Because they didn’t have much work for the moment, Jimmy Banquet Chef took Bill to a remote kitchen, one Bill had seen in passing a couple of times but had not been in. It was a wholly separate kitchen where two cooks were working. They were part of the room service crew.
On the way over, Jimmy Banquet Chef explained the room service setup. They served a limited menu all day, from early morning to late night. Two cooks were working all the time, sitting and not doing much of anything a good deal of the time.
Their menu was relatively simple. They served regular breakfast items, oatmeal to omelettes. Lunch included a variety of soups and sandwiches, some pretty nice sandwiches actually, and of course hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, and all that. The soups were made in the main kitchen and delivered over. Dinner included any specials Jimmy Banquet Chef prepared as well as simple fish and steak items. Much of those were prepped by the main kitchen and sent over for cooking on the line by the room service cooks.
The cooks weren’t doing much when Jimmy Banquet Chef and Bill popped into their kitchen. They were two men older than both Bill and the banquet chef.
“This is Bill Wynn,” the banquet chef said. “He’s the Falstaff cook and my new first cook. He’ll be working on banquets with me.”
They both nodded. No one reached out a hand to shake, so Bill didn’t either. Bill was busy looking over everything he could see from where he and the banquet chef stood.
“Bill doesn’t affect you in any way,” Jimmy Banquet Chef said. “In the rare case you are all out, I want him to have an idea of what it’s like here.”
The two men, Bill judged them in their forties, looked at each other but didn’t say anything. Jimmy didn’t say anything more. He led Bill around the kitchen so Bill could see everything, opened reach-in doors and the walk-in. When they were inside the walk-in he told Bill not to mind them in any way.
Bill was already thinking about being in the workhouse. Ronnie came first, the guy who asked him what he thought his wife was doing while he was locked up. That taught Bill to be guarded, not to give out any information to anyone.
Most men in the workhouse just wanted to be left alone to do their time quietly. Bill ended up not really talking to anyone except the people on his work detail, and then they didn’t talk about personal things. They talked about the day, they talked about the weather, they talked about the food, they talked about the guards. They talked about the tough and the gangs and the groups. They talked about their commissary funds and what they were going to buy for a snack that evening.
Some people talked to other people, some people didn’t talk to anyone, some people didn’t respond to people when they were talked to. In the workhouse Bill quickly learned not to take anything personally unless it was directly personal.
So when these two cooks did not talk to him, Bill didn’t really care. Immediately, apart from thinking about his workhouse experiences he started to consider what it was in them that would cause them not to talk to him. He could think of lots of things, none of which had anything to do with him, most of which had to do with their own job insecurity.
Once they were on their way back to the main kitchen, Jimmy Banquet Chef asked Bill what he thought of the room service setup. Bill didn’t have much to say other than that it was interesting and that of course he could handle it in a pinch if he had to. He already knew that situation would probably never come up because in the evening he was always in The Falstaff Room. He felt glad about that. He liked that part of the job and he liked his girls there.
