Name: Phillip Frankland Lee on the Grind of Working in a Kitchen
Uploaded: 2022-01-18T18:07:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Phillip Frankland Lee on the Grind of Working in a Kitchen' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-01-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Phillip Frankland Lee on the Grind of Working in a Kitchen' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-01-18. Transcript available.

While I was playing music, actually, I turned the studio certain nights a week
into a little poker room.
So I'd have, like, friends over and we'd play cards at the house.
But while I was touring, I eventually decided, because when I decided to stop
going to school,
I said to myself, if the music doesn't work, I'm going to go to sushi school.
So the music thing did work, and a couple years went by,
and actually my godmother owned a catering company.
And so in between tours, I didn't really want to keep working at, like, Jamba
Juice or Starbucks or anything like that.
And so I asked her if I could work for her.
And so I invited her over to the house.
I cooked dinner for her, and she said, well, I'll introduce you to my chef.
And if my chef wants to hire you, then you'll be hired.
And so I went to her catering company, met the chef.
The first thing was, like, okay, you're making family meal today.
And so I cooked for the whole staff, and she said, I'll hire you as a
dishwasher.
Oh, Jesus.
Was that because that was the only job they had available?
Looking back at it, I was offended and angry, but I didn't care because of what
she said after that, which is you don't get to start being a cook.
You have to start as a dishwasher so you can have respect for, you know, what
it is that the dishwashers do.
And she said, here's how this works.
The faster you clean that dish pit, the more I'll teach you.
So whenever that dish pit's clean, you come and find me, and I'll give you a
task.
But if there's ever any dishes, that's what you're doing.
So it kind of gave me that bit of work ethic of, like, all right, I'm going to
work my way into that next position.
That seems to be a theme with great restaurants.
And when you talk to chefs, this work ethic theme, because it seems like when,
you know, you talk to people that have worked in restaurants, one of the things
that they will almost unanimously discuss is the amount of hours and the grind
and how difficult it is.
Yeah.
And that development of work ethic almost is like kind of a boot camp for chefs.
It is.
It's, I mean, it's not so much anymore.
Laws have changed.
Culture has changed.
But it was your spending, like a 16-hour day was not even a really long day.
I dated a girl once who went to college for restaurant and hotel management.
And then she got a job at this restaurant.
And I remember I would go visit her and she was fucking miserable.
I mean miserable.
She couldn't believe the hours that she had to work.
But you have to love it.
Yeah.
That's an industry you have to love.
Well, she just wanted a career.
You know, she had went to school.
She graduated from school.
And then she had this job that was like, and then she had this boyfriend who
was a fuck up, who was a comedian.
So it was like very, very weird for her because like I had most of my day
completely free.
And she was working, you know, 14, 15 hours a day at least.
Yeah.
I mean, it's one of those things where if you really want to take food
seriously and cooking seriously, you're going to have to, you know, make a lot
of sacrifices.
Yeah.
Just the time.
You're not there for birthdays.
You're not there for anniversaries.
You're not there for Valentine's Day for sure.
Because you have to work.
Because you have to work.
It's a big day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because someone has to cook at all those restaurants you go to.
Yeah.
People listening, if you are thinking of going down this path, prepare yourself.
Yeah.
It's a fantastic path, but you have to understand what it's like.
And I think the reason it worked for me or the reason I loved it so much is it
really felt like being on tour.
Except I got to sleep in my own bed.
How so?
Well, like playing music, you spend all day getting ready for the show that
night.
And there's something to getting to the restaurant and prepping all day,
getting ready for the show that night.
And so I feel like the camaraderie of being on it, like being in a crew is a
lot like being in a band.
The hours are a lot like being in a band.
And then the shenanigans, you know, after hours are a lot like being in a band.
The boozing?
Yeah.
Is that what you're talking about?
Yeah.
That's the other thing that I learned from Bourdain.
I didn't know how hard people partied.
Yeah.
I mean, when I was younger, there was a lot of nights you just don't go to
sleep.
You just get out of the restaurant at 1.30 in the morning.
You go to the bar.
Then you go somewhere else.
