EP09_mixdown.txt 00:00:04:14 - 00:00:19:10 Erich Hi, everyone. Welcome to Potluck Food Talks. Today we have another micro episode of The Line. So, Phil, how was your time in Japan? And you told me some crazy shit that happened over there. Yeah. 00:00:19:10 - 00:00:50:12 Phil I mean, I spent about a year cooking in Japan. It was I had a really, really fantastic time and a really, really crazy time at the same time. I just left Europe for for the first time, really. And I was working in a really, really fantastic restaurant and a very famous restaurant in Europe. And after I had finished my season there, they asked me where I wanted to go and they kind of link me up with a restaurant I had been dreaming of in Japan. 00:00:50:17 - 00:01:30:04 Phil A very famous, very high level restaurant, three Michelin stars in Tokyo. And I traveled there and spent a year there. And yeah, I mean, that restaurant was it was like a completely different world. The things that that happened inside of that restaurant were were just a bit bit like out of a movie. I mean, the abuse in the kitchen was very frequent and very often chefs would get physically abused very, very frequently for very slight mistakes. 00:01:30:11 - 00:01:41:04 Erich You told me a story, one of the there was this chef, that party beating the shit out of it's come in the changing rooms with the backside of a screwdriver or something like that. 00:01:41:05 - 00:02:11:09 Phil Oh, yeah. Yeah, but that happens. And they kind of to try to keep it kind of like behind closed doors. So obviously, the majority of the chefs in that restaurant were Japanese. Right. And so between I was the only, like, chef working full time. That was not Japanese. Apart from that, there were some international interns, sort of like two or three interns at the time, But I was the only chef who was not. 00:02:11:18 - 00:02:39:13 Phil So they did try and keep it sort of like behind closed doors. But the the treatment between sort of management and and the rest of the staff was very brutal, very, very notably, there was this one guy who who used to be a chef in the kitchen, and then he sort of fucked up and he got demoted. He got demoted to being like the house janitor and cooking star food. 00:02:39:18 - 00:02:58:08 Phil That was his job. Cleaning the house and cooking stuff would because of a mistake that he made in the kitchen. I mean, this is the reality of like what it was like. There were a lot of people there who were chefs who say, like went to the restaurant and said, I want to work here. I want to cook here. 00:02:59:00 - 00:03:18:15 Phil And the guy was sort of like, Well, if you want to cook here, then, you know, like, you'll have to do your time. And so they put you in service to serve tables. And the guys were sort of like, alright, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll work front of house, I'll work service until there's a space open for me because I have the dedication, I have the commitment. 00:03:18:20 - 00:03:38:11 Phil I really want to work in such a legendary place. Skip to two years later, they're still in front of house, they're still working, but they're actually chefs and they're still they're kind of like waiting tables, putting on a suit every day, waiting for their chance to get into the kitchen was absolutely insane. 00:03:38:12 - 00:03:39:18 Erich Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 00:03:40:01 - 00:03:57:21 Phil Absolutely insane. And so they would come in in the morning, do some, like, fish prep and it would be really good, you know, they'd be really, really talented chefs. And so they'd do some prep, but then they'd put on a suit and go for this absolute crazy. One of them now is a michelin star chef. You know, when I arrived, he was there. 00:03:57:21 - 00:04:00:20 Phil He had been there for like a year and a half working in front of suits. 00:04:01:05 - 00:04:12:24 Erich So I remember this story that was about a price that the restaurant was supposed to get and didn't get. And that was like the most crazy night you had the dress on. 00:04:13:00 - 00:04:38:20 Phil Yeah, that was one of the I mean, you can't even call it a night because it's kind of stretched over two and three days. And it was probably one of the craziest experiences I've had at a restaurant without without comparison. So the restaurant was tough in itself to start with. I mean, you would work six days a week and you would work from sort of 10:00 in the morning until two, 3:00 at night. 00:04:39:03 - 00:05:09:09 Phil Right. And so you were already used to a very hard environment. And to explain the situation a little bit, you have to explain a little bit about the chef. The chef and owner was this very famous, very imposing figure in Japan. He was very well known chef, huge guy, a lot of authority. And when he would walk through the kitchen, everybody else would shout, Chefs passing, chefs passing. 00:05:09:09 - 00:05:34:14 Phil So you would like jump out of the way. So he would just kind of zoom past you. So everybody was very intimidated of this guy. He was a very, very imposing, imposing and very dominant, very sort of how would you say he had a lot of authority. And so, you know, obviously, this is big award celebration of the world's 50 best restaurants. 