What to Do...

Saturday...

I have recently found myself in a rather interesting situation.

Since having taken over a great deal of my chef's responsibilities, I have found myself here more and more. First it was to do some organizing in the kitchen and dry storage areas. Then it was to keep on top of cost and labor in the kitchen. Now, I have been asked to come in on Sundays (when the restaurant is closed) with some staff members to do detailed cleaning of the kitchen.

That is only the beginning though. I have also been asked to develop a new menu for our banquets. Then it was to start working on sanitation practices. This, on top of actually running the kitchen on a daily basis, which is a complete job by itself, especially while doing so without the help of a number 2 chef in the kitchen.

I have been told this is my kitchen. I have been told I need to change certain aspects of the food. I have, I could keep going, been told that I need to start taking more responsibility for the chemical usage in the restaurant for cleaning.

At what point in time am I able to say not just "show me the money," but how about getting someone to help me accomplish this? I did not ask to be put in this situation. Of course I want to run the kitchen. Of course I want to take on all of these responsibilities. At what cost to me though, what is in it for me? I mean, if I am being told this is my kitchen, where are the keys that I still don't have?

I do not see my name on the menu, which trumps a lot of the things I want. I have yet to ask for a raise, though I do not know a chef in this city that is currently working for what I am. I do not want to hear "we are in a recession," that answer won't work in this situation. I have watched, over the past 2 years, money be dumped into this place and then I inherit a "clusterfuck." The word that was used was "an unsat kitchen," which evidently means unsatisfactory.

This is the first time I have gone into detail about all the things I am dealing with in this place. I know how to play "the game" and up until this point it has been played well by all means. Morale in the kitchen is great, the food is looking better, costs are down, labor is, well, labor will continue to be an issue when employees work in the same place for 15 plus years and make more money then everyone else. No one has to tell me things are turning around, the proof is in the numbers.

But at what cost to my personal life? I have been through the gauntlet and would gladly do it again. By that I mean I have opened restaurants and put my time in. At those places, however, there was a team in place to make things happen. There is definitely a team in place here, they are just all managers, of which there are now 3. Three managers and one sous chef.

What's wrong with that sentence...?