Working at a restaurant takes a special kind of person. A person with well-rounded communication skills, hand eye coordination, and the ability to work under pressure, and maybe the best quality, a sense of humor. At Franks Place in Simpson a guy with the name of Shane possesses all of these attributes. Not many people call him by his name at work though, everyone knows him as the Beard. He got the name because he has a big beard also he likes to have that nickname.

Beard is a hard worker at franks place, averaging at about fifty hours per week. He helps the kitchen to work at its full potential. Back when beard was sixteen years old he and a few of his friends applied for jobs at franks place.  He was the only one to get the job. He started on a Friday night around six o’clock. When he arrived at the restaurant his new boss Turk told him to get in the back. Just like every cook starts off he started as a dishwasher. Before he got the job he did manual labor like roofing with his dad. He tells me he enjoyed the job but it was hard.
The beard started his job in eleventh grade and worked and still got high eighties and low nineties for grades. Beard never found he had any passion for cooking at all until he had the opportunity to cook at franks. He got the opportunity to cook through taking on long hours and working to his full potential. Beard now has a passion for cooking but never has or does he think he will go to school for it. During course of the beards six years at franks he got three promotions that came with multiple raises and rose up to head cook.

Beard does not just like franks place because he gets to cook, he likes his coworkers he says most of them are like friends and being friend makes the nights more interesting with stupid conversations and a hand full of goofing off. Beard prefers the morning shift because it’s easier but believes the night shift is way more interesting.

When asked if he would ever work at another restaurant or another job he said “of course” he would do it to see if he likes it, also it would create new experience’s and he could possibly cook a different variety of food. One exception though is he does not want to work at a chain restaurant because they can be very repetitive with how the foods are prepared. He says even franks place gets repetitive. But it’s unique so he can deal with it.
His favorite spot on the line is Sautee’s he likes them because every dish is unique in the way it is made up. He likes the individuality of the dishes and tries to make everyone looks and taste its very best.

The beard is safe serve certified. He did attend classes at Maywood to become safe serve certified and is able to direct other kitchen staff to take appropriate measures when trying to handle food safely. Being certified he possess the knowledge how to deal with raw meats, vegetables, chemicals, and equipment.

In beards time at franks place the restaurant has rubbed off on him and he has rubbed off on the restaurant. Beard was not very social before working at franks but the place helped him devolve and create social skills. He also rubbed off on the restaurant when the place was being remodeled he made many recommendations that helped make the restaurant as great as it is now.

When asked how long he wants to cook in life beard says he’ll stay with the profession as long as it stays fun to him. Some duties the beard does every day are prep foods including meats, rice’s, and other vegetables. He stocks up all of the areas where other cooks work this helps make the night go by faster. He is always helping other cooks when it is a busy night the beard may jump from spot to spot on the line helping pump out order and get everyone to the same slip to cook next.

Beard thinks very highly of his boss he says without him he never would have got the awesome job and would not be where he is today! He likes his boss but even though he thinks good of him he says “he’s shot”.

When asked what injuries he sustained he said he has gotten many injuries since his start he says he has been cut, burned, scrapped, and has fallen many times. One of his worst injuries is when he was working lunch and he cut the tip of his thumb off. He didn’t even scream he just wrapped it up and went to the hospital. It took almost a whole month to heal.

Being exposed to all the food at the restaurant, he likes a wide variety of food. One of his favorite foods is steak. He likes his steak a nice medium. “Just how real men eat meat.” On the contrary he does not just have a least favorite food but does not like a whole classification of food, beard hates seafood of all kinds. He says he never has liked seafood for its fishy smell and rubbery texture.

Overall beard is a unique member of franks place with many great ideas and many well rounded skills. As an ending message beard would like me to put this in my interview “If you have a passion to cook, know what you’re cooking and how you cook before you even pick up a knife”.