BOURDAIN's stunning love letter to Mexico and Mexicans

[DebJ]

18. 15 years ago I paid my kitchen crew of 40 or so a beginning

wage of $7.50 to $8.00 an hour, and then a raise in 60 days or so, and most were at $9 an hour
or more within a year. Most were immigrants, Mexican, Salvordian, a rare other country of
origin here or there. As General Manager, I received a few nice bonus checks for several hundred
dollar most quarters, and I would share some of that with the kitchen managers whose bonuses
were much smaller, plus I would give $20 to a few line or kitchen employees who did exceptional jobs. They all did excellent work all the time, or they left our restaurant in short order. No moochers in my
place forcing others to carry their load. If others had to carry the load, we didn't need the mooch
there in the first place, now did we?

But I will tell you that I, too, would hire an immigrant over an American in a heart beat. In a heart beat.
They took pride in the great results they achieved. We all worked together, as a team. None of this mamby-pamby I didn't know I had to work today, or I was drunk last night, or coming in stoned. None of this perspective that as a worker, you do as little as possible and let everyone else carry the load. I managed restaurants for 10 years, and for 10 years, this pattern was consistent. My front of the house staff was mostly native-born American, and the turnover was very high. More than half of that turnover was because I wasn't going to schedule someone for not working while on the job. I also had a lot of good American workers (mostly high school and college age), but I had to work on maintaining that staff by constantly removing the chaff from the wheat. I rarely ever had an issue with any immigrants that I hired. Even when their English was non-existent or nearly so.
That's just the facts.

So, have you seen Bourdain's payroll?