The Forge
behind the door
While conventional images depict a family as a relatively contained nuclear unit, few people have resigned the term for such a specific group based on blood kinship. In fact, over time many people find that some of their strongest and most familial bonds are with those they work with. The workplace over long periods of time does act as a dwelling after enough time at the same location, and the other inhabitants of such a dwelling do become close reliable friends. The bonds between coworkers are forged through the work and toil of group effort toward a specific goal.
Few workplaces capture both the figurative and literal ploys of such a forge, ( aside from an actual steel mill), than the kitchen. In so many ways a restaurant is the collision point of at least two separate worlds, and both worlds are separated by a wall and doorway. From the customer's perspective, there are certainly glimpses into the other world behind the door with every opening, but the truth is that those glimpses seldom ever allow to display what is actually being made in that other world. Over the heat and flame of stove tops and ovens, bent and shaped by the metallic clashes and of the pots, pans, and utensils,( the kitchen's hammer and tongs), the bonds between the workers behind the door are built stronger with every shift, every plate of food.
While I have only worked in a kitchen for what many seasoned chefs would describe as a laughable six years, ( a time that just barely takes a raw employee with no prior kitchen work or training past the rookie tier), I have now come to consider most of the crew to be both the single
greatest support and most antagonizing bane of my life- for what greater definition of family is there?
What effects one of us will effect each of us, and we not only do our best to help one another through each shift, but even when the dishwasher has hummed it's last tune of the night and the inferno of the stove tops have quieted to flickering infant pilot light streams of flame, we still share our time with one another through bike rides, drag races down open streets, ( lol, we totally don't do that, what are you talking about?), and many fun, (yet in my case regrettable), rounds of shootin' pool.
Perhaps one major account for our ties to each other is the simple dependence we have in one another as our vessel on maddening tides is one independent of a fleet- we are a local independent business with no associated chain or corporation. While this does grant us as individual workers a great amount of creative liberty and independence, we work and sacrifice together with an even greater sense of urgency as we know there is no backup, no armada to rescue us should we ever sink. As Kevin loves to recite before we open, "there's no help coming." I feel that this in many ways even further strengthens our bonds and that we end up coming out of every shift knowing the weaknesses, strengths, and abilities of our brethren with even greater sense than before.
Written by: Gabriel Short