Last night was my first night at the pantry station at my new restaurant job. I was told by the Sous Chef Lori, who has also attended LCB, that she wanted me on 3 straight days to train with the same person. Even though I heard from some students at school that it would be easy, there was another batch of them that said it would be hard. I asked my first instructor for advice later in the day at school and he said, "do what you are told and keep your head down", with a big smile.
There were many hoops I had to jump through before I got to work that stressed me out completely as I rushed to get Jonathan, rushed home to change, rushed him to Mom and rushed there, averaging about 75 mph on the highway. Whew..I got to work exactly at 3:15pm, signed a few more things for my file with the Sous Chef, and went to meet Steve, my trainer, in the major artery of the kitchen: The Pantry (cold prep, salads, and desserts.)
Stalky, blue eyed Steve laid it all out for me. We are open from 5-10pm, and it was then 3:45pm. We efficiently followed the list of prep as Jack 104FM screamed in the background and got our Mise en Place together. 5 Mixing bowls with spoons and a roller coaster of 3rd, 6th and 9th pans across the station. Ladles for dressings, and bare hands for everything else. Was I ready? I didn't even have time to think about it.
Here is how fast the night went:
Ticket print, stamp, and Steve had whizzed through the first blue cheese salad in well under a minute. Ticket print..here we go!! 4:45pm.."sorry"..."Fucking-A.."...."wait for the line to cook that chicken before you toss the salad"....6pm..."I'll make the Caesars"..."nice to meet you"..."shit"...6:30pm...."Jaime, mas platos chiquitos porfavor!!"...7:25pm, "what sauce goes on this dessert??"...."I'll be back in 1 minute"..."Make it however you want, it's not on the menu"....8:23pm.."don't worry about it"..."order please, Jeremy..Steak for the salad, rare"..9:45.."what doesn't get labeled again?"...11:15pm..."see you tomorrow!!""....Whoops, I forgot my keys.."hey, I forgot my keys, hehe, okay, see you tomorrow"..
293 customers dined that night, Wednesday night, not counting the bar. There were 220-245 people originally on the books (reservations). In this block of 8 hours I was able to consume 2 glasses of ice water, a hefty first taste of halibut, 3 bites of garlic mashed potatoes, 3 sprigs of asparagus, 3 bites of a medium steak and random pieces of miscellaneous dressing drenched pieces of romaine, and a piece of calamari. I had one bathroom break and had taken about 10 trips to the dish pit and 3-5 trips to the cooler. I had to prep more product as we ran out and wiped my station clean during the down times, which were mostly 1-4 minutes long, just to make things dirty again.
I'm not positive how many salads were tossed, desserts were drizzled or creme brulee were wiped clean, but the speed, accuracy and communicating orchestra of teamwork was thrilling to be a part of. When I left, I went and filled up my gas tank proudly plastered with blotches, sprays and showers of an array of different sauces or dressings on my uniform. When I finally got home, it took me a while to get to sleep due to the build up of energy still pumping through my veins, but this first day was undoubtedly a GREAT initiation.
Can't wait to train more tomorrow.
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