It was a bad day. I forgot my keys at work after a long walk, after which I drove home and found I had forgotten my keys, and couldn't get home. So I went back to the restaurant, where I had to be in six hours anyway.
That meant four hours of sleep. And I felt it the next day.
The trouble is... being tired is just not an excuse for doing your job poorly. There are no excuses for doing your job poorly, really, and not getting your ass to sleep because you forgot your keys belongs in that non-category.
It is problematic, especially when you're new at your demanding job. When I was writing papers all day, I could run on two hours of sleep, or no sleep at all. Yeah... read 100 pages of Descartes, finish that Lessing translation and sure, I'll be at my aerobics class at 8am and definitely stay awake for the next 12 hours on a few hours of naptime. It'll be great (it never is).
Why that energy doesn't translate to the kitchen: because I've spent thousands upon thousands of hours speaking and reading German, and even more writing critical papers. I have not spent that many hours on a line.
Those moments, when I'm a zombie? It's then that I wished I had started cooking sooner.
Tradeoffs: I wouldn't be zooming through fantastic, mind-expanding German literature if I hadn't taken it so seriously. Or refrain from correcting my sous on his non-existent German. Or have been able to pick up Spanish fairly quickly, because I already kicked another language's ass. For all that, I have to work harder to become a better cook.
"Those 20-year-olds on the line all have a head-start on you," said one of the city's greatest chefs to me. I wanted to say, "Yeah, and I don't give a fuck," but decorum got the better of me.
So I just harnessed that and kept it to myself.
This is a trade. You don't need to have God-given talent to be a great cook -- you just have to cook. Preferably, your ass off. I'll be freaking fantastic, and I'll be right there with you, you 20-year-olds.
I guess I have to read Malcolm Gladwell, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment