When I started my food business, I put an ad in the paper for a head waiter, and ended up employing this guy called Branko Kostovic, who some readers of my blog will remember. He was from Croatia and he was a sensational head waiter, and although back living overseas, I still call him my friend. He trained up a few young St Ignatius students who had worked as volunteers for a Headmasters Dinner, and who then worked for me all through their uni days. We’re also still very close friends with four of these students, now in their 30′s. The first paying job I gave to these four students ended up being at the Crazy Horse, a certain kind of Club in Adelaide. I had won the contract to cater for an offsite advertising agency Christmas staff function but didn’t know the venue! So I had organised all my staff for this event including these young people who were only year 11 – only to find out the venue. I was promised there would be no strip shows on the day, but they did have a drag queen parade! As these new waiter were still underage, I then had to ring their parents and say “I’m really sorry but I’ve booked your children to work for me and their first job is at the Crazy Horse. If you’re not happy with this I’ll find other staff.” After an initial silence, and lots of explanations, they agreed their children could work at this event. They were serving food, but there age technically should have prohibited them from this type of venue!! It was a lot of fun, and they had many new stories to tell after their first paid job with me. One went on to study physiotherapy and apparently it is one of the questions in their physio student quiz night; “Where was MW’s first job?” Answer: the Crazy Horse! I used to cook on Sundays for the Jesuit community, and on the Sunday afternoon after the Crazy Horse event one of the priests came up to me and said “I hear you’ve been giving our students a bit of extra curricular education!” One of the parents had told the priest I had taken them to the Crazy Horse, and fortunately the drag queen show was very tasteful! The information I had read about a Jesuit education was that it was well rounded, so I was simply reinforcing their philosophy!
ahhhhh, Kate this was indeed a wonderful exprience for me, however you did forget to leave out the part about you asking the owner what the poles in the middle of the table where for…classic moment, yours truely in a holistic education
Very funny Marty… and see my comment to my own blog! I am so very glad I decided to fill in that glaring gap in the story first, as I knew someone would eventually!! And yes, it was a lovely time, and we all have wonderful stories and shared moments. xox
Ok girls, glad to make you smile! And now I’ve decided to add to the story before someone else does… when visiting the venue with the client, whom I had told I had never been there, I actually asked ‘why are there poles in the middle of the tables!!!’ They are probably still laughing, along with Madame Josephine, and the client then said, ‘OMG, you weren’t joking, you really haven’t been here!’
What a wonderful dinner story for these young people and will be laughs for many a year for these people and their grand children. Trust you to be so innocent
Also. I’m impressed with your innocence – you hadn’t heard of the Crazy Horse?
That’s brilliant! Gotta love those J’s.