00:05:35:16 - 00:05:56:11 Phil And he was part of it and traveled to London to receive the award. We were obviously, as a team, fully taking part of it. And after service, we kind of stepped down and we live screened the whole thing and we were sitting there and having a beer together and kind of like watching this event, you know, keeping up with international restaurant scenes. 00:05:56:19 - 00:06:18:24 Phil We realized that the restaurant was dropping a couple of places, so there wasn't a lot. It was like on sports 30 something, I think it was like 32 and it dropped like three or four places. So it was like 35, 36. But and I was sitting there and I didn't really think of it that much, but my Japanese colleagues were terrified right? 00:06:18:24 - 00:06:46:07 Phil We were sitting there and the restaurant gets announced by the place 36 and everybody kind of went a little bit quiet and they were like, Wow, okay, we're going to get a lot of shit when I get back. And so everybody was kind of mentally getting prepared for him returning to Tokyo. And so he did. He returned. He came into the restaurant, as he usually does. 00:06:46:07 - 00:07:13:17 Phil I mean, you have to give him credit. He was in the restaurant pretty much every single day and everybody was shitting themselves, absolutely shitting themselves. And so he came in, said good morning, didn't say much else. And everybody just kept quiet as the day went on until about dinner service when he suddenly disappeared and then reappeared about an hour later in the kitchen, tearing everybody apart, absolutely apart. 00:07:14:00 - 00:07:37:20 Phil So this guy waltzes in, just starts shouting in Japanese, obviously us sort of Western guy, super confused as to what's going on. It's not really an unusual thing to see this guy freaking out, but we were just kind of like but it was definitely much more than it was usually the usual. And then he kind of left and I asked one of the sous chefs, I was sort of like, What's going on? 00:07:37:20 - 00:08:03:22 Phil And he told me he was like, Let's just call this chef Hattori Hanzo for the for the sake of nuts. Yeah. And he said, Yeah, we'll handle this. He's upset because nobody congratulate him on the 36th place. And so it kind of backfired, just like being scared of of dropping places, you know? 00:08:03:22 - 00:08:04:17 Erich Absolutely. 00:08:04:20 - 00:08:34:19 Phil Yeah. It really, really backfired. And he got so upset. I mean, maybe it was just kind of an excuse. It's not really transparent. So you have to understand that the restaurant had three stories. The bottom, the like ground level was the restaurant and the dining room. The first level was changing rooms and dry stalls, and the top floor was offices and a sort of test kitchen and a communal area with like a big marble table where people would have where we would have stuff, food. 00:08:34:19 - 00:09:02:11 Phil It was like a communal area. So we would often have to go from the first to the second to the third floor to get sort of things. And Chef disappeared, totally disappeared, doing service and just kind of went upstairs. And so the culture in Japan is such that you cannot leave before you superior, right? So like if the head chef is dead, nobody leaves, right? 00:09:02:17 - 00:09:22:08 Phil If once the head chef leaves, the sous chefs kind of like finish up, they leave, then the chef departed, leave them to come, leave, etc. But nobody leaves before it's a period. Okay, What does that mean? That means that if Hattori Sun doesn't leave, nobody leaves. It doesn't matter what time it is. Doesn't matter how long you've been there. 00:09:23:04 - 00:09:35:00 Phil So what's Hattori son decided to do? Is he decided to go into the third floor and get absolutely smashed on top of you. 00:09:35:00 - 00:09:36:17 Erich Nice. Nice. Why not? 00:09:36:17 - 00:09:40:05 Phil Yeah, why not? Of course. Dean Very upset that nobody was congratulating him. 00:09:40:08 - 00:09:45:18 Erich Yeah, he had to also to celebrate somehow that he got to a good position nonetheless. 00:09:45:18 - 00:10:06:20 Phil Exactly. He was the only one celebrating No, but yeah, I remember I, I had to go into the third floor to, to get something. We were finished, so we had been there for like 13, 14 hours already. And I went into the third room and Tori slips through that and I just opened the door a little bit and I heard him shouting. 00:10:07:07 - 00:10:28:12 Phil His head chef was there and his secretary, his personal assistant with that kind of talking to him, trying to call him down, But he was freaking out and there was broken glass all over the floor. He was throwing empty champagne bottles against the wall. Right. So I straight away I closed the door and I went back downstairs and I went to the sous chef and I kind of told him what was going on. 00:10:28:12 - 00:10:54:20 Phil And he was sort of like, Yeah, we have to see how the situation develops. Right? So what do you do? Service is done. You kind of you clean down everything and you're finished. The kitchen is clean, but you can't go home. So what do you do? You just kind of clean all over. You find things to do, you clean the machinery to fix whatever, and the sous chef goes up to see what the situation's like. 00:10:54:20 - 00:11:22:02 Phil He comes back down and he kind of rounds this up and he says, All right, So here's the situation. Chef Hattori is very drunk and he doesn't really know what time it is. So he wants to stay because he thinks that in a couple of hours service time. So that means nobody goes home. And so we stayed the whole night throughout the nights. 00:11:22:15 - 00:11:54:18 Phil And of course, you can't just sit down and not do anything. You have to stay busy. So we stop doing these up last, start preparing vegetables, whatever we had, start cleaning down again. And then the same thing happened. It kind of like it got through tonight and it got to 10:00 in the morning. We're sort of like we started to prep and then Hattori san comes in, wasted out of his mind and kind of like stumbled into the kitchen, his assistant behind him kind of like trying to keep him upright. 00:11:55:13 - 00:12:15:03 Phil And we were sort of there prepping and then went back out. And the guy was sort of like, yeah, So I just spoke to him and he thinks it's 5:00 in the evening, so we can't really go home because he's expecting us to set off for service. So everybody pretend like you're getting ready for service. And we were like, Man, you got to be fucking kidding me. 00:12:15:13 - 00:12:41:07 Phil Like, it's 11:00 in the morning, right? And so you, like, filled up your section like you're doing service. And then the guy comes in and does the rounds and he, like, goes back into his office to drink some more champagne. The break everything down again. It was the most like it was the hardest thing that I ever had to do in a kitchen because, like, it was it was one of the only times where I was really standing on my section cutting something off, like falling asleep while I was doing it. 00:12:41:13 - 00:12:42:08 Erich That's insane. 00:12:42:15 - 00:12:50:04 Phil Yeah, it was crazy. We were allowed to go home for one hour between like five and 6:00 in the evening, but then we had to do dinner service again. 00:12:50:20 - 00:12:57:18 Erich You also told me something about the dishwasher that the those days, those three days, something about the. His hair. I remember. 00:12:57:18 - 00:13:26:23 Phil Yeah. So this is actually the same guy that I told you about in the beginning, the guy who got demoted. So he was a dishwasher, a janitor, staff meal chef. So the house being three stories tall, you know, there's a lot of janitor work to do. Like, you have to keep it super, super clean. And with about 30 or 40 people working in the restaurant from the house included, you know, there's a lot of stuff to cook and stuff, but there was always a big deal. 00:13:27:05 - 00:13:51:01 Phil It was always a hot meal, rice, miso soup, pickles and like a salad. So it was like a full meal. You know, it's a lot to cook for one person. And it was always very, very nice. It was it often consisted of tuna sashimi with mustard sauce and like a flavor, Tanabe rice and then like different flavored miso soup every day. 00:13:51:12 - 00:14:18:24 Phil It was really very, very good. And so this guy was just kind of like trying to keep up, trying to please the chef, the parties and the sous chefs. But they were very, very exacting. So this guy always got the the blunt end of the stick for like he would and, you know, he would cook stuff, meal. And I would think it was totally acceptable. 00:14:18:24 - 00:14:44:05 Phil But one of the sous chefs would find something and agreeable with it and would just kind of like calmly walk up to him and kind of pat him on the shoulder and direct him into the walk in fridge, and then would take him to the walk in fridge and beat him up. I mean, just wail on him, you know, like just kind of like, stop punching him and then kicking him to the ground and just start beating him. 00:14:44:05 - 00:14:48:09 Phil Because for some, you know, because in his opinion, to stop food wasn't good enough. 00:14:48:14 - 00:14:49:14 Erich That's insane, man. 00:14:49:18 - 00:14:56:10 Phil Yeah, it was. It was so it was so violent that, like, it was really, really very violent. And it was it was So. 00:14:58:05 - 00:15:03:21 Erich There was a story you told me once that the guy got his hair cut. 00:15:03:21 - 00:15:23:02 Phil Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that happened one time. Also that he kind of came down into service and you had to, like, lend a hand with something, you know, he wasn't really supposed to be in the kitchen, but, man, the guy was sort of like, you know, he kind of reminded me of Dobby from Harry Potter, you know, this like, house elf that lives under the stairs. 00:15:23:02 - 00:15:46:02 Phil Like, he wasn't supposed to be in the kitchen, but he kind of, like, came in. And then the guys were sort of like, just kind of talking to him, you know, like shouting at him. You know, obviously I didn't understand everything because this is Japanese. But as I didn't understand later, you know, I saw him like a couple of hours later and his hair was shaved. 