You don't make friends with salad

Tonight I made a Niçoise salad for everyone which I thought would be a lovely summer meal but was greeted with great scorn by my fellow staff. I'm realizing that a huge factor which makes a difference between working as a line cook and working in this environment is that people are generally picky eaters within specific parameters and I've just never realized this due to the difference in work environments. In a restaurant people look over your menu - often consisting of anywhere from 6-50 items - and select the thing which suits their tastes best that day and then subsequently enjoy that item greatly assuming you've prepared it properly. Picky eaters are always sure to find at least one thing which fits the tastes of their palate and - if you're skilled - you can please them every time. However, the difference here is that I'm not working from a menu; I'm selecting one dish to prepare in bulk quantities to serve to everyone that day. While some people love Niçoise salad apparently not everyone does. I'm either going to have to become a superhero and come up with a menu that pleases everyone every day or I will have to resign myself to the fact that a significant portion of people will leave every meal complaining of something which didn't suit their culinary tastes. The realization that I cannot possibly please everyone at every meal no matter how hard I try is disheartening and something I didn't fully consider! There's nothing I can do though, so I suppose I will move on to brighter matters.


On another note, here's a picture of all of us staff from the weekend event! As I haven't asked their permission to publish their names (I doubt anyone would mind, but let's play it safe) you can just enjoy their smiling faces for now.

Ship out date for going out west is June 16th and I'm counting down the days! I miss you all!