Who needs sleep anyways?

Five Star Meal

"Hmm," the food critic said as he slowly chewed the food savoring every flavor.

"Hmm," he said again and took another bite from the plate in front of him.

Chef Roman was walking back in forth behind the kitchen doors waiting to hear what the man had to say about his food. His restaurant was fairly new and this was to be his very first critique ever. The chef paced back and forth anxiously waiting to hear a peep from the man. The customers he had had up to this point always said only good things about his food. This helped the chef relax a bit, but the nerves were still killer. A waiter walked into the kitchen and spoke to the chef. "He's done eating and wishes to speak to you," he said and walked out of the kitchen to serve the rest of the customers. Chef Roman took a deep breath, fixed his hair, and walked out of the kitchen.

"I hope you enjoyed the meal," said the chef trying to hold back the nervous stuttering.

The critic stood from his chair, wiped his mouth one last time, and with an emotionless face said, "You can read my critique on the paper tomorrow." With that the critic walked out of the restaurant without showing a single sign of his liking or disliking of the food.

A small smile would have eased the chef's nerves, but the critic had only sported a serious face during his entire visit. 'At least he didn't show a face of disgust,' thought Chef Roman and returned to the kitchen to finish the work day.

~~~

The next morning, Chef Roman walked into his restaurant with the paper in hand. He hadn't read it yet as he wanted to share the critique with his workers. He brought in all the workers into the kitchen and began his little speech.

"As you all well know, yesterday we had a food critic come here to rate our restaurant. Have any of you seen his critique yet?" He said. All the workers shaked their heads no.

"Okay. Well, I have the paper here. I thought I would share his review with everyone." The chef took a deep breath the newspaper in his hand. A silence took over the kitchen, everyone was anxious to see what the critic had to say about their work place.

"Okay, here we go," said Chef Roman and flipped through the newspaper until he found the page where critics write their reviews.

"Yesterday I visited a new restaurant close to downtown called Roman's," Chef Roman began, "the place itself is very nice and well decorated. They play nice soothing music, but I enjoy that it's not so loud that it's difficult to have conversations with others. To the waiters: keep doing what you're doing, you are all very nice." The Chef's nerves calmed down and a smile formed on his face.

"So far so good," he said and continued reading. "Now down to the food which is what everyone wants to read. The food was delicious," he read a big smile creeped up om his face. His workers all cheered with joy.

"Hold up people, there's more," he said and continued reading. "The food was delicious, but it was nothing one can't make in one's own home. The food tasted homemade. I'm saying it was good, but not five stars good. Now don't let this stop you from visiting Roman's, the food us good, but don't expect nothing fancy. My rating because I'm feeling nice today, three stars out of five."

The smile vanished from Chef Roman's face. "Because I'm feeling nice.. three stars." Kept replaying in his mind. The room went silent until one of the waiters spoke up. "Fuck what that man had to say. Our food is great and our customers agree."

"Yeah," the rest of the staff half heartedly pitched in.

"You guys are right. Our customers love our food and that's all that matters. So forget what he had to say," said the chef trying not to sound sad.