Some words that I couldn´t say at the right time.

When I have to train someone new, someone who want a job to pay for the roof over their head and some pints or pay the bills and the university books, I always tell them two things.

First that we really look at the attitude, the personality, because we are like a family, and it is very important keep a good environment at work. Why do I say “good” when it is “awesome”? We spend a big portion of our life here, so it´s much better if we get nice people, ready to help and have fun, not drama queens that are complaining about every little obstacle.

Second, that our job consists of an exchange of energies. And giving good energy to the customers, they give you the same positive energy back and we create spirals of good moods. So our workplace becomes a storm of amazingness, creating fields of good energy. Sometimes we look like a all-bran, full of fiber, tv advertisement.

After that I do my best to make them understand how we work and the mechanisms to make our tables happy and deliver the Itsu standards, like the damn red light. That takes one or two weeks, three if you are Italian; it is not a very difficult job, and everybody gets it in the end. That is the easy part.

If you have the two first things, all goes smoothly. But unfortunately they are not teachable. At least not teachable at this point in our lives, with all the hair completely grown. This is the difficult part.

That´s why in this Canary Island adventure I will miss those people who make my going to work a nice moment of the day, those who when I arrive at work receive me with a welcoming smile or a funny joke. Those ones that it was a pleasure work with, in all the different seasons and different teams, from front and back of house, that have came along during my time over there.

I remember one of those courses that we had to pass in the head office. The speaker told us that one of the best things to work for this company, if not the best, is that we will meet people from all over the world and with some of them we will create strong laces of friendship and besides that we will be able to look at the globe and see how we have an acquaintance in every corner of the map. That´s true and I keep a very alive memory of everybody who I have worked with since my discovery day in the first week of March 2010, after meet five general managers, and about 150 people coming and going.

Some of them I can call friends, some of them are even Italians.

And I feel that I was very fortunate guy sharing that time with you guys!!! I have learnt from all of you, I have had fun, I have had arguments that we have always fixed and I was truly happy in that daily challenge to make people not only savour the taste of our food but have fun with us too, and I will keep all those moments and anecdotes in my heart.

And let me guys ask you a big favour. Please, keep that magic that makes Itsu Notting Hill an amazing place to work, to spend those hours which pay our lives there. Take care of your colleagues, be generous, be nice with those unbelievable managers who only make your life easier... just please be just as you are. I know that sometimes it´s hard, when you have a rota with thousands of hours, or those crazy busy moments where it looks like every single person in London wants crispy chilly squid or when you have a file of customers asking for special requests such as prawn tempura without the leaf and a bit spicy but not the sauce it comes with or those who order the drinks and when you deliver them ask for some tap water and when you deliver them ask for some lemon on it and when you deliver them request some ginger on the side etc... I know, sometimes it can be very hard, especially if you are... Italian. But guys, italians and not italians, be happy, at the end of the day the worse thing that can happens is that you deliver a chicken teriyaki late or drop a glass of Sauvignon on a girl who just had her curls done... nobody will die.

And most importantly: ENJOY!!!

And I guess I´m not talking about anything that you don´t know. 

I hope to come back soon and for the current team, front of house, back of house and four managers musketeers, mainly I´m writing these words because I want to give you a huge THANKS for sharing with me the last almost four years of my life. And also a thanks from my wife and little Orión: you can see in the picture the present you buy with the money you collected.. a pram which is taking away his Dad´s back pain from carrying the little heavy Orión in a sling. In the picture you see little Guapo a bit angry... but don´t take it personally, after the photo we discovered that he was full of shit.

ALL THE BEST!!!

Ps: And I hope someone from the front of the house will be brave enough to cook something in one of the coming Fridays!