11.16.06
Why not Downtown?…
Another good question from a reader has prompted me to write a reply that is more of a post that just a direct reply. Avid reader, and aspiring chef, Robert has asked the following questions regarding my leaving Tirolo to work at Vero:
- “…Did you have any inclination to try and find work in downtown D.C.? This is probably a biased comment, but I feel like that’s where more of the “known” restaurants are. (Vero could be 4-stars, I’m just saying that, perhaps through my own ignorance, I don’t know it)…
What drove you to take this job? Schedule? Pay? Location? Cuisine?”
It is actually not a bias I have that has kept me out of DC so far - it is really just how things have worked out. I am not sure if my experiences have been wildly atypical of a chef just getting his “kitchen legs” as it were, or if this is how the industry works, but for the most part, these two jobs have just kind of fallen into my lap more than anything else. I would like to say that I looked long and hard for these jobs and beat out several other well-qualified applicants in the process, but that’s just not the case. I think I am so far just finding myself in the right place at the right time, and the jobs have resulted from my good fortune.
That being said, I am not a fan of going downtown. I really do loathe cities, and crossing over into DC when you don’t have to just never made much sense to me. So the fact that these jobs have been relatively local has been a real positive thing for me, though you are right Vero is not nearly as well known as some of the more established places. I think the main reason for this is that they have only been in business for about 7 months or so. They are still quite young, and awaiting more reviews (hopefully positive) to generate buzz.
But I think that is generally beside the point. The fact that they don’t have a huge reputation does not mean that I cannot learn a lot from the people that are there. And seeing as how I am still in my first year of working in the industry, it is all about learning as far as I am concerned. There is a lot that this new crowd of people can teach me, and I hope to absorb a lot of it while I am there, and when the time comes to move on, I hope to leave on good terms and go to the next place - wherever that may be.
 “A man is as young as the woman he feels.” |
So you asked me what was the driving force behind working here? I say, “Because they offered to hire me.” Groucho Marx once said that he wouldn’t want to be the member of any club that would have him as a member, and I always feel shades of that about the places that hire me (”Don’t they know I have no clue what I am doing?…”), but at the same time, I am so happy to have anyone take a chance on me in these “green times”, that I will take whatever I am offered so long as I think there is something to be gained from it.
And yes, there was a pay raise involved in this move for me, but that’s just common sense when you are making a move like this - I pretty much would have worked that angle anywhere I moved to next.
So Robert, the only advise I can give you is this:
- When you feel you have learned all you can from one place, move on to the next. Just so long as the next place is somewhere where you can learn even more.
- Come eat at Vero so you can learn more about it!
Stumble it!
Alejandra said,
November 17, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Oooh I’m so terribly behind, but good luck to you at Vero!
vomerific said,
November 26, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Isn’t the real reason you chose Vero over other possible choices because it also ends in the letter “O’? Clearly a sucker for the closing vowel, you are. Bon chance, mon ami.