If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen

I recently completed a feature writing course. Despite being a journalist by profession, I found that the course offered some really useful tips that I don't usually use. Below is my final written assignment using the various skills acquired during the course.

Enjoy!

The door swings open and the soft din of diners gives way to the barked orders and organised chaos in front of you. The steam is streaming from the numerous pots on the stoves as busy hands speedily slice and dice an assortment of vegetables. A waitron walks in behind you shouting a new order for a table of ten, and the tension in the kitchen steps up another notch. The head chef calls out the order and each section busies itself with preparing the new order while completing the previous tasks at hand.

Every person has a designated task, and if you fail, the kitchen fails. The orders have to get out timeously, or complaints will make their way through to the kitchen about poor service, cold food or any other grievance that a patron may dream up. Looking back out at the restaurant, the contrast between the two environments within such close proximities is comical.

It’s evident when a customer isn’t happy with their meal and the waiter or the manager is called and angry voices can be heard. But what happens behind the scenes? When your meal is offered for free because you are unhappy with something, does someone else pay? The answers to these questions and others may surprise you.

Life as a chef is not for the faint-hearted. “Inarguably a successful career in the hotel business demands that you live it as your life,” explains Kabelo Segone.

Kabelo’s tall physique and friendly face hide the determination and experience he possesses. He is a director at the South African Chef’s Association and head of department in the consultancy sector at HTA culinary school. On top of these achievements, has a numerous year’s of experience having worked at the likes of Sun City Resorts, as well as stints in the corporate banking, mining, and healthcare sectors.

Kabelo is not the only chef whose appearance hides a natural force. Her small size and openness hide a building tempest. In her white chef’s jacket splatter with food from a busy shift in the kitchen and the wariness in her eyes, you would be forgiven for thinking that Courtney La Marque is just another overworked chef following the orders of the senior kitchen staff. But being one of the youngest chefs in the kitchen has its challenges, especially when you are the one running the kitchen.

Being one of the youngest people in the kitchen, and having to tell other’s what to do is an added pressure to that already suffered by many chefs. Despite having met some of South Africa’s top national rugby players, and catering former president Nelson Mandela’s funeral in Qunu, Courtney admits that being a chef isn’t easy.

The world of television has given some insight into the life of a chef, but this image is still tainted with the glitter of showbiz. Travel, meeting some of the world’s most famous people, eating at internationally renowned restaurants, these are some of the things people may dream of. For a select few this is a reality. However, for most chefs this would be an aspiration that may never be attained.

Don’t let the allure of travel to glamourous and exotic places fool you. Working as a chef in the hospitality industry is no walk in the park. Picture a hotel, any hotel, in an exotic destination, and you probably imagine what a thrill it would be to live and work there. But down in the dungeons of these hotels, out of sight, chefs and kitchen staff slave away to give you the exquisite delicacies that appear on the plate before you.

“It's definitely not as glamorous as people think. You have to put a lot of hard work in before you benefit from any part of what the industry is thought to be,” says Courtney.

Adrian Vigus-Brown, chairman of the South African Chefs Young Chefs Club, is no stranger to the stress of working in a busy hotel kitchen. He highlights that the glamourous and romantic view of the hospitality industry present on TV is not real. However, he adds: “There is one part they do portray correctly, nearly all chefs are extremely passionate and very demanding.”

According to Kabelo, at least the first few years of your life as a chef are spent “working 17 hour days with total involvement in every aspect of a complicated, cruel and very fickle industry.”

Far from the clean and smooth running operation portrayed by the front of house, a look behind the kitchen door reveals an alternative universe. The life of a chef is a never-ending need to meet high standards and requirements that are in essence unattainable. As Kabelo explains, it is an industry where you can do everything right and still get it wrong. Adrian concurs, noting that the tension in a kitchen can reach boiling point as chefs “search for that almost unattainable perfection.”

This is an industry where a chef must not only be fluent in culinary French, but a range of legal and health codes and standards. Kabelo explains a chef’s knowledge needs to extend to “the intricacies of health codes, tax laws, labour laws, fire regulations, environmental protection laws, building codes, occupational health and safety regulations, [to name but a few].”

And when there are not the standards and regulations to worry over, there is making sure customers don’t see too much of the behind scenes action.

Courtney notes that the restaurant lay-out is changing. Where she previously worked at V&V at Silver Star Casino, there is an open-kitchen. This is a trend that can be seen in many new restaurants. Customers can see their food being made. But this does pose a challenge for the kitchen staff who have to make sure not to make too much noise.

