Cheese!

"How does our food taste?"

What kind of a question is that? Working as a teenager at 'Bar-B-Que Heaven' in Brooklin, Ontario, I spent most of my time in the kitchen as a cook. Only during the busiest of times did I ever venture into the dining room to serve food or pickup used dishes.

Such was the case one busy summer afternoon. I was bringing out a plate of nachos to a table as the waitress was being pulled in all directions and needed some help.

As I brought over the plate the lady smiled and asked me how her nachos tasted? I obviously had a confused look on my face to this question. She repeated, "How does our food taste?"

I told her I'm sure their food tasted good as all the food does at the restaurant.

She said, "The only reason I ask is because you seem to have a small thread of cheese hanging from your mouth and going all the way to our plate".

I was so embarrassed. When I received the plate in the kitchen, the cheese was overflowing off the plate and as I picked it up a little came off on my fingers from the very side edge of the plate. Not wanting to go out there with cheese on my hands I licked it off my finger. I had no idea the other end was still attached.

The owner basically resigned me to the kitchen from then on.