AMEN! And there we circle right back to growing your own fresh herbs <3 with that and garlic, you don't need much else.

I worked in a production bakery as well. Totally. it's akin to slave labor - not on the owner's part, but they had a production manager there who was like the Gestapo. Terrible hours and backbreaking work. And it's not just being a cog in a production line. Baking is a real skill, especially when you start talking pastries and artisan breads.

Luckily, the family I worked for are phenomenal people and I've never seen a company that size value their staff the way they do. It was some of the hardest but the best working years of my life. I stuck with them for almost four years. Greek people make great bosses. It's a lot like working for Italians, so emotions are always high and you've got to roll with it, but hearts of gold man, hearts of gold. Today, they are still one of the most successful production and retail bakeries in Cape Town. Espresso Bakery in Paarden Eiland.

Theo's I mentioned above was also initially a completely Greek restaurant although it did specialize in seafood and grills later on. Theo was a full-on Greek man himself. If you could personify being Greek, he would have been it. He broke plates regularly, took daily siestas, drank just the right amount of wine, went swimming naked, his non-negotiable attire was a pair of shorts made out of Albany flour sacks and a t-shirt (even at weddings and funerals) drank olive oil straight out of the bottle, ate onions like apples and at the age of 80+ was having more sex than any of us in our 20s 😂😂 what a legend of a man.

One day I think I'll start a series about all the crazy and wonderful jobs I've had.