Today at work was pretty busy. Over summer I've been waitressing in a cafe (although I'm saving money in the attempt to prolong my student years by doing a masters in September). So I was rushed off my feet, serving customers, talking in a high-pitched sing song voice and smiling a lot. But then, as it began to get quieter and I turned round to see the mountain of washing up by the dishwasher (anyone who's ever worked in the catering industry will realise how disheartening it is to see those dishes balancing precariously upon one another) I realised I had a problem.
I could not for the life of me get the milk to froth properly for a cappuccino. And this was devastating because we'd had training only this morning. But, I realised, I had missed the cappuccino part. Some customers had walked in and I'd been stuck toasting bread whilst the perfect frothing action had been explained.
Now I've been making cappuccinos since I worked at a hotel over a year ago. But the problem was...now I had seen how they were meant to be done. My sub-standard cappuccino would just not be good enough after I had seen and tasted the real deal.
So I held back the tears as I presented an imperfect cappuccino to what I knew would soon be a complaining customer. As she walked outside I honestly had to go and wipe the tears from my eyes as I felt I had not lived up to my barista training. My manager saw I looked upset.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"You need to show me how to make cappuccino milk properly" I just about managed to say, before running to get some tissues.
Five minutes later me and my manager were by the till and the woman who I had served coffee to came back in. I held my breath. She came over to talk to us. I though I better at least smile at her as she complained. She addressed my manager.
"This girl makes the best cappuccinos this side of Italy". She said. "I can't drink Starbucks or Costa or any of them because they're just not good enough, but that was a really good coffee".
I guess I should have more confidence in my skills.
Dude. It's awesome when your just good without even trying to be. It's like you can stick your middle finger to the rest of the world and say "Yeah? And what? I'm gonna bust a cappuccino in your ass!"
ReplyDelete... I fear I took that too far.