Dreams About Food and Restaurants

[DanCole42]

I was dining at Citronelle, when a mid-20s Mark Slater came over to me and suddenly I was asking him for a job as a waiter. He said sure, but I ended up feeling extremely stressed since I've never worked in a restaurant in my life. It was also extremely awkward because I was now working alongside the people who only a few minutes prior had been serving me.

I proceeded to make tons of mistakes. It started with me trying to bus a table: "Don't do that, we have people who will bus it for you." "Here, eat this," said a waiter as he shoved a plate of half-eaten rabbit into my face. Half of it was gray and rotted and mushy.

It was like the dream where you show up for the test in the class you've never actually taken.

I was told I could do less damage behind the bar. It wasn't the actual Citronelle bar, more like the bar/host stand at the old Ray's the Steaks location. There was a couple there who found out it was my first day and then asked me how to make all sorts of complex drinks just to test me. Drinks like, "the snowman hoji" and "fish beach basket."

I heard clarinets playing from the kitchen. "That means it's time for family meal." Said the other bartender.

"In the middle of service??? This is insane." I threw down my rabbit leg and abandoned my post as I ran into the auditorium-like kitchen where around thirty staff were seated at long folding tables. "Hey, what's going on??? We've got like two hundred covers waiting out there and we're all just going to sit around???" Everyone looked at me angrily. "This is how we do it," said one of the chefs. "Now be quiet - <world famous chef who looks kind of like Will Ferrell> - is about to speak to us!!!"

"What am I doing here? I'm going to go right from my job at the office to here? I'll have no life! We were going to go to happy hour and American Flatbread this week! Now all those plans are GONE!"

I saw someone wearing an American Flatbread t-shirt, who apparently worked at both Citronelle and AF. He said it was very cool to be working with me, since I was starring in The Office. He said he ran a videography business on the side and wondered if he could borrow me for a shoot.

I thought the guy was crazy for having so many jobs. I thought I was crazy for having so many jobs, one of which involved working in the type of restaurant where the demands of service probably weren't suited to someone like myself who had never worked in food ever.

I started hearing All Along the Watchtower, ("there must be some way out of here") then I woke up.

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I blame the fact that I'd made the hamburger buns from Happy in the Kitchen earlier in the evening.

So who else has had a food-related dream recently?

[hillvalley]

Not recently, but I used to have recurring dreams of going to Komi. The unusual part is that the restaurant always looked the same, but nothing like what Komi looks like in real life. The same staff was all there, Monis was in charge of the kitchen, but the location itself was very different. As I type I can picture it in my head although I haven't had the dream in a couple of years.

And I'll refrain from commenting on you dreaming about a young Slater

[DanCole42]

And I'll refrain from commenting on you dreaming about a young Slater

It's the mustache that does it for me.

[porcupine]

I started hearing All Along the Watchtower, ("there must be some way out of here") then I woke up.

I'd blame it on watching too much Battlestar Galactica, 'cause the plot of your dream is that complicated.

[Fish]

I keep having recurring dreams about pit beef sammies... I think I need help.

[Al Dente]

In my dream I became Mr. Creosote and I was dining with Paris Hilton.

Better get a bucket.

[rappahannock]

Anyone who has worked in a restaurant long enough (or owned one for 15 years) can frequently substitute the word dream with nightmare.

[saf]

When I was 17 and fresh out of HS, trying to decide what to do next, I got a job cooking breakfast at a McD's. It was long ago and far away, and before the era of the biscuit. And I had a cheap manager who under-ordered English muffins, consistently, fearing having 2 left over more than she feared an hour and a half without any McMuffins.

I regularly had the dream of looking for muffins, looking for muffins, looking for muffins, never finding them, customers yelling all the while, and waking up in my closet surrounded by all the boxes I had moved while looking for muffins. (Sadly, I am serious here.)

I was glad to leave that job.

More recently, I dream of my years, also long ago now, waiting tables and tending bar. You know how some people have that dream where they discover it's the end of the semester and they haven't been to class yet? I've had that ONCE, despite having spent far more time in school than is good for me. My anxiety dreams take place in a restaurant, not one I ever worked in, but the same one every time. I'm the only one in the dining room, the only one to cover the bar, there's no busboy, no dishwasher, there's one cook, and we are way in the weeds. It gets worse as it goes.

Now for non-anxiety dreams of restaurants? (And bars too) Indeed, it is obvious to me that my brain has noticed that my stomach takes it to a lot of restaurants and bars. Restaurants and bars are often featured as the setting of my dreams. Sadly, my dreams are scripted by Salvador Dali, and as such, the settings become unrecognizable fairly quickly, as the elephant in the corner melts, the bomb behind the mirror turns into a ultra-blue sonic mushroom cloud, and the jukebox follows me around the room, singing the soundtrack of my mind.

Daydreams now.. that's another, long long post.

[DanCole42]

Last night I had a dream that I was on Hell's Kitchen, except I was cooking by myself and the format was more along the lines of Iron Chef.

Also, I forgot how to cook.

Gordon Ramsey was NOT happy.

The theme ingredient was grapes. White grapes. I went to make like a grape truffle, but my ganache turned to water and rocks. I was going to wrap grapes in bacon, but to cook the bacon I put it in a paper bag and stuck it in the oven and it caught fire. I was going to make a roast chicken with grapes, but the chicken also caught fire. Also, that's only three dishes and I needed five, per Iron Chef America rules. So I ran out of time with only three dishes even planned and none of them remotely edible.

You could say I'm not exactly feeling rested this morning...