Day 3 wagamama slavery continues
The morning is spent assisting the most miserable chef make preparations. Not only is he miserable, but exceedingly stupid, so despite the years he has devoted to wagamama he still has no idea how to perform the most basic tasks and yet he has been assigned to teach and supervise me. At least the supervision part he takes seriously, barking orders every five minutes. I think without saying that please would not be a difficult word to say, but when he tells me I am not working fast enough my thoughts and the language that accompany them become violent. Why can't these people know that they are being exploited, and that making an extra effort will never be rewarded?
I am also feeling the start of xenophobic feelings, since all the non-english staff are uniformly serious about their task and express themselves with gloomy faces which may be understandable considering the environment, do not serve to build morale generally.
I am looking for something truly scandalous, but so far the closest I have got is that my discovery of food past its use by date is greeted with a "so what?" by the head chef. Apparently food needs to be decomposing before it is considered fit for disposal.
Around midday I am given the worst job in the kitchen - enrobing thawing raw chicken breast in flour, egg and panko. Every 10 minutes someone will tell me that I am using the wrong techniques, and after half an hour the head asks me if I have finished. I think I am going at a fair pace, but there is a huge amount to get through: about 50 kilos of meat, 40 eggs, a bag of flour and a bin of panko. After four hours my hand is feeling numb from frost bite and looks similar to the breasts that are being coated, but I have finished.
My alleged slowness is reported to the next shift leader, and the next morning the head chef has heard and tells me I must work faster.
I am also feeling the start of xenophobic feelings, since all the non-english staff are uniformly serious about their task and express themselves with gloomy faces which may be understandable considering the environment, do not serve to build morale generally.
I am looking for something truly scandalous, but so far the closest I have got is that my discovery of food past its use by date is greeted with a "so what?" by the head chef. Apparently food needs to be decomposing before it is considered fit for disposal.
Around midday I am given the worst job in the kitchen - enrobing thawing raw chicken breast in flour, egg and panko. Every 10 minutes someone will tell me that I am using the wrong techniques, and after half an hour the head asks me if I have finished. I think I am going at a fair pace, but there is a huge amount to get through: about 50 kilos of meat, 40 eggs, a bag of flour and a bin of panko. After four hours my hand is feeling numb from frost bite and looks similar to the breasts that are being coated, but I have finished.
My alleged slowness is reported to the next shift leader, and the next morning the head chef has heard and tells me I must work faster.
posted by Tom Coady at 9:10 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, I don't get the feeling you have had a good experience dealing with Wagamama then! I have to say though, it's difficult to sustain any belief in your objectivity when everything you write about is uniformly negative. It doesn't feel like a very balanced opinion, and you seemed to treat the whole thing with negativity from the start. I believe you have genuinely had a very bad time with Wagamama, but the way you express this makes you come across as quite unbalanced in your criticism.This sabotages your intention in making this blog, because you probably have a really good point to make. You have no reason to listen to my advice, and i am in no real position to dispense it, but I thought I would anyway. Anyway, good luck with Wagamama, I hope things improve.
It wasn't meant to be objective, it's just a rant. Since when were blogs expected to match the balanced or neutral standards of good journalism or academia? If you need balance you can look at wagamama employee fan blogs.
I did start out with a positive attitude as my limited experience of the menu suggested that this would be a good place to learn more about asian fusion, but seeing the ingredients behind the scenes paints a different picture, and objectivity is completely irrelevent in this respect.
I concede this company is not alone in being run by accountants. It is not the only restaurant to fiddle the tips. It is not the only business to exploit employment law to the max to exploit its staff.
If you want to read a professional report of this exploitation style, check out this article in The Times on Amazon UK.
Finally I've no idea why you've elected to be anonymous: without this disclosure I suspect you may have an interest in defending this apalling and yet sadly all to common example of employment for the underclasses under new labour.
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