PROS AND CONS OF BEING THE CHARCUTERIE GUY

I'll start by saying I love my job, 99.5% of the time. The charcuterie kitchen here is over half a mile from the visitors center, which is where the restaurant is located. At that distance it is pretty easy to avoid the craziness the place extrudes. But I also miss that craziness at times. Being a line cook for over 15 years you start to miss the yelling, burning smell of flesh(co-workers and animal) and numerous other things I cant mention here. My kitchen, the bakery and the now defunct processing kitchen are all located in the same building. When I say my kitchen that's exactly what it is, my kitchen, no one else, just me and my ipod. So that is definitely one of the cons, even for someone like myself who mostly hates people. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to(or laugh at). I guess you could argue that being alone, away from the madness could be a pro as well.


I am responsible from processing all the proteins that are used at the estate, breaking down primal cuts of beef and pork into usable cuts, smoking of all meats(and other things), charcuterie items such as pates, terrines, salumi, etc etc. As long as I keep the kitchen stocked up on what they need, our chef has given me free reign to do whatever I want. Another pro. With that being the case, I have really been able to spend some time figuring out the whole dry curing process. Another pro. With the bakery being next door, we have to make daily trips up to the restaurant(we call it crazy town) to deliver bread, meat, and desserts. So our building shares a company vehicle to drive the mile round trip. We used to have a piece of shit ford exploder but one of the pastry girls broke it, I think on purpose, so they replaced it with a Lexus SUV, loaded with leather, seat warmers, and as the pastry chef says"a nice sound system". Another pro. Its great to go up to the kitchen when its really busy, drop some product, fuck with people and then split back down to happy valley.(our kitchens)


So in general, being chacuterie guy is mostly a good thing. I miss the kitchen and I know my chops are getting really rusty, but I am 41 and as my Chef always says it is a young mans game. Some days I feel like the old stallion who has been put out to pasture to live out his final days in peace. Horse meat anyone?