Monday 25 April 2016

Chef's Secretary - the office is now closed.

Chefs are a tough bunch, but there are things that reduce even us to tears.
The loss of a mother, the loss of a friend and the loss of someone who is both friend and mother, confidant and team member.

Today April 25th 4.30pm the Philippines lost someone who was such to many, Marichu Salindong , who had bravely battled cancer for too long, and finally relented to the battle.


Marichu was a strong woman. She had to be.
As Chef's Secretary for 25 years she had seen so many egos come and go. Too many.
Some she liked, some she stood and others she just had to work beside and with.
She was an amazing woman.
Even though I was an expat and newbie to the Manila Peninsula Hotel in 2014 she supported me, told me the tricks to things and helped me when the tricks did not work in my favor.
Sharing an office with one Chef was not easy, but Marichu shared an office with several of us. Tensions at times ran high.
She calmed us, gave us sweets, shared a laugh and turned our moods back in the right direction so that we could go back out and run the domains where were hired to run.

For a long time I never knew Marichu had suffered Breast Cancer before I joined the company. Why would I. She never spoke about it, she had won that battle. When I found out I apologised for some of the tough days I had ranted about. She said," a lot of chefs have sat in those chairs and said the same things, they come - they go and yet Im still here."
She had an unbelievable strength, and her attitude made me realise how replaceable we as chefs, especially Expats truly are.
She was right, we come, we go and while we leave a mark, we eventually are replaced and forgotten about.
Some staff such as her, stay the course and see it all.
She had a Powerpoint presentation which made me laugh, a collection of all the Executive Chefs who had sat in the big chair. We came to talk about the Executive Chefs chair as though it was the same one on Game of Thrones, eventually they all "move on or lose their heads". In my two years we saw five Execs sit in the same chair. Some moved on, some we missed when they departed or just disappeared, some lost their heads and others we wished had.

The one thing I truly took away from working with Marichu was her ability to laugh it all away. Some chefs are just not nice people to work with and yet she could forget their nastiness and words, attitudes and egos and she could still have a great laugh with the next person through the door to the office.
In a message I received from her at Christmas she stated exactly as I felt about her and my own mother, "Remember our morning laughter 😊 bad tempers 😞 and later laughter again, I make you smile Aaron and you too always enlighten my day. I will never forget you".

Laughter is what makes the world go around and the ability to laugh between tough times is key to life.
Marichu and I could always find something to have great laugh about, even about ourselves, and that was what made working in a tough kitchen possible. She made working in a tough kitchen possible.

Since she left work, I did not see her again, we only chatted occasionally on Messenger. Something I feel bad about, but which she understood.
We had discussed in person my loss of my own mother and the depression I faced after that. Seeing Marichu - someone so strong in resolve, debilitated by Cancer yet again - made me cry just seeing some of her photos. Seeing her in person would have been very tough and not something she needed to face.
Chefs have ego's and are a tough breed- we have to be to survive what we go through- but we are just weakened little boys when our close friends are hurting and we can do nothing to help. I wish I could cook up a recipe to help her, but all my training let me down.

Today she has gone to a better place, one without pain and one where there are fewer Executive Chefs I hope to make her days tough.

I miss her daily laughs as much as I miss those of my own mother.
Every kitchen should have a woman as strong as Marichu Salindong, sitting in the Chef's Office.
She made the tough times bareable.
Today the office is closed, the secretaries chair is empty and many people in the Philippines and around the world lost an amazing friend.
Some days remain with you forever.
This is one of them.



2 comments:

  1. Bye and great travel Marichu, a sweet colleague and who is always smiling, one of the few person at The Pen I know who seems never to get angry! Rest in Peace ol friend.

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