Bill, Jimmy Banquet Chef and Victor worked straight through. They sautéed all the chicken breasts and rolled all the filet of sole. They set the sole on sheet pans lined up like soldiers, buttered the tops with a brush and melted butter, sprinkled them with paprika. At dish-up the rolled sole would be covered in white wine sauce with sautéed mushrooms. Bill had made the sauce.
Jimmy G sat on a wooden folding chair, his chair, in the vegetable room. He was smoking a cigarette and enjoying himself while the stewards did all the work.
In this room was a long row of sinks specially built to be one long sink trough with multiple faucets evenly spaced. At this moment water cascaded over stacked pans of broccoli set under each faucet. The water was defrosting the broccoli, many pans of it.
Jimmy G did not budge from his chair unless he had to, and he didn’t have to because the stewards knew exactly what to do and were doing it. They resented his not working. They resented the fact that he continually got away with it. There was little they could do about it, little anyone could do about it.
Jimmy Banquet Chef had talked to his cousin many times about not working. He implored him to make it look good, that he should be working more and harder than anyone else, than everyone else. Jimmy G gave his usual ”Ya,” and did what he did.
The banquet had talked with his aunt many times about his cousin. They both knew Jimmy G was not happy in America and if he had the chance he’d head back to his farm in Greece. But he had a wife and kids to take care of, and he had parents there who ran the farm with other family members. There were kids to be sent to college too. Everything took money. Nothing was better than American dollars being sent over.
The reality of it, the real reality of it, was that Jimmy Banquet Chef was the one who was stuck. He was a chef by trade, by choice. He had worked his way into this position of prominence here in this hotel. Once his job was secured, once the chef, same chef who had been there like forever (and that in itself was somewhat unusual), liked him like a son and relied upon him completely, he was able to start bringing in his family. First came Victor, then Kalista, then some younger nephews who were kitchen stewards. Finally it was Jimmy G who hadn’t known anything and only learned what he needed to know for this job.
Jimmy Banquet Chef was the one stuck because it all depended upon him and his being there.
Jimmy G’s ineptitude greatly increased Bill’s value. But Jimmy G’s laziness caused the chef agita. He ran through multiple broiler cooks because sooner or later the inequity became a sore point and each time there wasn’t enough money he could offer to counter the bad feelings.
And so it went.
Jimmy G smoked his cigarette and read his magazine. Victor, Jimmy Banquet Chef and Bill worked through with the kitchen stewards to make sure all the parties were ready to go. The buffet table kept being replenished by the room service cooks who weren’t happy about it but were assured they’d only have to do it until the banquets were served. Kalista came in to do the salads. She had Adonia and her own stewards who helped her. Adonia was one of the family going to college.
Staff came in and out of the kitchen and ate from the buffet table. Room service cooks filled up the table regularly and put on some of their own things too, like pancakes. The banquet crew worked all morning. When they were done with the chicken breasts, they took a moment for a coffee and a cigarette and went straight to finishing off the fish.
Then it was all into the rotary, the chicken first and the fish later timed to come out for the dish-up.
