Did I get a job after I distributed over fifty resumes, covering letter and CV?
The chef tutors I encountered were all very kind-hearted and really cherished their young students. They allocated every young Kiwi white and Pasifika student to work at different western restaurants or hotels before or after their NZ Professional Cookery L2 or L4. However, I had to continue the culinary study in the hope that a chef somewhere in this world would finally employ me. After I graduated from my NZ Professional Cookery L5 diploma, probably because I was older, my apprenticeship emails written to all overseas hotels or NZ local restaurants and cafes were somehow detouring to Pluto, that was a year ago. Since sending emails did not work, I was advised to walk into different restaurants and cafes in Auckland city to seek a job as a chef.
But without personal recommendations from any chef, I did not have any luck with this as well. My extended family had never in history fostered a chef. Obviously, all the chefs I somewhat knew were honest and found it difficult to recommend me to their chef friends as none of them knew me well enough. Worse of all, the chefs higher up did not know who I was at all, and why would they employ me if a recommendation from another chef was lacking?
However, back to the main point of why I wrote this article. I wrote this article because I got really pissed off when I received a call around midnight last Saturday. Getting a call at this time means that the chef who called me had just gotten off from work and just wanted to chat with a girl. This should date back to a year ago, after I distributed a thick pile of my resume at Newmarket seeking a job as a chef, immediately on the next morning a chef called said he could ‘find me a job’. Despite this, I sensed that he was a little too friendly. I did not know who he was and wondered where he got my phone contact from. He said that someone had put my phone number on the NSIA bulletin board. This was strange as I was never an NSIA student, so I found it difficult to trust his words.
From then on, he would call me on and off, every time I would ask had he found me a chef job yet, but he would only say that he was still looking. With this, my gut instinct told me he was more interested in looking for a girlfriend. True enough, soon he revealed to me that he had a Chinese girlfriend in the past. I was just too nice to tell him that’s none of my business. Seriously, even now I still don’t even know his name. I told him, I was not interested in having a relationship. I kindly told him I probably could be a lot older than him, but the reply from this foreign chef really pissed me off when he said, “Do you know many old Kiwi white women still make love with young men?” From the way he replied to me, I realized I was living in a different world from him. Was it because this was New Zealand and that was why he could talk derogatory words directly from his mind without any censorship? Why did I have to waste my energy to interact with a chef who didn’t know how to respect himself to speak politely?
Soon, I found that I couldn’t even tolerate anymore even a friendly conversation with him, who was not genuinely wanting to look for a chef job for me but merely a female chef that he could “sleep” with. Fortunately, he had nothing he could threaten me with. I am a New Zealand indefinite PR, I earned it through my professionalism probably a lot earlier than most foreign migrants, so I wondered what made him keep calling back looking to have a fling with me. Was it all because I answered his call simply without looking at the number when I was busy that gave him the impression I could be a foolish fish that could easily get hooked? Eventually, I had to tell him that I had another chef in mind and he said, “Oh, is he the white chef?” Instead of telling him that it’s none of his business, I replied, “No, he is someone that you don’t know!” Then, he replied, “Too bad, you just missed a GOOD CHEF!” Immediately I sensed he is a chef full of pride, who probably could only flaunt his chef hierarchy’s higher-ranking position to me, an Asian chef who just graduated from a culinary school.
How do I know if he is lying when he says he is not married when in fact he may actually have a stay-in girlfriend like most chefs do? How do I know he is not just like many foreign male chefs all over the world who only bully, make a fool of or make fun of those lower ranking Asian female chefs, but wouldn’t dare to bully any white female chefs or mixed blood females? Once beaten, twice shy, I could smell vagueness as common as roasted garlic!
Yes, he may be a good chef from a country somewhere north of India, but I wonder if he could cook for me a bowl of authentic Sarawak laksa, roll me an authentic Japanese style sushi or bake me a Parisians’ baguette? I got a few countries’ chefs’ secret family recipes and culinary tricks from people I have met. I didn’t go to culinary school to learn how to cook in order to fish a man or for flattery from a potential husband. Good food is used to reward me after a hard day’s work. NEVER in my life anymore I would dream for any smiling, acting really nice, humble and friendly celebrity chef to send me a little sample gift, to come to Auckland to meet me, to cook me an A5 Wagyu steak or prepare me a Japanese fusion Poke either. I learned that he never treated me as his true friend due to his deeply rooted chef hierarchy’s awareness, he only met and cooked for the rich and famous people or 'raise up' young female executive chefs with his heart and his gifts.
What would you do when a stranger's intention by then was very clear to you? He would keep on ringing - when I was driving on Highway 16, when I was working, and when I was talking with my friends. I had no choice but to turn off my mobile. My friend asked me to block him. I told her that it is useless. If a chef’s hierarchy ego reigned, but if he never learns about his limits and something called mutual respect and “human rights”, I would write my personal experience to deal with his case There was once a kind-hearted Asian female chef friend for him to choose in life, but he preferred an indecent fling, and at the end, he missed both. This article is also a warning to all Asian female “lower ranking” chefs. Regardless of age, harassment could be a hidden risk if you plan to submit your resume by walking into a restaurant or café because you never know which chefs could pass your contact details to another idiot!
