Facing the challenge in New York – part 5

From July Roland Oláh, formerly the chef of Café Erté, tries his luck in the USA. He regularly reports to our magazine: ‘Well, Café Boulud. I cannot compare the workload to anything else. I really like it here, but we have to work unbelievably hard. If this is Michelin star-level, I dare say one of the Hungarian restaurants should already have one. The only difference is that everything is much better organised here. I tried to do my very best to meet the chef’s requirements and this had a negative influence on my performance. At the age of 32 I am not the confident Roland Oláh that I was at home, but a nervous cook. I do not understand the orders, I have to pay attention to too many things at the same time. Some people try to make me even more nervous – they explain everything to me like I was some kind of idiot. We start at 7 am, but everyone is there 30 minutes earlier, because there are many things to prepare in advance. There are reservations for 300 guests at the Boulud every day. If you do not do three things at a time you will not be ready. There are no problems with mise en place, I take it very seriously but service time tarnishes my performance. Unfortunately the chef still does not like me – I cannot do anything a bout it. I do well on Sundays, when he has a day off. Gradually auxiliary chefs learn to accept me and my confidence starts to return. Finally it seems I was unable to convince the chef: he says that I have problems with the language, but because I work well the chef in Daniel might give me a chance and employ me in catering. I have to train my French successor – strange days are ahead of me…