Restaurant Drums

A fancy restaurant with some fancy rules, this is what i felt when i trailed at one of the restaurants in new york city. It was a restaurant (which i would not like to mention here) that has got a name with spanish speaking immigrants working long hours. It is hard to believe in this time and age when slavery has been a word of the past is clearly being carried on by having cheap labour.
As i walked into the restaurant i was asked to wear the uniform and was assigned a station (remember this was a trail to know the flow of the kitchen), I was being called at by every cooks in this restauarant to help them with their preparation. I was willing to work, but never expected it would turn out to be a bad experience after all. I walked into the kitchen at 10.30am and started to work. I was not informed of a lunch break that they had so that i could have lunch. The chef calls me for a interview into his office at 6.00pm, questions asked were what was my visa status, this was a question to judge if this person he was interviewing was for cheap labor or if he had to pay normal wages. As i am a international student (which he presumed i would be), i told him the fact as the government allows me to work on a OPT (optional practical training) status for a period of 1 year he just got his break. He tells me that i will be informed of the position that will be available via e-mail or will have the chef de cuisine inform me in the night. Once i was done with the interview i saw him walk upto the chef de cuisine and tells him something and walks away. At 8.00pm i told the chef-de-cuisine i need to leave, as i had no means of transporation and had been working straight without food for 9.5 hours, but guess what he tells me, if i needed a job i needed to wait until 10.00pm. At about 9.00pm i get the results of this gruelling day, he tells me that i will be offered a position of butcher and my wages would be 10.50 per hour. This caught me by surprise as this was direct exploitation of labour. As i had applied for a position of mid managerial level which would be a demi chef. Getting to know that i was being taken for a ride made me understand that there is no value for educated and experienced people. It just matters if you are a american you get the previledges that every american gets, and if you are a international candidate you are considered to be a payed slave.
PURE EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR IN A RESTAURANT THAT IS ZAGAT RATED.

Better world for a international culinarian

I study at the culinary institute of america. It is one of the world's premiere college in culinary arts, baking and pastry. It is considered to be the harvard of culinary. Today was a special day for the all the future culinarians of the institute. We had our most awaited career fair. Being an international student at this prestigeous college, i had the previledge to meet representatives from various hotel's all over the world. It is not surprising to any student that about 80% of all the recruiting companies had a C.I.A (Culinary institute of America) graduate as the managers and directors. There was also a sad issue for a international student like me, having dreams to pursue a future in this country, has only companies that can offer a J1 visa or a H2b visa (these visas allow the recipient to work for the company for a short period of time 1 year) and head back to the home country. It is a tricky situation for any international student who has spend thousands of dollars just to get a degree form this prestigious college and not being able to even repay the loans let alone save some. It came as a surprise to me as one of the leading company in the entertainment, restaurant, tv station, movie production business (a name well known among the american public but ii would wish to keep it personal),came on campus for the fair had a strange approach towards me. Cheap labour is what would be the right word. I was adviced to work for one year with them have a name on my resume that i have worked with this property and need to leave the country after this one year period. There are thousands of students like me who face the same problem, Is this exploitation or a bias approach. You can be the judge.