I had retired and was looking for a part-time gig to get out of the house. I applied, on one of the online places for a "Kitchen Help" job. I didn't think much of it as I had been out of the restaurant business for 20 years. I thought it would be a dishwasher or maintenance position.
Lo and behold they called me for an interview. I arrived at the given address which was not a restaurant but a rented conference room in a hotel.
There were 12 or 15 of us sitting in chairs and three People wearing chef jackets at a table in the front. There were also three ( I call them Suits for obvious reasons) sitting in the back corner.
The one woman, who called herself Chef Lisa stood and clapped her hands, yelling, literally, yelling for attention.
" I am Chef Lisa and these are" as she pointed to the two others at the table, "Chef Tony and Chef John"
"Please hold all your questions till the end. You will address me as Chef Lisa or just Chef" Not Lisa or miss or ma'am. Does everyone understand?" Many responded Yes, Chef Lisa, some, like me just sat there smirking.
I was ready to leave and was going to tell them that this was not for me. I raised my hand and was immediately Told that all questions were to be answered at the end please pay attention, the woman who called herself chef Lisa said. "It is important that you pay attention to what we say, unlike this person, looking at me.
I decided I would wait till the end, how bad could it be, It was Bad
She continued to tell us how this was a new restaurant and that they, the three "Chefs" were in charge and would not allow any disrespect, yada yada yada.
I could hardly keep from laughing at her. This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever sat through. The restaurant was not open yet it was having its grand opening in two weeks. But "we needed to be aware that all decisions were made by the "Chefs" no unauthorized knives were to be used and some other ridiculous stuff I'll save you from.
When she finally finished I waited while some questions were asked about hours and pay and benefits I raised my hand and asked where they had trained as chefs. She immediately said that this was not the type of question for kitchen staff to be concerned with. Oh, I said what type of restaurant will it be? She again told me that it was not important for me to know. The last thing I asked was how many menu items were there? She told me again that that that was not important, as long as I did what I was told by the "Chefs". I stood and began to walk out saying that this was not for me.
She, Chef Lisa actually said "Thanks for wasting our time" I would have just walked out but now I turned on her.
Wasting your time I said. You won't even say where you trained as a chef? Did you just wake up one day and say I'm a chef? The menu and type of restaurant are not secret information. I was going to leave as soon as you started speaking to us in such a degrading manner. You wasted 45 minutes of my time with your silly ideas of what a chef should be and how they act, did you see it on a TV show?
I was headed to the door when one of the suits stopped me. I was thinking here we go he asked about my experience and I told him it had been 20 years since I worked in a restaurant. But I was not going blindly into any kitchen with any of those three up there.
When he called her over she was fuming and red-faced, when he asked her where she had trained she stammered and said she had learned on the job. Where was that I asked she gave me a dirty look and ignored me. He looked at her and said its a valid question. At Ihop she said.
I swear the Suit almost had a seizure right there he looked over to the other 2 suits and they were looking through papers and looking busy.
I just laughed and kept walking. Im not sure what happened to her but
