For the most part, I have a pretty clean mouth. That is, until I started working in a kitchen. Who knew that a kitchen’s general vernacular is various forms of swear words. Okay, I might exaggerate as it’s not all bad language. Just various applications at different times and different rearrangements of the words.
- Kitchen Slang 101: you can learn a lot here, and yes, we kind of do swear like sailors at times. Wildflower is an expert of it.
Again, I kid, but only to a point. I have to say that my mouth isn’t quite as clean as it was prior to working with my former chef, sous chef, and various line chefs. Coffeeman refrains from spewing it at all times, leaving it to well placed moments where it’s really needed. Lucifer, Micha, and previous chef were fairly notorious for it always spewing out. I got a little numb to it over time, but at first it was like being dunked into cold water. It was actually one of the reasons I ‘quit’ back in January. I couldn’t handle the chef just constantly swearing up a storm. His bad attitude didn’t help, but throw that in with a mouth, and me being a fairly conservative, straitlaced woman, it was hard.
The kitchen life has led me to be a little less sheltered and more inclined to try a few new things that I was kind of afraid to try beforehand. Do I think having a mouth is a good thing? No, but at times, it really is the only way to get the point across.
Years ago, a man I knew who was from Scotland, explained all the ways the Brits use the word ‘fuck’. How it can be charming, an expletive, just a generalization, and it made sense. It was all about how it was said. Tone. It’s really true, the word can have so many applications.
This last Saturday, or maybe it was Friday, (I’m a little lost as the two days were whirwinds) one of our servers was standing right there as a ticket started printing out and I was helping her get something to go. We are watching at it just prints this uber long ticket that wouldn’t stop, both of us saying ‘stop, stop, STOP!’ and right as it finishes, another starts right up. I looked at her and let out a very quiet ‘eff’. Then another, and she totally agreed with me. It was just an “oh crap” moment. We both knew what it meant and there was nothing else that would make the point quite as much. I was ‘in the weeds’ a lot that night and swearing was the only way in my head to deal. Granted, most of the swearing was in my head. Burns, bangs, exhausted arms, tickets that didn’t seem to end, yeah, sometime letting out a long, sighing “eff” is the only thing that helps you deal.
Sometimes I need to use language. Other times, no. I need to refrain when not at work, and I try to keep it more clean, but honestly, the terms are just so much a part of my life nowadays.
Kate
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