Patience Final project

1) Our story takes place in the kitchen of one of the finest restaurants in Paris, La Tour D’argent. La Tour D’argent is located on the corner of the one of the oldest parts of Paris. The restaurant covers seven floors that have 10 tables, except the 7th floor which only has 4 VIP tables. All the tables are covered by beautiful tablecloth and a fresh flower bouquet decorates the center of each table. The silverware and china, which are of the utmost quality, are painstakingly placed precisely where they are supposed to be. The silk drapes are kept opened, revealing the breathtaking architecture outside. Each floor of the restaurant has several extravagant chandeliers that illuminate gold throughout the dining area. There is a small room on each floor next to the bathrooms that contain bottle of wine and other beverages. The kitchen takes up the entire basement, and has an small army of chefs working on a huge variety of courses. At the end of the kitchen there are three mini-elevators that are used solely for transporting dishes to each floor.









2) Despite La Tour D’argent’s very steep prices and seating for nearly a hundred guests, reservations are almost impossible to get. It is known as the oldest restaurant in Paris and has served numerous important and famous people, one example being Louis XIV. In the past, people have fought duels to get a chance to sit and eat the world-class French cuisine. The people who eat here are high society and are, of course, extremely rich and influential. Because of the difficulty of obtaining a table there, if you are dining there it means you are a somebody in society. There is no spoken dress code for the restaurant, because the guests it receives are usually dressed in their finest attire.
In the 19th century, a famous tradition started by the owner at the time, Fredrick Delair. Delair stated that every duck that was used to make “Canard au Sang” or bloody duck was to be given a number. For example, King Edward VII was served number 328 in 1890. This tradition has been kept and the duck count today is almost reaching number 40,000.
It is also important to address the seriousness that the French take in their cooking. Unlike Americans, the French consider cooking and serving a very serious career and even an art. The waiters are all very experienced in their craft and seem to almost read the minds of the guests. They fill the glass of a guest, before he lifts his hand to beckon for more. They know their cuisine so well that they know the perfect complementary wine to the year for each course.
There is a hierarchy in place in the kitchen. The head Chef, Laurent Delarbre, is the commander and chief. He decides which dishes are to be on the menu for that night and he is the one who enforces quality of the food. He takes his job very seriously, and even go to extremes of throwing badly made dishes into the garbage. He is very picky and has a very short temper. He has two assistant chefs, who organize the other chefs in what they are making and etc. Everyone in the kitchen handling the food has very refined skills and works with astounding efficiency. Everyone knows exactly what they are doing, so there isn’t much communication going on between them. The relationships between all the chefs are very high tension, because everyone has different cooking styles and taste preferences. The competition between them is fierce, because everyone is reaching for the glorious position of being head chef.
On this particular night, a very famous French celebrity is coming to celebrate his birthday at La Tour D’argent. Duck number 40,000 will be made for him in his honor. Head Chef Delarbe was just announced as one of the top 10 chefs in the world by one of the most celebrated and harsh food critics of the time. A young, chef’s assistant is starting his first day of work in the kitchen. Other than that, everything else is normal packed house for the restaurant.

3)
a. Head Chef Delarbe is absolutely ecstatic to be named as one of the top ten cooks of the world. After meeting with many-esteemed guest that all congratulated him in his accomplishment and drinking to many toasts that honored his cooking, he becomes very intoxicated and wreaks havoc in the kitchen. After ruining a couple dishes and trying to climb into one of the small elevators, he is lead away by his two assistant chefs to a storage room, where he falls asleep. Just then, a waiter arrives in the kitchen asking for the head chef. The guest of honor, the French celebrity, wants to meet the head chef. The two assistant chefs debate on what to do for this dilemma(to deny the honored guest a meeting with the cook is taboo). They decide to have Stephan, the younger and more ambitious of the two assistants (the other chef is too old to impersonate him), to dress in Delarbe’s clothes and pretend to be him.


b. It is Jean-Pierre’s first day as a chef’s assistant at the La Tour D’argent. Even though he finished school in one of the most prestigious cooking schools in France and worked as a chef in a four star restaurant, he is not allowed to do any cooking. He is to do the most basic jobs such as wash and prepare ingredients. Nevertheless, he is nervous because he knows that working at the La Tour D’argent is huge accomplishment in his career. The thoughts of his family’s words telling him not to mess this up no matter what echoes in his head. Despite it being his first day, he is given the honor of plucking and killing duck number 40,000 for honored celebrity guest. When he opens the box with the duck, it escapes from him and runs through the kitchen causing chaos. The duck slips out of everyone’s reach and makes it into a food elevator heading up. Jean-Pierre runs after it in the restaurant and everyone in the La Tour D’argent think its some kind of show or entertainment and so he keeps his job and doesn’t get in trouble.


c. Jean-Marie is man who spent his whole life trying to get rich. His number one priority was to be rich and powerful enough to eat at La Tour D’argent. When he was a child, his parents were too poor to afford such wonderful food. He passed the restraunt everyday on his way to school and became obsessed with becoming rich. He went to such extremes to get wealthy that he neglected his friends and family. On his anniversary, his wife takes his child and leaves him, but he goes to the restaurant that he made reservations for by himself. He is the only one in the restaurant that is eating alone. As he eats the delicious food by himself, he bursts out in tears. He realizes that he cannot enjoy the food he longed for for so long by himself, and that everything he really mattered to him was gone.