I woke up to the sound of my alarm. It was 6:30 in the morning and I got up to freshen up. It doesn't take me long to get ready as I have to take care of my 10 year old brother Jordan and take him to school. I started making breakfast and set it on the table.
"Jordan!! Are you ready? Breakfast is ready. We have to get going so I can make it in time for you and for work," I yelled out from the kitchen.
Jordan came out of the bathroom and was yawning. He sat down and ate his breakfast and got his backpack ready. We both rushed out as we live 30-45 minutes away from the city. I dropped Jordan off with my old jinky car and headed straight to work. When I got to the parking lot of my workplace, my car started smoking and died.
"Shit!" I whispered. I couldn't check on my car since I started at 8:00 and it was already 7:50AM. I rushed into the restaurant Savory and headed straight to the back to get myself ready. As I got done putting on my chef uniform I headed out to punch in, and right away Gus the manager was already yelling for me.
"Katrina!!! I told you to be here before 8 and here you are at exactly 7:58. What are you trying to do? Get yourself fired?!" Gus yelled.
"Sorry. I had to drop off my brother before I could be here. Besides, we don't open until 10:00AM so I don't think it's a big deal," I replied.
Gus was fuming when he heard my response. "Fine!! If you think it's not a big deal then you can take care of all the truck orders and put them away."
I sighed as it was always the same thing every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Gus always makes an excuse for me to put away the truck order by myself but I'm used to it. It was already 9:30 when I got done putting away all the stuff, then I started up the kitchen. Savory isn't the typical classic restaurant where people order the food off the menu. It's based on what they want and order any type of food whether it's in the morning or not, American classics or Asian classics. Some could even have classic dinners as their breakfast. I don't judge what the customers order as they are used to to their own time zone and their own comfort in food. I find that food connects everyone and that is why I have so much passion in cooking. One day I will make it on my own and open up my own restaurant and connect with my own guests.
I started prepping some vegetables and I received my first order. Thank God it was a Monday, it was gonna be a slow day and the food they ordered was usually easy to cook. The first ticket was pancakes, with 2 sunny side up eggs, fresh fruits, and hash browns. It only took me 15 minutes to make everything. When I was finished with the first ticket, Gus called out for my name again.
"KATRINAA WILSON!! Come here right now!!" Gus yelled. I sighed again, it's always me, me, me, but I held my head up high and went to Gus.
"Yes Gus?" I asked
"Why did you put the chicken on the bottom of the beef? It should be the other way around. You better fix it before the food auditor gets here," he said
"Gus, chicken is always at the bottom as the chicken may cause salmonella if spilled on top of any other items. If it's the other way around we will fail the food audit," I explained calmly.
Gus didn't bother listening to my explanation, and went off again, "You better get this fixed before the food auditor gets here. I've been here longer than you have been and I know how this place runs. Don't do anything stupid or you might get yourself fired." Then he walked off and didn't say another word.
I didn't bother fixing it as I knew we would fail, so I left it alone and went back to the kitchen as there were already 5 tickets waiting for me. Luckily my sous chef, Charlie, was there to take care of the first 2 tickets and I went back to continue with the other 3 tickets. It got busier during the day and it was already 2 and I haven’t gotten my break. Gus wouldn’t allow so all I could do was pay for my own meal and ate food at the kitchen and while cooking for others. I knew it was not the most sanitary thing to do but I was not going to let my health get in the way while working. If no one was going to help me in this world, I could only rely on myself no matter who hates me. I didn’t do anything wrong but being poor is something I couldn’t control and that is why Gus is so harsh on me. It’s because he knows I have no strong background and I have no one to support me, but myself therefore I get looked down upon so many times by the rich and by Gus. Just as I was about to finish my food, Gus came back and told me the food auditor is coming in five minutes. It didn’t bother me as I knew my station was clean. I nodded at Gus and tossed away my food and washed my hands and put back on my gloves.
The food auditor entered the kitchen and took a look at the kitchen. Everything was labeled with their day dots and everything was in proper hierarchy. She entered the walk-in cooler and then looked at Gus and asked, “Who’s the chef here?”
Gus brows furrowed and pointed at me then said, “Her.”
She looked at me and then turned back to Gus, “Her? Does she not have a name?”
“N..no, she does have a name, her name is Katrina. I’m sorry we have failed and disappointed you, I will immediately fire her for the improper hierarchy of the food.”
She looked at me, then walked towards me and shook my hands, “Hi, I’m Macy. I’m very impressed with your kitchen. Next time I would like to try the food that you make here. I’m sure you’re not gonna disappoint me as you have held such a high and clean standard for Savory.”
Then she turned to Gus, “I don’t know why you’re sweating so much and why you said you were gonna fire here, but she does such an amazing job with the kitchen.” Then she turned and walked away.
Gus turned to look at me and said, “You got lucky this time. Better listen to me next time or else you will for sure not be able to hold this position for long.” After that he walked out of the kitchen. I still don’t know why he still insists that I was wrong, but I didn’t care. I went back to the kitchen and started cooking again.
At 3:00PM I left Savory to go pick up Jordan from school as we closed from 3:30PM until 5:00PM then we opened back up again for dinner. I hailed a taxi since my car had died on me this morning. I got to the school which was about 20 minutes from my workplace and picked Jordan up. Jordan asked me about my car but I had explained to him that it had died so we’re gonna have to take a taxi for awhile until the car is fixed. I took Jordan back home and told him to lock the doors and not to open for anyone until I came back home. It was always the same story. I leave Jordan alone for the rest of the night and I go back to work and no one watches him. I am always concerned about leaving him alone but I can’t bring him to work since Gus won’t allow it and I don’t have anyone close to me to help watch Jordan. It saddens me but I have no one.
I went back to the restaurant and punched back in. Everything was going great until it was 6:30 that I received a weird request from the ticket. On there, it read “Make sure it tastes like my mom’s home cooked meal. Cook whatever you want” I was never usually surprised by other customers’ requests since it’s basically what they want from their own head but this one was unusually weird. How do I make sure it tastes like their own mom’s cooking? A mother’s meal is served with so much love, how do I make that happen? I shook my head and gave my own signature dish and made what I most remembered about my mom before she had passed away from cancer. While I was making the food, Gus came in and said, “whatever you’re making, make sure it’s perfect because this one is a special customer who is a picky eater. He always makes sure that the chef is fired if it’s not to his liking. You better hope that your skills can save you this time. Maybe it will save me from firing you instead.”
“How could this person fire every chef if he didn’t like their cooking? Why can’t he just hire his own personal chef then?” I thought to myself, but shook it off and continued. I wasn’t afraid of that threat as I knew I could always find another job that treats me better. Once I was finished, the server took out the food.
