02.26.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 3:48 pm by Chef Matt
Coming in on Wednesday mornings is always tough since it is my version of a Monday morning. Last Wednesday though I was greeted to an unfamiliar sight, as there was a long table set up in the middle of the dining room complete with little aprons tied to each of the chairs - all with names on them. I stared at this odd site for a minute, trying to process this oddity through the haze of my early morning sleepiness, but soon gave up as I was sure someone would explain it to me soon enough.
I went about the rest of my normal morning set-up duties, dodging the questions from the rest of my line staff who all wanted to know what was up with the weird table set up in the middle of the restaurant. I just kept responding with, “I have no idea,” until they stopped asking me the same question over and over.
They’re coming… Be ready! |
Eventually the AM manager showed up and explained that a field trip of kindergarteners was coming to the restaurant at 10AM, and they would be done by 11 or so - hopefully giving us time to clean up before we began service. I looked at my watch, it was 9:30.
“So they’re coming in half an hour?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything I need to do to set up?”
“I have no idea.”
Recognizing this tell-tale response of, “Stop bothering me,” I let the issue drop, which was just as well since as if on cue, Chef walked in at that exact moment.
“So we’re all set to have the kids come in?” he asked as he went back to the walk-in to check on things.
“Well, the table is set up, but this is really the first I am hearing of all this, Chef…”
“Oh no, I told you about it last weekend before you left.”
“I DID tell you about these kids coming, and you WILL clean out the latrine!” |
Allow me to break into this conversation right here and inform all the uninitiated that the conversation track that naturally follows, otherwise known as the “Did Not, Did Too,” is extremely unproductive form of argument to engage in with your chef. It makes about as much sense as correcting your drill sergeant. Keep that in mind as you hear my eloquent handling of this obvious miscommunication between us.
“No, you didn’t chef.” (I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it, but it was a reflex, I couldn’t help it.)
The back and forth that followed was unproductive, and of course I lost, but that’s just how things go. Basically we realized this was wasting time we didn’t have, and we worked together quickly to set up the stations so all the kids could make little pizzas when they arrived.
Come, my young brethren! We must storm Rustico and liberate them from all of their pepperoni!
Who’s with me?!? |
And arrive they did. Like a day care tidal wave, the kids came pouring into the restaurant at a clip that would have successfully reclaimed the Holy Land had this been the Children’s Crusade. They attacked their pizza making project with gusto and enthusiasm that can only be described as a “mozzarella tornado”, and soon we were feeding their pizza-esque creations into our waiting oven.
My job was to stand by on the pizza station, and any kids’ pizzas that didn’t survive the baking process due to being overloaded or whatnot, I would quickly remake so as to make the kid think all was well. For the record, two of the pizzas didn’t make it out of the oven alive, but their makers didn’t seem to notice the difference… 
And then, just as quickly as it came on, the storm was over. They disappeared into the suburbs of Virginia like a modern-day John Mosby. All that was left was a wind-swept table of cheese, flour and assorted pizza toppings for us to clean up before the first customers arrived. By the time we started serving lunch, it was as if the whole event had never happened.
All the same, I have to admit, the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. And who knows? Maybe somewhere in that group is the next youngster who wants to pursue a career as a chef based on this experience. Well maybe that’s what he wants to do for now, at least until they all take a trip to the fire house next week…
Chef Matt
Permalink
02.15.08
Posted in 7. Other Fun at 10:16 pm by Chef Matt
Thanks to all of you who voted to see what I should do with the $500 of “found money” I came across a little while back. You all voted, and my wife was the big winner. Here are the results:
| What should Chef Matt do with the $500?
|
|
Votes |
| Save it! This is money to help fund your future restaurant! |
 22% |
33 |
| Spend the money on your wife as a reward for sticking by you. |
35% |
52 |
| Go out to an amazing meal at a fabulous restaurant you |
21% |
32 |
| Buy yourself a new set of top-notch knives. |
22% |
33 |
 |
 |
|
| 150 votes total |
So while I thank you for all the votes, my wife thanks you for all the votes for her. Now all I have to do is figure out how I am going to spend it on her, but I assure you, I’ll keep you all posted on that as well.
