Cendrillon Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 [:@]What a time waster, but I suppose it was better to find out now than mid season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Staff problems proved to be a recurring theme through this secondseason. Still in need of a pizza chef, I finally got a reply from thesensible-sounding J.L. We met for an interview and he seemed ok. Exarmy, a bit of a macho type for my liking, but his cookingcredentials seemed good. He had owned his own pizza and pasta jointnear Bordeaux for several years and was now working seasons, havingjust finished a winter at some ski resort. I told him all about thejob, the duties, the place and the accommodation, which he seemedhappy with.We set another date for him to come up and view the place, get a feelfor the area etc. He turned up well on time and seemed happy. Ioffered him the position. He had a few requests for some smaller bitsof equipment, which I noted to order and that was that. A would be in the kitchen as last year doing salads and grills, JLwould be doing the pizzas and grills too, and I would be generalfront of house again – also doing bar work and deserts.With that sorted out, the search began for serving staff.Over the past off-season I had had several requests and some C.V'sfrom locals looking for work. Some of them could even read and write,but finding someone I was comfortable with was hard work. A big partof the problem here is that the town is very divided. Religion,politics....whatever excuse is relevant for the specific argumentinfact... Truth is, half the town simply dont like the other half, solocals working here means possibly alienating a lot of clients. Its aminefield.I settled on N, after a lot of thought. Late thirties, mother andhousewife, she drives the school bus and while plenty of people arewilling to bad-mouth her, She seemed liked by plenty too. Bubblypersonality and an ability to small talk to anyone made people feelat ease around her.The second waiter was harder to find, until a friend threw up a goodidea.....why not ask at a nearby (hours drive away) catering andhostelry college? So I did, and got to meet K. Just a few weeks shortof his 18th birthday, well travelled, pleasant,respectable looking and willing to relocate to the campsite for thesummer.After last season, I had decided that a dedicated dish-washer wouldbe a better idea than expecting everyone else to do a part, so S washired. A schizophrenic ex junky, a party-holic and completelyoutrageous looks for a farming community – facial piercings,tattoos and crazy hair colours. Why? Well, despite appearances, he isa really nice chap, is now 100% off the drink and drugs (apart fromhis medications) plus I know his mum quite well and knew that if hedidnt tow the line, she would put the fear of God / beat some senseinto him. After some talking, he also agreed to work on the sweetiesand drinks hatch, selling to the campers.So, with the team in place, we were ready for action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Welcome back, Dave, after a hard working season. I love your posts. They are so fluent and read so well. You should approach a literary agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I would add to that your sense of timing and suspense . . . which is killing me[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Me too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Oh good - September's here - with the next exciting installment! Not Dick Barton, but................ [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 dittoI love the saga as well, please keep the installments coming.[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 The problem I had was convincing JL how busy we were going to be. Thestart of the season is a very slow, steady affair. No tourists andnot too many locals to start with mean that at best, we were doing 20or so meals each evening. He seemed to think he was onto a cushynumber with little work. Simply telling him that numbers wouldincrease by a factor of 4 or 5 had little effect. The first “big” day was a local fair that sees the villagestreets closed off and various stands set up. Having learned fromlast year, we were not offering the full menu but a set dish, andexpecting 100 people at lunch and maybe the same again in theevening. The locals like basic food, so steak and chips was the meal offered.With no pizzas to do, JL found himself manning the chip fryers andseemed to be making a meal of it. My confidence was not high.A and myself had words that night.... “finding his feet”,“building his confidence”, “getting used to the place”,“getting used to us”..... were the sort of phrases we were comingout with, desperately hoping they would turn out to be true.When doing his pizzas, he prepares a load of dough in the morning andthen separates it into little balls which he stores in the fridge. Hethen rolls out each base by hand with a rolling pin as they areneeded. He took his time with the ingredients too and while the endresult was good, he just was not moving fast enough.“It will be fine” he kept saying.Last year, we stopped doing the takeaway pizzas during the eveningservice as we just couldnt cope with the demand. JL seemed certainthat he could manage the takeaways as well as the pizzas for thosesitting down at the same time. I kept reminding him that he was notthere JUST to do pizzas, but to work the grill and help out A too,and that going by last year, about a third of all people sitting downto eat will order a pizza.