Chapter II - DON'T LET HER GO!

I had just opened my first Restaurant in Amsterdam a month before, and I was cooking in our open kitchen. It was a Tuesday night, the 27th of March in 1984, and we were almost fully booked. The restaurant looked pretty and ready to go, and so was I, ready to make some good food!

THERE WERE NO SIGNS THAT THIS EVENING WOULD CHANGE MY LIFE FOREVER

But it did. The first tables walked in and so was Patricia…………

She walked slowly and graciously, seemingly observing what she saw with every step. She was wearing a shawl instead of a coat. She looked beautiful and sophisticated, and I was in awe of her graciousness. It was like I saw her in slow motion. I didn’t remember ever seeing so much femininity in one woman. I decided right away that she was the woman for me.

She sat down, only three tables away from the kitchen, and in between busy cooking, I tried to catch a glimpse of her. But after a while, she changed seats and suddenly her ugly girlfriend was facing me (my friend Kyra told me it is called a DUFF, D-U-F Designated Ugly Fat Friend, this is the person you bring to make yourself look prettier). Later she told me it was because I was staring at her all the time.

Happily, she ordered red wine with her salmon, and it gave me the opportunity to run to the table and meet her up close, my first words ever to Patricia were: “Nobody in my restaurant drinks red wine with salmon”. Later in the evening, I told my waitstaff not to let her go: "offer her drinks, Irish coffee, Champagne, WHATEVER…...... BUT DON'T LET HER GO!" So after finishing the cooking I hurried upstairs to put on my best Corneliani suit and hopefully my best looks. And I asked her out……………..

She stayed an extra week and came back after a while to check me out for a second time, to see if I was worth her. Three months later I suddenly had a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters living in Amsterdam.

to be continued.........