Back In An Old Routine

Week Six: Sunday 5 – Saturday 11 November

Week six of our year in Falmouth, which, lovely as Falmouth is, just doesn’t have the same ring to it as our ‘year in Provence’, ended with me working a gruelling sixteen hour shift from 1.00pm on Saturday night till 4.00am on Sunday morning.

One of my elder brothers manages a restaurant in Newquay; they were hosting a charity function for 180 people and were short of staff. I got the call; what could I do? He’s my brother, and besides the money would come in handy for a poor impoverished student with a wife and child to feed.

It has been a while since I was behind a bar serving drinks and out on ‘the floor’ serving a large function; tiring as it was, I really enjoyed being back in the swing of things. Although it was a long day and night, and catering is a young person’s game.

In my time I have worked in many, and managed a few, bars and restaurants; it is a physically and mentally demanding and exhausting job. It always irritates and annoys me how badly recognised catering staff are in the British Isles. People who have never spent so much as a night in the job assume it is easy: well, you just put plates in front of people, or pour drinks; how difficult can that be? It’s not like a proper job.

The catering industry, whether behind the bar, waiting, or in the kitchen, is a tough game; very few people do it well or crack it – because it’s hard. Your body never stops moving and your brain never stops working. Your establishment is only as good as it’s last service, and your job is to make sure people have a good time; an enjoyable meal and/or evening.

Catering is performance art; it is theatre. When it is done well, with good staff, it is a pleasure to be a part of; that’s how it was on Saturday night. When I woke up on Sunday my body was feeling the aches and pains: but it was worth it; it’s an incredibly satisfying profession to be involved in and the people in the business are a pleasure to be around. I just wish the British public generally would show far more respect for them.

The down side to the catering game (aside from the hours, poor wages, rude and un-appreciative public, physical demands, et cetera) is the wastage. So much food and drink goes to waste; it may be bought and paid for, but it borders on criminal. I actually find it offensive: of course you can’t wrap it up and send it to starving people all over the world; but when you consider how many people on the planet are starving, and you think about how much food gets thrown away uneaten in a place like the British Isles … well it is sick.

Another thing that I have trouble getting my head round is the whole charity event concept. I don’t know how much was raised for the charity at the event I worked at, and it’s always nice for people to have an opportunity to get their glad rags on, have a bite to eat and a swallow a few drinks. Charity functions are also good business for the catering industry, especially at this time of year in Cornwall. But, no matter how much was raised, I’m sure far, far more would have been raised if everyone who attended had donated all the money they ended up spending on outfits, taxis, the meal, and drinks and stayed at home instead.

It’s a strange, perverse, world we exist in; when I think about it.