Ahh, the hospitality industry. There has never been a greater place to hold your first job. I have only ever worked in restaurants (two to be exact) and from these experiences as a waitress, hostess, bus person, food runner/expo, and even as a dishwasher one time, I have compiled a list of things I would have probably never known otherwise.
1. How to balance plates and drinks on a tray without dropping it all over the floor.
Balancing a tray is an acquired talent. The next step in this process is actually having the strength to carry it all.
2. How to make yourself look good even when you do drop stuff onto the floor.
It has happened to the best of us. Sometimes you remove something too quickly off the tray and everything else topples off. After asking for some dry rags, there is always a way to still look good after, assuming you haven't already ran back to the walk-in to cry.
3. A restaurant is basically a giant system of gears; if one thing stops, so does everything else.
I've seen it time and time again. When the dishwashers still haven't done silverware yet, the bussers can't set the tables. If the bussers don't clean fast enough, you, as a host can't seat anybody. If the host seats too many tables at once, then you, as a waitress, are running around like a chicken with its head cut off and are punching in orders as fast as you can. If you're a line cook and receive too many tickets at the same time, then the customers' orders will take longer to make. As a food runner, all of the tickets will come up at the same time and you'll need a crew to help you carry trays out. There is a fine art to smoothly running a restaurant, so if any of the employees aren't doing their jobs right, everybody suffers.
4. How the phrase "on the fly" can get you pretty much anything.
For those of you who don't know, "on the fly" means "as soon as possible" in restaurant lingo. When a waiter walks into the kitchen and yells, "I need a basket of fries on the fly!" expect that order to come up in under a minute. I'm not really sure how the cooks pull it off, but they always do.
5. How amazing the walk-in feels during or after a long shift.
Every restaurant has a walk-in refrigerator. It is a staple, not only because it holds mass quantities of produce, salad dressings, butter, etc., but also because it is the best place to (literally) chill out. In summer, restaurant kitchens are even hotter than they usually are. When you're working non-stop for hours at a time, sometimes all you need is a glass of water and a quick 30 seconds in the walk-in to refresh. Let's be honest, it's like a winter wonderland in there.
