On the Line

I'm not sure if I'll continue to write about both my days at work and at school. Maybe if something interesting happens at work I'll throw it in. In this occasion, something interesting did happen. I reported for my second day on Thursday. Before I even showed up at work, I had had three hours of class beginning at 6:00 am, a practical exam, 1.5 hours of cleaning the school kitchen. I then returned home to help my mom move.Yup she's moving and I am in need of a new place to stay during the week- just another twist in the road... So, I spent the next four hours packing and moving furniture and then I went to work at 2:00 pm.

The kitchen was much busier on this day than it was last Saturday night. Apparently in addition to regular service we had three banquets. I was giver to one of the other prep cooks, Collin, to help him prepare his list of items. Collin was pretty new too but obviously has lots of industry experience. We began making tomato, basil, and mozzarella mini quiche. That actually went pretty well and I was complemented on my finished product. Then it went to hell in a hand-basket.....

I'm not even sure I can describe everything, I did or exactly what I did for the remaining 6.5 hours. I got pulled in so many different directions I couldn't keep everything straight. I would be given a project but then the project had to cool and then given something else and I'd forget to go back to the original project because I'd been moved to a different kitchen for banquet service. I had a great deal of difficulty keeping track of where all the projects were in their process because everything was moving so fast and things weren't always were you left them. To top all that off, I was assigned to help the Garde Mange (Pantry Chef) on the line for dinner service. He apparently had thrown his back out on Monday and this was his first day back at work. So no big deal, right? I can do some salads and appetizers. WRONG! First thing, foermost, he is a pompous arse. He also has no idea how to give instruction or direction. He just belittled me for going to school to learn how to cook and "what are they teaching you at that school" kind of crap. I just smiled and did what he told me as best as I could. The salads simple and wonderful and the appetizers were works of art. I only got a few of them right and had to redo several of them because they weren't up to his standard. Christoph kept checking in on us from the main dish line and encouraged us to be faster, this made Mr. Grumpy Pants very agitated and he told me to stop smiling, this wasn't funny. Lucky for me the banquet staff came through the kitchen and called me to duty. Thank God!!

I got called back a few times to help Mr. Grumpy Pants out. In between those times I heard several people comment on him, and how if anyone deserved to be in a lot of pain, it was him. This somehow made me feel better about myself. However, I will take his "suggestions" to heart and work on my speed and also thinking about the process of a task a few steps a head so you are prepared when it arrives.

When all was said and done, I left the Club at 9:45 pm and headed to a hotel to crash. Woof!