I mean, like, I mean, you have to say that like that, these sorts of things, you know, it's like if you're really an asshole, if nobody likes you, nobody's going to do this shit to you. Really. Everybody just wants you to leave and get the fuck out of the restaurant, right? This is like a little bit of like, a rite of passage, you know? 00:14:10:11 - 00:14:31:07 Phil Like, this is not something horrible that you do to, like, make somebody feel shit about leaving. I mean, this is kind of like a little bit of a sympathy thing. You know? But he took it really, really badly. I remember his face going as red as his jacket was. I mean, basically his chef jacket was ruined. I mean, beetroot, you know. 00:14:31:07 - 00:14:43:20 Erich And you know what? The guy did that like his last move, like in revenge for this. He stole some of my jackets and aprons after that, and he took them. Oh, really? Yeah. Well. 00:14:44:01 - 00:14:44:19 Phil I had no idea. 00:14:44:19 - 00:15:03:08 Erich Yeah, this is the kind of person we were talking about. Do you remember that? There was this guy that he had, like, a notebook and he would write down the insults? The the chef would say, because sometimes there were, in a very sick way, quite creative. And he. 00:15:03:08 - 00:15:31:22 Phil Was. Yeah, there were. I remember that. Yeah, it was. I guess it's kind of like a coping mechanism not to write these things down. But yeah, I remember like, I remember a couple of things. I definitely very much remember that in service. One time he said to me, he was like, I'm going to cut you into little pieces and put you in a parcel and send you send you back to Spain, to your mum. 00:15:32:03 - 00:15:41:21 Erich And your roommate, to this to this Turkish guy. He said the same, but I'm going to put you in a in a fucking cover up and cut you like a donor to your parents. 00:15:42:10 - 00:16:06:03 Phil Can you also remember one time, like, I don't know what happened, but it was just before we were supposed to have like a cooking course in the restaurant. And, and as you remember, like in the walk in fridge, in the meat walking fridge, we would have whole birds hanging of like guinea fowl and breasts, chicken and whole ducks and all that sort of stuff. 00:16:06:18 - 00:16:23:20 Phil And I can't remember what it did, but he turned around. He said to me he was sort of like, I'm going to string you up or going to put you on a hook and I'm going to hang you from the past like a breast chicken. And so when these guys come in, you're just hanging out for everybody to look at you. 00:16:26:03 - 00:16:55:10 Erich Do remember this other guy who was like a punk rocker guy who lived like, in a squat house that I remember this guy cooked really well. And you could tell that by the way he cooked stuff meal, which is always a good indicator of how good a chef is. And I remember his staff meal was delicious, but the way he did grated from the moment he started and then the chef started bullying him until the very end. 00:16:55:10 - 00:17:07:09 Erich And he would tell things like, I was like, I'm going to make you kill yourself on your way home to jump off a bridge and stuff like that. No. 00:17:08:06 - 00:17:15:14 Phil Yeah, I remember that. And he was like, You don't think I can do it? I can. I can do things to you psychologically that make you jump off a bridge. 00:17:16:01 - 00:17:24:02 Erich No, I said, Yeah. He said, Like, I can do things to you psychologically that are not yet written. 00:17:24:02 - 00:17:42:15 Phil Bridge. What? Water treatment? Yeah, I remember that guy really well, actually. He started. He started limping, like on his third month, and. And then he, like, started limping and saying he was having a problem, and then he would just not show up anymore. 00:17:42:18 - 00:17:59:20 Erich And you remember the mantra of the chef was whoever can take a just leave. Whoever does not mind motivation, you can leave. I'm not here to motivate anybody. And I just want the strongest to stay here with me. And he would say that every second day. Yeah. 00:18:00:13 - 00:18:02:16 Phil I'm surprised, actually, how long we stayed them. 00:18:02:16 - 00:18:30:20 Erich Yeah, we stayed very long, I remember. And we both left without ending or compromise. So the reason I finished and actually this is one of the most hardcore stories, I lived in a kitchen and you were next to me. There was this event, I would say it was mainly for but organization that many things went wrong. And this event and organization always comes from a boss, from management. 00:18:31:13 - 00:18:56:20 Erich And there were like this staff tartlets that weren't good enough to deliver. And but I remember I was at that point, I was completely sick of that place and completed and motivated. I mean, I've been working there for, for a long while and so many hours every day. I was just about to take vacations and then this event happens and this thing happened. 00:18:57:13 - 00:19:23:08 Erich And so the guy comes to me and you were like half meter next to me. And and he gives me this look that when I describe this look to the friends, it was like laughing, but like in a very crazy maniac way, like a laugh that somebody completely lost his control. And I did the mimic of this face to to to a friend. 