The most absurd thing happened to me at work yesterday, but before I talk about that, look for these subjects coming soon: *The wedding *My life's work/goal *DaL.
Okay, I have to preface this by stating that I work in a very fancy restaurant run by a man with a very "big" name in this area and I loathe him. This blog is not about him. Because the restaurant serves mainly the wealthy people, business has not much suffered given the failing economy. Which I, of course, hate. Working at this restaurant makes be feel like a whore for money. It sounds terrible, but simply stated, I have a job that I hate because I make good money. I have definitely been struggling with my previously strong principles on this one.
Anyway, last night I had a table of three people consisting of what I can only assume to be a husband and wife, and a friend. They were nice enough and began with cocktails and oysters. They were friendly to me which is always a plus as this is not the case as often as one would think. Things were going smoothly and it seemed as though they were enjoying their cocktails and conversation. Until the entrees were served. At this point, the obvious thought in one's head would be that perhaps the fish was undercooked or the vegetables were cold. OhNo, according to this man, there was TOO MUCH FOOD on his plate!
I have to admit that I was aghast and fumbled for words. I did not know what to do. Certainly from a servers point of view, if there was not enough food, I could bring more, or if the food was cold I could heat it up, but I can certainly not take food off the table. But from my point of view, how absurd to complain that there is too much food sitting in front of you. I even said to the man, "With all due respect, sir, some people would feel that is not enough." I know that as a professional, passing value judgements on the the person who is essentially paying me, is unacceptable. But as a person who recognizes the value of a dollar and a good meal, I just had to say it. He even looked as though he would consider my point for a moment, but his silver spoon training reasserted itself into his hypothalamus and kicked out any consideration.
Now I am not talking about the starving children in Ethiopia or the pestilence in India, although equally as important, I am talking about the fact that my refrigerator is nearly empty, and certainly not filled with the healthy and fresh food I would like to feed my family with. I am talking about the dishwashers who get paid minimum wage and watch half pieces of new york strips and ahi tuna slide right into the garbage can. I am talking about the college students I work with who really don't have any idea where their next meal is coming from.
The fact that this man complained about the excessive amount of food on his plate and never considered any of these facts is completely, in my book, ignorant. He knows very well that tomorrow he and his wife will go to an equally nice restaurant, have equally as quality gin in their martinis, and have an equally as quality dish set in front of them.
The kicker is: he refused to take any of it home with him.
