“Let it be a dance we do. May I have this dance with you?”
These lines, by poet Ric Masten, epitomize what it is like to work for Parties That Cook. Each event is the choreography of an event planned: a menu picked, a venue chosen, a date selected, and finally, a team cast. Chefs and servers and dishwashers, oh, my! The team unites for another dance and another opportunity to hear happy guests exclaim, “That was so much fun!”

Seven years ago, I answered an ad on Craigslist for a last minute dish washing opportunity with Parties That Cook. Having washed dishes my entire life unprofessionally, this was the perfect excuse to finally get paid for it! Still washing after all these years makes me reflect on what I love about working for Parties That Cook.

I love the physical act of washing dishes: the sound of the running water, the feeling of accomplishment when a dish goes from dirty to clean, and the way I can go on autopilot thinking about something else as I wash — sometimes solving a problem in the process.

I actually love when the job feels challenging and seems overwhelming. I stare at a mountain of dishes or a pan that has been burnt beyond recognition and think I will never finish. At the end of the night, I’m dirty, wet, and my hands have transformed into prunes. The job is accomplished.

I love the fact that, despite the stereotype of food industry workers being smokers, I’ve encountered very few people who smoke. It makes for a very pleasant work environment.

I love how polite our team is. What we learned in kindergarten, we constantly use on the job. There is a chorus of “please” and “thank you” throughout the event. Our mothers would be so proud.

I love seeing the subject line “New Staffing Opportunity” in my email. Yay, another job! A double? Even better!

I love that Parties That Cook consistently engages its employees, asking for feedback about what can be done to improve events. The best part: they don’t just ask and do nothing. The team listens, things change and improvements are made.

What I love most of all is that I work for a company that makes people happy. The concept of a hands-on cooking party is still foreign to a lot of people. When guests attend their first Parties That Cook event, they are delighted and impressed. In particular, the people who don’t cook regularly, or even at all, are thrilled that they have created a delicious dish in just an hour’s time. Given that so much of Parties That Cook’s business is repeat customers, we must be doing something right.