“It will be fine”A asked me aside one day.....on a good night later in the season, wecan easily serve 80 to 90 people on the terrace. Counting a third aspizzas, that would be 30 or so. Plus perhaps 20 takeaways each night.He would be looking at 50 pizzas per evening, plus a fair number atlunch time too. Last years figures supported this.“So?”“So, when he makes his dough in the morning, he does enough for 30pizzas”“Ah.”Would it be fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 Telling JL to prepare for larger numbers was part of my daily tasklist. He just didnt believe me though. His other negative traits were showing up more and more too. Machoarrogance is one thing I can not be arsed with. He was full of it. Iam sure you know someone like this....anything you have done,anywhere you have been, anything you have seen, he has already beenthere, done that, seen it all, before you, faster than you, cheaperthan you, better than you.... Where I come from, people like thisgenerally earn the nickname “fiveskin”. Why fiveskin? Well, ifyou told him you have a foreskin, he just has to go one better.......He also had habit of just talking over everyone and simply notlistening to anything. Didnt matter what it was, he rarely listenedto anyone telling him anything.Following the hassles last year with the un-fireable drunk chef, wehad been more careful with the wording of the contracts this year. Wewere still early in the season and JL was still on a trial period. Itold him outright one evening that I was not happy with the waythings were shaping up and was going to extend his trial period. Heupped his game a little from then on.“It will be fine”I hoped so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I'll bet he had a black cat too, gimme more, gimme more . . . [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 K celebrated his 18th birthday in the usual style, andonce an “adult” was able to get onto full duties. (minors are notallowed to serve alcohol, work sundays and various other laws thatgreatly restrict their employability in this sort of trade)Over the course of the season, he proved again and again and again tobe a real asset to the team. I heard nothing but compliments abouthim from the clients and everyone liked him. Polite, presentable,discreet, able to chat...he did very well. He is studying hostelry atcollege with an aim to become a top Maitre'd at a posh restaurant andhis long-term goal is to open his own restaurant in the USA. Ireckon that he is more than capable and really wish him luck in thelong term. Its so bloody rare to see the kind of motivation anddetermination he has in other kids his own age. It was always a pleasure to watch him working. He had an ability tojudge whether the diners wanted to chat or if they just wantedservice and to be left alone. Able to small talk about anything, heis very articulate and quite well travelled too. He was also verydiscreet, keeping an eye on all his tables and always ready with morebread or water, topping up while the diners barely noticed.Staying in the campsite for the summer meant that due to his goodlooks, he as never short of female company either!At the end of this season, we talking about the possibility of himcoming back next year. He was genuinely keen to do so, but obviouslyunable to commit to anything. I made it clear that if he wanted tocome back, he would be very welcome, but understood fully if he had abetter offer elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 S proved to be another asset too. I had reservations about employinghim due to his past and his mental health, but his mother assured mehe was up to it, and she is someone whos word I trust.Turned out to have been needless worry – he was great. Funny,always laughing and a completely un-crushable spirit meant he alwayshad a joke or a story to tell. Work-wise, he lacked initiative tostart something on his own, but if given a job or a list, he wouldhappily crack on with it as best he could. He was initially just to be the dish-washer, but he was so damn fastat it, I got him helping out elsewhere during quite moments at thewash station. The dishes are hardly a challenge – scrape off theremains, rinse, stack on the tray, shove it in the machine, press thebutton, wait 3 minutes**, dry them, stack them. He was hardly beingtaxed, so was happy to do other stuff. Having worked in a bar in thepast, he was able to serve drinks, he had basic kitchen prepexperience so was able to help out there too, and I extended hishours to have him working on the terrace during the afternoons, whenpeople just turn up for drinks or ice creams.Having been un-employed for a long time previously, he was unused tolonger hours and towards the end of the season, he started to flag alittle, but certainly nothing major. I would be happy to take himback on next year.