Chapter IV Umberto’s breakaway He liked to get there early and look around when the room was empty. He had discovered that small details are noticeable when there are no customers, when the tension for service is not yet high. He noticed that there was a rose inside a big vase under the window that had bloomed early and that the petals had assumed a faded colour and would soon fall. Alfredo was meticulous, thorough, and probably for his employees he was a pain in the ass. On the other hand, he was born in September and his character had assumed, for better or worse, the typical characteristics of the sign of the virgo. When he was not wearing the chef ’s jacket, Alfredo was very careful about his clothing: he almost never wore a tie, apart from formal occasions, but cashmere sweaters and wide-ribbed velvet trousers in winter, Lacoste and fresh wool in summer. On his feet he only wore English model shoes, with laces, never loafers. He was horrified by a pair of German sandals, those with crossed laces, just to be clear, but in the kitchen he always wore a pair of light blue Crocs, like a surgeon in the emergency room. Perhaps it was a habit or perhaps the need to be comfortable for so many hours, standing in front of the stove. certainly it was a detail that he had learned when he was sous chef in a starred restaurant in Milan. The role of the sous chef is fundamental for the organization of an important restaurant. First of all, there’s the second chef in command, able to replace the executive chef, the big boss. He must therefore be able to carry out all the tasks of the head chef when he is absent and ensure that the kitchen runs smoothly. And then the sous chef refers to the different chief cooks (chef saucier, chef poissonier, chef rôtisseur, chef garde-manger, chef pâtissier...), the orders and all the kitchen staff, including the dishwasher. A gruelling job, six days a week, but it is also the only way to learn how to cook by stealing the secrets of the executive and trying to invent new dishes worthy of the name of the restaurant. In the early days Alfredo was very intimidated: his master was one of those people who have the ability to shake the blood in your veins. A true genius of haute cuisine, acclaimed by critics and the media, but with a despotic, arrogant, presumptuous attitude, comparable only to Vittorio Sgarbi during his best shows. And on the other
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