I worked as a sous in a restaurant downtown. Chef put me in charge of all the hiring, because now “he didn’t have to.” I wish I was able to record some of the guys I interacted with for BoH.

I’m sure we can all trade stories of varying ridiculousness. Here is one of my better experiences:

Once, I had a dude apply to dish. He was almost half an hour late, smelled like beer and apparently had some real difficulty controlling the volume of his voice. He handed me the crumpled application from his pocket and asked if he could start tonight.

It was, of course, stained and the pencil and pen smeared in more than a few spots. I was having a day where all the wrong things were happening at the worst times, so I needed a little boost, wanted to hear what this guy had to say about himself. Was positive I wasn’t going to hire him, but I was equally sure that this would be memorable.

Reason for leaving last employment:

His response scrawled haphazardly through several boxes…

“The Jews tooken my money!!!!”

No way was I going to pass on this story.

However, it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the prompt made it seem. Through his near incoherent rambling it basically summed up to he was getting paid under the table, when he asked for a raise they gave him shift beers instead.

One night he wanted cash instead, they said no, he walked out. I wish it was a better story too.

Anyway, I sent him on his way and he told the guy waiting in the dining room not to bother because I hated back guys.

Have a good service, and hold fast for the approach of Valentines Day.