** A 3 minute cycle.....why the hell does my home machine take twoand a half hours to do the same thing? Even the “eco” quicksetting on mine is 45 minutes long. Sure, the pro machine is 380v andprobably sucks a far bit of power in that 3 minutes, but surely itsless than over 2 hours of power used by a domestic machine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 As is the local style here ( a bunch of back-stabbing, whinging,complainers) I received an anonymous letter about N. It informed methat she had been treasurer of a PTA style association, but had beenstrongly recommended to resign the post when accountingirregularities came to light ie loads of cash went missing. Theletter ended advising me not to let her near the till.I did some digging and found that the letter was fully accurate. Shehad little contact with the cash anyway, so I was not too worried. Idid have other problems with her though.Her voice. She is like a Female version of Brian Blessed – alwaystalking at full volume, there were times when she sounded like ahuman fog-horn. She also liked to be noticed.....if there wasattention being paid anywhere, she instantly nudged into the centreof whatever was happening. Her ear-splitting voice meant that peopleALWAYS noticed her and whatever she was doing. For example, every nowand then a group of diners would be celebrating someones birthday.They would usually ask us to arrange a cake (or bring their own) andit was ALWAYS her, even if it was not her table to serve, who wouldbarge into the organisation, messing with the candles, dimming thelights, carrying the cake, getting people to sing etc. She justcraves being at the centre of events. She had a way of asking for things too.... “Two coffees and thebill for table 7 please”, when said in her style often sounded likean order rather than request, plus her near-shouting made sure thateveryone within several feet would hear her. Quite a large number ofpeople, locals and tourists alike, actually believe that she was theboss and myself and A merely staff. She was certainly quick to takeany praise too, whether it was aimed at her or not.Things reached a peak one night when a group of local-ish thugsturned up. You know the types....teenagers with bad attitudes andfoul mouths, all riding their little 50cc dirt bikes with excessivelyloud exhausts......They always make me laugh. Their Hard-men imagemight carry a little weight here in rural nowhere, but in any decentsized town, they would be ridiculed.Anyway, a group of 6 arrived and asked for a round of beers. Firstly,I dont have a licence to sell alcohol like that, you can only havedrinks if you have a meal on the premesis, so I refused them. I wouldalso wager strongly that none of them would be 18 either, but thatwas a moot point due to the licence. Not too happy, they asked tospeak to the boss.“doesnt matter who you ask, nobody here will serve you beer”“just let us speak to your boss”“I'm....”one of them cut in “Yeah, go and fetch N....She will serve us.”“No, she wont and why do you want to talk to her?”“Just get the boss, N, she will sort this out”“N, the boss? You mean N the waitress? She cant come justnow, she is cleaning the toilets” -By a happy coincidence, this wasactually true!There was some shuffling and muttering between them and I got thefull story....Seemingly one of N`s sons occasionally hangs aroundwith this lot, and they know her through him. She had told them shewas the owner of the restaurant and had promised to sell them beers.Obviously, I would never get the truth from N,but was happy to putthese guys right about her status here. Its one thing to let people assume things, but to actively lie about it is a little more serious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 The other problem was her turning people away when there was noreason to apart from her being too lazy to work.On busy-ish nights, I found out that she was seeing people arrivingand rather than letting them sit down, she would tell them the tableswere full, or the kitchen was closing and turn them away. I am pretty sure she used her image of authority to her own advantagedoing this. Thing is....she has no concept of how often I am there.She works a few hours at lunchtimes and a few hours for the eveningservice, so she sees the customers in this time and that is that. Shefailed to appreciate that myself or occasionally A are usually therefrom 7.30am, all day, every day and see the customers, especially thecampers an awful lot more than her. It used to enrage her when shewould greet people for dinner in a slightly formal way, having metthem a couple of times, and I would go out and greet them informally,bisous and handshakes etc having had them round every morning of theweek for coffee at opening time. It was like this that I found outabout her refusing people. A couple of campers who would come everymorning for coffee and a chat said that it was a pity they couldnteat the previous night due to the tables all being reserved. We hadntbeen that busy and it all came out about N. She was caught out likethis a few times through the season, but no amount of tellings orwarnings would get through to her, they would just trigger one of herepic huffs.Everyone has bad moods, but I have never seen the point of aprolonged sulk. She could sulk like a child for days on end, hardlysaying a word to anyone.Frankly, it was bliss! