Page 126 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

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he PATRON had engaged me as kitchen PLONGEUR;
Tthat is, my job was to wash up, keep the kitchen clean,
prepare vegetables, make tea, coffee and sandwiches, do the
simpler cooking, and run errands. The terms were, as usual,
five hundred francs a month and food, but I had no free
day and no fixed working hours. At the Hotel X I had seen
catering at its best, with unlimited money and good organi-
zation. Now, at the Auberge, I learned how things are done
in a thoroughly bad restaurant. It is worth describing, for
there are hundreds of similar restaurants in Paris, and ev-
ery visitor feeds in one of them occasionally.
I should add, by the way, that the Auberge was not the
ordinary cheap eating-house frequented by students and
workmen. We did not provide an adequate meal at less than
twenty-five francs, and we were picturesque and artistic,
which sent up our social standing. There were the indecent
pictures in the bar, and the Norman decorations—sham
beams on the walls, electric lights done up as candlesticks,
‘peasant’ pottery, even a mounting-block at the door—and
the PATRON and the head waiter were Russian officers, and
many of the customers tided Russian refugees. In short, we
were decidedly chic.
Nevertheless, the conditions behind the kitchen door
were suitable for a pigsty. For this is what our service ar-

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