foodfile
Glory Wells (left) takes inventory, seasons vegetables, grills catfish, washes dishes and wipes down tables at Wanda J’s Next Generation. | SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS
Back of the house
Meet the workers feeding Tulsa’s restaurant scene by MADELINE ROPER
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lory Wells juggles many jobs in the kitchen at Wanda J’s Next Generation. She takes inventory, seasons vegetables, grills catfish, washes dishes and wipes down tables. Simultaneously, Wells studies logic games and reading comprehension tips in her Law School Admissions Test practice book. She brings the book into the kitchen with her every day. “I’m applying to law school,” Wells said. “I’m speaking it into fruition.” Wells operates Wanda J’s with her four sisters. They each work 50 hours a week at the restaurant while enrolled in a full schedule of college classes. Wells and her sisters learned the ins and outs of the business while working at their grandmother’s restaurant, Evelyn’s Soul Food. Wells was eight years old when she got her fi rst summer job at the restaurant. She learned the importance of 18 // FOOD & DRINK
teamwork and flexibility in the kitchen early on. “I’ve bussed tables and washed dishes for many, many years,” Wells said. “We’re small, so we each do a little bit of everything here.” Lee Brown, dishwasher at Duet, also emphasized the importance of cooperation in the kitchen. Brown spends his shifts cleaning pots, pans, plates and utensils. He has worked in the restaurant industry since 1984 and started dishwashing at Duet when they opened in August 2018. Over the years, he learned that every worker, from the head chef to the busboy, serves an integral role in the operation of a restaurtant. “We’re a team,” Brown said. “We all rely on each other in some way.” At Prairie Fire Pie, if one of the line cooks forgets to refi ll toppings or clean their station, the entire restaurant suffers. Yancey Friend, pizza cook, has worked
in 13 restaurants over his 30-year career. He attended culinary school for three months, but dropped out due to the program’s high cost. Soon after, he applied to his first restaurant gig and began learning on the job instead of in a classroom. Like Wells, Friend has worked various positions in the kitchen including washing dishes and frying burgers. Despite working some dull, repetitive kitchen jobs, Friend knows his success stems from his well-rounded knowledge and variety of experiences. “Nobody wants to do all the tedious stuff like sweeping the oven and working the wood,” Friend said. “But you have to learn it all.” PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE Line cooks must master every station in the pizza kitchen. They spend several weeks practicing and perfecting each technique. Once they learn how to make
the dough, they can move on to manning the oven. Eventually, they learn every aspect of operating the kitchen. Though Friend emphasizes discipline and practice, he also knows the test of a truly successful kitchen staff is how they preform under pressure. “A lot of restaurants run on chaos,” Friend said. “Its sort of an instinct.” Wells also attributes her kitchen skills to long hours of practice. She cooked every menu item at Wanda J’s over and over until she memorized the cook times for each dish. The team at Wanda J’s does not use recipes, so Wells relies solely on her memory to get the job done. She now knows when to start frying okra and sautéing vegetables so the customers receive their food in a timely manner. All the while, she maintains a clean kitchen and dining room. “We’re human and we make
November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
