By Heather Ma
Imagine you and your friends are sitting in a restaurant which serves wine, beer, and genuine western food. The lights are dim and the atmosphere is relaxing. The CD plays jazzily in the background, and a handsome waiter smiles at you when he passes by. It resembles a scene in paradise, but I never feel carefree, because I am alert and concentrating on making people comfortable. That’s my job–waiting tables. I’ve long been interested in the restaurant business. In order to learn the business in practice before graduation, I recently gave up being a NT$500-per-hour tutoring job and turned to a restaurant in which I earn a mere 90 dollars per hour. I was assigned to the bar area, from where my adventure started. The first morning I reported for duty, the restaurant wasn’t open to customers yet, and it took me ten minutes to find the staff entrance. The first thing I learned: the door for customers, which is located on the main street, is always eye-catching, bright with neon signs and decorations like Christmas trees. But the door for the staff is hidden in a back alley, old and shabby, with stacks of cardboard cases and sacks of garbage. You’d never know these two doors were to the same restaurant. In most restaurants the kitchen is right inside the staff door. I was glad to see that every cook wears a cap and apron in the kitchen, and thus that the food was guaranteed hair-free and without the sweat dripping from their foreheads. You can eat without worry unless you ask them how many times a YEAR they wash their black aprons. All you can do is to pray. Pray that they don’t dry their hands off on their aprons or that the food never touches them or that anything sticking to them from last year doesn’t accidentally fall into your clam chowder. I asked the cooks how they dealt with the rats. The answer was: fatten them up and keep them in the kitchen! A joke, of course. I see rat traps everywhere. But where there is food, there is a rat. Trust me, even five-star hotels feed their own rats, too. In the morning I come to work half an hour to a hour before opening. Wax the whole bar and wipe the chairs. Carry two buckets of ice cubes from the kitchen to the bar. Everything the customers can see has to be prepared well before they come in. So I was told the number one rule is, if you are late to work, just arrange the things that customers can see first. But later I realized this rule applies not only to the opening time, but also to the cleaning. For anything that customers can see, even a fingerprint is not allowed. On the contrary, for things that they can’t see…hmmm…anything could happen. Managing a restaurant is not merely about food, but also about a bunch of trivial things and rules. For example, one thing that you would never think of about running a restaurant is that they even have a designated gathering place for staff after escaping from fire accidents! Running a restaurant is not easy. Being a waitress is even more difficult for me. I study hard and am a good student. But working in a restaurant, nobody cares that you are from NTU or on the dean’s list. If you are looking for a place where true equality is practiced, a restaurant is the place! As a business student, I’ve learned much about how to manage a company. But here, I learn the restaurant business from scratch and build my confidence in the realm of food and drink from square one. Who would ever remember that Heineken is from Holland, San Miguel is from the Philippines, Miller and Coors are from America, Guinness is from England, Tiger is from Singapore, Carlsberg is from Denmark, and Corona is from Mexico? The only thing I know is that Taiwan beer is from Taiwan! But working as a waitress, you have to know all of them, because some customers really care. For ketchup we use Heinz (the most well-known brand in the world), and for chili sauce we use Tabasco (also the most well-known brand). Mustard, A1 sauce, HP sauce, horseradish…sorry I can’t remember anymore. So many kinds of sauce I never heard of, let alone their brands. Besides, I have the names of newspapers to memorize. We have the Wall Street Journal, Taipei Times, Taiwan News, China Post, Apple News. When customers ask me what newspapers we have, I can feel a fierce desire in me to shout at them “Why don’t you just walk ten steps and see for yourself?” The truth is I want to serve them perfectly. It’s just that there are too many trivial things that drive me crazy. That’s not all. I have to remember which condiments go with which meal, and what sauce goes with which appetizer. Before this, cheese was nothing more than cheese for me. Now, it’s about Swiss cheese, Cheddar cheese, American cheese, and bleu cheese. Chances are most of the frequenters here know the menu much better than I do. Usually it’s them helping me instead of me helping them. What’s absurd is that, before, I could enter any restaurant and easily point out what they should improve. But now things have totally changed since I started working as a waitress. I have to chat with customers while making drinks for others. Meanwhile, I have to be attentive to the customers’ facial expressions or body language, which to a certain degree reveal their feelings toward the food, but still remain appropriately alert to mean customers who could probably cheat you with counterfeit money or some nasty tricks. The job is all about multitasking. Out of all those things, I could neglect one of them unconsciously, and in doing so dissatisfy a customer or enrage the boss, eventually forfeiting possible tips and reducing my already low wages. The more challenges I confront, the more attraction I find in the restaurant business. One thing very important is that whether the restaurant kitchen is dirtier or cleaner than your own, it’s always good to have someone thoughtfully serving you delicious food that is difficult to make by yourself. In addition, restaurants also provide an enjoyable atmosphere as well as a place to celebrate special occasions with loved ones. There are several things that you cannot provide for yourself, like fancy food and an enjoyable atmosphere. We make them all for you. Because in your smile we see the value of all our hard work. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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