AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It normally does and I’m not sure what is going on. I apologize for not realizing it myself, but I’ll find out now.”
“Don’t worry,” Karen said.
“I hope you enjoy your food, it will be out quickly. I’ll make sure of it.” She walked toward the bar and found Heather standing there tapping her foot. “What is going on tonight? Why are things slow?”
Heather looked around. “There is drama back there.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” she asked.
Heather shrugged. “I think people are afraid to.”
“They shouldn’t be,” she said. “Table sixteen are Duke’s parents and sister. They’ve been waiting forty minutes.”
“Crap,” Heather said. “I had no idea.”
“It shouldn’t matter, as you need to treat everyone the same whether they are his family or not. And you do. So it’s not a problem. I did get a complaint from customers on the wait time for food and that is what prompted me to come back and talk to them and seek you out.”
“I’m sorry,” Heather said. “I’ll let you know next time. We just aren’t used to having someone here we can talk to since Duke took over. One of your parents was normally here.”
She hated to say this to Duke but was going to have to. She was surprised she didn’t realize it before, that at times the staff felt there was a free for all.
She opened the door to the kitchen and saw Beth arguing with one of the line cooks. “What’s going on back here?”
“Nothing,” Beth said. “Michele can’t figure out how to plate things and it doesn’t matter how many times I’m showing her, she can’t get it.”
Hadley looked at the new employee’s face. Michele had been employed about a week and she hadn’t heard one word of a complaint yet. “Everything okay, Michele?”
“Yes,” Michele said. “Just learning. I guess I’m making some mistakes.”
“More than some,” Beth said. “It’s not that hard to get the garnishes done on time and plated to get out. She’s had to redo a lot of simple items tonight.”
She heard a snort from the back coming from Zeke. “Anything you want to add to this, Zeke?”
“Just that some people get all high and mighty and like to push others around,” Zeke said.
She moved to the back of the kitchen. “Care to explain that?”
“Funny how you’ve found a voice in this position,” Zeke said while he was cooking. “Good for you.”
She knew it wasn’t an insult. “I was hired to do a job and I’m doing it. I can’t do it properly if I don’t know what is going on.”
“Beth likes to get on her high horse. Michele isn’t making nearly the mistakes that Beth says she is, but she’s making her redo things and it makesmerefire as other dishes are cold and can’t be served.”
“Why aren’t you speaking up?” she asked. “It’s wasteful and you know it.”
“I’m just doing my job and trying to keep up with the orders.” Zeke lowered his voice. “Beth has a thing for Duke. She is always flirting with him and because she was asked to train the new line cook by him, she seems to think he’s given her some kind of authority.”
She’d had no clue that Beth was flirting with Duke. She’d heard lots of the staff talk about Duke before. It was hard not to with the big presence he had, but knowing someone was flirting with her boyfriend wasn’t making her feel any better.
Some of it was on her though. She didn’t want anyone to know she was dating Duke. It’s not like tonight was the night to deal with it either.
“Thank you, Zeke. I want to know if this happens again. I’m going to address it now.” She moved back to where Beth and Michele were working. “Beth, I understand that you want perfection, but there is a scale of something being good, perfect, and needs to be sent back. If it’s good but not perfect, it can go out. It’s the garnish, not the main course.”
“Did you read up on that? You’re just a server and a home baker. I’m the one with culinary experience and Duke asked me to train Michele. He values my opinion.”
Though her heart was racing, she had to back up the words that she was hired to do a job and in order to do it, she had to be firm and show her authority.
“Be that as it may, I’m the manager here, not you. If the chef is telling me that meals are being wasted over garnishes not being ‘perfect’ it’s a cost factor, not only a timing one. We’ve had complaints on the wait times of the food.”
