don't forget to give your sous a reach around

Happy Valentine's Day "Weekend," Chefs.  I don't know who's open Sunday or not, but I know that some of you have four days of pain in the forecast.  Just know that (a) your menus are awesome, (b) you're going to get through it no matter what, (c) you are definitely badass enough to pump out as many deuces as they can fit in the f'ing building, (d) your poor servers will be able to prepay their rent for March and April  (e) it won't happen again for 360+ days and, most importantly, (f) it's okay to give your boy a card or box of muddy chocolate in front of the rest of the staff without it being officially construed as a "bromance."  Imagine how good it will feel when we wake up Tuesday morning....Wait, now I'm looking forward to Tuesday? (www.ImustBeFucked.com)

Sunday boardom

I had plenty of free time yesterday at work and decided to break out the meat glue. This bag of Activa RM has been here for a month and I have only made one dish so far with it, Sushi shaped shrimp cocktail. Chopped shrimp and activa spread out thin and sous vide to make a sheet, pulled it out of the bag sprinkled more activa and then pipped some cocktail gelee on it. Rolled it and sliced it. Anyway today I wanted to do more, I took pheasant tenderloin and mixed it with salt, curry powder, and meat glue. Rolled it, cooked it, seared it, sliced it.

Each piece of pheasant is distinct. Imagine if the pheasant was spilt-up and cured with different spices(colors), they would become a beautiful mosaic.

Here is the finished plate: pheasant, seared fennel mostarda, carrots infused with fennel seed butter, and reduced apple cider

Saturday Brunch. Enough said.

I make a conscious effort to always understand everyone's point of view. A good chef is observant and bias to no employee, only the guests. I'm certain my staff appreciates my respect for their interests. I do so more than any other manager in my restaurant. It's works best for me because I am also there more than any other manager in the restaurant. I am always doing my best to look out for the best interests of the restaurant. When I observe that something is not right I most of the time address it purely out of instinct.

We changed the brunch menu today. When I got to work today the kitchen crew was behind the ball. No big deal. I helped them finish their mise en place by service while we discussed ways to get it done sooner. I made a sample of one of the new dishes for the staff. I headed into the dining room with the dish 15 minutes after we were open and noticed the FOH scrambling to get set for service. They weren't even in uniform. Scrambling in their civilian clothes. I immediately asked the first server I saw (who is always chill) why he wasn't in his nice clothes and he snapped at me about being in the weeds getting set up. I immediately went to his manager and he didn't even notice his dining room wasn't set. or maybe didn't think it was important. This exact scenario played out last Saturday as well. Two Saturdays in a row we had guests in the building that had to watch us scramble. That is how highly we think of our first guests on the busiest day of the week.

My staff is never ready by service without my help. Why? Because as soon as they figure out how to get ready on time I throw something else at them. Today was a new brunch menu. Today was also a crab special. They had to break down whole crabs for service. Messy. Last weekend was shucking oysters. I keep them polished in the winter. They will thank me later.

I was trying to explain this management tool to the FOH manager today. He is a wonderful colleague and I really enjoy working with him. He is also a little green and doesn't always see the peripheral duties of management. He needs to keep a fire lit behind his employee's asses at all times or they will get lazy and mess up what we've worked so hard to achieve.

"We've got the rules down now, and we're done learning how to speak.

We're on top of a cliff, and we're wondering if we should leap."

Quote of the day... possibly the year

"Save it for the day crew" Ms Tangle.

This is what a seasoned server said about putting away soup at the end of the night. We have a small retail section which we stock with soups, sausage, pasta, and cheese. It is the FOH staffs job to put the food out for retail. They don't have to make the soup or heat it up, they just put it away.

I only was able to get a few hours sleep last night. I woke at one point and could not stop repeating that quote. As soon as my eyes close I see "Save it for the day crew" written on the back of my eyelids. I am ready to scream. What the hell is wrong with people? This isn't some untrained noob, she has a restaurant management degree, the same one I have. I must have skipped class on the day this technique was taught.

You could say his statement sums up the fundamental problems with society. No one cares about how they effect their neighbor, it is all about ME.

I am truly worried about my restaurant. With the owner opening another place who will light a fire under peoples ass'? It is obvious that employees cannot be left to do small tasks unsupervised.

