The Literal Melting Pot That Feeds America

Why can't we see the kitchen?

No one talks about what goes on in the kitchen tucked away, down a back hallway, behind beaten chrome doors. While it’s no secret that the kitchen is the heart of any eatery, whether it’s McDonald’s or some elitist truffle-serving, gold-plated imago dei bistro - those who use their own hands to manually pump the life-blood throughout the rest of a restaurants organs are concealed and entrapped behind it’s ribcage, beneath it’s skin.

Inhale, as the clean-cut serving staff rush into the kitchen empty-handed.

Exhale, as they leave, proudly showcasing rooms by products.

Photosynthesize, as the patrons, blinded by ignorance of nature and circumstance, consume.

Respire, as they throw green paper and plastic rectangles on their table, encouraging and allowing the process to repeat once more

.

But if it were not for the kitchen the first breath could not be taken, never mind facilitate this concrete ecosystem. So then why is it customary to be out of the consumer's line of sight?

Some common misconceptions are as follows:

1. The kitchen is dirty: Chef’s pick mold off lettuce and drop chicken fingers on the floor and re-plate without hesitation. There are bugs and rats!

2. They don’t really want you to know what goes into your food!

3.They don’t want you to know how they cook the food!

Here’s why that's wrong:

The Kitchen is Dirty: Sure, if you catch the kitchen on the wrong day, it could be but more than likely - it’s probably not. In the United States, health inspections occur randomly and without notice but typically happen at least once every six months. If a customer calls and complains, a health inspector is required to complete an evaluation, again, without warning. In short, it is extremely easy to fail a health inspection for little things that most patrons wouldn’t consider to be unsanitary such as having minimal amounts of rust or decay on metal shelving that stores non-food related items such as receipt paper or spare uniforms, never mind anything horrifying you could find crawling out of your 15-year-old brother’s bedroom. I could ramble on about the logistics of health inspections, but that’s fun for neither of us, so instead here are some links to all the information you could ever need to know about health inspections, just in case you don’t believe me:

A Quick and Easy Way to Understand How Health Inspections Work:

http://blog.typsy.com/how-do-health-inspections-work

Published Health Inspection Records, organized by city and county: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/restaurant-inspections-in-your-area/

State Retail and Food Service Codes by State:

https://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/retailfoodprotection/foodcode/ucm122814.htm

They don’t really want you to know what is going into your food: That’s illegal and is a part of health inspection. If calorie count and ingredient information is not listed directly on the menu the establishment must provide the customer with nutritional information about a dish. In case you neglected to explore the excitement of the FDA’s website here is a link discussing labeling and nutrition at dine-in facilities: Labeling and Nutrition: https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm515020.htm

They don’t want you to know how they cook the food: Adjacent to the other misconceptions, this is definitely the most plausible. Aside from legalities enveloping typical concerns such as “fear of undercooked meat”, restaurants aren’t required by law to reveal exact cooking methods. Depending on where you eat, however, it isn’t difficult to discern whether or not your meal is microwaved or cooked on the grill and is easy as a google search. Micro-meals are most common in chain restaurants where food comes in frozen and is then mass produced: If you went to Applebee’s in California and then again on Cape Cod in a blind taste test, you wouldn’t know you were eating two different pieces of chicken.

Thus arises the question, what is America hiding in the kitchen?

....Drum roll please…

The people.

When we hear terms like “illegal immigrants”, “aliens”, “undocumented workers”, and whatever other phrases the U.S. government (especially under the current Trump administration) has propagated out to the American public to dub non-citizens, it sometimes raises hairs on our arms.

On April 5, 2019, the President of the United States spoke at border security in Calexico, California and stated: “ I say.... the system is full. We can't take you anymore. Whether it is asylum or anything you want, illegal immigration, we can't take you anymore...Sorry, can't happen. So turn around, that's the way it is.”

If that statement alone isn’t gut-wrenching enough, he made sure to continue to say: “ If you look at our southern border, the number of people and the amount of drugs and human trafficking... They come into these areas where you don't have the wall...Then they make a left or they make a right and they come right into the country...it is pretty sad…”

Now, I am in no position to dispel any claims about human trafficking and would go as far to argue with Mr.Trump that this immense violation of human rights its more than just “pretty sad,” if I may.

Carlene Eddie, a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has a slightly different perspective. Throughout the duration of her class “Nationalism and Imperialism in the Caribbean and Latin America”, or Polisci 345 for short, I started to notice one phrase that kept coming up lecture after lecture:

“The majority of undocumented workers are not crossing over the U.S. - Mexico border. They’re coming over on planes legally, some even with work visas… and then instead of going home, they stay here.”

Oh the horror… of what our country was founded on.

If you didn’t react to that statement because you realize this has virtually no effect on you as a “legal” American citizen, excellent.

If you were shocked or frightened, however, I don’t blame you based on the above president’s quote alone, never mind the propa-gibberish-ganda he speaks into existence on a daily basis.

Allow me to again, ease your conscious and again debunk a couple common misconceptions:

1. Undocumented Immigrants are rapists, human traffickers, murders, thiefs, drug dealers… etc.

2. Undocumented Immigrants are ruining the economy! Taking jobs from REAL citizens and not paying their taxes!

Here’s why this is wrong:

Undocumented Immigrants are criminals: Some are, but it has less to do with these individuals’ identity as immigrants and more to do with who they are as people. In February of 2018, the libertarian Cato institute published a study comparing criminal conviction rates of native-born citizens, undocumented immigrants and documented immigrants in Texas of 2015. The results taken from just criminal convictions alone revealed “50 percent fewer criminal convictions of illegal immigrants than native-born American,” and a “criminal conviction rate for legal immigrants… about 66 percent below native-born rate.”

