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.

I did not have any more shifts scheduled that day, so I volunteered my services to cook for the reception. I remember Kevin Randall looking at me silently before pulling out his cell phone and making a call. A moment later I was being dragged deep into the hotel as he explained to me the current menu plan.

At least the menu was relatively simple. The family apparently had a number of vegetarian members, because I needed to come up with a vegetarian entrée as well as a chicken one. I took advantage of the simplicity of Italian dishes to do both eggplant and chicken parmesan. Kevin Randall hovered throughout my preparations, and his apparent distress kept increasing, as the time to serve the wedding party got closer. I found him a bit in the way, but after Ralph's constant games in the kitchen at the resort, he was not really a problem, and the finishing touches on the dishes were ready just as the diners started to arrive.

When the dinner went out, I thought little about the event. To me it was just another chance to help my employer and get to cook, something which helped me forget my troubles. With no contact with Tameka in months, I was growing increasingly depressed and lonely. Some of the ladies from the shows would run into me backstage, but I did not find them all that interesting. Most were old and jaded, and the memory of Tameka's enthusiasm and love kept me from opening up to them. I had even found myself looking longingly at an engagement ring during a break as I wandered through the shops in the Paris resort. I knew I wanted to ask Tameka to marry me, but had no idea how to find her.

However, I was unaware of just how high up the hotel's chain of command Kevin Randall stood. He truly had been panicked, and although he recognized that I worked for the resort by my outfit, had been completely surprised by my ability to organize and cook for the wedding party. To me it was no different than any of the barbeques and other parties I had been asked to cook for during high school, even without a lot of time to prepare. When I was in school some parents would call me on Saturday morning and want a full barbeque ready by two in the afternoon. However in Vegas there is a pecking order and few chefs are willing to cook outside the various restaurants. My willingness to cook for the reception had impressed Kevin, and the guests' feedback was even more positive, so the next day as I arrived for work, I was met by the resort's wedding event planner and offered the opportunity to be the full time catering chef for events.

Thus I found myself once again in charge, only now I was mostly cooking for wedding or reunion parties that came to Vegas. The events usually required only a few hours preparation, and a rather small crew of assistants and servers. The only problem was that the work was not very tiring and often I had time to think upon the last few years and wonder if it was time to go home.