Staffing a kitchen in a ........

[dave s.]

I understand the concept of making the best of a bad situation, but what I fail to comprehend is why we accept as normal much of what occurs on a day to day basis in the restaurant culture. I, too once gloried in my burns and scars and ability to work under insane pressures quite often for insane people. But as I grow older and perhaps wiser I find myself questioning the need for much of what the average cook undergoes during the course of an average day. The rest of the world has moved forward but the restaurant business is by and large stuck in some sort of time warp. The traditional kitchen is based on a regimented, nearly militaristic European paradigm. Barking out orders followed by barking out of "yes Chef" and "no Chef" is still the norm many places, and why? Having been a soldier, I can say with some authority that even the armed services don't indulge in the degree of heel-clicking and rigid adherence to every idiotic whim expected of many cooks. As a former health-care worker I can tell you that code blues, in which a patient's life hangs in the balance, are not accompanied by the sort of histrionics such as are encountered behind the line during dinner service. Contrary to what some believe, pride and passion can exist without meaningless B.S. As far as creativity and self-expression go, I've never worked in a restaurant where I could just cook whatever struck my fancy that day. Another writer spoke approvingly of the "bareboned human emotion" that one finds in restaurants...well, one certainly does, unfortunately. In most kitchens it's entirely normal to exhibit the kinds of behavior found usually in the severely mentally ill-loud and random noises, inappropriate speech, demented laughter, psychotic behavior. Personally, I like to cook. I'm good at it. What I don't like is having to do my job in an atmosphere which in virtually any other profession would be considered aberrant. And the pay is, for many, woefully inadequate. If the profession of the culinarian is at all important, why the chump change? There are good reasons why you find so many ex-cooks, chefs, etc. in the ranks of vendors, sales reps and knife-sharpeners. I think sooner rather than later this industry is going to have to get on the stick and get into at least the 20th century, or else accept the fact that it will be staffed by the substance abusers, the can-crackers and the shoemakers.