Chef Matt
Permalink
Posted in 1. The Story at 10:06 pm by Chef Matt
My days off are usually something I treasure for the fact that I can actually spend more than 20 minutes sitting down at a stretch. That, and I can watch shows like The Price is Right and Maury, and not worry that there is a soup somewhere that we are running out of. In short, it is a day I can forget about the worries of the restaurant and just enjoy a nice, relaxing day.
Honeybees are now practically extinct in the wild in North America. Do what you can to help protect them. |
Though on this past day off, I was called twice for work-related issues. The first call was from my meat vendor to tell me that he was out of rabbits for now, but hoped to have them in the next day. The next call was from an apiary I have worked with in the past who wanted to know if I wanted any other specialty honeys for the restaurant.
Now I’m just not the type who says to calls like this, “This is my day off, don’t bother me.” It’s not in my nature. So I too the calls, and did what I needed to with the information. (I ordered rabbit from someone else, and ordered 9 pounds of different honeys.)
But it then dawned on me: How many people deal with calls pertaining to the subject of the availability of rabbit and honey? On their day off no less? All in all, I was glad I took the calls - the realization of what an odd set of subjects I was dealing with brought a smile to my face. And then I went back to watching Mythbusters.
Chef Matt
Permalink
02.05.08
Posted in 1. The Story at 12:47 pm by Chef Matt
Enjoy the game people?… |
So, did you all enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday? Have a nice relaxing time watching all the pre-game hoopla? Maybe you made a run to the store for more chips and dip or called up for a pizza to be delivered while you sat on your comfy couch watching the game in hi-def and surround sound? Was it cool for you? Well here’s how my Super Bowl Sunday went.
Arriving at 7:45 AM (as I always do), I took one step in the door and almost broke my neck as the floor was slick with a thin sheen of cooking oil. The path of this oil went from the door to the deep fryer, so I am pretty sure I knew the source of the problem. After a quick mop to make the floor usable, I began setting up the restaurant by myself – again, as I always do on Sundays - but was looking forward the extra person coming in to help me this morning. I was anticipating this opportunity to get more done than a usual Sunday.
My other employees began to trickle in around 8AM or so, but I noticed that my new dishwasher was not among them. As 8:30 rolled around, I was beginning to get worried, so I moved my new helper over to the dish station to tackle the steadily growing pile of dishes, and I went back to setting up the restaurant stations and prepping for all the dishes that needed cooking. (This is a job that is normally handled by three people on any other day of the week - today, it was just me…)
Super Bowl Sunday has more pizzas sold on it than any other day. We had to be ready. |
I carefully monitored our position on pizza crusts and burgers, since I knew these would both be big ticket items on Super Bowl Sunday. The levels of each looked good for the day. The soups (Cheddar Ale and Potato Fennel) were both plentiful and tasted great, so no worries there. So I prepped out the pork ragout and the mushroom ragout and left the mis en place for these for Andrew when he came in.
My phone began to vibrate in my pocket and I quickly grabbed it since I knew this was likely one of my fellow sous calling me with an issue. It was indeed Tim, letting me know that he was having trouble finding parking at the Dupont Circle farmers market where he was supposed to pick up 25 pounds of winter cabbage and 10 pounds of carrots for us for a special dinner we are having on Wednesday featuring local farmers. He would be in later than expected as a result. “No problem,” I said with false confidence. “It’s all under control here!”
Andrew rolled in around 11 or so and began to fire off the dishes that I had prepped for him with his usual speed and skill. With the second sous chef in house, I figured we would be back in business since that meant I could hunker down and finish prepping the stations for lunch. I set about taking a Parisienne scoop (melon baller) to some potatoes to create the garnish for our new skirt steak dish, but with dismay the low level of potatoes remaining in the bin worried me greatly. My cell phone was soon dialing Tim again, and we were set with him picking up 20 pounds of potatoes for us as well. Problem solved, we were back on track.
