Yet another chef ...

We had the new cook on trial last night. He just came for a few hours. He seemed capable of only speaking to mio marito at first, until I started asking him direct question about some dishes he was proposing for the summer menu. He is absolutely huge, built like a sumo wrestler, he’ll not be able to do much moving around in our kitchen! He did speak more convincingly than anyone I have seen in the last year who professed to be a cook. Indeed, this man calls himself a chef. His CV does cite several well-recognised hotels and restaurants, but no formal training. Our second cook has worked with him before and says he is a proper chef; this of course means that he will be pushing for high rates of pay. He is also from Naples.

My mother-in-law is still fuming about the fact that the German-Sicilian cook never appeared. We last heard from him when mio marito was away on a boat trip a few weeks ago and he got me on the landline. I told him to stay in touch and let us know if there were any changes to his plans, after he told me he wouldn’t be back until 7 July. I also said we might well have ot start looking for someone else as we didn’t feel reassured that he would show up, given his track record. Is aid this in a light-hearted tone, knowing he only takes mio marito seriously, but I made my point. Anyway, we haven’t heard a bleep form him since, and my mother-in-law is raging. She thinks he tried to take the whole family for a ride, especially her son. The strange thing is that her son was so convinced he was the man, especially since al of us, before he had even arrived, were suspicious, and then when we did finally meet him, felt even more suspicious!

This means, she says, after the catalogue of dodgy people we have had in and out of our kitchen – her kitchen – that she does not trust anyone anymore, and she would usually give anyone the benefit of the doubt. She’s dead right: every single cook who has been interviewed professed to be capable and worth much more than they were – which is always completely clear within a week. Our Napolitano is now pushing for more than we can give him but there is no point in starting on a level beyond our means. He has just left his last place of work because they weren’t paying im – a well-known, well-thought of place! All our staff know that we always pay them on time and are very happy with their working conditions – in fact, at last we have a great time in the kitchen and in the waiting staff – we just need a chef!!!

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