After spending a hot summer in Montpelier attending classes, the time came for us to find a place for our internship. Most of the students were trying to get into impressive sounding exotic places in other parts of the country, to the point where it became a contest for status. Some managed to get in and do well, but others quickly proved that they lacked the skills and tact to hold down such a position. One in particular was always a “holier than thou” type because her family had money. Something she never seemed to learn is that in the kitchen, everyone is equal. There is no special treatment because you can afford a fancy car. No one is going to treat you like a queen because you think you’re better than everyone else. It was no surprise to anyone when she bombed out of her internship for being a class A bitch to everyone who worked there.
Me, I was content to find someplace close to home. I applied for a place in Henniker called Colby Hill Inn. I never received a response, so I then contacted a place in Bedford called CR Sparks, who accepted me for a trial shift.
They put me on salads, which is usually where a new person starts. I went in on Saturday, and long story short I kicked ass. They were impressed with my work and asked me to leave school early so they could get me ready for Thanksgiving. So I moved out of my apartment and put my things in storage while I was back home.
Sparks was an absolute disaster. A couple of the cooks apparently decided they did not like me. I don’t know if they just didn’t like interns in general or what, but almost immediately I felt like a lesser person. They had me doing all the crap prep that no one else liked, such as shucking oysters. There was no rotation of tasks, I shucked oysters while the other two preps would take extended breaks. Then when the place opened for the day, the fun began. One experience that sticks in my mind was working salads. There was a rather sadistic sous chef that would take any salad I put up and find fault with it. If I put up a salad, it was either too big or too small, and he’d send it back. This went on for days until I watched very carefully when someone else would make a salad. It was always just fine even though it was the same as what I would put up. The chef came to me during shift and mentioned it to me, he was disappointed that I couldn’t seem to get something so simple as a salad correct. So, the next time a salad was called, I waved the chef over and said “watch this.” I put up a salad. Sous chef saw that it came from me, and sent it back saying it was too small, do it again. I took it back, waited a minute, then put the same salad back up. Sous chef looks at it, then says loudly, “now that’s too big, and it’s a mess! Get it right, people are waiting on you!” So I took the salad back, waited a minute, nodded to the chef who had an odd look on his face, then sent the same damn salad back up. Sous chef grabs it and yells “Wow, finally! Why did it take you three tries to make a salad?” Chef shakes his head and walks away, now finally understanding what was going on.
The final straw was maybe three weeks into it. I had to call in sick with bad flu symptoms. I know, bad move – you don’t call in sick, especially if you’re on a trial period or an internship, but it was either that or risk getting others sick. When I returned the next day, I was treated even worse. Found out that some PlayStation (3, maybe?) had been released the day before and a lot of people stood in line in the rain to get one. It’s was assumed that was why I was out sick.
A few days later I came into work and people looked surprised that I was there. Then I get called into the personnel office and was told she was supposed to have called me to let me know it wasn’t working out and they didn’t need me there anymore. The chef apparently appreciated the take-charge attitude I carried during my test shift, but since actually starting there I seemed content to just skate through. So I let her have it. I told her everything that had happened, how I was treated, how everyone looked down on me, all because I was an intern and (in my opinion) how I was better than most of her full timers, and that intimidated them. So rather than look bad, they all decided to push me away. Fine. I left, and reported all of this to the student advisor at NECI. She told me they had heard reports of that from other students, and not to worry about it. Welcome to restaurant cooking. What was really disappointing (to both me and the advisor) is that the sous chef who was such a dick to me was a NECI graduate.
CR Sparks closed in 2010, and the property became a Lexus dealership. The owner had grand plans to build a new place near Macy’s, but that never happened. He abandoned Bedford and opened a new place in Hampton, where he now charges $8 for clam chowder and still features the stupid “wedge” salad – a quarter head of iceberg lettuce slathered with dressing and bacon bits – as a “fan favorite.”