Chapter 12: Struggling to Find a Place

Jason

I quickly discovered that there was a huge difference between being the head chef of a restaurant at a small resort, and serving as a sou-chef in one of the many resort hotels in Las Vegas. The head chefs were not only demanding, but also very unwilling to give instruction to any young chef. You were expected to know what to do, and to go and do it, without fail.

I did find the experience interesting, but far more frustrating than I liked. Brent's praise of my abilities to his friend had gotten me in the door, and someone was obviously impressed with my ability. They just did not know where to put me. The head chefs wanted school trained chefs and I was self-taught. They wanted someone used to working with a brigade of chefs, and I had always worked with only one or two other chefs. Each time I got the same treatment. I was praised for my skills, but found unsuitable to work with that head chef, so I found myself getting shifted from restaurant to restaurant throughout Las Vegas.

After about two months it became increasingly clear to me that working under any of the head chefs was going to be problematic at best. I just did not give them the deference they demanded, and they openly thought I was far too young to do the job well. I think I might have been given a handshake and a goodbye had not one of the hotels made a mistake and fouled up a wedding reception's catering plan.

Today, it seems almost funny, but I can remember that I was relaxing after the lunch rush finished when one of the concierges, Kevin Randall charged in complaining about having to somehow get a fully catered meal set up in two hours. I asked him what it was about, and we almost immediately started talking about the mistake. It appears that the official order had been placed in the hotel system indicating that the event was going to be the next day and there were no cooks available who could to put together the order because of the mistake.