00:15:46:03 - 00:16:06:15 Phil You know, he had sort of like medium length hair. And some of his head was shaped like in a really bad way, like super patchy. And I said to him, so like, what happened to your hair? And he was like, Oh, the sushi chef. He didn't really like how my hair was looking. So he wanted to cut it. 00:16:06:23 - 00:16:24:14 Phil And I was like, So when did he cut it? And he was like just at the restaurant that the guy was like, bent him over the sink and just shaved his head because. Because he was calling me like, Oh, you disgusting pig, like YYZ asylum. And like, it gets crazier, like with this guy. So he was so abused. 00:16:24:15 - 00:16:48:24 Phil He was there for like two or three years. He was so abused and so mistreated, and yet he kind of stuck around. And at one point I moved in with him and really super, super lovely guy. Really, really, really nice guy. Very mellow temperament. And I spoke to him at some point and I said to him, Why don't you leave? 00:16:48:24 - 00:17:13:04 Phil Like, why don't you go somewhere else? Where people treat you better? And he said, It's not that easy. It's Japanese culture. I mean, you have to understand this guy doesn't really speak very much English. I don't speak very much Japanese. So he was like, yeah, it's it's not so easy. It's Japanese culture. I consciously So what I gathered was that you can't really quit either because you lose face. 00:17:13:22 - 00:17:35:08 Phil Either you get kicked out as in like somebody tells you you are dumb and you're out of here. No turning back or you leave without saying anything and so he got to that point where he was leaving without saying anything. He packed his bags and he told me, I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to go back to I think it was some promise in Japan. 00:17:36:12 - 00:18:00:07 Phil It was something. And I said to him, good for you. I think this is the right decision. Like get the fuck out of here. Take really, you've done enough. And he packed his things. He left the apartment and he went to the train station. I went to work, the head chef and the sous chef was sort of like, Where's this fucking guy? 00:18:00:07 - 00:18:19:11 Phil And called him? And what does he do? He picks up the phone, he gets shit on the phone and he comes back to work, right? And like you and me, any sort of sane person would have said, I'm out of here. I'm already on the train. I'm just leaving my things, I'm gone. But they talk to him on the phone. 00:18:19:11 - 00:18:29:10 Phil First of all, he picks up. Second of all, they give him so much shit on the phone that he just, like, hangs his head in shame and comes back to look. 00:18:29:22 - 00:18:32:12 Erich That's so fucked up. That doesn't make any sense. 00:18:32:19 - 00:18:38:14 Phil It didn't make any sense to me either. I said to him, I was like, Why didn't you just leave? Go somewhere else? Were you happy? 00:18:38:18 - 00:19:09:16 Erich Do you remember this guy we talk about that was very good at cooking stuff, meal on the last episode? Yeah, that also got a lot of shit. I remember that day I left without saying anything, but he. He left all his knives he had. I remember like, a big knife wallet like a knife, like a very big knife bag with a lot of utensils, a lot of high quality knives and tools and stuff. 00:19:10:10 - 00:19:32:01 Erich And and he left it in the kitchen, so he had to come back for his stuff. And I remember I think he was completely high on some stimulant amphetamines or something because he was completely like a berserker. He comes into the kitchen and takes all his stuff, all his knife things back into and into his thing to take it out. 00:19:32:13 - 00:19:45:03 Erich And luckily or unluckily, the chef wasn't there because I think he was ready to kick the shit out of the chef, which, yeah, makes sense. And this kind of context, you know. 00:19:45:06 - 00:20:11:18 Phil Yeah, absolutely. Because while you're there, you feel like you're trapped in the system and you feel like you have to abandon yourself to this system of sort of like, of this little, little world that you in, you know, where the chef is the God, right? And you like that's why you take so much abuse because you're like, oh, this is what it is, you know, And then you break out of that and you have to retaliate so much that you've left. 00:20:12:15 - 00:20:36:18 Erich Yeah, I went through some some crazy abuse as well. Apart from the story we already told, not nothing super extreme, but I mean, these kinds of things, when they go on and on and on and and you take shit day after day after day. I remember working in a restaurant that I was supposed to. My plan was to work there at least for one year and may it maybe build a career. 00:20:37:07 - 00:20:58:17 Erich And after five months, I remember every night I went home to sleep. I wanted to cry, like for five months. And then it was a point like, okay, this doesn't make any sense. Why? Why, why should I stay here? You know? And it's as you say, you're you're you're there because you want to build like a career. You want to learn things. 00:20:58:17 - 00:21:22:14 Erich You want to have a nice CV where you work in nice places and and you're you think you can take this kind of stuff for that price. But at some point, enough is enough and you just leave, you know, without giving explanations or whatever. I saw a guy once saying he was going to buy Cigarets, he was going to buy Cigarets and he left everything and never came back. 00:21:22:23 - 00:21:24:12 Erich He left his knives and everything. 