Chapter XI - KENNY, MY BUDDY

I don’t know how Tim became the chef of Russels Restaurant in Catonsville, as he had no culinary skills, but there must have been something that made him useful.

He was always wearing a baseball hat over his mullet and he looked so cross-eyed through his coke bottle glasses, that you never had an idea if he was looking at you or something else. You could hear him coming from far away because he had an enormous key chain with so many keys hanging from his belt that you were wondering what he was hiding behind all those doors the keys could open. Tim called me “hey, goddamn foreigner” as he couldn’t pronounce Nino.

It was American Cuisine in Russels where I first learned how to make surf and turfs, Maryland crabcakes, potato skins, buffalo wings, and oysters casino. All the good stuff!

My favorite guy in the kitchen was dishwasher Kenny, he was a high school student, a slender and tall black kid, talking inner-city Baltimore slang and cussing all day, his favorite word was motherfucker.

It didn’t matter if it was slow or busy, Kenny always had something to ask or tell me.

“He chef, you guys have schools over there?”

“What kind of money you have, Deutsch mark?”

“What is your main language, English?”

“You are my blood brother chef, you know why: we are both minorities, you are a foreigner and I am black”

As Kenny almost every other word in a sentence said Motherfucker, one day I made him a bet:

“Kenny, I bet you a twenty if you don’t say motherfucker for HALF AN HOUR. You think you can do that?”

“Easy, I just shut up for half an hour”

With Kenny not talking, there was a strange silence in the kitchen, you suddenly could hear other sounds, which were normally in the background of his jibber-jabber. It lasted almost 15 minutes, then suddenly I heard him scream as he jumped up, his arms spread out like he was going to say a prayer, his eyes opened as tea saucers yelling: “It just ain't worth it, motherfucker, motherfucker, motherfucker…….

I learned also some slang and when I came home I explained to Patricia the new words I had learned: 86! , for example, 86 shrimp! (shrimp sold out) or “we were totally weeded, or in the weeds” (slammed with customers and backed up with orders)

After 3 months of working there, when I just became adjusted to the atmosphere and I had my name changed from hey, goddamn foreigner to Nino, they transferred me to another restaurant from the same owner, on Main Street in historic Ellicott City.

It was a totally different environment in Cocao Lane with Chef Debby, Margaret, and Crazy Ed and I felt a little bit more at home as this kitchen was more about good food. The female touch to the kitchen did the quality good, and the beautiful cakes they made were amazing. It was however the busiest kitchen I ever worked in and also the hottest summer in years.

With our backs the whole day close to the broiler, 12 burner stove, and 2 ovens, doing sometimes 150 lunches en 175 dinners in 100 degrees with JUST THE TWO OF US it was quite a job!

But I felt happy being in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and coming home every day to Patricia and our children.