I was born in 1983.
Having said all of the above, I wouldn't have known this about myself until I finally listened to my heart and built my own restaurant after having sworn off the industry for all these years.
It was like I had unlocked a vault I kept shut all these days from denial, and found a treasure of mine that I never knew I had kept inside.
It's funny how life works sometimes, right?
Blessings in disguise?
I'm just grateful that I've discovered this about myself sooner than later, and had the opportunity to see it through.
My parents owned two restaurants. Their first restaurant failed miserably due to a partnership disagreement. The second one took off from the mid-1980s, but came crashing down in the mid-2000s due to mismanagement, although not before becoming a pioneering blueprint for Thai restaurants in Sydney.
Before transferring to Thailand as a result of parental separation, as a young child I remember annoying the kitchen staff because I wanted to help them chop vegetables or decorate dishes. I would then annoy the floor staff because I wanted to serve customers, and eventually annoying the customers because I wanted to sit down and eat with them.
Back then, for some reason, everyone was pretty relaxed, so I got away with a lot of things, including eating half of the customers' entrées at their tables.
However, just because I grew up in restaurants didn't mean I wanted to own one.
Once I graduated, I headed straight for the suit life and swore off hospitality completely for almost a decade. Besides, as much as it was a great memory of my childhood, it was also a rough one.
It tore my family apart, left me stranded and neglected in Thailand for a good half a decade, and had me picking up the pieces again once I came back to Australia - story for another blog entry.
But you can't run away from what you know so instinctively, and you can't hide away from something that has defined your life for better and for worse.
As luck would have it, at a turning point in the not too distant past, I faced it again, for a few reasons mostly explained here.
So, having not been to culinary college or barista school, graduated from a business degree, (albeit having dabbled in a few part time businesses in the past) or having ever worked in the hospitality industry, how am I still here, sitting in my café packed full of customers, greeting them between writing this blog?
I guess I got lucky.
..or else I guess all those late nights spent watching chefs prep and cook up dish after dish during service, watching the waiters and waitresses flip table after table in the dining room, and sleeping between table cloths and spare chairs hidden behind the counter whilst waiting for my mother to reconcile the takings for the night meant that my rogue education in hospitality paid off.
Also, my mother ran a tight ship, but she was also kind and generous. She was flexible with shifts, paid everyone on time, and she even drove every staff member home late at night to make sure of their safety at the expense of her time and energy - I definitely took all of this on board, because I understood that the success of the business starts with the happiness and morale of your staff.
I guess I got lucky.
..or else I guess all those late nights spent watching chefs prep and cook up dish after dish during service, watching the waiters and waitresses flip table after table in the dining room, and sleeping between table cloths and spare chairs hidden behind the counter whilst waiting for my mother to reconcile the takings for the night meant that my rogue education in hospitality paid off.
Also, my mother ran a tight ship, but she was also kind and generous. She was flexible with shifts, paid everyone on time, and she even drove every staff member home late at night to make sure of their safety at the expense of her time and energy - I definitely took all of this on board, because I understood that the success of the business starts with the happiness and morale of your staff.
Therefore, half a decade later, with two highly coveted awards in the industry and a number of positive reviews and spotlight features in both online and offline publications, my rogue education in the art of the restaurant business has proven to be effective.
Having said all of the above, I wouldn't have known this about myself until I finally listened to my heart and built my own restaurant after having sworn off the industry for all these years.
It was like I had unlocked a vault I kept shut all these days from denial, and found a treasure of mine that I never knew I had kept inside.
It's funny how life works sometimes, right?
Blessings in disguise?
I'm just grateful that I've discovered this about myself sooner than later, and had the opportunity to see it through.
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