DAY 16: The Modern Pantry

I have been working for 60.5 hours since I began, 10 days ago and I should be earning, according to my Excel Budget, over 484 Pounds, which is approximately 774 dollars... Plenty of money.

Since I have been spending so much time at work, let’s talk about work. In UK, people are civilized. When they want us to clear the plate, they place their cutlery in front of them. When we have American customers, there is always a manager to say: “Americans know nothing about food.” And I answer: “I know! This is why I came to UK!”

I present to you a part of the team I work with:

We have a couple of managers.

Jeff: A lovely 50 years old Londoner, answering my thousands questions, pinching my arm on the pass, offering food. Very delicate man.

John: Big blue eyes. Dancing all the time. He thought me a little about wines and bottle service on an unoccupied evening and had me taste Maury (Dessert Wine), Mahi (Rich and round White Wine) and Merlot (Young and fruity Red Wine).

Waitresses are Eleonor, an adorable woman from Venezuela – I love to work with her and she lent me her card for VIP access to the Tate Museum today, and Esther, an 0riental teen (Singapour), rude, bullshitting on everyone’s back. I don’t want to be her friend; I just want to be better waitress than she is.

On the shop, Zoe is a looovely, super-tall, blue eyes, smiley, Brick Lane’s style Londoner: white-blond hair with brown roots, long skirt from belly to feet. I missed her brunch.

At the bar, we have Juceppe, a very polite 35-year-old Italian man.

I met monday James, a 24-year-old sexy Spanish bar tender but he makes bad jokes.

I met Louis today, a 21-year-old Londoner who was trying to teach me how to make a bill today, after I had done about a hundred since I work here. Hellooo, it’s not because you haven’t seen me here before that I haven’t worked all week long...

Marie is a red-haired 20s-year-old German. She invited me to her party Saturday night.

At the dishes, when I full the bottles of Sparkling and Still water, I speak with Charles 1 from Ghana and Charles 2 from Ghana. I think Charles 1 and me are friends now: he washes cutlery for me even before I have to ask for! His favourite food from Ghana is something with corns, I did not understand with his accent.

Our lovely Head Chef is the charming Londoner Rob, 24 years-old.

-          Rob, how come you are so young and a head chef?

-          My mom was a chef and when I finished school at 16, I started working, working, working... But the reality is... that I am really good.

And he is funny. I love Rob. He is organizing a trip to Colchester (UK) to have the team taste and learn about the oysters we sell at The Modern Pantry.