The Chef's Office: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Just for the sake of posting SOMETHING!

The past two or three months have been months of "survival".
I am in no way able to play around with anything lately. No time.
My title of "Executive Chef" has seemed pretty much worthless as of late. I am a "Line Cook" before anything else right now. (try explaining that to the owners)....(and they know about my blog.........).
This....This town(?) I work in, has very little. No one wants to live or work here. We have a really beautiful piece of property in the middle of F'n nowhere, but it is really special. I can't stress that enough. It is really beautiful. Old, but with character. But, there is no modern culture, there is no outside thought, there is no change from the past 50 to 80 years. Therefore, I've progressed backwards in the forward movements I intended to make.
I thought I could create a place that would stand out amongst the mountains and the backdrop of colored leaves and bring people from all around. The core foundation of this kitchen was me. That's fine. But for how long?
I am so incredibly grateful for the help that I have currently and have had in the few months that I've been here. (to them, You know I need and respect all of you.) But, when my purveyors need me to spell the food items I'm looking for...........that's when I get nervous. When my main produce purveyor tells me that "you and two other people in P--tsb--gh might know what you're asking for is, and I can't keep it on hand for you three", that made me nervous.
When I'm told not to feel bad, because i'm "not the only person that can't find the help they need around here, because people just don't want to move to the area.".........................
These are some items I have to take off the menu this week do to the increase of volume that is coming my way and the decrease in time that has been lacking from my life for the past couple months.

Halibut. Truffled cauliflower puree. Bacon-corn succotash. Bacon emulsion. Chocolate-Cabernet reduction.

Bacon and chocolate work really well together. fyi.

Myers farm chicken breast, Chocolate goat cheese ancho chili smear, Black bean-corn relish, Chicken confit and Chorizo whipped potatoes, Poblano Puree.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Mother's Day

This is "The Day" for pretty much all restaurants. Right after Valentines Day, Mother's day is the "mother" of all busy days.
The menu starts about two to four weeks prior to the actual day. (depending on who's asking for it). Then on to step two. Worry.
You spend the next month worrying about what's gonna happen that day. How strong your crew is, how much to order, how much to prep, what will moms go for, how many kids might be there, if all of your crew will be there that day, where to put all the food, how and when to prep everything, then again where to put it after it's prepped.
Personally, when the week was apon us, I spent about seven days straight organizing and preparing for Mother's day. On top of several banquets and regular menu service during the week.
Living and working where I do, it's been challenging to get the food that I want a lot of times. Or just to get it in a timely fashion. So, my ordering starts on the Monday prior to the coming Sunday. Little things that will keep for the following days, plus items needed for the daily business. On that Monday we had 40 reservations.
Tuesday when the food comes in, guess what? 60 reservations. HHMmmm.
Okay, I'll bulk up a little more on the last order I can get in on Thursday.
Thursday.....90 reservations.
At this point I need to point out that I have Two line cooks. Average age of 18.5. One was pretty much a dishwasher when I started plus some pantry work. The other one leaves for the military in a couple weeks and is on with the rest of his life.
Friday. A day to get some prep done. Nope. Walk ins all night. There goes some of the food I had lined up for Sunday.
Saturday. All day walk ins. 20 some for lunch. 40 maybe for dinner. A huge step from zero on the days I'm doing my ordering. Oh, and our reservations are up to 160 for Mother's day. Two weddings on this Saturday also.
My Purveyor from Reinhart Ed, said if I needed more food he would find it for me. Sure enough, Sunday morning (a day off for him I'm sure) Ed drives into Pittsburgh and collects food for myself and another local restaurant.
Saturday is easily a 16 to 17 hour day lasting to around 1 or 1:30 am. Usually I just sleep on the couch upstairs in the restaurant in these circumstances, but I went home and slept for a couple hours. Back in at 7:45am. My two teenage line cooks are already there. They have been for a while. Amazing.

Next thing you know, a couple Full Throttles later and we're open for business. Not ready yet. My fault for sleeping.
Several mad dashes to finish up and pray for the best....it's now 3o'clock and we've knocked out about 120 reservations with zero......ZERO problems. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the "Time Warp". I've "Time Warped" 13 years into the future by working like this for the past 13 years.
Fatigue and heat exhaustion has set in. Too bad. Still 40 more people to do. And we do. A little stupid by the end of the night. Those last couple tickets are so Damn hard to read and understand.

This happens every year, in every restaurant and it's done for you. What a restaurant goes through in the month that is Mother's day, you probably have no idea. You make your reservation and then just wait to show up, eat and pay the tab for your mom to show her that you care. And everyone appreciates it, including us that have worried about it for the past month. We hope that all of our work was worth it to you.
We don't get to take our mom out on Mother's day. Ever. It is a day that every cook and Chef will always work. We think or hope that our mom and families understand. The amount of time needed and what's actually available, to work and live a normal live, it's just not there.
And it's really a choice between having a job that we hate but maybe have normal hours and days off, or our loved ones knowing that we actually get to be at work that feels like life. To truly love being at work and love what we do for a living. We get paid to live in a kitchen, and it becomes a home.

Mom,
Sorry I didn't call you on Mother's day and still haven't. I know you understand, but I'm guessing it might bother you a little. And I'm sorry. But, I love you and hope your day was worth something.

Shay.