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Cooking by dawn

Daylight is too precious to waste in bed, says Dave Allard, whose favourite shift starts at 6:30 a.m.
2EarlyWorkers
Glenn’s Family Restaurant assistant kitchen manager and line cook Dave Allard often begins his work day when most people are still asleep.

Daylight is too precious to waste in bed, says Dave Allard, whose favourite shift starts at 6:30 a.m.

Allard, 23, says he has always been somewhat of an early riser and particularly enjoys the summer months, when the sun is already up and shining as he leaves his home in Inglewood, bound for Gasoline Alley to help cook meals for Glenn’s Family Restaurant. He needs only half an hour to hop out of the sack, clean up and take the four-minute drive to work.

“I absolutely love working mornings, because I have the whole afternoon ahead of me after work and it forces me to get up and not be lazy all day long.”

Part of the attraction is the lack of traffic at that time of day.

“There’s less people . . . to compete with on the road.”

One of the greatest benefits of starting early is that you also get to leave early, when there is still lots of time left to enjoy the day, says Allard. Getting home in the middle of the afternoon means he can spend plenty of quality time with his daughter, who just turned one.

Morning shifts start with a bang for the cooks, who have to make the salad and make preparations for the meals to be served during the day, says Allard.

Early morning customers are different than those who come in later on.

“The group of people is entirely different from the morning and the night. The night guys are a little rowdier and the morning staff is a lot more mature.”

Cooking in a restaurant was a job Allard had never really considered until he started handing out resumes about five years ago. He was hired on the spot and hasn’t looked back.

“This is my first job of this type and my second ever. I absolutely love working here.”