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During my Junior year at Harvard College, I was trying to decide what my ideal summer job would be. At Harvard, a typical summer job involves curing AIDS in Africa, earning tens of thousands of dollars working at an investment bank, or groundbreaking research in a chosen academic field. But this as I thought about my summer options this year, I decided that what everyone else at my school was doing was irrelevant and as someone a year away from graduating, I should try to find a job that I could see myself truly enthusiastic about. The idea came to me when my parents were kindly taking me out for a birthday dinner at an amazing French restaurant in Boston. Possibly because the birthday dinner reminded them that I was 21 years of age, a large portion of the conversation revolved around my long term plans.At one point my parents asked me who I thought had the greatest job. As I ate seven courses of delicious food, it became obvious to me that the whoever was lucky enough to wake up everyday and make from scratch something that could bring so much satisfaction to so many people had the greatest job on earth. This was by no means a sudden decision so much as a realization that I should follow something that I was passionate about instead of what I had experience in.
After this conversation, my parents were shockingly understanding, for people financing an education that was completely unnecessary if I did choose to follow a career in the restaurant industry. My dad even got me the book Heat by Bill Buford about a New York Times editor who quits to work for free at Babbo, Mario Batali's restaurant in New York. His description of the regulated chaos that is a restaurant kitchen was so interesting that I read the whole book in one sitting and was fascinated.This fascination convinced me that I needed to get a job in the food industry with enough hours that I would get some sort of understanding of the controlled commotion that intrigued me in Heat before I was out of college. Knowing that I only had three months, several interviews for kitchen jobs taught me that it would take about a month and a half for me to become a help instead of a hindrance in any given kitchen. Because of this, I broadened my search and started searching for any job in any restaurant or catering company I could find. It was with this willingness and enthusiasm to just have a job in the food industry that I came into Elyse's Catering looking for a job.
After an interview, I was told to show up at work the
upcoming Friday at 1pm. As I walked in the door, I was provided with the perfect introduction the restaurant business. Though I did not know it, we were setting for a large graduation party. Before I even had time to look around I was quickly given a job and had about a minute to learn to roll silverware and then ten more minutes to roll all of the silverware. After I carried tables and chairs, set up and ran a bar for the party, and helped to make sure everything was prepared for the guests' arrival, Elyse asked me “So, do you still want to work in the restaurant industry?” And as I thought about my answer, I happened to notice the time and realized that I had worked for about thirteen hours without realizing it. Clearly, the answer to this question was still a resounding yes.
At the end of the summer, I still feel the same way. In fact, my convictions are probably strengthened because working at Elyse's gave me another reason to pursue a career in the restaurant industry: I've never worked with a group of people who were so patient, kind and funny. I felt welcomed there from my first day at work despite the fact that if there was a mistake to be made at a catering company, I made it. This is the best way for me to learn and having co-workers who were tolerant of my learning style was incredibly helpful. I can also say that despite the often early morning hours of this job, I was always in a good mood when I was at work because of my fellow employees. From changing the lyrics in whatever classic rock song was on the radio to a string of loudly yelled “something”s to the constant humorous bickering in the kitchen, I would often find myself not feeling like I was at work.
At the end of the summer the amount of skills and knowledge that I've gained gives me confidence that I can continue to improve with experience. I would like to thank Elyse and everyone who works at Elyse's for the opportunity to work here and for their patience in training me. I came into this summer eager for any job in the restaurant industry and after three very short months I am leaving it with the same level of enthusiasm but a much more nuanced understanding of what drew me to the food industry in the first place.