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 I would like to take a moment to describe JL's chosen mode ofvehicular transport.Im not one to criticise others for their choice of car butJesus....this guy needs to get some dignity.A V8 Landrover Discovery is not the most economical runnabout I canthink of, especially with an auto box. Couple that to a suspensionlift that is less “extra clearance for off-road” and more“wannabe Bigfoot”, enormous wide alloys with large balloonoff-road tyres and enough ropes, chains, winch and suchlike hangingon the bumpers to make it look like an extra in Mad Max. Matt blackpaint did nothing to blend it into the scenery either. JL wasconstantly bemoaning the cost of fuel, but with a car like that, Ihad little sympathy for him. We could certainly hear him arrivingtoo....it was a toss-up between the humming of the agressive off-roadtyre treads and the straight-through exhausts to be the loudest. Thelittle details made me laugh too....a Confederate flag flying fromthe radio aerial...his french reg number stamped into Louisiana USplates, and the stereo constantly playing either ACDC or the kind ofGood Ol Boys banjo music that normally plays during a car chase in an80`s road movie.Yee Haw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Problem was.......he couldnt cook very well.He spent a lot of the day preparing his ingredients for the pizzas,and was going through vast amounts of veg like peppers and onions.Turned out that he was chopping them, soaking in olive oil andstewing them to hell in the microwave. He was actually managing to gothrough a whole tray of peppers every 3 or 4 days, despite onlyhaving 1 pizza on the menu that used them. The peppers were justcooked away to nothing. It awakened memories of my childhood – mymother was a terrible cook and everything, especially veg, was boiledto hell leaving an unidentifiable sludge that had to be choked down.Outside of his pizzas, I very quickly found out that while he talkeda good recipe (and which Frenchman doesnt?!) he didnt have thefaintest idea how to realise any of them.We were still pretty quiet, with the season still in its infancy, soA was doing most of the kitchen work and he was doing the pizzas. Hisfew attempts at the grill were not a success as he simply has no ideaof different cooking times for medium, rare etc etc.Admittedly, his pizzas were pretty good, but one day he suggestedcooking a fresh ducks breast in the microwave. Something had to bedone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
britgirl Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 [quote user="dave21478"] Problem was.......he couldnt cook very well. Admittedly, his pizzas were pretty good, but one day he suggested cooking a fresh ducks breast in the microwave. Something had to be done.[/quote][+o(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
confused of chalus Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 You cant leave it there! More please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Weekday lunchtimes, we offer a cheap menu for workers – 3 courses,wine and coffee for €12. They dont get a choice though, if theydont like the dish, they have to order from the normal menu at fullprice. This proved popular last year, and had other benefits in thekitchen. The main dish would often be whatever we cooked for thestaff to eat – often pasta bakes or a stew etc. It also allowed usto get rid of foods that were approaching their use-by date andneeded to be shifted.Still quite early in the season, A took a couple of lunchtimes off.This left JL on his own, and floundering. Despite only having acouple of tables for this first days midday serving, he struggled tocope and I ended up taking over A's role in the kitchen while JLretreated to the safety of his bloody pizzas.More and more he was spending all his time on them and doing nothingto help A. if there were a queue of orders, rather than do them oneby one with A, he would look ahead through them and pick out thepizzas and get them done, making it impossible to synchronise theother plates. He just didnt have a clue.The second day was the decider. A regular labourer popped round midmorning to tell us he would be there lunch time with an apprentice.I told JL to prepare a main dish for them, and to make enough to feedthe staff that evening.“what?”“Anything – you are the chef, remember”“but what will I cook?”“You have a kichen full of ingredients – you decide. You know thekind of things we normally do for the workers menu – just cooksomething”“I will do them pizzas”“pizzas are never on this menu, besides this guy doesnt like them”“He hasnt tasted MY pizzas yet”“look, just cook them something”About 11 oclock, he had nothing ready, and still didnt know what todo. I asked him about all the wonderful recipes he kept talkingabout, to get a mumbled reply about not having the right ingredients.I the end I told him to cook them pasta carbonara and some sausage aswe had loads to use up. Enough for the two labourers who hadreserved, allow for a few more incase any others turn up and enoughfor the waiting staff that evening, so maybe 7 to 10 portions ofpasta.Bear in mind, JL claimed to have run his own restaurant specialisingin pizzas and pasta.15 minutes later I went back into the kitchen to find him with thebiggest pot we have on the stove full to the brim with boiling water.