27: Restaurants and rocket science
Serving isn't rocket science, but it's damn hard work.
As of two weeks ago, I am once again employed. This summer, I will be working front of house for a restaurant near me in Minneapolis before I go back to the United Kingdom. Before my first shift, I was both teeming with excitement to be working so closely with food in an eatery that places so much value on local and ethically sourced food and completely, utterly terrified of being the world’s worst waitress.
When I told my coworkers that this was my first job in a restaurant (despite other customer service-adjacent jobs), I was often met with sweet but pitying smiles. They have been nothing but kind and supportive to me, answering my endless questions, taking over when I get behind on coffee and Bloody Mary orders, and rushing over to the register to help me ring up more obscure items from our market and deli. But this reaction crystallized to me that the learning curve would be a steep one – and it has been.
I’ve heard the phrase “it’s not rocket science” a handful of times these past couple of weeks – not only from friends and family but also from my bosses and fellow front of house staff. To be clear, it is never meant in the pejorative sense but rather functions as a form of reassurance to signal that though there are things to learn, I’ll catch on quickly.
I tried to not read into it too much because as I just said, the intention is to ease my worries about my first ever restaurant service job, and it clearly is not meant to be taken literally. Especially after writing my essay about British food, I hesitated to write about this for fear of being perceived as taking everything too seriously. I can take a joke! I understand when things are meant figuratively! I promise! But if there’s one thing studying English and Media and Communications taught me, it’s that the things people do and say never innocently exist in a vacuum. We are all shaped by our experiences, by the systems of symbols and signals that we operate within.
Hearing “it’s not rocket science” reminded me about other long-running cultural jokes where the punchline is working as McDonalds, or your high school nemesis is your server years after graduation. Though all of these things have slightly different meanings or intentions, they imply that serving a. is not overly difficult and b. lacks the status that many other jobs have.
Here’s the thing, though: working front of house is hard. Like, really fucking hard. Yes, ok, it’s not rocket science; you don’t need advanced mathematical or scientific knowledge to do this kind of work. But that ignores that you need a completely different skillset, one that’s not as easily acquired at some prestigious academic institution. There is a rhythm in a restaurant, and as a server it is your job to sustain it and notice when it’s off. It requires both incredibly quick thinking and caution; proactivity and patience; attention to detail and flexibility. The cherry on top is that you have to hone all of these things while being on your feet for hours at a time and occasionally dealing with less-than-affable customers. I’m not just talking about front of house staff either – it’s the chefs, line cooks, dishwashers, and cleaners, too, that need specific skills to do challenging, even grueling, work. Anyone can technically do, or at least attempt, any job, but that doesn’t mean that they will be good at it. Serving is no exception. A different skillset is not a lesser one.
Even if the implied meaning is that restaurant work is still hard but just more uncomplicated than astrophysics, something still doesn’t sit right with me. There are few cut and dry procedures when you are serving human beings – all completely unique in demeanor and preference. It is a lot of information to synthesize in a short space of time: What customers ordered most recently and where are they sitting? What is the best way to optimize making these 5 tickets of drink orders? How can I communicate to the kitchen without interrupting the flow of customers to the register? To me, there is very little about the experience that is simple.
I also wonder to what end that phrase is used. While, again, in the cases I heard it, it was being used to soothe my worries, I am certain it often works in a very different way. When people tell themselves that service jobs “aren’t rocket science,” it allows justification for why those workers are so underpaid. It is a lot easier to swallow down empathy if you believe that the labor a person is doing for you is easy or “unskilled” – so much so that (specifically in the United States) some people don’t feel the need to tip someone who is making minimum wage to do an oftentimes tiring and unforgiving job.
I hope the pandemic has clarified for some how essential the work servers do really is, at least in the way our society and culture is currently configured, but I’m not necessarily optimistic. According to a study from the University of California – San Francisco, food workers in restaurants, agriculture, and manufacturing were posed with the biggest threat of illness or death from in 2020. In her essay “On Service, Part 2, ”Alicia Kennedy writes:
“Will we talk to front of house staff? Will we not fetishize hospitality, because it is labor? Will we also demand that the federal tipped minimum wage be abolished and that the minimum wage be raised to one that supports a decent standard of living? Will we demand Medicare for All? Will we advocate for good immigration policy (because we know we’re a long way off from abolishing borders) so that there is not a dependence on undocumented workers who can be taken advantage of and then not supported by unemployment benefits? “Food is political,” everyone loves to scream. Yes, that includes worker wages, status, and benefits, not just your right to dine out and feel good about it.”
To be frank, I do not think I am great at my job, at least not yet. I have made many mistakes and I anticipate making more. But more than that, I do not have the effortless conversation skills and multitasking abilities that make someone an excellent server. It is something I will likely never be amazing at, which is to say that just like rocket science, it is a demanding job that requires specialized skills that are not necessarily ubiquitous. People need to examine why they value servers less than other workers, and on what grounds they do so. Service workers deserve good pay, healthcare, and to be treated as human beings. Even tipping is not enough.
Very much related to this week’s topic, I loved Alicia Kennedy’s essay “On Hospitality.” It was really nice to read it after my first week at work. As always, she asks such important questions about food, restaurants, service, and labor.
I loved this video from Munchies about The Vegan Hood Chefs, a friend-owned food truck in San Francisco serving vegan Creole dishes. Rheema and Ronnishia are so lovely, and the food looks incredible. Do not watch if you’re hungry!
Last Monday, I had the opportunity to go with my fellow staff to the farm that supplies our restaurant with the bulk of its food. The farm’s mission is to not just be sustainable, but to actually improve the quality of soil and land that it exists on. I loved that they emphasized that food that is ethically and sustainably grown can’t be very cheap unless workers are exploited, or the land is used unsustainably. The visit reinforced to me the importance of understanding how food gets to your table and trying to involve yourself in that process as much as you can. Also, we got to see the cutest piglets and calves – I am pretending they are going to live very full lives and die of natural causes (but to be clear, if you are going to eat meat, buying locally and from small farms with ethical/sustainable practices and prices is best way to do it!).
Buying make up can sometimes be tricky as a gal with olive skin. I have been out of foundation for a couple months now and wanted to make sure the next one I bought would be a good undertone match. I settled on Ilia’s Super Serum Skin Tint and could not be more pleased. It’s somewhere in between a tinted moisturizer and foundation – it has a light, slippery consistency and gives a very dewy look. I have dry skin and love a little bit of a dewy glow, but I would definitely sample some first if you have oily skin. The shade Sombrio ST2.5 is a dead match for my skin tone – if you also have olive skin that’s on the paler side, I highly recommend it.