Treading water

In late October we lost half of our four man culinary team. This was a huge blow to us, we all got along great and loved to work together. We could predict each other movements and help each other without even asking. People come and go in this business and I wish no ill will on either of these gentlemen, I still talk with them both frequently. The problem is who replaced them and why they are still employed.

Replacement number one was a house wife who is "sponsored" and does not need to work. She plays kitchen on a daily basis and needs to supervised to keep her from changing recipes and fucking up the whole place. She worked 9.5 hours on monday and made 12 salads and 3 soups thats it. That is five maybe six hours of work if you had one arm.

The other replacement was the sauicer from a hack French place about 30 minutes away. Mr Saucier, Slingblade, was supposed to work 3 days and two nights. Learning a new restaurants procedures takes time and hard work on all parties involved. He has no desire to work hard, his old restaurant was a " as long as it gets done who cares if it is any good" kind of place. Fucking McDonalds has better standards then this guy. Well he can't really cook to much(or make a sauce to save his life) and we have now changed everyones schedule to 4 nights and one day so he can be monitored. It was fine for a while but we are going to be getting busier and busier and I am not sure what the hell will happen. Someone needs to be on day shift everyday and get a flow going. Sometimes I prep dinner alone and the chef and slingblade will work on catering. I don't mind this now but it will burn me out fast when the spring time catering rush hits us and we have three huge catering orders a day. Plus we are denying some catering orders as it is because of the staff and we need that income now.

I am really sick of playing defense all the time. I want to be playing offense and knocking this shit out of the park but I can't. Being ready for problems instead of reacting to them when they pop-up. There will always be problems we can't predict but when there are ones we can we need to nip them in the butt. It sounds like a easy fix, fire everyone and start over. BUT... our new restaurant opens in two months and the owner will not be around to interview or approve any new hire. Oh, the housewife and the owners are friends so tight in fact that the housewives husband is doing work on the owners house. It is funny, he also works at a snails pace. He is of course sponsored too. Then there is Slingblade who happens to super tight with the EC. Gay references have gotten old with these two. Maybe I need to leave and work somewhere else, or I need to take one for the team and move to day shift. More then likely I will be working day shift. I don't mind it so much but I will miss dinner. I am much more confident in my abilities then I was six months ago. Day shift is much busier and definitely the hardest job we have. Slingblade of course will think he can cook better that is why he will be on nights. Oh well maybe this is a sign I am maturing as a person, getting to tired to put up a fight, or just getting dumber....

We lost a great man today

The first day I worked for Mike West I remember my immediate admiration. He was whisking a dressing in a large mixing bowl while doing business over his cell phone. He had the bowl in one hand, the whisk in the other and the cell phone held by his head and shoulder. He was talking casually while using a creative mix of profanity. As soon as he hung up he immediately came over and introduced himself. I could tell he was a down to earth cowboy with a true love for the restaurant industry. He shot straight from the hip. He was a solid mentor who smelled like hickory smoke.

I felt right at home on my first day in his kitchen. He treated his team like family. He told me, "Our first priority is to make sure every single person who walks through that door is satisfied. Our second priority is to have fun with it." He treated his cooks very well. He made sure we were happy and well fed. He went out of his way for us. One day he saw me at work bummed out cause I lost my wallet the night before. He offered me $50 out of his own pocket and told me to take the day off to deal with getting a new license and calling my credit cards. He had a lot of cooks at several restaurants and he was quick to do that for me. He was a very generous man.

The first day working for him was hallmarked by my first taste of his baby back ribs. They were fucking delicious. So good that we still to this day use his recipes when we make ribs and bbq sauce at our restaurant. Coincidentally, we have a catering tonight who requested those ribs and sauce. I was telling a cook about that recipe and Mike just yesterday. We are proud to carry on his legacy.

I caught wind that the big fella died this morning. My heart goes out to his family, especially his son, KC's own eatlocalfood. I am grateful to have known your father. I am also grateful to have worked for him. I met so many wonderful people while working for him. Still some of the most wonderful people I've met to this day. I'm sure every single one of them is torn up inside just as I am right now. I will never forget your father, his kindness, or his generosity. Thank you Mike. Thank you for everything.

