Chapter 14 Summary

The narrator says that the cooks are the most workmanlike class of workers in the hotel. They don't earn as much as the waiters, but they have greater prestige, and their work is steadier. The cook has the added benefit of being a skilled worker, which the waiter is not.

The waiter, on the other hand, counts his greatest skill in being servile. The narrator says that the waiter's mentality is not that of a workman but that of a snob.

A plongeur's job runs him ragged, but he finds pride in his work. "At that level, the mere power to go on working like an ox is about the only virtue attainable."

The narrator talks about the hotel's filth. The food is dirty, having been handled by the cooks and possibly dropped on the floor and dusted off by the plongeurs. The...