"It was my first week and I went over to this table and the guy asked for a screwdriver. And I looked at him kinda' funny and then walked back over and told the other waitress, 'This guy just asked me for a screwdriver.'

So everyone started laughing and then told me that it was a drink. Well, I didn't know. We just call it vodka and juice."

--Waitress at a hotel restaurant in New Orleans

.......

Okay, so no jokes about the I.Q.s of Southerners...I wouldn't have been so shocked, except this waitress looked to be in her mid twenties. I almost wanted to mess with her a little and ask her if she could bring me a hammer and nails.

Anyways, this is my last day in New Orleans. If any of you get a chance to come out here, please avoid the French Quarter. It's about as inviting as Times Square. I'll give you a tip on a really great restaurant called "Jacques Imos". Take the St. Charles streetcar all the way past the Garden District (beautiful ride!) until the street makes a jog to the right. Stay on for about a quarter of a mile more and get off where you see a coffee shop on the right and a Rite Aide on the left. The coffee shop is in a former bank and I believe it's Oak Street, but if you tell the streetcar driver you want to get off on the street for Jacques Imos, he'll know where to let you off.

Walk down Oak Street past the coffee shop, and continue on for about four blocks. Jacques Imos will be on your left. There are no reservations and no tourists. I think we waited for about forty-five minutes. We hung out at a bar next door and the hostess actually came in and got us. The place is packed and the food is great, very authentic. I was with some friends and we had fried green tomatoes for an app, and then I had the stuffed catfish.

A real gem of a place.

Anyways, here's Roger talking about the brutal reality of life in the kitchen. This is not what you will see on Food Network.

**********

A lot of times you'll ask the kitchen, "Hey, can I get a side of salsa?"

"One dollar!"

For salsa!? And you can't fight with them because once the head chef is gone, they're in charge. They run the food. And I think that because that's the job they have, and that's pretty much the one thing they're probably in control of in their lives, working in this kitchen job and putting in their 60 hours a week. They like calling the shots.

When they say it's a dollar, you have to put in a dollar. And I think sometimes they get a big kick out of that. But sometimes it's ridiculous. It's a side of butter and they're "Fifty cents!"

Come on. It's a pat of butter.

But it's...You don't want to work in the kitchen. The kitchen's horrible. They're not paid very much. They work CRAZY, mad hours. Like tonight, I worked four hours and tonight was slow so I only made $60. But it's a Monday and you know that. You work your Mondays, so you can keep your Fridays.

Sometimes I feel bad for them. I mean there's a shift that goes from eleven to ten, I think. And then there' s always one guy that goes from seven until four in the morning. And it's not like they can get their shifts covered. There's like four of them and they alternate.

They're all working fifty-sixty hours. So it's not like, "Hey, can you cover my shift tonight?" Because they're either already working, or it's their one day off.

Plus they know you're making more money. They know you can make your own hours, and they know you're more in with the management and the owner because you speak the language. Sometimes when there's a language barrier it causes problems.

Maybe in fine dining with famous chefs like you read in Tim Out New York working in the kitchen can be this very glamorous kind of thing. But I would say most restaurants are like mine. Any of these places on this street, it's mostly illegal immigrants working crazy hours just to make ends meet.

And I do feel bad for them because they're stuck. It's not it for me. I have dreams I'm trying to achieve. I can quit and find another job. I don't have to worry about papers. Ya' know? So I do feel bad and have sympathy because I do feel they're kind of stuck.

And we have so many people who come in, "Do you have any jobs in the kitchen? I'll do anything." So those jobs are hard to find and our four guys will do it as long as they can.

10:06:42 AM     comment []