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Employee of the Week
Stephen Mattai
Assistant manager, Subway in Wailuku
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June 16, 2005
My favorite Subway sandwich is the veggie patty. I tend to cook at home though, and I rarely ever eat bread.
I fell in love with Maui in 1997 when I moved here for nine months. I am really glad to be back on the island. My second stay started in August of 2004 and Subway has been my place of employment since then.
My job previous to this was as a chef with a traveling catering company. We would travel on tour for several months with various musical artists and then head back home for a while and wait for the next job. When they went on break we went on break. San Francisco used to be the place that I would return to but Maui is my base camp now.
Coming back here I decided to take a little extra time off from the touring and from cooking. One day I wandered down to Subway, saw the "help wanted" sign, and decided to apply. I needed money for beer and gas and it was the sort of low-stress job that I was looking for.
I really like the young couple that owns the store. We get along well and they would like me to stay until I go back on tour. Working in Wailuku I serve mainly local people and it's nice to be able to talk to people from many other places around the island.
We also get many of the state and county workers from the government buildings on their lunch breaks. They don't get a lot of niceness and it feels good to be able to inject some positivity into their day. People are used to the in, out and "have a good day" of the fast food business but it is really nice to take the time to talk. It makes their sandwich and their day a lot better.
Someday I'd like to open my own restaurant, perhaps in Central America. I was trained in French and Italian cooking and learned a lot during my first stay on Maui under the direction of Jacques, a chef at the old Wunderbar in Paia. As for right now I'm really enjoying taking it easy. MTW
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