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...read
about
The Milieu
in...
Dishwasher
The manager starts to look for forks and knives. He
discovers forks and knives bundled in napkins hidden in the different rooms in and under
the flowerpots.
...the tale of those
DISHWASHERS
Never mind that it's foggy, it is Saturday night.
During the summer the visitors from all over the world visit the Central Californian town.
There are many reservations on the book. It's getting closer to opening time. Both
dishwashers at the four star Dinner-House have not shown up. "Please! ...any night
but not tonight!" is part of the chef's reaction to being without his
dish-washing-crew. He himself is washing some sauce pans which, as he well knows, he will
need soon again. His "I really wonder what happened to them?" question to the
passing by hostess shows that he cares. The chef has every reason to worry. These two
dishwashers have never been sick, never missed a day of work in over three years. Not
coming to work at all, on a busy night, is not their style.
The two dishwashers are hard working Mexican nationals
and well liked by everyone. The hostess mentions to one of the waiters "They might
not show up at all! I think they are getting a free bus-ride. A one-way-ticket in an INS
Bus back home south of the border!" Somebody tells the story to the chef, who thinks
it is a matter of fact. Irritated the chef calls the book-keepers, inquiring about the
legal status of his help. The lady in book-keeping is able to calm the chef down. She
knows for sure that one of the missing two workers has all the required papers. About the
second one, she thinks he is legal but cannot find his file.
The chef asks his cooks and the waiters if anybody
knows someone who could do tonight's dishes and glassware. It's going to be a full house.
Everybody expects a busy night. The absence of a dish-washing-crew is becoming an
important issue. Usually those guys are overlooked. They do the lowest paid job. They are
hidden from the customer's eyes and always kept busy with cleaning duties and the
operation of the dishwashing machine. True on a regular night a waiter or a cook could
easy fill in and do the dishes. But tonight every hand is needed on the floor and all
cooks will have their hands full all night long.
Some of the waiters put extra glasses on the tables in
their stations. They know without dishwashing crew they surely will be running out of
glasses.
The chef has sweat pearls on his forehead. He is
counting all the plates. He realizes if he uses all the dinner plates available, including
the new unpacked ones, he might make it till halfway through the night before he has to
wash more plates.
One waiter is looking for silverware. It is all gone!
None left in the kitchen. Some of the faster waiters have taken what they could find. They
hoard it, so they shall be able to reset their tables for a second seating. No dishwasher
means to them nobody who washes silverware. The manager starts to look for forks and
knives. He discovers forks and knives bundled in napkins hidden in the different rooms in
and under the flowerpots. There are more in the wait stations under the sink and hidden
behind trays. And the bartender finds more silverware under the ice of the large ice
maker.
The chef knows of some Mexican workers who had been
arrested by INS on a local transit bus. Not too long ago the restaurant down the road lost
two good cooks this way. Now the chef de cuisine, who seldom uses four letter words, is
quietly cussing the system, the INS and California's governor who have declared open
season against the illegal workers. The chef at a quick glance into the bar observes the
bartender. Same here, he too is piling up boxes and boxes with glasses behind his bar to
be ready for any business and to be sure he has enough glasses in which to serve drinks
tonight. And the chef unable to find a replacement dish-washing-crew is mentally getting
ready to do the dishes himself between orders.
One minute to six. Sixty seconds till the door opens
and the waiting guests shall be seated. Julio and Augustine the two dishwashers arrive,
somewhat out of breath. The chef de cuisine ready to blow up, lets off steam with an
outburst of "Where on earth have you guys been?" He tells both, Julio and
Augustine, how much he has been worried about them. He gets to find out that the two had
waited for their bus which never came. Finally they decided to walk to work.
The manager calls the transit-system's phone number,
"Yes the Saturday four-thirty number sixteen is no longer running... but there is
still a six o'clock bus!" The manager tells the chef
what he found out. He is getting to hear: "You didn't have to check up on them! I
know my people! They would never lie to me!" The manager's
answer goes under in the rattling noise of the dot-matrix printers. Orders are coming in!
Cold appetizer tickets are printed out in the cold kitchen, soups and hot appetizers at
the hot line. The chef reads these orders and everybody gets with his own job. There is no
more time for casual conversations. Orders are now prepared and put onto the pick-up-line.
Waiters being called by the chef's voice pick up their food. Tickets are moved from the
order wheel onto the pick-up wheel. The typical kitchen hustle and bustle have started and
shall not end till the last order has left the kitchen later in the night.
Everything is back to normal, however some of us need
sometimes to be reminded, that everybody who works in a restaurant is equally important no
matter what the job title is.
GoTo
The Milieu 19
01/03/09
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