Potatoes. Don’t try to make French fries without them. |
Lunch began slowly, but then began to pop pretty hard. In short, all the people who wanted to watch the game were getting lunch out of the way now. And it seemed they were all bringing their kids by as well, as the number of kid’s dishes I made over the course of the lunch shift was truly astounding. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Tim, who had returned with all the produce, cut himself while prepping the tomato bacon butter. He had not cut himself for some years he said - and it looks like this cut made up for all his good luck. He came down through his fingernail hard and had a good part of the tip of his middle finger split. (It made the cut I reported on some time back look like nothing.) With his finger wrapped in paper towels and masking tape and his hand in a bag of ice to keep his whole arm from going numb, he was pretty much out of commission. So I was once again down a chef.
But I couldn’t worry about that now, as I had to quickly begin making our gluten-free pizza crusts so as to have plenty for the big game, and also break down my station from lunch so as to have it ready for the dinner crew to set up. Each batch of this chickpea flour dough makes only a dozen crusts, but the work involved takes about an hour and a half when all is said and done. I hope that all the celiacs who come in to order these crusts enjoy the effort put into them! So, down a chef and a dishwasher with me running to all parts of the kitchen while cleaning and cooking (after I had already been working for 8 hours mind you…) I was feeling a mix of urgent effort combined with anticipation of completion. I really felt like we were near the end of the line of all the things we would have to do to be ready for the big game. I wrapped and boxed the par-baked crusts and asked Andrew if there was anything else.
“Yeah, um, we only have 9 burgers in house,” Andrew reported to me.
A Super Bowl without burgers is like a BBQ without beer. |
Somehow in the rush of the day, I had not noticed that the grill had been hit hard on burgers at lunch (since I work saute) and now the level that I had previously been comfortable with was now pathetically low. And kickoff was in less than an hour.
Jumping into my Ford Escort and blazing down the road I was at my local Giant in record time. I ran over to the meat counter, and found that was not the only one who was making burgers for the big game. The ground beef selection was rather scant. I scraped together about 15 pounds of meat of different types and ran back to the restaurant. I handed the pile of beef to my prep chef and merely said, “Burgers. Quickly.” He understood and was on it like a flash. (Which is why we love him…)
I casually went over to the dessert station to make sure all was OK over there, which I knew it would be since we had so many desserts going into the weekend. But I was wrong again, as we were already out of chocolate cakes. I ran across the street to the bakery next door where we get our desserts and upped my order for the following day, as our dessert stocks were much more depleted than I had expected. (Though this is a good thing, since it means we sold lots of dessert!)
Back on the line, I checked with all my staff to make sure everyone had what they needed, and I prepared for the rush that I was sure would come before the game. But when kickoff was imminent, the restaurant was pretty quiet. We had people in the bar, sure, but the restaurant side was empty. I guess I could have seen that coming. All the prep, all the work, and nobody was there to enjoy it. Oh well, it is better to be prepared and not too busy than the other way around, right?
Time to knock off, have some beers, and enjoy what’s left of the game. |
I clocked out around 7:45 PM (a nice 12-hour shift) and got my shift beer in time to watch a little bit of the second half of the game. All in all, a rough way to spend Super Bowl Sunday, huh? But here’s the real kicker:
Looking back on all this that happened - it was a pretty average Sunday in the restaurant. Business as usual. That’s just the way things go day to day. Only on this one, I also missed half of the big game to boot.
But that’s what the life of a chef is all about. Working hard and missing the fun things that everyone else gets to enjoy. It’s a constant sacrifice I’m willing to make though. My only hope is that I’m able to get off work early enough this Wednesday to see the Duke-UNC game. Go Devils!
Chef Matt
Permalink