How Your Enchiladas Get Made

My Very Worst Job was as a prep cook at a dine-in Mexican food chain restaurant. It had just opened in my city. I was in high school and could only work at night, so the 5-10 p.m. shift worked perfectly.

However, when I arrived on the first day I was informed training was during the day and I’d have to miss school. The other new hires and I were also told to work without breaks until we “got our shit together.” My coworkers were even better. One of the other prep cooks told me that I needed to “roll the enchiladas as tight as a virgin’s p***y” and the lead dishwasher advised I quit school because he never finished high school and he was doing just fine without a high school diploma. As naive as I was, I’m pretty sure he was serious. Two line cooks walked out after the head chef threw a metal ladle at them for being slow. I was also told I couldn’t leave until we’d cleaned the entire kitchen even though my shift ended prior to the restaurant closing. This finally happened at 2 a.m., a whole four hours after my shift ended. Of course, this was on a school night.

All this and it was only the end of my second day on the job.

On Day 3 day, I was told I’d be written up if I missed the daytime training, so I walked out.

The best part of this was about six months later, I was contacted by the “new” management of the restaurant and asked if I would consider working for them again.