(this is a bloody big pot – probably 20 inches in diameter and over2 feet deep!) He was just about to tip in a 5kg bag of pasta.For ten portions.The time had come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Dave, aren't your lips hurting? with all of us hanging on them![:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 So we had the talk the next day. I listed all the problems I had withhis work, and awaited his comments.He took the criticism in stony silence, then blurted out “So what,do you want me to quit? Is that it?”“Well, yes I do actually.”“oh. Right. Well, I quit, then!”And he did. So, with the high season just about to start, we wereonce again without a pizza chef. Over the past few days, I hadcontacted the jobcentre and asked them for a chef. Their offeringswere feeble, leaving us no choice. I would move into the kitchen,replacing JL doing pizzas, A would continue on salads etc and wewould both do the grill work. Another waitress would be hired to dotables and drinks and deserts etc.A and myself knew that we could cope with this after last season leftus in the same boat, but it had been very hard, exhausting work.Would a second season be easier? We hoped so, as things were aboutget busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 We were to find out pretty quickly. JL left on a thursday, after aweek of bad weather. Friday brightened up and the forecast for theweekend was for hot, sunny weather. Reservations started coming inthick and fast for saturday night.Meanwhile, I was rummaging in the pizza fridge. The pizza workspace is a marble worktop built over an industrialfridge with cupboards and large drawers. For a supposedly organisedchap with a military background and experience running his ownrestaurant, it was a bloody mess. It was rammed to capacity (Its avery large fridge) with loads of stock boxes. These arestandard-sized plastic boxes in a couple of different volumes foringredients that are designed to fit into the racking in professionalfridges. A had been complaining about these boxes being in shortsupply, and I found out why – they were all rammed into thisfridge. Old stuff pushed to the back and left to rot, new stuffunlabelled and often duplicated two, three or even four times....nowonder the shopping bills had been so high – most of it was beingwasted by JL.I like organising things – it appeals to my nature for some reason,so I soon had it ship-shape. The friday was a quiet day allowing me to find my feet with thepizzas, however everything coming out the second oven wasover-cooked. I had recently bought a fancy infra-red thermometerthing, and a bit of trial and error with the knobs revealed that thethermostat was not working at all and the oven was permanantly set to“11”.The ovens came with the restaurant and are the property of the Marie,so I am reluctant to poke around inside them myself, so I called therepair people.“Yeah, sounds like it needs a new 'stat” he said, stating theobvious.“how much is a replacement and do you have anything in stock?”He actually made that noise sucking a through his teeth!“Be about “250€ all in. Busy though – cant do anything tillthe middle of next week”Screw that. By chance, a few days earlier some chap had visited andleft a card touting for business, servicing and repairing equipmentso I gave them a call.“ok, I will be there in about 20 minutes”“wha? But....errr....yeah, great ok.” I was very surprised byrapid service.He turned up and had a poke about and confirmed a dead 'stat. I askedhow long it would take to get a replacement.“pffff, will sort it out for you now”He came back from his van with a big box of bits n bobs and found athermostat that would fit. Secondhand, but removed from a workingoven, seemingly. Fitted up and working, he presented me with a €50bill, including the call-out charge. Its clear who will be getting mybusiness from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 K had been taking reservations all day Friday for Saturday evening,and the phone kept ringing on the saturday afternoon too.Two more.....table for 6 reserved.......another 3...... it was goingto be a busy night.By mid afternoon we were at 85 reservations. This was to be my busyfirst night doing pizzas. As well as diners, there were also 20 or sotakeaways reserved, and would be more turning up in the evening.JL had – unsurprisingly – proved completely unable to managetakeaways during the service, despite his promises He just couldntwork fast enough. As a result, we had stopped takeaways at 7.30, whenthe main service starts, and re-start them if there is demand afterthe bulk of the service is completed.To say I was nervous was an understatement.It went ok though. Infact, it was one of our busiest nights, having atotal of 106 diners sitting down. I coped ok with the pizzas, butrelied a lot on A doing the grill work as I was not yet fast enoughto do my full share of the grills. I felt guilty about this, but Awas delighted – even the little I had done was way more than JL hadever contributed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keni Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 More please! :) x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 Sorry, I am really busy these days - will update as and when can.As seems popular with USA tv series.....coming next - a drunken stalker, voodoo magic (no, really!) and more pizzas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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