Comrades in the Kitchen

I am a day away from the two week mark and my co-workers still seemed surprised to see me – the crazy American girl who works extended shifts for NO PAY! It took me several shifts to realize that stages in Ireland are typically paid stipend salaries and work abridged hours. No wonder Chapter One was so warm in welcoming me! I make this observation without a trace of bitterness because, honestly, I absolutely adore my role at the restaurant … each day I hop down the stairs of my apartment building, walk the half block to Chapter One's alley entrance, buzz once, clip down the metal stairs and bust in the back kitchen door to the following chorus: "Hiya Kate! Are ya in today? How long will you be here? Ah grand….eh can you get on those celeriac and beet roots right away. Cheers! Whew, it's totally brilliant you're here …" Now seriously, who has never dreamed of being the hero at work … every day! If I could figure out a way to sustain this role financially I might have found my calling.

It would be all too easy to take this happy "sur-reality" for granted, but I believe there are several specifics that make this kitchen such a pleasant place to work. At Chapter One there is a noticeable absence of griping, prickish hazing and needless competition – the common features of kitchen life. Some kitchens escape these realities because the cooks come and go too frequently to really interact. Other kitchens operate on the basis of fear – every cook revolving around a common axis of intimidation. Here, however, the camaraderie is genuine and I think it is because most of the cooks actually appreciate their job. I have been humbled by the impressive credentials floating around the various stations of our little kitchen. Mark, for example, is an easily underestimated garnish cook, yet within the last 5 years he was a sous chef at Nobu in London and helped open Nobu Australia! I am inspired by the aspirations of the younger cooks my own age. Josh is 21 as of yesterday and hopes, quite sincerely, to work at both Alinea and The French Laundry within the next 10 years. He has already arranged for himself a 1 month stage at WD-50 this summer. I've no doubt he'll meet his goal!

In the United States I think we tend to take high caliber restaurants for granted. Young culinary professionals sometimes float from one "starred" restaurant to another looking for little more than a line on their resume. When you are working at a "starred" restaurant in a city with only six Michelin-rated venues, the perspective seems different. I think these cooks are either satisfied to be working in the heights of great cooking in Ireland, or they are confidently expectant about future career moves, knowing they are already Ireland's best and brightest. I overheard the sous chef telling a potential new teammate, "The expectations are enormously high here." But he wasn't cocky or complaining. He was absorbed in blending a black pudding, and his tone was quiet with reverence. The high expectations have become a standard for mutual respect and inspiration. Cooks don't "prove" themselves; they absorb and then perpetuate the atmosphere of excellence.