The last 2 months have been quite a low-light. Reason being the so-called hybrid chef job was nothing more than an admin job. I know the boss was new to town, but time and again, I noticed that he's really disorganised and wasn't in control, going back on his word, wasn't in focus, with jobs re-delegated to different people each week, and we're running around like a bunch of decapitated chicken - much to the irk of other departments within the hotel, and to his bosses, and our suppliers. Plus, I didn't get to learn anything about the front of the house, and on top of it, I didn't get to go into the kitchen at all! Where's the 50-50? Really an admin job, so why did they need chef trained personnel to do this job, I wonder! We had a couple of feedback sessions, but no changes. There are more stories I can tell, but what can I do? A call from a good French restaurant to ask if I'm still interested to join them was all it took for me to say goodbye, I haven't seen what I wanted to learn, and I'm off.
The highlight was that the chef from Jaan, the Swede, got sacked finally. HR has received too many complaints, and 2 weekends ago, what I understand was that he physically assaulted a kitchen staff, and the HR will not condone this type of practice, and off he went - escorted by security. Now, that jerk ought to have been shot. I know how tempers can fly and work is stressful in the kitchen, but the problem is this guy doesn't even earn our respect with his work. Time will prove that I am also right with the culinary director, and that people will uncover more and more of what a 'chau kuan kanni na chau ang moh' he is (sorry for the expletive). I said 'uncover more and more' because people already know. During these 2 last weeks, people have been coming forward to thank me and to congratulate me for leaving, and they themselves are waiting for the last straw. These are chefs who have been there for years. I didn't come into this hotel for this so called R&D job, I wanted to go to Jaan, which was incredibly bullshit in the end, they offered this, I gave it a try for 3 months like any standard probation, a probation for me to try them too, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't. Period.
So, another job change for me. I know you will notice it has been a little more frequent than I wanted. I can't explain why. I don't wanna just hop because there was another fatter carrot dangling before me (sometimes I do wish there was a fat carrot at all). The kitchen scene is not the same as in corporate world, where people can usually stay years in a job. My previous job in Auge kept me for 6 yrs. The kitchen scene is a lot more volatile and people tend to move after a year typically, to go somewhere else to learn new things. It's not that I can't take a little setback and learn to stick to a job. For e.g. the job at G.S is hard, but I learnt a lot of good things, and I stuck it out for close to 8 months. I look at it this way: I come so far, threw away so much, to come to this point, where I'm not just taking any job that comes along. I want to assess it, and if it's bullshit, I'm going to call it out right there and then, and not take any of it. I want to assess if it's something that can be changed, or it's a character fault of my superior. If I want to learn, I want to learn from the best, and if he's not, ... sorry, my time is limited, I'm already in my mid 30's, I need to go on fast-track.
Some people are unlucky in love, I guess I'm just unlucky in work. Nowadays.
I feel somewhat good about this job. Reasons being, the chef, French, has been in SG for 6 yrs working with locals and Asian job ethics and culture. His food is consistently good, I ate a few times myself - approachable, good quality, good taste, comfortable restaurant setting with reasonably good enough service (though I hear some days aint' too good). I went to them actually, when I first got back from Paris. But G.S was luring as well, and I went for the bigger brand name first. At least to get it out, and unto my CV, and after learning tougher stuff, now things should get easier.
I had a good talk with J a couple of weekends ago, and she said something which I didn't see... that, I have every chance to go back to corporate (and I was, honestly, contemplating it), but it seems that I want to stick to this path. More imptly, things have been coming my way (with the offer of an internship in Basque, Spain with a 3-star restaurant) and a call from the Fr resto, that I should be feeling happy about, that good things are happening for me. Thanks, J.
Ok, off to Vietnam tmw, was thinking of touring a neighbouring island off Phuket as the first choice, but seems wunderground.com showed 'rain' over the next few days. And it's honestly not the best (nor shoulder) season for that side of Thailand.
Should turn in now to catch my flight in time tmw!
No comments:
Post a Comment