00:21:24:17 - 00:21:48:23 Phil I mean, I I've seen that a license and I mean, I've also experienced that. I, you know, especially in the kitchen where where you and I met, I feel like there were a lot of people that left on a bad note. You know, I don't feel like anybody really finished their their sort of like notice periods or. 00:21:48:23 - 00:21:49:21 Erich Yeah, I mean. 00:21:50:07 - 00:22:00:07 Phil Our our sous chef, who we both respect a lot. You know, it's, you know, he left on a really bad note. He just walked out with one of the chef, the bodies, the makeshift bodies. 00:22:00:07 - 00:22:14:13 Erich Yeah. No, but that that would happen on and on and on. Every once in a while people would leave or people would come super early to to take the knives and everything and leave without nobody noticing. 00:22:14:16 - 00:22:42:00 Phil Exactly. Yeah. All the time. And I mean, I remember when I left, I handed in my notice and I wanted to finish my time there. Well, because I did respect him a lot and when I handed in my notice, he spoke to me and he was sort of like, Oh, do you think this is the right decision? And he was kind of like and I tried to talk to him about it like normally and then after I did that, he just wailed on me every single day. 00:22:42:00 - 00:22:58:17 Phil And I mean, you have like a four week notice period. And I think after two weeks I said to him in service he would do things like just to stitch me up. He would turn off my ovens, He would like dump my sauces into the into the sink. And yeah. 00:22:58:17 - 00:23:02:07 Erich I remember he would do this kind of things. Yeah, I remember. 00:23:02:08 - 00:23:19:17 Phil Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, like I would put a he would switch my sauces around and, and like, you know, he would just stitch me up and service to then like give me shit. And I remember I turned around to him and I said to him, I look like you want me to stay. You want me to cook service with you or do you not? 00:23:20:04 - 00:23:26:17 Phil Because if you don't, then I'm just going to leave. And he just didn't say anything to me. And so I just packed my stuff. 00:23:27:03 - 00:23:48:18 Erich You remember? Well, in this kitchen there was never a dishwasher because this was such a chaos and dishwashing there was really hard. We all had to do it once in a while that there were this super expensive China collection with different sizes. And you had to do it properly to get everything and then polish the dishes and everything. 00:23:49:05 - 00:24:03:11 Erich And so once in a while, like a a person who worked there just for a night, I remember this guy, he actually wrote like a motivation letter that he wanted to work there and grow there and as a dishwasher. 00:24:04:11 - 00:24:06:12 Phil Yeah, true. Yeah. I remember this guy. 00:24:06:19 - 00:24:31:08 Erich Yeah. And the first night he says something. What it is. Okay, This doesn't make any sense, having so many dishes. Why do you have so many? This is. This is. We're not in the Middle Ages anymore. And he was like, What? What was that like? Like, you know, like, like then service music went like, what? What did you do? 00:24:32:23 - 00:24:37:24 Erich And he was like I said, I said, you're an asshole singer. 00:24:37:24 - 00:25:00:16 Phil So yeah, I remember that. He was like, he was complaining about something and, and, and the chef kind of like he was kind of like, happy about him being there. And then this guy started complaining. It's sort of like starting to get, like, more and more upset and then suddenly and like, he said something to me. So, like, you just have to deal with it. 00:25:01:02 - 00:25:09:07 Phil And then and this guy was sort of like, Why do you have to be such an asshole? And everybody just went quiet like ruined record scratch. 00:25:09:18 - 00:25:41:15 Erich Yeah. And he was like, Leave now. What? Now leave. And he was like, What? I don't understand. And he walks into the dishwashing station, grabs the guy, and. And he takes him like there was a door in the kitchen that went direct to the street. And he says, Store somebody. I think I myself. And he just threw the guy to the street in the middle of service. 00:25:41:15 - 00:25:41:23 Erich Man. 00:25:42:00 - 00:26:05:02 Phil Yeah, it was, it was, it was actually pretty hilarious because, like, the way that that happened was sort of like this guy was sort of like, why do you have to be such an asshole? And everybody just kind of stopped, went quiet, and it was just like awkward moment of silence, like, Wow, somebody called Chef an asshole and he was just sort of like, went there, grabbed him by his jacket, just kind of like, pulled it behind him without saying anything. 00:26:05:02 - 00:26:16:19 Phil And the guy was like, Hey, whoa, what's the matter? Who know? And he was just like, door. Somebody opens the door and he's like, throws the mallet door closes, and he goes back to service. 00:26:16:23 - 00:26:20:13 Erich And service went on like normal.