“………we heard yelling — loud, sustained, top-of-lungs yelling — coming from the kitchen
……………………A few minutes later, the chef was at it again.
Fifteen seconds.
Another fifteen.
And without much forethought, I pushed back my chair and walked through the open doorway of the kitchen.
“In this particular instance, however, something didn’t feel right. I don’t know if Mr. Forgione had been watching too much Gordon Ramsay on television or had learned the wrong lessons from his mentors. Listening to him in action, however, conjured up the particular type of nausea that results from watching people yank their misbehaving kids around on the subway or seeing my own kid smash a defenseless insect.”
Rather than go on about my feelings about this, I would like to know what you think about it.
Is it necessary? Is it excusable in the heat of the moment?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Loving Annie // May 13, 2010 at 6:40 pm
The Chef was an ass. The customer actually made a good point, but being that the Chef was behaving like an ass, it fell on deaf ears.
If the Chef had spoken more quietly, this never would have become an issue for the customer.
With hindsight, the best thing for the customer to have done was to have left the restaurant as soon as it occured rather than feel like the Chef was an ass and try to explain to him why it was making everyone uncomfortable. Not necessary/it is ofetn without positive result to confront jerks – they rarely understand and/or change, seeing it from anyone else’s point of view.
2 Karl Wilder // Jul 15, 2010 at 8:55 am
There is NO reason for a chef to yell. Yelling is the least effective way to communicate to serving staff or kitchen help. One gets more respect making corrections in a normal tone of voice. The man clearly has issues.
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