Day twenty-four: And I haven’t worn my wedding band for a week, now
Posted on | March 8, 2010
Today was the last day of my three-day rotation as saute cook. And it is day seven of me not wearing my wedding band.
But don’t worry.
It’s not what you think.
Apples are 25% air which is why you can bob for them
When I got into the kitchen this morning, the first thing I did was pull all my ingredients from the reach in. I opened every container and evaluated what was good, what was bad, what needed to be replaced, what I did not have enough of.
I put together a shopping list for Other Guy who was acting as Sous Chef. As Sous, it was his job to gather needed product.
Then I got to work.
I shelled English peas and blanched and shocked them. I peeled, diced, and roasted butternut squash. I thinly sliced two red onions. I made a ricotta gnocchi with chiffonade basil, mint, and parsley. (Actually, the Chef asked for basil, cilantro, and parsley, but when I balked at mixing basil and cilantro he said I could use mint, instead.) And so on.
Then, an hour and a half after I entered the kitchen, it was time to go on the line.
Cabbage is more than 90% water
As I have mentioned before, this is a small class. So small, that our Chef asked the head Chef for permission to not use one of our group as waitstaff. Permission was denied. So, if you subtract one student to the front of the house and another student to the dish pit, and a third student to the Sous Chef position, then you are left with only three cooks.
I was one of those three. My station: Saute. Which is the burners and the oven.
Because we are such a small group, we are always getting yelled at for not getting our clean up done in time. Typically, we are out of there by 3:00. But, according to the schedule, we were supposed to be out of there by 2:30.
Make-Up Girl said this was not fair. She said the class before ours had 13 students and we only had 6 and that is why they managed to be out on time.
The Chef said we just had to move faster, always faster.
Honey is the only food that does not spoil
And we were moving faster. But, as I so well know, faster does not mean better. In fact, sometimes it means worse, opening the door to all sorts of problems. Such as injuries. As I know so well.
Only, today, the injury was not mine. Today, the injury belonged to the only one of us with well over a decade of restaurant experience: Sweet Line Cook.
He sliced open two fingers with a mandoline. And he bled for a full half hour before we went onto the kitchen for service and continued to bleed for heaven knows how much longer as we all left him behind.
The Chef’s told him he was done for the day. Bringing our number to an even smaller five.
Later, after service, I banged into Sweet Line Cook. He showed me a finger swathed to four times it’s normal size. He told me the janitor had bandaged it.
He told me the janitor was the only one around.
There are over 7,000 varieties of apples
Of course, running, running, running can create other problems. Such as forgetting an ingredient on the line.
If you are going to forget an ingredient, this is the one to forget; it was supremely easy to fix. But when I realized I forgot the ingredient, the Chef hissed in my ear with all the venom he could muster: “That is what home cooks do.”
At culinary school, home cooks are considered with nearly as much contempt as vegetarians. So I have just been royally insulted.
(The other Chef told me if I did that in a professional kitchen the Chef would crawl inside me and explode me from the inside out.)
The forgotten ingredient: Arugula. How it was forgotten: I mistook an extra, closed, container of green peas for arugula. How foolish is that: It sounds absurd (how, after all, can one mistake peas for arugula?), but bear in mind that I had a table full of containers, all closed, all full of ingredients, and I was checking them fast, fast, yes Chef I’m moving fast.
Why was this the best ingredient to forget: Many of my other ingredients needed prep. My carrots, for example, had to be blanched; my butternut squash roasted. But the arugula? It was thrown, raw, into the pan on the line and wilted, then and there.
So the fix was merely grabbing a bag of arugula from the reach in.
And you know the whole school-is-supposed-to-be-a-safe-place-to-make-mistakes-because-you-are-learning thing? Not here.
Peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes
During service, I got slammed, as usual, due to the popularity of the fish dish, which was one of mine.
Now, I was more familiar with the dishes as this was my third day doing them. Or, I would have been if the Chef had not changed the fish recipe this morning. In all fairness, he did give me a demonstration of the new fish dish at the start of service. But I was so busy helping the Sous Chef make appetizers, as I was supposed to, that I only saw every third step or so.
But I should have seen this coming because, when I came in this morning, I found out that the earlier class had halibut – the halibut I had portioned out yesterday for service today – as their black box item (this is where the students are given a carefully selected protein which they use as the cneterpiece of a plate full of food).
Well, that’s one way to use up unwanted proteins.
“Orange” does not rhyme with any other word
We have two Chef’s: Chef Peacock and Chef Sideburns. On top of that, we have a student Sous Chef. The remaining students (four) report to all three.
So, as my husband says, “Hilarity will ensue.”
Picture, if you will, the back kitchen as one of those arcade games, where you release a ball and it bangs from item to item, lights flashing, bells whistling, buzzers shrieking, until it finally drops to the bottom and disappears out of sight.
Out of sight, that is, until the next ball is launched, once again, into this wonderful world of rebound and recoil.
Now, picture me as that ball.
Today, everything one of the three told me to do contradicted what the other two said.
