Too thick for anything else

I asked Maria, the head chef at Zuni in Kilkenny, "Why do we do this for a living?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said "Too thick for anything else."

In Ireland, to get thick is to become argumentative and obstinate.

In Seville, where I worked at a restaurant called Mex Rock, fellow cook Eugenia told me "Tienes que discutir." Discutir, in Spanish, has a definition that comes about halfway between "argue" and "discuss."

Eddie, the kitchen porter at Zuni, once said "It must be the buzz, 'cause it's not the money."

— Spring 2003