02.15.07

No Lovey-Dovey Valentine’s Here

Posted in The Story at 2:53 pm by Chef Matt

While so many other blogs that I read have had some sort of treacle about how great Valentine’s Day is, or all the cute things that they and their loved ones did for Valentine’s - mine is not quite that kind of story. However, being married, I am not also going to post the “I’m all alone for Valentine’s Day sob-fest” that I also am seeing so much of.

Rather, I am going to tell you the story of how Valentine’s Day works for a chef. Or at least how mine went down.

What DC looks like when it actually snows.

The story starts the night before, when my wife calls to tell me that she is staying at a hotel where she was having an off-site conference since the weather was getting really bad. I was in favor of this, since the quality of driving in DC is bad enough as is - add snow and ice to the equation and you have got yourself a total death trap on our roads. So I went to sleep alone that night, but still anticipating the next day since I had ordered flowers to be delivered to Caroline that she would love! And I didn’t have to go to work until noon. Any day I can sleep until noon is a good day!

Enough set-up? Do you see what’s coming?…

Let’s fast forward (not all that far) to 6:45 AM on Valentine’s Day. I awaken to something that sounds like my cell phone ringing in the other room. But it was way too early - there was no way anyone was calling me - so I didn’t bother to oget up and check it. Now that I was awake though, I heard this wheezing sound that was repeating itself over and over again. I figured it was one of my cats, Smudge, who has a habit of snoring loudly. So I gave her a bump to wake her up so she would stop. She looked back at me with a, “What the hell was that for?” look on her face, and the wheezing sound somehow continued. I looked out the window and saw that the sound was my neighbors gunning their car engine to get out of the snow and ice that was all over the road. The roads were indeed in sorry shape, and these people were living proof of just how dangerous the roads would be if they could ever remove their car from the rut they were stuck in.

When I was done laughing at their repeated attempts of “gunning the engine 10,000 times in a row,” I decided to check my cell phone to see if somebody had actually called me. Indeed Amy, our pastry chef, had called. From the message she left me I was able to discern that everyone else had made the choice not to try these roads. As much as I agreed with the judgement of my co-workers, this meant that Amy needed me to come in right away. This is not the time of day when I shine my brightest, but I got up, got out and made it into work at 8:15 AM.

Shoulda worn these…

The first order of business was making and delivering bag lunches for 30+ people in Arlington. Making deliveries means loading up the delivery van - and no, I had not brought my snow boots. I didn’t fall over, but my shoes were filled with snow. Ten in the morning is way too early to have snow-filled shoes. I made the delivery with my boss Joy, and she was even nice enough to buy me a hot chocolate on the way back! (Thanks again Joy!)

Back in the kitchen, I tried to call my lovely wife Caroline to wish her a happy Valentine’s Day, and to see if she had gotten the flowers from Organic Bouquet I sent to her office. But she wasn’t at the office. She was still at the conference. I had misunderstood how long this meeting was for, and thought she would be back at work today. I tired her cell phone, but she mentioned the night before that it was out of juice. In short, Caroline was inaccessible, and who knew what would happen to the flowers - or if they would even try to deliver them in this icy mess?

But it was time for more cooking and cleaning at Vero. I emptied out one of our vans full of leftover sodas and so forth from a previous catering event, and took out the ample amounts of trash that had piled up over the course of the day. Thank God for the help of our dishwasher Greg on this task, or it would have taken me all afternoon. But alas, the snow was back in my shoes. (And even though it was later in the day, I can safely say that it is still a bad time for this…)

A good 8-hour day. Time to go to my warm home and loving wife, right? Right?…

I had been on the job for 8 hours at this point. A full day’s work. But Valentine’s Day dinner had yet to begin. We were scheduled to be packed on reservations alone, since Valentine’s Day is to restaurants what St. Patty’s Day is to bars. (I’m not sure if I have done an analogy like that since I studied for the SAT’s…) The trick with Valentine’s Day that makes it a little harder than any other busy Saturday night is that usually it involves a special menu for all the lovebirds in the house. So that means I had to invent a plating design for the two starters I was in charge of, and when the rush hit, I had to have a “system” down for how to move them out the door efficiently.

My special dishes were a watercress salad with hearts of palm (get it? hearts? Valentine’s Day?…) and pancetta with a lemon-lime vinaigrette, and a tuna tartar on wonton crisps with a sesame drizzle. Both came out really well, and the night was busy to say the least. Thankfully, Amy (Remember her? The one who called me at 6:45?…) was still on as well plating her special desserts. I think that was the only way we were able to pull off this busy night so well, because if I had to plate so many of her special creations and make the salads, we would have been sunk.

Yummy.

The last meals wrapped up around 10:30, and in a grand stroke of mercy, I was let off to go home and enjoy what remained of Valentine’s Day with my wife. I clocked out at 10:45. 14.5 hours on the clock with pretty much no rest. But hey, it was just like the pre-Christmas rush all over again. And it was nothing compared to the hours Amy and Joy had put in that day. It is was a good example of just what kind of effort is involved in running your own restaurant. Not only is there the need to work long hours, but there is the need to work exceptionally long hours if the weather goes a little south on you - even if it is a holiday that was made for staying at home.

I finally dragged myself home to where the beautiful Caroline was waiting for me. As my Valentine’s gift she had gotten me a 12 pack of Bass Ale - my favorite. I asked her if she had been to work to see the flowers.

“Flowers?…” she asked.

Sigh. I guess she’ll be getting them today instead.

Matt

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