New menu blues

It seems that we always have a problem when the menu changes. I cannot find a reason for this other then laziness. We are not a high volume restaurant, all of us could easily prep one extra item. I just don't understand why we can't start prepping for the new menu a week out. We have the menu a week before it changes. The prep list yesterday was a mile long and filled with items that wold actually have tasted better if they were made a few days out. It just blows my mind that this happens every month. I want/need to know what is going on at all times. Not because I am nosey, but so I can adjust my plan for the hour, day, week which will allow me to produce a better product and therefore make this restaurant better. I am over this running around like an asshole with a blindfold on just hoping to get first dinner service over with. It is hard to produce a attractive plate when you don't know all the components until you start plating. Where's this? Where's that? Well I didn't know it went with this dish. Needless to say after each course I said to myself that it will be better tomorrow.

Near the end of each menu we always say we are going to make a few of the new dishes as Amuse, that never happens. Well folks I am putting a plan into action. I will either make the next menu transition amazingly easy or I will be fired for being a total dick. An advice would be helpful.

Booze For Breakfast

You have to check this out. They have a few videos out now. Fucking smart to keep the haters out. We're about to get drunk from breakfast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZDv9pgHp8Q

New life for old drug parphernalia

Ice hash extracting bags used to filter a consomme. Cut our filtering time by a few hours. We would normally strain the consomme through a chinos, then chinos with cheesecloth, then a coffee filter. In total about 6 hours(mostly due to the size of the chinos). With this method we could pour all the consomme in at once and it could filter at its own rate. We still put it through a coffee filter, but that took less time due to the filter not needing to be changed more often. The coffee filter also takes all the grease off the top.

how is this guy not 86'd?

so, last wednesday, we were in the middle of party hour (.25 cent wings...and it's actually two hours), and this friggin douchebag comes back into the kitchen and throws his wing basket at us and declares "these are bullshit"

the reason we can sell the wings so cheap is that we aren't guaranteed how big or small they will be, nor what breakdown of wings/legs we get.  and we actually pay 30 cents a piece for them, so we lose money on every single wing we sell.  we hope to get it back in beer sales, and i think we do, but still...  that day they were kinda small.  i admit that.  but we usually toss a couple extra in the basket when we feel they're too small.  if you order 20, you'll probably get 23 or 24.

anyway, those of us in the kitchen really wanted to 86 the guy, and be outside when he got kicked out, and give him a gentle lesson on the cost of dental work and the difficulty of walking home with a broken kneecap.  he came back into our space, and yelled at us in a very aggressive manner.  this does not go over well.  the worst part is that apparently he's an ex-employee (i never worked with him), and by all rights should fucking know better.  actually, the real worst part was that all the servers were passing it off like it was no big deal, like "ah, you just don't know him.  it's okay."  they kept apologizing for his behavior but still acted like it was perfectly acceptable to come into the back and fling his fucking wings at us.  we actually confronted him in the dining room and basically his whole issue was that the wings were small.  he knew full well that we in the kitchen had absolutely no control over how big the wings were...i cook the product that's there for me to cook.  i don't order it, nor do we pick through the wings to make sure they're all big and pretty.

they're a fucking quarter.  deal with it.  they're not going to be huge all the time.  it's still a killer deal, and regardless of how big the wings are, they're good.  anyway, this guy came in on saturday for brunch, and our bar manager let him know that his doucheball antics were not welcome.  however, i don't think he got 86'd.  i'm not sure why not (possibly because ex-employees seem to be treated like royalty at my place, but i digress), and none of us cooks are happy about it.  i don't show up where he works and knock the cock out of his mouth just because it's small, ya know?

ahh...the lowly life of a scrub cook...how it fascinates and frustrates me...

10 things chefs wont tell you

Nothing new. Just a little funny.

http://www.chefgui.com/2009/06/05/10-things-chefs-wont-tell-you/

The Diminishing Birkenstock Profs

Back in 2000 I was turned onto what I thought was the best kitchen shoe ever. I was working at Buckley's Tavern when I got my first pair. This shoe was everything you needed it to be: slip resistant, easy to clean, and no gross laces. That first pair lasted me until 2003. The reason I had to replace them was because of a tear down the middle of the top part of the shoe.

I got my second pair thinking that I would not need to buy another kitchen shoe for another three years. WRONG! I went through at least 4 pairs over the next 3 years. They all tore just like that first pair. Fortunately the store where I purchased them is really cool. If the problem happened within 9 months, they would give me a new pair for free. If it happened after, then they would give me 50% off.

Recently I got a different model by Birkenstock. The shoe is more narrow and seems tougher. That was 9 months ago. They tore last week. Does anyone else use the Birkenstock kitchen shoes? If so, are you having the same issue?