- A Charmain of a major corporation visits the Chez, but he finds out that his Board is trying to vote him out of his own company and he has to figure out his future.
- Four "big shots" from New York, including Mitch Torrence, the chairman of one of the largest corporations in America, arrive at the restaurant in the evening when the cooks are off duty and give Frank $500 to find a cook to make them a great meal. Frank calls Shorty to come in and cook "a masterpiece." While they are all waiting for Shorty to arrive, one of Torrences lackeys makes a phone call and comes back with the news that Torrences two partners, Gus Davis and Manny Leeks, have stabbed him in the back and sold his company out from under him. The three lackeys, perceiving that Torrence has lost his power, leave him alone at the restaurant. When Frank comes out to tell him that the cook has arrived and to ask what he wants to eat, he orders a grilled cheese sandwich. Shorty says "Sometimes rich people make me sick," and Frank says, "Someone gives me $500 and hes got me runnin around like Step n Fetchit. ... He gives me $500 for a sandwich and people are starvin." Then Mitch comes in the kitchen and compliments Shorty on the sandwich. He begins to tell the staff that the people who buy companies nowadays know nothing about how the companies work; they are just speculators who use junk bonds to buy companies and get rich without adding any value. In 1987, salaries for workers went up 5% but CEO salaries went up 25%. "I made 15 million dollars last year. How much can I eat? ... For all that wealth, what services do I provide my fellow man?" He tells them that his father made chairs that lasted for years. "Thats value." But "If I hadnt been there, my old man woulda died alone in some roach hospital run by the city." Shorty says "You dont like your job much, do you?" Mitch asks Frank what could be more rewarding than his job running a restaurant and feeding people, and Frank answers, "Teaching." Then Mitch begins musing about how he could recover his company, remembers that one of the partners is a religious Christian who is probably having an affair with his secretary, and begins to work the phones, with the Chez Louisiane staff looking on, in order to blackmail that partner into screwing the other partner; before the evening ends, he is well on the way to getting revenge on all of the people who stabbed him in the back. "I didnt come up from the streets; I came up from the gutter." Shorty says, "You really seem to be enjoying this, Mitch." Mitch replies that when you look at great cooks or any talented people, "None of the A plus people are doin it for the money; theyre doin it for love." He thanks them all for "the food and the fellowship," and invites the Reverend on an all-expenses-paid tour of "the belly of the beast" (New York City). (UCLA Archives)
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