Let me give you an example.
When I came in, I knew I needed to make my gnocchi right away so the dish could sit before being cooked. See, it needs to sit so the gnocchi dough can stiffen up a bit to help the gnocchi retain their shape.
So I ask the Sous for my gnocchi ingredients. But, before he can get it, Chef Peacock gets the Sous to do something else. So I work on something else while I wait. Then the Sous finally gets a moment and gets it for me, but before I can use it, he asks me to take care of something else. So I go do that. Then Chef Peacock yells at me for not making the gnocchi early enough so it had time to sit. Then I tell him the Sous told me to do something else. Then he tells me I should have checked with him. Then Chef Sideburns gives me grief for not making the gnocchi earlier. Then, well, you get the idea.
All day was like this.
Eggplants are fruits; berries, to be precise
Bah! I feel like I’ve just been complaining and complaining. Really, I’m learning a lot. But I’m tired and hungry (food, food everywhere and not a bite to eat – we don’t get to eat any of the food we cook; I have no idea what my gnocchi or fish dishes taste like!) and fussing.
Okay. So let’s move on.
Starting Monday, we switch jobs. I had asked Chef Sideburns if I could be Sous Chef next and he agreed, but Chef Peacock made me dishwasher and desserts. Damn. I knew Chef Peacock wielded the power. I should have known to ask him. I’ll know for next time.
I’m perfectly happy doing desserts, but there is a problem with me doing dishes.
You see, ever since I entered the third term, I have been battling a reaction to the cleaning solution on my hands and arms.
I have been using this cleaning solution ever since I entered school. And it didn’t bother me in the first or second terms. But in this term, the Chef likes us to use a very, very concentrated cleaning solution. In fact, he likes us to pour it straight from the jug into a bucket and only add a splash or two of water.
And this very strong solution is jsut too harsh for me, leaving me with a red, itchy, irritating rash that has spread across the lower half of my arms and my hands.
I’ve taken off my wedding band and have been trying to go without my watch (nearly impossible, however, as I need it to time things) and have been keeping my arms and hands as clean and dry as I can. And it has been helping.
But, in the next class, and in the classes after that while I am on dishes, I am going to spend the entire time up to my elbows in a variety of solutions, including this one.
So it’s going to be a while, yet, before I can put my wedding band back on.
But no worries. I’m keeping the husband. He’s worth more than the ring.
Comments
5 Responses to “Day twenty-four: And I haven’t worn my wedding band for a week, now”
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March 8th, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
One word. Vaseline. I know it has become a champion for other causes but it will provide a barrier for your skin and it is non-toxic so you can use it without worrying about contamination issues.
My dish doing days at the bakery just about did me in until I discovered the Vaseline. My nails suffered too, I found a Sally Hansen nail protein that I used on them.
Running short may not be fun, but you’re learning skills that will help you in the real world. Short handed seems to be the name of the game for some places.
March 9th, 2010 @ 4:10 am
I’m feeling your pain as you write this. Especially as you detail the issue with cleaning solutions. My fingers are in a permanent state of peel and crack – no beautifully manicured fingers here either! Sometimes I miss the Carmella Soprano-acrylics I used to sport….when I was young and not so practical.
I’m sure someday you’ll look back at the “pinball” routine and laugh and say ‘Those were the days!’
Keep it up! In a way I envy the opportunity you have to learn what you are learning. So enjoy it and keep writing…always fun to check in on you!
March 10th, 2010 @ 9:04 pm
Probably best to keep your ring off. Who KNOWS what you can snag it on..thereby removing your finger. Seriously. The damage that chefs do to themselves in order to feed us. We are all so grateful.
PS – loving your site! Thanks for letting us live vicariously (the humble home cook).
March 10th, 2010 @ 10:22 pm
Vaseline is a great idea – I use Rosebud Salve (Vaseline-based, I believe) when I get home and it helps. But it’s no good in the kitchen – my hands have to be clean and ingredient-free when I am handling food.
(I also quite like Kiehl’s cuticle treatment. I use it all over my hands, so I go through those pots of cream way too quickly.)
The chefs seem to have a lot of disdain for the home cook, but I do not. Day in, day out, we cook multiple meals for multiple people at home with no breaks and little help and we do this on top of our regular job. On the contrary, I have a lot of respect for the home cook. I am one.
Finally, thank you all so much for the kind words about my blog. Most days, things go well and it is a joy to share. But on the days that do not go well, you are all a great comfort. The pleasure is, of course, all mine.
Cheers!
June 15th, 2010 @ 12:39 am
To late, but a waterproof barriere cream like Kerodex 71 would probably have saved your skin.
I managed to work full time with peeling shrimps while beeing allergic to shrimps thanks to Kerodex.
You put on Kerodex like a normal hand cream. Leave it on for 5 min then dry off any residue. You can wash all you like afterwards (I had to wash first with soap, then with alcohol in my job).
This cream reacts with the skin and make it less penetrable for chemicals. It lasts for about 4 hours, then you have to reapply.