My first job was as a dishwasher at a restaurant near my childhood home. The Dillworthtown Inn (link) hired me for the Summer when I was just thirteen years old.
Being a dishwasher was much tougher than I thought. It was really hot in the kitchen. The dishes did not stop coming in at a pace I could hardly keep up with. The whole dining room depended upon an uninterrupted flow of clean plates, silverware and glasses and the waitstaff was more than vocal about that point. A typical night ended well past midnight.
The first week was very tough. My hands were burned and raw, I was tired and I was beaten up. But I was determined to see it through.
After a couple of weeks I was working with one of the cold order chefs - a Vietnamese fellow named Duc Nguyen. Duc was very quiet but he was very good at his job. He was fast, he was precise and he had the full respect of everyone in the kitchen.
One day Duc heard me grumbling about the grind of washing dishes and that and that I wanted any other job in the kitchen and he said a short sentence to me. It was delivered in Duc’s quiet, unassuming way but I will never forget it.
“Be too good to just be a dishwasher.”
Comments