Il Tirocinio di Aisaac
Aisaac Jason U. Villamayor
Internship
When I had my second internship taken in Italy and learning that it was not credited due to not submitting documents for outsourced internships, I had to find another alternative in order for me to finish my second internship. I took my first internship in L'Opera Ristorante Italiano and seeing that Prego Ristorante and Bar belongs to the L'Opera Group, I decided to give my resume and cover letter in hopes of having a possible internship. Luckily I did and it was worth the many complications I had planned for my future career. Let's get started.
I applied to be a commis for Prego Ristorante and Bar. When I first arrived there I tried recalling all the things I knew from L'Opera but it has been a year and a few months since my first internship so it was difficult to remember. I started my internship in the Pizzeria Station, a station where I have little to no experience in my time in L'Opera. At first I was nervous because pizzas wasn't what I am good at. So in order for me to be better I had to take a leap and do my best even if I know I will fail a lot.
Throughout my time in Prego Ristorante and Bar, I work in the Pizzeria for most of the duration. I normally arrive around 9:00am so I clean and prepare the pizzeria station first and whatever needs to be done in my station I do them first before preparing the Pantry station. There are times where there aren’t a lot of things to be done in the Pizzeria station and in the Pantry station so I either do nothing or think of what Mise en Place can be done for today or for tomorrow or for the week. After a few weeks I started to work in both the pizzeria station and the pantry station. I have some knowledge from the time I interned in L’Opera so I was able to do some orders when there were many to be sent out.
I felt nervous and shy at first but as time goes on I started to feel more comfortable with the people I work with. The challenges that I faced were mostly making pizza since I have little to no experience at first. It took me around four weeks to get it done and to be able to feel more confident in myself that I can do it. The next challenge was handling the station alone. It was no easy task but how I was able to handle it was by staying calm and recalling the things that I have done so far. While I do my best staying calm, sometimes orders keep piling up or orders from different tables are to be sent out already when I am just about to finish one out of how many. In the end, it was worth the pressure as long as you keep calm.
How my time in both L’Opera and in Prego have affected my career mindset is that I need to be driven, motivated, calm, patient, and a lot of other things in order for me to be where I want to be. Realizing all these made me more determined to make my plan that I have for my future work and be a reality. The culinary world is never an easy world but where is the fun in a world where everything is easy?
While it has made me more determined, I do not see myself working for the L’Opera group because my plan does not involve them. Only time will tell if I will work with them again one of these days but as of now, me being determined to my future plans, I don’t see it happening.
It’s been one and a half years since I last took my classes in Enderun Colleges but what I can say is that it did help me be prepared for this internship. Although, there are things that conflict what I know and what they do in the restaurant. HACCP is one of those that makes me think with a lot of conflicts in it. Much as I want to do my part in the restaurant while following the HACCP standards that I learned from Enderun, sometimes it’s best to let it be since it could cause problems when it keeps on conflicting you and bothering you.
The internship program helped me discover many things that I like and many things that I do not like. An example of what I like in this internship program is that I get to learn and improve not only from what I am capable of but also for those that I am weak at. Like my time during the pizza station in this internship has helped me learn what I am doing wrong in making pizzas and how I can improve my skills to be able to make a better one and to keep making pizzas better and better. It was something that I really needed. However, an example of what I do not like is that there will be people who will feel like they are bosses just because you are an intern. How specifically? They make you do most of the work while they offer little to no help sometimes. It is hard to adapt to people sometimes but it is something that you face in work.
While the L’Opera group may not be the best choice for some people to take their intern, what really matters is what you learn from your time there. I have learned a lot from the people there during my time with the L’Opera group. While I mentioned that I do not see myself working with them in the future, I will keep the things that I learned from them with me. I thank them for this internship. In time I know the things that I learned from them will be forgotten but I will be grateful and thankful to them that they have driven me to be more motivated to the plan I have.
