All those years ago

We re-publish part of a post Stefano Bonilli wrote for Papero Giallo on November 26, 2013.
Aside from the incredible timeliness of a subject that today is being constantly re-proposed, what one wonders is how is it possible that after nine years nothing or almost nothing has changed. And in this case I don’t think you can blame tradition.

The dreams of a young chef who earns 15 euros for two days’ work

By Stefano Bonilli.

On August 22 I wrote a post entitled: "The dreams of a young chef and the harsh reality of daily life”. As of today there have been 50 responses, the last over the past month, and there have also been many emails with a common thread: a passion for cooking and the difficulty of finding a job that pays more than 15 euros for two days’ work, over the weekend, including washing the pans at the end, as the latest young chef commented today in response to my “old” post.

What stood out for me in his response was the justification the owner gave him for paying only 15 euros for a weekend’s work, in other words 7.50 euros a day: “I am giving you a reward of 15 euros for coming to learn the job”.

Whether there is an economic crisis or not, I would have thrown my apron in his face the first weekend because this is not the way to learn and this is not the restaurant sector of the future but of the past, one based on trying to be clever and mediocrity.

I must confess that, as of late, I suggest to those who write me - and they are now many – that if they can, if they speak another language, English or French, they should go abroad for their apprenticeship because in Italy the excuse of an economic crisis in the restaurant sector is used to hide a mentality and subculture of exploitation. This makes me very angry because I see so many enthusiastic youths, perhaps blinded by the notoriety of many TV cooking shows, caught between a desire to follow their dreams and the impossibility to find useful ways to receive proper training and later a job.