Then you go back and open the restaurant the next day.
That doesn't seem good for you.
No, it's terrible.
I had to.
That's where the Red Bull comes in?
Well, no, I quit Red Bull earlier than that.
But thankfully, I never got into drugs.
So it wasn't that.
But I would drink a lot.
And I actually had one time where I finished service, took two steps and just
collapsed.
Just hit the ground.
Whoa.
Yeah.
At the end of the day?
At the end of the day.
You pulled an all-nighter?
I think two or three days in a row, yeah.
Oh, Jesus.
But I was like 21.
Two or three days of no sleep?
At 21.
Yeah.
Maybe like an hour and a half sleep here and there.
Jesus.
But yeah, I mean, when I, my first sous chef job, I was on the schedule.
It said next to my name, all seven days said OP-CL.
Open to close.
Whoa.
We did breakfast and we did dinner service.
So I would open the restaurant at about 7 a.m. and I would leave around 1.32.
So when you opened the restaurant at 7 a.m., what time were you actually
arriving?
Uh, man, this was like, this was a long time ago, but I probably was getting
there.
I was probably getting there on 7, 6.45, 7.
When I say open, I mean I would get to the restaurant, open the door.
Not that we were, like, open in the public.
So there was someone there that was already prepping.
Yeah, I'm trying to remember.
Because we were at this, um, in this sort of like, uh, the restaurant was a
lunch and
dinner restaurant, but we served breakfast as like a commissary to like, there
was like,
it was like in a building complex.
Mm.
Um, so I really wasn't responsible for breakfast.
Um, so there would be, I think there was people there before I would get there.
Building, like an office building complex that you mean?
Yeah.
So they would just grab something quick?
Yeah.
That kind of deal?
Yeah, like, I would get in there and the dishwasher would already like, he'd be
making like ham
and cheese sandwiches or something like that.
Mm-hmm.
But, um.
And so you were there from 7 a.m., and then what time would you get out of
there?
Usually, I mean, probably 1, 1.30.
And nowadays with labor laws, you really couldn't schedule that, right?
Well, I was on, I was on salary.
Oh, interesting.
But that salary would have to be, you know, 3x at this point.
Yeah.
Because now they've changed the rule a couple years ago.
Salary is no longer a contract between you and I.
Salaries have to fall into a certain, you have to qualify.
So you can't just be like, oh, I'm going to not give you overtime by giving you
a salary
to have you work when I ask you to.
Right.
Now you have to pay them, pay everybody a specific dollar amount, and they have
to hold specific
responsibilities in order to not accrue overtime.
Yeah, I think that's good because I think there's a lot of employers that are
abusive.
But I also think there's something romantic about this story of you almost
dying.
You know what I mean?
I mean, like, I do appreciate, like, long, hard work days.
There's something to that because, like, I hear that, and I know you got
through it,
and you became very successful.
So I'm like, see, it works.
Look, I think Margarita and my first date was at that restaurant.
And it was, I mean, people ask me all the time, how did you get her?
And it's food.
It has to be.
That's hilarious.
Well, you're a cool guy.
Don't sell yourself short.
Plus, you're kind of cute.
Oh, appreciate it.
Jamie?
I'm top three in this room for sure.
Top three?
I would say so.
But so because of that schedule, I couldn't take her on a date.
And so I remember the very first date we had was at the restaurant.
I told her to show up at 1230 after I sent everybody home.
And I had spent all day secretly prepping a special menu, and she showed up.
And I sat her in the dining room that, like, overlooked the kitchen.
And I would make a course, bring it out to her, sit down with her, have a sip
of wine,
and then go back in the kitchen, make the next course.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
What did you think she did during the time we were in there cooking?
Well, I told her to bring a friend with her.
Because I told her that I'm going to, you know.
Otherwise, she's there for 20 minutes in between each course.
Well, listen, man.
That's a clever move.
Look, it worked.
Yeah, clearly.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
I mean, I would imagine that that's probably one of the most difficult occupations
to date
in.
Yeah.
I sacrificed a lot of relationships prior to that one.
Yeah.
I can only imagine.