Here’s what this looks like:

Undocumented Immigrants are Stealing our Jobs and reaping the benefits of American Citizens: If you’ve ever applied for a job, and even for the most part, a low-level job that requires no entry-level skill, you’ve more than likely noticed that your prospective employer requires a government ID as well as a social security number which serves the purpose of proving your citizenship.A study conducted by the Pew Research Center published in 2015, reads: “In 2012, fully a third of U.S. unauthorized immigrants in the workforce (33%) held service jobs such as janitor, child care worker or cook, nearly double the share of U.S.-born workers (17%) in those types of occupations.” Other occupations that are commonly associated with undocumented workers included in this study are: Construction and extraction, production, installation and repair, transportation and material moving, as well as farming, fishing, and forestry - in essence, jobs that the majority of native born Americans are not necessarily yearning for.

Even if they are, however, just because undocumented workers are working, does not mean that's the only thing they’re doing. For example, say the population of the United States is 10, native-born citizens and all of them work at the same restaurant. The five people that are working on Tuesday have the means to feed the five people who have the day off. Then, two undocumented people move to the U.S. and start working at the restaurant - except no legal citizen loses their job or gets paid any less because the restaurant has two more people to feed contributing to the same supply and demand ratio.

Yes, of course it is much more complicated than this, however, a report published in March of 2017 by the institute on taxation and economic policy reveals that “undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to state and local taxes, collectively paying an estimated $11.74 billion a year,” and that “Contributions range from just over $550,000 in Montana with an estimated undocumented population of 1,000 to more than $3.1 billion in California, home to more than 3 million undocumented immigrants.”

Here’s a link to a U.S. map where you can see how much undocumented workers are contributing to your state: https://itep.org/immigration/

Okay, everyone together, take a deep breath with me.

Know that we know that:

Kitchen’s aren’t dirty

Restaurants aren’t lying

Undocumented immigrants aren’t criminals And

Undocumented workers aren’t stealing our “real citizen” jobs...

Let’s look inside the kitchen for what it really is: The Literal Melting Pot that Feeds America:

There is life in the kitchen of Ginger Garden in Amherst, Massachusetts. There is love and wives, husbands, children and families, some four generations deep, in the kitchen of Ginger Garden. There is no one who speaks fluent English in the kitchen of Ginger Garden, and no one I see take home a paycheck like I do, but instead, receive a stipend deposit of cold-hard cash in their pocket at the end of the night.

For me, the language barrier keeps things interesting - it’s not a judgement on either end but can be interpreted as more of a mutual misunderstanding.

For example I walked in, admittedly sleep deprived and hungover, last Saturday.

After a few hours I headed over to the sushi bar to restock chopsticks or something of that nature, and Jay, my favorite Sushi chef - a jolly man I'd estimate to be in his early 40s who is always flexing different colorful sushi gear, looks up to me and says: “No B-C” today?

“No B-C?” I questioned.

“Yeah no B-C.” He grinned.

“What is B-C…?” I sheepishly asked him.

This of course was followed by a roar of laughter from the surrounding employees.

“OH BUSY!!!!!! YEAH NO IT ISN’T BUSY TODAY THANK GOD - I’M SO TIRED!!!” I erupted once I finally flipped the “on” switch in my brain.

While of course not being able to entirely communicate with the people that you’re working with can be difficult and frustrating in times of chaos, but to me it’s never been anything to fuss over. It adds color, and depth to my life and is an obstacle in both directions that at least I don’t get to experience elsewhere.

Some of my coworkers however, do not share the same level of acceptance as I do.

In the kitchen a multiplex of different positions you can hold, some require more skill and appear to have less redundancy than others - but that’s beside the point. The position of the “packer” is always held by generally an older woman, for the job does not require an immense amount of physical labor.

The current packer has been employed for roughly 2 months, and it is only until about a week ago that the staff has discovered she is fully illiterate.

“She’s literally dumb as rocks - I told [the owner] that this is ridiculous and we should fire her.” A manager roared to me one day.

I wish I had said something. I didn’t. All day, I had been hearing her complain over and over about her illiteracy and frustration.

“She’s trying to memorize the characters - and it’s not working. How could she possibly forget rice?!” She continued on and on.

I went home that night and couldn’t sleep - I was sick to my stomach thinking about the abuse this woman suffers working under the same roof as I do.

“You know how the packer just stands in the middle of the kitchen, looking around like an idiot? Well she bumped into me and I elbowed her as hard as I could back - then I remembered that I’m not at The Pub and I can’t do that.”

These words rang in my ears until I was finally able to pass out, feeling empty and helpless.

The truth is the only thing I can do about it is write. Write in hopes that someone whose more important than I am somewhere will read the words that I put down and try to make a change.

Like everyone else, there was no contract I signed at Ginger Garden. There wasn't even any training. I was just thrown in on my first day in the early months of my sophomore year in college, completely blind to the world around me. Despite holding a high position and an acquired respect from my employers, if I have a problem with anything that’s going on, it’s on me to leave because they won’t change the system.

When I have free time, I’ll go to the back and try to help the packer with patience and love. I let her know it’s okay that she doesn’t speak English. I do my best to convey that she’s in a safe place when I’m around.

But when you’re an undocumented worker, there’s no such thing as fair treatment, equal pay and equal opportunity.