Saturday, November 24, 2012
Add "Being a Chef" to the list of things AmeriTrade doesn't have a clue about
On the first day of his new job, Joe's boss gave him two pieces of advice: "Cook what you love, and save your money."
Very interesting.
Joe took his boss at his word- and proceeded to make beef stew with dumplings, and apple pie. Because that's what he loves to cook. And when the boss tried to remind Joe that he's working in a Pakistani Restaurant, Joe got very confused. "Remember that hackneyed, bumper-sticker advice you gave me?" asked Joe.
When Joe's boss replied "Um, no. I'm sure I was just talking out of my ass, because I had nothing to say that was actually constructive" Joe proceeded to remind his Boss about the whole "cook what you love" crap.
Boss's response was "umm...yeah, I guess I did say that. But I say a lot of really stupid things. What I MEANT was, cook what the customer orders."
Joe tells his boss that he now no longer has any confidence in the Boss's integrity, since he keeps changing his message. It was bad enough when that asshole at the next table dumped flour on his head (an email has already been filed with Human Resources) but now Boss is going back on HALF of all the advice he gave on the very first day Joe was an employee!
Boss then asks "what was the second half?" Joe responds "you told me to save my money." Boss replies "now THAT was good advice. Because if you make one more pot of beef stew and dumplings, or one more apple pie, you are going to be on the unemployment line."
"And here's some more advice- stop taking my BS as gospel. Because if I knew anything about being a chef, I'd be cooking, not sitting in my office in the back trying to figure out how to get my waitresses down to ninety cents an hour."
Of course, all this could have been avoided if TD AmeriTrade had bothered to learn even a little bit about what it's like to be a Chef. It's not Rocket Science.
(BTW, is there any place on Earth where people "work their way up" from busser, to waiter, to chef? What does one skill have to do with the next? When I notice that a familiar waitress is no longer at my favorite restaurant, should I assume that she's now behind the scenes, cooking? Because I always thought she had just moved on to a different job. Have I been wrong all this time?)
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I would think that being a great chef would involve more "cooking what your customers love" than "what you love". For example, I'm sure that Chef "Almost a Real Beard" here loves a good fillet of rubber fish, but I doubt that it will go over well on the menu.
ReplyDeleteIf the chef had told Joe to do what he loves and invest, that would be good advice.
ReplyDeleteHe could work his way up the ladder the way it's described in the commercial if he went to culinary school at some point before the move from waiter to chef.