What is it like to work at Central? Peruvian tells on TikTok her experience in the restaurant and all the demands

He central restaurant, by Virgilio Martínez and Pía León, is the best in the world, according to the 2023 edition of The World’s 50 Best gastronomic list. And that recognition has generated much more curiosity around the Barranco establishment, where it is currently very difficult to get a reservation.

In addition to the interest in knowing what the restaurant’s gastronomic proposal is like, as well as how much it costs to reserve a table in the place, among other questions that have grown in Google search trends, there is also curiosity to know what it is like to be part of the team of this restaurant. On TikTok, a former worker recounted her experience.

Melissa Díaz, in her TikTok account whose user is @melissadiazzc, assured on the social network that she worked at Central in 2022 for 5 months in the reservation area, where I work serving diners. Although the young woman explained that the career she is studying has nothing to do with customer service, she learned a lot from her experience at Central, where she stated that they were very demanding with her team.

According to the user, her work was from Monday to Saturday with rotating hours, and only Sundays off. To enter, two requirements were vital: having a high level of English and having a good relationship with people.

“The hardest part was learning a ‘speech’ (discourse). Since you receive people for lunch and dinner, you have to present the mater table,” said the young woman about part of her job, which consisted of explaining to the diners, at the entrance of the restaurant, the inputs used and that come from different sources. ecosystems of Peru.

“They took me for an examination of the exhibition of that table. They asked me from a to z (about the products) and I answered in English and Spanish, ”added Diaz about the job, from which he highlighted the team with which he worked.

“Amazing people: doormen, cooks, offices. All good people. There were also people from other countries who come to the kitchen for exchange. I learned a ton,” she assured.

The young woman defined her time at Central as “one of the best experiences of my working life, although it has nothing to do with my career.”

“They are a united team and they give everyone an opportunity to continue growing,” Díaz highlighted on TikTok.

Central has been operating in Lima since 2009. It currently has more than 130 people on its team.

During the press conference following Central’s recognition in The Worlds’ 50 Best, which you can watch on video here, Virgilio Martínez said that one of the restaurant’s goals was also to be a great place to work.

“In recent years we have worked assuming that there are many things to improve. There were things that were done well and others that were not done so well and those things also have to be shown. Today everything begins to come to light and we have to be prepared. I think that for Latin America it is important for a Latin American restaurant to have this great visibility and that makes us coherent and consistent with what we say, do, think, with whom we work. We have a destiny that must lead us to something great and a great team. Not only be the best in the world, but the best space to work in the world. It is something we are working on and it is a deep pending”, declared Virgilio Martínez when a journalist asked him what responsibility they assumed for the Latin American region with this victory.