Placing the garnish

My first client, when I became a CPA, was a restaurant owner in Florida.

Bob Cook was the founder of Holiday House Restaurants and my first and most significant client as a CPA. In the beginnings, being new, I had to do the grunt work of auditing - going into the walk-in freezers for hours to count the swinging beef and hamburger patties, and other fun things.

Then one day Bob Cook, who I later learned had taken a liking to me, came to me and said, "If you're going to audit my books, you need to know how a restaurant works," and asked me to come to the flagship restaurant at 6.00am the following morning, and told me to be prepared to spend all day. "All day" for Cook was 12-14 hours, I discovered.

So I did. 14 hours. He showed me all the tricks to restaurant profitability. How to reheat a leg of lamb. How to make chocolate sundae from yesterday's chocolate cake. How to time the grinding of coffee beans. How to manage labor costs. How to clean a chopping block and sharped a Forshner knife. I have had few more interesting days. What an artist he was! It was mesmerizing it was just watching him use a spatula to fold ingredients into a recipe, or put a garnish on a plate - he did not just put it on the plate; he placed it on the plate with the softness of a lover's kiss. There was an artist's flair to everything he did.

And his stamina! Goodness! He'd start at 6.00am for an 11.00am opening and not even look tired at closing, still fresh and excited until the lights went off late at night. And...in fairness, he was not the easiest man to get along with, demanded devotion from everyone around him, and he did not suffer fools lightly.

I think it was one of those few times with I was in the presence of greatness. It taught me the power that comes from a talented man who loves his work.