I had the pleasure of working side by side with a chef that new Italian food as good as anyone in the world. Maybe he knew it so well because of years of learning or maybe because he grew up in Italy. I worked for him in a successful restaurant for years, but he told me the first place he acquired didn’t run as smoothly as this on.

I wonder why this was? He told he used the exact same menu for the restaurant, and the location was even better then the restaurant that he owned now. It didn’t seem to make any sense to me of why the first place didn’t work out. Finally, it began to come clear to me why the place didn’t run as well as the current spot he owned, and cooked at.

He began to tell me he ran the place with his brother, and how their was a huge glass window into the kitchen so you could see exactly how your food was prepared, and cooked. He said his brother, and himself ran it that way for a couple months, and at first had a lot of customers, but later fell to almost no one coming in.

He believed in showing the people where the food was coming from, how top quality the dish is, this would make them appreciate the dish more, and the work that goes into it. He said some night he left the place just to his brother, the only person he trusted to run the shop when he was away.

His brother still currently works with us, and when my boss isn’t around he is the one running the restaurant, and cooking. One thing my boss, didn’t seem to notice is how messy his brother is when it comes to cooking, and how hygiene isn’t on the top of that charts for him. There were times where I say this man pick a wedgie from his butt while picking up chicken he dropped on the ground only to later be cooked. I know this is gross, but whenever I brought it up to him he threatened to give me the boot.

This made it all clear to me though, the reason this place is successful is because his brother only works in the back part of the kitchen where no one can see him. I could see how no one would want to go to a restaurant to see a live show of a chef preparing their food while grabbing at himself, and destroying their dishes.