Le Stage: It’s Not All Bad

Although there are number of hardships and challenges about my stage, there are also a lot of things that are great about my internship.  Although the chefs (the two owners) are tough, the other people I work with are nice.  There are five other interns/apprentices who are both friendly and helpful. I work mainly with one other intern, who has the same afternoon shift as me.  She is my life saver and steady mast!  Without her, I probably would be lost and 100x more stressed out.  We work for one of the two chef de parties…luckily the nicer one.  Although he can get annoyed or frustrated, he never directs it towards us with anger or loud emotions.  Unlike the other “upper management” people, he doesn’t have crazy mood swings or outbursts.  He’s a good boss.

Continue reading

Le Stage: I Survived the First Week

It has probably been the longest, physically most challenging and taxing week of my life.  Working in a kitchen is in no way glamorous or a bed of roses. I spend half of my day wearing these fashionable chef shoes, an awful white hairnet, and a variety of food smells and stains; lovely, no?  Putain (fuck) and merde (shit) are probably the two most used words, and I have been criticized as a cochon (pig, which always means dirty and messy in French) and slow many, many times.  The chefs are crazy/uptight/angry/unreasonable/scary/insane and I hope I never become like them. My hours are long, our lunch break is 10 minutes, and I work on the weekends…but I’m still looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

Continue reading