The Art of Desperation

Good ol' Michelangelo regretting his life choices.

Sometimes artists do things that they really don’t want to. Like lay on their back for hundreds of hours to paint the Sistine Chapel for example. Or take on a project that literally drains every speck of light out of your soul, like when creative people are forced to do administrative or repetitive tasks. Or like when a restaurant is taunted with prompts such as, “we’ll share the ‘pork’ as a main”, and the server just accepts that and moves on. 

Desperation in an artist is weakening. It drains creativity and it destroys self-worth.

So why do we keep saying yes to things that we don’t want to do professionally?

Whether it be taking on a tired creative brief or returning to a brand out of loyalty, or even serving a la carte when all you want to do is tasting menus. It’s just not acceptable anymore.

Artists should be able to say no. 

A lot of the reasons why I struggle to turn down projects is that primarily it’s my bread and butter, and any freelancer would understand that you never quite know where your next paycheck is coming from—but also, because I often get invested in projects because they ‘sound’ interesting.

When was the last 'project' you took out of desperation actually interesting?

This might take us into a sub topic titled, The Art of Deception, where you think you’re setting tracks for a wonderful result, but the path is disorganised, unfulfilling and mentally exhausting. It’s a sticky path and I think we all get caught in its traps professionally 😭

Learning how to say no is a magic power. It’s an instant-boundary-former that distinguishes the difference between “I care about this project so much” vs “I care about my principles a bit more”. 

I’ve heard Chefs comment on how predictable the diner could be. They’d book for 20:30 on a Saturday, order a la carte; starter, main, dessert. They’d share a bottle of wine and finish with coffee and a digestif. They’d leave a maximum €20 tip and leave by 22:30. They’d eat fabulously (if they go to the right places), but they won’t be close to adventurous. 

Is this why some 80% of the restaurants in Malta and Gozo have salmon [selmin] on their menu? Or broccoli in summer? Or 200g-servings of pasta? Or pre-bought grated carrot salads? Is this the desperation that we’ve come to in this industry? Where you can only guarantee you’ll eat something interesting, or at least locally sourced at approximately 20% of our restaurants? Maaaa how sad. 

My note of aspiration today is simple. In fact, it’s why we made bajtra. Even if you’re living the life of desperation, where a clerical job makes you want to scoop your own eyeballs out, your choices of where to eat, and what to eat, should never be out of desperation. 

Throughout the months, we will be reaching out to restaurants that we want to celebrate. This is all through trial and error — we’re not falling for flashy façades (unless your food is good). Be they Michelin restaurants, fine-dining restaurants on our islands or excellent spots to grab a casual meal or power-up. The scope here is to give the reader an informed decision on where to spend their time, money and calories for the day. 

There are two facets that keep ringing in my brain here. 1) Why don’t people speak up when they’re served rubbish food? Do they even notice it’s rubbish? 2) Why do chefs and restaurants in general serve terrible dishes? And again… do they even know it’s terrible?

Imagine the Last Supper went wrong. I'm sure someone would have complained.

When paying guests do not speak up about their dissatisfaction in a restaurant, nodding their head when the waiter comes just to be polite in person but a keyboard hero when they get into the car is just a cowardly move. It’s also passive aggressive and not constructive at all, in fact all it creates is bad energy. 

Let me give you an example of a restaurant I frequent out of convenience. It’s not abysmal, but it will be a while until it makes it onto this website (unless things change intently with the restaurant’s efforts). The location, the view, the decor, the service, the cocktails and the juices are fabulous. The prices are on the higher side but unfortunately they do not correlate with the value, portion or quality on the plate. Here was a real life scenario; “Hey, this salad was incredible, so delicious and fresh… but this one is unacceptable; how can you serve me canned peaches? It’s summer in Malta, they’re probably even cheaper fresh.” 

Real-life scenario to which nothing was amended. Instead an excuse was given, “ahhh the chef, he…” to which I stop listening, because excuses are for children trying to get out of their chores, not professionals who are being paid for what they do. Baffling. 

When someone gives you a golden piece of advice, bloody take it. I, for one, don’t particularly enjoy telling waiters that something was wrong, it’s not fun or thrilling. It’s awkward, it’s disappointing and quite frankly it could ruin your experience depending on how they take it. Which is usually not very well. 

The diner is NOT desperate. They have so many options at their fingertips, how can you afford to not give everything 100% attention, every single time. Think of this how you will, but in a country where tourism shines brightest, wouldn’t it make sense that our entertainment sector is at its finest? (Yes, that means your bathrooms should have soap throughout the entire duration of opening hours.)

At bajtra we work on documenting the culinary scene, we understand the market and we strive to relate true-lived experiences. We preserve our masters with a culinary catalogue, which is a by-invite only experience and we also elevate the market by taking time to understand, experience and consult with brands looking to take it up a notch.