Joe was leaning on me more and more to keep things in the kitchen running smoothly, but I was still a bit too inexperienced to keep up with all the demands, but learning fast! Jack was getting more and more confused as the season took off, and we were full every night, with a lot of passers by also stopping for a bite. Rosanne, who by the way is actually a nice person, just tired of the hotel taking up all of her time, so that is why she is not a happy cookie whenever she had to come into the kitchen. As Jack was just not able to cope, going into a fit of hysteria when there were more than three orders waiting, and when that happened, I usually had to take over, but as the amount of diners grew, I wasn't up to do his job, with the result that both of us got so mixed up that we just had to call on Rosanne, now sometimes even during the week. But all this gave me a lot of exposure and experience, and I was slowly but surely getting my brain into a mode of concentration, to also do quite large tables.
This Friday night I could see from the traffic passing, and the fact that the hotel was full, that we were going to be very, very busy, but there was as yet no sign of Rosanne when the orders started coming in. Poor jack tried valiantly, but I could see that he was absolutely stressed out, and as time went by, I could see that we were needing help, as I had such a lot of pizzas, and with getting everything out for Jack, and doing the salads, and also the starters, so that he had only the main meals to worry about, I was unable to give him a hand. I wasn't surprised when Joe came in, and seeing the mess, phoned Rosanne, and told Jack that he can do some waitering, as his nerves were on breaking point!
Jack did not like this at all, and when Joe told him to put two tables together in the diningroom for a party of sixteen, he flipped, marched to the pub, grabbed poor Dawn's arm, and dragged her up the stairs. Rosanne was able to save the day, as she is fantastic when it came to cooking and serving up, but about twenty minutes later Jack and a bedraggled looking Dawn came down the stairs, their rucksacks on their backs, and marched out of the hotel without greeting any of us!
Then of course we were without a chef, and also someone to do the rooms and for me it was the start of a stressful time, as even on my days off Joe would phone me with all kinds of questions, and even a few times told me to stay close to the hotel in case he needed me.
Joe was also doing breakfast with me now, as we were full every night, and I was unable to cope. He did the waitering, while I did the cooking, but I missed the interaction between me and the guests, because we got such a lot of interesting people.I sometimes really missed Anna, as we worked together so well.
Joe, being born with a kind of stingy streak, was sometimes hard to work with, like one morning when two guests ordered kippers. I have found this kippers quite thick, and had already tried to see if maybe there were two stuck together, but soon realized that they were not packed two-two together. So when Joe came to fetch it, he looked at me over his glasses, and said: 'Darling, we don't give people two kippers, remember they are very expensive', and while I got very upset, and tried to explain that I am not an imbicile, and that the kippers were quite thick, he fetched a knife and started to try and pry the kippers from each other, and I moaned and grumbled, as he was making a bally mess of my beautifully plated-up food.
When at long last he was sure that it was indeed only one kipper, he stood back with a huge frown, surveying his handiwork, but I just kept a wooden countenance, as I was the hell in, so when he realized that I was not helping to reconstruct his mess, he stressed out completely, and fervently tried to put the kippers together again. But by now they were cold, and scrambled, and the eggs were broken, so he looked at me with a kind of sorry face, and asked if darling would do two other ones! Oh, I could kill him!Needless to say we had kippers for breakfast!
Then the big search for another chef started again, and I kept a bated breath every time two weirdoes, or chancers appeared for an interview. It is indeed quite rediculous how many people without any experience tried to convince Joe that they were the best candidates!In the end he decided to go for Joanne and Vince, the best of the lot, but still looking a bit strange. Vince was a short thick-set guy with an accent nobody could understand, and looking a bit like he had a good swim in an oil pan. Joanne was actually very pretty, and clean looking, but from the beginning all could see that she was a real poser.
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