But things can’t always be contained. Courtney recalls a few times where she had to subtly but firmly confront a waitron who had left food too long to be collected, causing it to be cold when it finally made its way to the table.

An average day in the kitchen runs between 12 and 14 hours, much longer than any day in the office. Adrain explains: “On average my commis and chef de parties arrive arrived 06h00 and leave at 17h00. My sous chefs arrive at around 05h30 and leave around 17h00, my late commis and chef de parties start around 13h00 and end at 23h00, while the sous chefs at start 13h30 and leave at 23h30. If I am on late I start at 12h00 and end around midnight. If on early I start at 05h30 and end at around 20h00, we work a five day week followed by a six day week.”

With people starting work at varying hours, there can be confusion about what gets done, when and how. However, to combat this, every action in the kitchen is carefully planned and executed. Courtney clarifies that there is a set routine when it comes to planning the meals for the day. This starts with the first shift getting the breakfast service ready in the morning, working through lunch, and dinner, where the last shift start to prepare the next morning’s meal before knocking off.

But while there may be a daily order for how things should be done and when, things don’t always go to plan. While answering questions about daily kitchen life, Kabelo offers this small insight. “

Picture you are a chef, you’re running the kitchen, and this is what you experience (as per Kabelo’s insights into the industry): “Your coke-enhanced chef just called the Asian waitress who’s working her way through law school a chink, which ensures your presence at the CCMA for the next six months. In the restaurant, the red wine is hot and the chicken soup is cold. And your bartender is giving the bar away to the underage girls, putting your liquor license at risk, to say the least.”

On top of this, Kabelo points out that there are any number of other issues that you could face. These include the electricity going out, shutting down your kitchen in the middle of a R5, 000 night. There is the constant struggle with vermin, fighting to get to the kitchen scraps while you do your best to eradicate them. Then there is the constant give-and-take of staff, often taking much more than they give the company in return. This is evident in the bellowing of a chef to the wait-staff that dishes have been plated for more than five minutes and the food is getting cold.

As the food finally reaches the table (with the chef praying that it is still hot), it befalls the scrutiny of the guest. With bated breath the chef waits for the look of satisfaction that will hopefully follow the first mouthful.

As a chef, you not only have to compete with the moods of you fellow kitchen staff, but the eccentricities of your patrons as well. Not everyone likes to order al a carte, and even when they do they have their own take on the dish. Just think of the scene in ‘The Last Holiday’ with Queen Latifah where the one table of guests orders everything on the menu while changing every dish. They prefer to give their directions to the chefs on the way to prepare a meal.

Like a drill sergeant, patrons will fire off requests to waitrons, hold the gravy, don’t over-cook the meat, no seasoning… All the hard work that goes into planning a menu becomes an unrecognisable mess on a plate.

Some of these requests are at times odd, as Adrian reveals: “The craziest request coming into my previous kitchen would have to be a patron who was at my seven course tasting menu. When they arrived they told me that they are ovo lacto vegetarian, yet they specifically requested a rib eye medium rare but can't have the demi-glace because they are vegetarian and their doctor said they must eat tomato sauce with all meals.”

The crazy requests don’t always come in the form of a dish though. Kabelo explains a time when a patron queried where Horseradish comes from, as they did not want to try it because of the word ‘horse’. People’s misconceptions about what certain dishes are or what they should be is a constant issue that chefs need to overcome.

The humour that comes across while reliving these odd encounters subtly hides the confusion and disbelief that accompanies such odd requests and questions. When customers aren’t happy it can also cause bigger problems for the chef on duty. Courtney tells of a time when she was left having to cover a customer’s bill of several hundred Rand when the table wasn’t happy with the meal.

In this case Courtney was left out of pocket. But not all restaurants function this way, with many having a designated account to cover these type of costs.

The break is over and Courtney has to get back to work. Walking back to her work station, she assumes control once again of the kitchen. A waiter hands over an order, and Courtney calls this out to the various sections of the kitchen. Once everyone is aware of the new order and what they need to do, Courtney starts plating orders that are ready to go out. With a delicate hand she places the various delectable bites onto the plate, ensuring they are both alluring to the eye, and (hoping) a joy to eat.

Walking through the kitchen door and back out into the restaurant, there is a new appreciation for the work that goes into preparing a meal. The content looks at the patrons’ faces indicate that for now at least, people are happy with their meals.

#SouthAfrica #chef #kitchen #cooking