The Chefs
The chefs at The Resort were simultaneously the best and worst people to work with. On the one hand they were friendly to me since I wasn't their subordinate and I was nice to them, but on the other hand most of them had huge egos and thought they were always right, even when they weren't. The Resort had a weird hierarchy for the chefs, so it seemed like there were always power struggles amongst them. At the top was the Food and Beverage Manager (not a chef...at all) and he was over things like food cost, events, supply chain...the boring stuff. Next was the Executive Chef, Phil, who was technically in charge of all of the other chefs. Then there was the head restaurant chef (side note: the restaurant was not technically run by The Resort, it was run by the brand of restaurant that it was-- like how the food court is in the mall but each restaurant is run by itself, not the mall as a whole but the mall still has some say in what happens...it was confusing), the sous chef, the head banquet chef and his assistant, the head pastry chef and his assistant, then there were all levels of chefs in the restaurant. They all had numbers (like chef I or II) based on seniority/experience so it was also confusing to know who to talk to about what.
In the first couple of months I mostly worked around Tony the head banquet chef and Phil the executive chef. Phil was full of all kinds of random information that he felt the need to always divulge. Sometimes it was interesting, like how the pigs in Italy are fed certain foods (like wine and nuts) before they're made into prosciutto/pancetta, and sometimes it was not, like how he showed his sons his scars from his vasectomy. For real he told me all about that in addition to how his wife cheated on him but they decided to stay together for the kids and how she pretty much sounded like she was in the marriage for the money. One time I saw him go ape crazy on a mouse in the kitchen--obviously necessary, but instead of disposing of it himself he left it there and called stewarding to come clean it up. I don't think I mentioned stewarding before, they were at the beck and call of the chefs, managers, and servers to do things like dishes, polishing large silver pieces, moving flatware and silverware, cleaning up broken glass, transporting trays of glasses from point A to B...lots of hard labor, basically. Anyway, back to Phil. I liked him and didn't have any beef with him, but apparently he threw a lot of people under the bus to save his own butt. And one last thing about him, his favorite thing to eat was ramen and beer...I guess you just never know sometimes.
Tony was from New York (I mentioned him in the royal wedding) and so most people were afraid of him because they thought he was "mean." Don't get me wrong, I saw him get into a lot of arguments with my manager (she was also from New York) but he never was mean to me. He thought I was joking when I told him that I worked with my mom...most people didn't believe me actually. He also teased (but not in a mean way) that I was Mormon. It's funny how people who know something generic about you tend to bring up all they know on the subject, which ends up being a whole lot of nothing. Like if I had ten husbands...silly stuff like that. Anyway, we got along really well and he would teach me how to make things when they were slow. I did an amazing hollandaise sauce for a holiday brunch (on my first try, if I might add) that he taught me to make. He also helped me plan my birthday dinner that another chef was catering for me. Him and his assistant, who were friends, were always bickering with each other and I remember him (the assistant) saying that he was sure that Tony was wrong so he was going to make it his way and not listen to him. He got sick of being over worked so he left a few months before me and went to go work at The Montage and he is managing his own restaurant over there now.
Orin is my favorite. We're still friends and he owns an amazing pastry shop in Draper. He originally came in as a pastry chef, and after our head pastry chef/chocolatier left becasue she thought everyone in charge was idiots (too true) he became in charge. The annoying thing is that they wouldn't give him the title of "head" pastry chef. Him and Phil didn't get along very well. Anyway, whenever we were slow or had time in between events I would go hang out with Orin. He had pastries that he would share with me, or let me try out new things that he was making. He also gave me TONS of baking advice and shared a lot of fun stories with me about his pastry upbringing and his family growing up in...Norway (?). It annoyed him to no end that instead of allowing him to make things from scratch, Phil ordered premade croissants, muffins, and bagels which contributed to the huge "food cost" debate that seemed never ending. I got to the point where when I was pregnant I did not want to work up in Private Dining anymore and Orin wanted me to come work with him but Phil said no. Then I went on maternity leave. Then I quit...but I digress. We actually both quit at almost the same time. Orin had to drive over the mountain from South Salt Lake and during the snow season you never knew how long it could take. He got stuck in an accident that shutdown the freeway so he was a sitting duck for two hours on his way to Park City. He called to let Phil know about the accident and Phil told him to not even bother coming in. That was the end. Orin is such a nice guy and he owns his own pastry shop now, but he was the scape goat up there and it was ridiculous.
I mentioned that chefs had egos and could be hard to work with. One time when I was working in Private Dining I went to the line to pick up my order and it was wrong. I told the sous chef who sat there and argued with me and i told him over and over again to read the ticket again because I was missing a dish. This was the first time that I literally yelled at a chef and then once he read the ticket he saw he was wrong and walked off to fix the order. The head restaurant chef was the most egotistical chefs I had ever met. Phil and I discussed how much we both disliked Bobby Flay and I never had the heart to tell him I disliked his restaurant more than I disliked Bobby Flay and that is saying something. Almost all the chefs swore like sailors which annoyed me, but was bad for The Resort when they had guests touring the kitchen and came around the corner hearing a string of profanity. The restaurant's kitchen was not my favorite place.
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