The food critic

The story so far...

Vince left the company and started working with his new employers,

Joe joined him just after two weeks,

about six more chefs left within a month!

I was left alone controlling a non-existing brigade!!. 

  

For those who did not believe in me 

Immediately the head chef took action and admitted new recutes, my new assistant name was Nigel.

Sigh...Nigel, there is so much to say about him! and yet we knew nothing about him...It was a spare of the moment! chef just recruted the first comers!. The hotel was in crisis! no one to fill up the missing posts!! Only God knows how many  frustrating days I passed!, it was work, work and work. Regretted so many times that I was blinded by money and that I did not join Vince!!. But what was done was done! I was there and had to do what a man got to do!.

    

 Many have not believe that I could do it, and many waited for me to step back. But it did not happen! I took seriously the job and I was willing to share all that I knew, I became a teacher, chef kept sending the new comers to me, saying "Hotei just introduce them to our system, you know how to handle this". Not sure if he just wanted to take the piss out of me, right after training the new comers and introducing them what and how to work ..chef would removed  them and place them to a new post!
   and me would have to restart over again as in the new guy came!!.
Nigel stood strong by my side, he was in his 30s I think....and I was 21!! Many times guests looked up at me then at him with a "what the fuck" expression on there faces!!
I remember one episode, I think it was my first or one of the first small wedding dinners I managed. The mother of the bride went to the head-waiter and said " Please we would like to thank the kitchen for there wonderful job! my son in law loved it, and he's a hard one to please, he's a chef you know?! !!", so the head-waiter came into the kitchen and called me out I called Nigel too (I always believed that every one was a vital part of the team, from the dishwasher to the waiters, if one of us went down, all of us went down with him!, so by using the same thinking, if one was to be praised all had to be praised!, it was a joined effort from every one). well we stood near the door that gave to the kitchen and the mother of the bride grabbed Nigel's arm dragging him across the restaurant...saying "lets not forget to thank the kitchen staff for there wonderful performance tonight!!). The head-waiter "whispered" in her ear  "Madam! you got the wrong Chef there!! " She said loudly "what do you mean wrong?" he pointed at me and she said "Him??" Ok ...Ok ...I had a late development thing going on, and had a tough battle against gravity!! till the age of 22 I still looked like a 17 year old.....sigh... hair less "body wise!!", pail and short!!. LoL ^^ that did not scare them away cause for 5 years they kept coming to the hotel and asked for me each year!! we had become friends!! I always loved to peek from the port hole of the door that gave from the kitchen to the restaurant and wait for the approval " Thumbs up :D  !!" .

It was round about 2 or 3 weeks from the episode that a food critic came to the Thai restaurant and criticised almost everything! Jam was furious! he couldn't take it, that he had such a bad review!. No one knew who or when the critic came! he was a shadow! even in the magazine where he wrote! he just signed "Kornucopia!!".
It was the week after that he came again to the hotel this time it was my turn!! The review criticised the decor of the restaurant and its accessibly!! He mentioned lack of attention on the table,  by the fact that we had not much waiting staff !. On the food bit ...at least on his report he ordered a carpaccio of beef with marinated wild mushrooms while his guest took Foie Gras with a tangy onion marmalade. He  said it was good but expected more! that was a total points of 7\10. For main he took fresh fish which he liked and his partner ordered a fillet of beef also hit!. that gave us 10\10 ^^ . Dessert he took Panna cotta made with baileys and set over forest red berries, and his partner had the "piece  de resistance" the cream caramel !! that was a hum a bit "contradict-iv" he said if both took cream caramel it would have been a 10/10 instead of 9\10 , but he did not  "extraordinary like" the panna cotta, well I don't blame him if he had a taste of the cream caramel :P!     The verdict was a good one!! ^^ I was in seventh heaven while reading it !!  
On the day I also received a text message saying "well done son!! ...if you where here you would have took more points but not bad for such an inferior hotel :P keep up the good job!! ...Vince"