Our New Chef

As another week passed by, I look back and think of how interesting it has been. The first day we had a new chef. He is from Korea, but has lived most of his life in Holland. This whole week has been rough on us all as we are adjusting to some new ways of doing things in the kitchen. Fortunately for us, he is actually a really nice guy. His first couple of days I had explained to him how we ran he kitchen before, and seemed to respect me and my way of doing things. This was a pleasant surprise. The first night was a piece of cake for us. Very few reservations, and one of the servers had his birthday that night so he played with the times and blocked off 8, 8:30, and 9 reservations so we would be done early. No complaints here. We then gathered in the dining room for some drinks and chill out. It was pretty nice. Over the next couple of days I realized that this new chef likes to hang out and have fun. We have been going out at ports and checking out the town and grabbing beers after work. It's been a nice transition so far. I look forward to cooking with him and learning from him as well. He will be the chef for the remainder of my contract which is nice. So now I know that the kitchen will not change anymore while I am here. This is good.

Politeness seems to be something of a lost or non existent part of daily life here. Most people do not say, "good morning" or "how are you?" just, "I need this now!" Well isn't that just lovely. I try my hardest not to sink into this. I always will say those things even if I am greeted first thing with a request and no pleasantries. I wonder if it is just part of their culture or just the culture on the ships.

Another topic, which seems much more prevalent here, is adultery. I have talked with many people here and they all seem to have wives and families at home, but have girlfriends on board. I understand that people do cheat, but I have never been so heavily exposed to the abundance of people that do this. I guess that if they are alright with it and that is what they do, then whatever.

I have learned a few things while here on the ship. One is now I can eat dinner. I mean I can sit down and shovel a plate of food in my mouth in a matter of minutes because I don't have too much time. I have allotted myself about 10 minutes to run downstairs, eat, and run back. So far so good. What makes it easier is the fork and spoon technique I have learned. All of the guys here eat with a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other. The spoon scoops food onto the fork and holds food if you want to eat two handed. Most meal times are rushed as there is not an abundance of free time to eat.

Well we suffered in our ratings for the last two weeks in the main galley and the Pinnacle. It sucks, but we will continue to push and try harder. The executive chef called the whole crew into the main dining room for a speech about how we need to try harder. He is actually pretty good at rallying the troops and building a strong team. I have a feeling we will do better next cruise.

Well I don't have any new pictures right now, but I did take some of the awesome lumberjack show we went to in Ketchikan. It was very entertaining and amusing. 7 weeks down and 18 to go.