00:19:23:08 - 00:19:48:11 Erich And he told me, Yeah, people that have that face are about to do something really crazy. And that's exactly what happened. He takes the tartlets and I like this small cakes with like a cross on button and he throws me one and the first one slides over my shoulder and I'm completely in shock. I don't understand what's going on. 00:19:49:20 - 00:20:16:01 Erich It's like a movie, like not real. Like this is what happens when you're in a shock situation. Then the next startled goes directly to my forehead and it starts crumbling down with the sores and everything. And the next one to my shoulder. His wife was next to him and started screaming like, What are you doing? And another toddler and another toddler. 00:20:16:17 - 00:20:43:23 Erich And I would just stand there. I remember in my head what what was happening was I can't quit because I'm taking vacations for like three weeks. And and if I take vacations, I need to have a job when I come back. So I just need to take this shit then. And whatever happens next, whatever, you know. And that's what I did. 00:20:44:01 - 00:20:59:20 Erich I took vacations and when I came back, I quit. And I remember the day I quit, the guy was like, But come on, Eric, really. I know, but I mean, I want you to. To grow in this company. We're like friends. We're like a family, you know? 00:20:59:20 - 00:21:31:22 Phil But yeah, yeah, it was. I think it's probably the moment that I best remember from my time in that restaurant, because it was. It was really it was really terrible. I mean, like something he wasn't happy with something. And I remember us being in the pastry section. The pieces section was a very narrow sort of pathway. You know, And I was in between, you guys. 00:21:32:18 - 00:21:50:10 Phil And so I kind of like stood against the wall. And so these like coffees were kind of like flying past me towards you. And I remember him just shouting at you, sort of like it started off like very calmly. He was like. 00:21:52:07 - 00:21:59:17 Erich Nah, that's what you're just about to say is what happened next week. You remember? 00:21:59:17 - 00:22:00:02 Phil What do you mean? 00:22:01:02 - 00:22:03:07 Erich Are you going for the door wash? 00:22:04:23 - 00:22:06:03 Phil That was the same day. 00:22:06:03 - 00:22:31:08 Erich No, no, no, no, no, no. This is what happened. So next week. So I remember at that time we were usually I think we were taking the same subway, So we would always, after work, like have a beer on target and decompress for the whole service and work stuff and and I remember like next like the week afterwards. 00:22:32:01 - 00:22:59:08 Erich And that was kind of like I felt it also like, like revenge or like a comeback because I was supposed to take like, like an utensil that was at the chef station. He was cooking also in the middle of service. So I walk past him and I feel like that I touch him. So I turn around and I see him and the guy was completely full of hot sauce. 00:23:00:09 - 00:23:25:01 Erich He just, you know, his face, his neck, everything full of hot. So I turn around and I look him and I was like, okay, here it goes. So I went back to my station and I remember him saying, You better deliver a perfect service or I will skin you off and send your skin to your bones in Venezuela or wherever the fuck they live. 00:23:25:08 - 00:23:44:21 Erich I don't know. I deliver a perfect service that they. But he wouldn't stop. He was like, You asshole, you asshole asshole. Oh, Uncle as it was. And you get it all up and down and all. And this lasted like, how long? Like for 3 hours at least. Like you wouldn't stop. 00:23:45:01 - 00:24:02:06 Phil Well, during service, said the whole service because of his pride, you know, he like, he couldn't take it. It was like an easy mistake. I mean, you turned around, he ran into you or you ran into him or, like, whatever. And yet, I mean, all that happened was that you had some sauce splattered on his white chef. 00:24:02:06 - 00:24:18:16 Erich White and his face. Yeah. I mean, what a miserable man. He's all the angry, locked up in a kitchen he built for himself. He has no loyalty from his team. No team, and, well, just a few years later, he closed the restaurant. 00:24:18:17 - 00:24:42:10 Phil Yeah, like two years later, I think. And, I mean, yeah. No loyalty from his team. Always burning out his chefs. I mean, the thing that he was so proud of this restaurant was very vegetable. Heavy is very vegetable focused. You had to be it grew all its own produce and so to automated the garnish and vegetable section was very intense. 00:24:42:20 - 00:25:00:22 Phil And he was proud of the fact that that section was so hard that people would just thrown out and leave. Like that guy that we talked about would just start limping. And I mean, there was so many times where it was just sort of like, you that's the sous chef that we were talking about. And like three apprentices. 00:25:01:16 - 00:25:12:20 Phil Grant Michelin Star Michelin star restaurant. That's it. Two trained chefs and three apprentices. And then there's this guy shouting at everybody, expecting everybody to deliver. 00:25:12:22 - 00:25:26:06 Erich Yeah. And I mean, he doesn't has anything nowadays. I mean, he's doing whatever he's doing, but he's not like, like an important chef anymore at all. 00:25:26:06 - 00:25:52:23 Phil And that really goes to show, right? It's like you. He was a very good cook and he was very creative and he had really, really good ideas. But of course, to show how how, you know, that's not the only thing that's important. You know, being a business owner, being a leader and a manager, you know, it's there's so much to it and doing it in a really good way, in the way that lasts. 00:25:53:07 - 00:26:04:06 Phil And that is actually productive for people to take something away from it. You know, that that takes a lot of skill in a very, very different way. And he had none of that.