Oops - telling the cook how to do his job
Today is the first day of August and I wonder will there suddenly be a huge surge in clients like there was last year. I have already noted a few returned faces. W have dj music on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays throughout August so that will no doubt bring in the punters, and damage my eardrums.
Last night the cameriere called me discreetly from the till. He had two bottles of wine in his hand so I thought he wanted to consult on which to bring to table. But no. His beady eye had spotted a sneaky cockroach on a table at the back of the room. Luckily no one was sitting nearby, and the dirty thing was brown in colour rather than the brighter pink-red they can sometimes be. SO it was camouflaged. We just had to get rid of it without anyone noticing. He gave me the two bottles of wine and went to grab it with a napkin. Ugh. It slipped off the table and scuttled towards the steps to the kitchen. But he got it just in time. Good for him.
I took lots of orders for paella last night. Our ads in some local magazines must be working. When I arrived a guy waylaid me on the terrace. ‘Thank God you’ve arrived, Can you explain the menu to her in Spanish?’ His friend was from the Dominican Republic and was over visiting, but they were finding communications difficult in their limited English and his culinary vocabulary was not up to it! She enjoyed the Tapas de Tierra and a simple pasta alla Sorrentina. It’s not on the menu and I found myself explaining it to the cook – it’s just passata with mozzarella melted into it … before realising I was telling a Napolitano how to make his own local speciality. Funny. Plenty of tapas and house antipasti going out, but we must sell more of our lovely homemade desserts. The problem is by dessert time I am usually needed on the till for bills and people arriving for drinks; but we’ve noticed that people will take my or mio marito’s recommendations more willingly than the waiters’. It’s only to be expected, I suppose, we have more confidence now in our food and our customers, whether new, regular or tourists, like to discuss their order with us.
Last night the cameriere called me discreetly from the till. He had two bottles of wine in his hand so I thought he wanted to consult on which to bring to table. But no. His beady eye had spotted a sneaky cockroach on a table at the back of the room. Luckily no one was sitting nearby, and the dirty thing was brown in colour rather than the brighter pink-red they can sometimes be. SO it was camouflaged. We just had to get rid of it without anyone noticing. He gave me the two bottles of wine and went to grab it with a napkin. Ugh. It slipped off the table and scuttled towards the steps to the kitchen. But he got it just in time. Good for him.
I took lots of orders for paella last night. Our ads in some local magazines must be working. When I arrived a guy waylaid me on the terrace. ‘Thank God you’ve arrived, Can you explain the menu to her in Spanish?’ His friend was from the Dominican Republic and was over visiting, but they were finding communications difficult in their limited English and his culinary vocabulary was not up to it! She enjoyed the Tapas de Tierra and a simple pasta alla Sorrentina. It’s not on the menu and I found myself explaining it to the cook – it’s just passata with mozzarella melted into it … before realising I was telling a Napolitano how to make his own local speciality. Funny. Plenty of tapas and house antipasti going out, but we must sell more of our lovely homemade desserts. The problem is by dessert time I am usually needed on the till for bills and people arriving for drinks; but we’ve noticed that people will take my or mio marito’s recommendations more willingly than the waiters’. It’s only to be expected, I suppose, we have more confidence now in our food and our customers, whether new, regular or tourists, like to discuss their order with us.
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