02.08.07
Getting Organized
Cupping my hands up to my mouth and exhaling into them so as to return the flow of blood, I asked myself, “How did I get into this again?…”
 Ahh, the DC winter. Cold, gray, but pretty much no snow. God this season sucks. |
Here it is, finally winter in the Washington, DC area (damn you global warming!) and it is abjectly freezing outside. This is the time of year when it is supposed to be GREAT to be a chef. Unlike the summer when you are baking yourself in a 115 degree kitchen on a 98 degree day, this is when you get to come in out of the cold, and warm yourself by the fires of the stove. It is warm and cozy in the kitchen - so why in God’s name was I spending my whole night in the walk-in refrigerator?
Allow me to go back a bit. I mentioned a few posts back about how I had a major development that I needed to write to you all about - but then I didn’t do it, mainly because of a pan of cranberry juice that caught fire and other adventures that got in the way. So let me now catch you all up on this latest development.
Rewinding a few weeks, Jay started to teach me how to call in orders to our food providers. We call different people for different foods: like meat, seafood, vegetables and so forth. So part of the training is to learn whom we call for what. There are specific rules for when we order certain things from one provider, and then other times we seem to call someone else for the same thing. These subtle nuances are still eluding me, but I am hoping that I can pick them up with time and practice.
Well, the reason I chose today to update you, dear readers, on this is that I have now been further tasked with helping develop a rolling inventory for the restaurant. The margins in the restaurant business are seriously thin, so ordering too much food (or food we don’t need) is wasteful, and this eats into the overall profitability of the restaurant that is kind enough to provide me with a job. So why did I get tapped for this responsibility?… I guess somebody must have told them that I used to work with computers and stuff. Whichever one of you it was is officially grounded!
So I suggested that step one in this process be to organize the walk-in fridge. The pattern up until now, as far as I could tell, has been that there is absolutely no pattern. I often refer to it as my daily game of “hide and seek” as I head into the walk-in to see if I can find where the pears are hiding today. This is a problem from two fronts:
- 1. When we are looking for something, we don’t know where to find it - and this usually only happens when we are slammed with 7 or 8 orders on the line and 30 people waiting for their food.
2. When we are doing inventories to see what we need to order, we may not know where to look, and end up ordering more of something we already had plenty of.
 “No wonder there’s no room for things in here - there really ARE three cases of cucumbers in here!” |
This second point was reinforced by my boss’ rather unhappy revelation that we had somehow ended up with three cases of cucumbers in the walk-in.
The drawback to suggesting a re-organization of the walk in is that it sounds to some like I was actually volunteering for the job. And yes, I was immediately promoted to the position of “chief facilitator of new walk-in schematics”. It comes with no extra pay or power, but I did get to make up that title. (Just now.) The real role of this was that I had to move a heck of a lot of boxes, cases, bottles, jars, trays and bags all over the place.
In the cold walk-in.
In winter.
During dinner rush.
It took pretty much all dinner, since I had to keep emerging from my 34 degree cocoon in order to re-establish blood flow to my fingers and for all those pesky “orders” and such. But at the end of the night, I had a set up that I am hoping makes some sense, and if I can just convince everyone else to use it, we will be in business.
So I can hear the masses (you) screaming at their collective computer screens: “Why is this such an important development?! Don’t you have some rant about Sandra Lee you want to share with us?!” Well, the importance of this development is also twofold:
- 1. This is a sign of trust on behalf of my bosses in my abilities to help improve the restaurant’s efficiency and profitability.
2. This is a VERY useful set of skills for me to be learning if I am ever going to have a place of my own.
 Yes, if I could do this, there would be no problem with my re-organizing the walk-in any time! |
I already know how to cook, and I have a lovely collection of burns on my arms to show that I have spent some time on the line. I can invent dishes, and my creations seem to have been received pretty well. But bringing in the food, sorting it, storing it and keeping track to make sure we always have enough of it - this is something that I have no experience with, and I would dare say is a pretty important part of keeping a kitchen running smoothly.
At the end of the day, while warming myself up with a mug of leftover coffee, I realized that I was actually happy to have been “nominated” for this position. But I am thinking stage two will be for me to invent a walk-in fridge warmer…
Stumble it!
