"There is no lying in the kitchen. And no god there, either. He couldn't help you anyway. You either can - or can't - make an omelet. You either can - or can't - chop and onion, shake a pan, keep up with the other cooks, replicate again and again, perfectly the dishes that need to be done. No credential, no amount of bullshit, no well-formed sentences or pleas for mercy will change the basic facts. The kitchen is the last meritocracy - a world of absolutes; one knows without any ambiguity at the end of each day how one did. 'Good' and 'evil' are easily and instantly recognized for what they are. Good is a cook who shows up on time and does what he said yesterday he was going to do. Evil is a cook who's full of shit and doesn't or can't do what he said he was going to do. Good is a busy restaurant from which the customers go home happy and everybody makes money. Evil is a slow restaurant from which the cooks go home feeling depressed and ashamed.
Nobody wonders, in a busy, kitchen, if there is a god. Or if they've chosen the right god."
-Anthony Bourdain.
1 comment:
i wish more people would use words like meritocracy.
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