Chef Tell by Ronald Joseph Kule

Author:Ronald Joseph Kule
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

49

PERSONNELITIES

“Tell broke them down just to build them up, never to be mean.”

—Chef Duerr

Barbie Murphy was serving a conservative, newlywed couple from Washington DC and their guests from the nearby Hyatt Regency Resort when the husband noticed a cobweb strung across the lights and commented on it inside the five-table gazebo where each table had its own chandelier.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asked Barbie.

Barbie looked up at the web and remarked, “Guess that’s why it’s called the Grand Old House.”(She knew that Chef Tell, Duerr, and rest of the crew worked diligently to keep a tight ship when it came to such details.)

Her remark didn’t sit well with the gentleman that night. After two or three weeks, a letter arrived from DC addressed to Tell, who read it. He called Barbie to the table where he sat between service hours.

“Barbie, please read this letter,” he said, handing the paper over to her. She read it but said nothing.

“What do you think about it?” Tell asked.

Barbie, who by that time had several years in the food service industry, yet few negative reports in her file, replied, “I remember that the man was a complete ass, Chef.”

Tell stuck his hand out, gesturing for the letter to be handed to him. Without saying a word he crumbled and tossed it into the wastebasket.

“Get back to work, Barbie.”

One of the other servers asked her what happened.

“Oh, nothing, but I just found out that Chef listens to us.”

If Tell found he was in the wrong, he would own up and make amends to any person he had offended. Rank didn’t matter. He would not hold grudges against any of his employees. But if their work didn’t cut it, Tell fired offenders on the spot, handed them a pink slip and a final paycheck, and moved on without looking back.

His crews preferred the tough standards and no-nonsense atmosphere he set. They felt this gave them room to do good work in an environment where only real producers survived. No one was immune, not even Bunny, who, at times in the Wayne establishment, had given back as much as Tell dished out, much to the amusement (afterward) of the staff.

No walls were thick enough to prevent the decibel levels from carrying throughout the entire building the day Bunny and Tell argued in the kitchen, and right in the middle of a busy lunch. Guests and staff listened to a mind-numbing row, which lasted twenty minutes.

When a happy ending appeared hopeless, and whispered prayers from staff and customers alike seemed all for naught, Bunny and Tell found something on which they could agree and laughed. They walked out of the kitchen together and greeted customers and staff with big smiles as though the incident never happened. Shocked faces melted. Everybody moved on. Most chalked it up to the weariness of a couple who worked together every day.

What was the argument about? Seating arrangements.

Bunny laughed. “We rarely argued, unless over seating arrangements. Even then I would

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