09.06.06

Gettin’ Down with the New Gear

Posted in The Story at 6:29 pm by Chef Matt

Lots to report on today if only because it has been so long since I have had a spare moment to say anything.

First, my Labor Day weekend involved a relaxing jaunt off to the woods where there was much good food, great friends and lots of Natty Boh Beer. In fact, the weekend was Christened “LaBOH Day Weekend ‘06″. It is always fun to cook for friends, and having a more forgiving audience around you than your boss is always a welcome thing as well. There is something to be said for the more intimate and casual cooking style that comes with cooking for friends. Too bad it doesn’t pay the bills.

Still, there is something to be said for the style of cooking that comes with low volume and more personal connections with those whom you are cooking for. I feel like I am in the opening scene of Jerry Maguire where he pushes for less clients and more attention to those who are represented. He of course then gets fired for being such a boob. But while I do enjoy working for the high-volume/small space kitchen I am in now (makes cooking for 9 people seem like a breeze!), this weekend has shown me a lot about how I think I want my overall career to head in a different direction. Smaller volume, more attention given to the individual customers. This is of course years down the road, but this weekend was an amazing juxtaposition for me in that regard.

But the next great kitchen observation about a kitchen in ownership transition is how there is now all kinds of new gear showing up in the restaurant. It’s great! New knives that are actually sharp, and new knife sharpeners that actually work to take care of the rest! New plastic containers to store food that don’t leak, and that actually have working lids! New cutting boards that were manufactured after Nixon resigned, and a whole slew of other gadgets and toys sprinkled around the kitchen that actually make the preparation of food less of a task in “finessing” the tools, and more of a realistic food creating endeavor.

Seriously, it was time for an update…

It’s not like this is some terrible thing that has happened in the cafe over the years which has turned Vic into some sort of sadist. Think about your own kitchen tools for a second. Don’t you have a can opener that you have to hold just right in order for it to work? And a cuisinart that needs the lid to be held down in order for it to come on? We all have tools like this that we know the special quirks of, and rather than replace them, we just hold on to them. So it was in this kitchen as well over the years. Well, the ownership has changed, and the new gadgets are arriving, and for now they all work the way they should. This will of course not last, but as they change at least I will be there when it happens and will be able to adapt to their eccentricities in real time, and not just pick up the after-effects of overuse as they are now.

And finally, I have gotten a lot of feedback for my article on having songs stuck in my head. Apparently this is an affliction many chefs suffer from, and also many other non-chefs as well. Thanks everyone for your sharing of tunes. I can’t repay you enough for getting many of them jammed in my head over the past few days. However, I achieved a new level today as I was responsible for “infecting” the whole kitchen today.

We received our meat order just after lunch rush today, and included beef and chicken. We like to order halal chickens since Vic swears that they are the best. (Since no blood is allowed with halal food, these birds are totally drained and washed, giving them a better taste/texture) The chickens that came today were debatable if they were halal, and of course the delivery guy just wanted us to sign for them, and not ask questions about the religious affiliation of the dead birds in the crates. So the debate raged on and on and on.

And so on. Anyway, after this went on for about 10 minutes, I naturally had the word halal in my head. I looked at my co-chef Miriam and jokingly sang “Halal-elujah!” She thought this was pretty funny, and I thought nothing more of it. About 10 minutes later though, I noticed she was singing the Hallelujah chorus of Handel’s Messiah to herself. Over and over. I smiled at this. I then walked to the back room, where I noticed Vic too was singing this to himself (having caught it from Miriam who had been back there a few minutes before me.) This in turn made ME catch it, and from there it spread to a few others.

Last thing seen by the poor bastard who started singing “Sexy Back” in the kitchen.

All in all, this is not one of those songs that has tremendous staying power, but with each of us “re-infecting” each other over time, we got a few good hours out of it this afternoon.

So I will take that as a lesson. I need to watch what I sing in the kitchen. Any song I sing could possibly infect everyone else in the kitchen, which are the people that I depend upon to get my job done. And they all have knives. And now, those knives are actually sharp.

Matt