The Waiter
9Pages

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY

Photographer: Julia Hetta Writer: Elin Unnes Graphic designer: Stefan Andersson »LIKE THE GHOSTS OF A GOOD TIME, YOU CAN HARDLY EVEN REMEMBER THEY WERE THERE«

THE WAITER – RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF WAITING TABLES Anders, KonstnärsBaren For some reason, waiters tend to not write their own history. To make matters worse, writers who create fictional waiters tend to be, well, just plain mean really. There are no heroic waiters carrying out mountains of pickled herring in The Red Room – August Strindberg’s novel about the well-known chamber séparée of the same name. We don’t tell small children tall stories about the knighted waiters of our history, who might have saved the kings life by serving him aquavit flavoured with wormwood on a cold...

served with lots of salty butter, he knows that they’ll be able to pull off a main course too. Jan Steen, a second-generation waiter (his mum was a waitress) with 50 years of experience, says the secret lies with the entrecote. A perfectly grilled medium rare, still pretty bloody, with roast potatoes and red wine gravy, is his sure-fire tip for a good meal. I ask Jan – who started working at 15 and remembers when guests had to order at the very least a dry old sandwich in order to be allowed drinks – to help me with stories to fill some of the historic blanks. He tells me about one night...

Fotios, Prinsen

Tina, Tennstopet

The Waiter Chair, designed by Chris Martin. A chair made of solid beech or oak available in the following finishes; natural beech, black stained beech, white stained beech and natural oak