Pearlas of Wisdom

Greetings from Pearla, honoured to be featured guest writer for this edition of Julie’s blog.

Life on Sark is drawing to an end, school holidays have finished so visitor numbers will drop now until the season officially closes at the end of September. Now we will only see the typical Sark tourist which is someone over 60 wearing sensible walking shoes, who has visited annually for the past 40 years and wants a nice cream tea and a cuppa. So, while it is still fresh (and before we forget), it is time to share 10 things we have learned working in a cafe kitchen:
1. Hospitality jobs are for the young. Working 6 days, on your feet all day, no breaks, no lunch or if you’re lucky a sandwich eaten a bite at a time over several hours. It’s hard hard yakka. Wear sensible shoes. Have wine in the fridge at home.
2. People can be arses. People can be so rude as to bring their Breakfast Muffin / Lunchtime quiche back to the counter (we call it the Cinderella dish as it changes at mid-day) and say it has ruined their life. In her defence, she was French.
3. Do not engage your waiter / waitress in banter, they haven’t got time and are just being polite. Don’t think you are having a meaningful conversation.
4. Before leaving the house, stop and check is your t-shirt on right way round or inside out?
5. The kitchen team are always the last to leave. “Front of house” might say they will help but that’s generally not a serious offer especially when it comes to changing the oil in the chip fryer
6. When the timer goes off, don’t just switch it off, check the oven there may be something in there. You may have even put it in there
7. Chickens are great for hiding evidence.
8. Make sure tea towels are nowhere near the gas ring. It’s not so easy to hide the evidence
9. When “Front of house” boss-lady says “It’s EASY, it will only take a minute” (in reference to adding yet another thing to the menu)… run Forrest run!
10. Be vigilant about not picking at the food even though it’s tempting. You might think “Just one chip” or “Just half a jam donut”. It’s a slippery slope. However, testing each day’s batch of scones for quality is an important part of the role.

And one extra (because it’s very recent)…..
11. Before you send a hamburger out, check the bun for freshness. What looks like flour on closer inspection just may be mould.

I hope this is helpful for any of you considering a change in career. We are happy to provide guidance on how to survive in a cafe kitchen while also going through the forming, storming, norming of a new team.  To finish up, we are thinking about next steps as our Sark exit (SEXIT) gets closer. We have been calling it “living in the moment” but have come to realise it’s actually procrastination.

Bye for now,
Pearla