Some Like It Hot!

Hot food and why I like it! and why cold food peeves me…….. I have struggled with why when I cook dinner and have the call to arms to come “eat”, whether it is just my husband and I, or when we have guests, why I get so blasted antsy when it takes a couple of minutes for the dinees to “come” to sit at the table or in self serve mode come to serve themselves.

While I may have some phobias and tweeky hangups, it struck me last night as I called my significant other to dinner, “what the heck was my problem?” As I started getting impatient for him to come eat all ready!

I had it!!!!! Too many years of screaming at waitstaff, “pick up, pick up, the foods dying here!”

After almost 5 years out of the kitchen old habits die hard apparently. Take a cook out of the kitchen but the kitchen still retains its little hooks in you.

When our daughter graduated from high school several weeks ago, her graduation present was a new “box”. I had tremendous fun filling a new Craftsman three drawer with some very essential kitchen tools that she would need for her new career if she intents to follow it. If not, well some time soon she will have her own apartment and will need those things anyway as she likes to cook.

Two takeaways to consider for me out of this.

1. Yes, Men shopping at Sears are still sexist, I happened to buy her new toolbox prior to the weekend that also had Father’s Day attached to it. 6 comments about how sweet it was that I was buying a box for my husband got me to respond with “actually it’s for my daughter for her new path in life,” got several stunned looks and a few blushes in response.

Thankfully, the nice cashier was unassuming and we had a lively discussion about how Sears had discontinued the 2 drawer version of the “box” and why perhaps Sears had polled the wrong industry regarding the decision to discontinue same. One of the “blushees” was behind me in line and apologized for his presumption. And men say they regard women in business as equals. Phoeey!

2. My significant other did think I was seriously tweeked when I made the traditional newbie knife guards for new knives I had bought for the kit out of cardboard and duct tape, and then spent 20 minutes showing him the difference in balance between a $60 low end Forschner and the $250 Wusthof (that used to be a 12 inch and now was pared from sharpening after many years of use to a 9 inch). Like I said, you can take the cook out of the kitchen.

Why people don’t volunteer much anymore and why the ones that do deserve medals!

I volunteer and I am proud of it. I do it because growing up I went through some hard times and it was the people that volunteered that got me through it. I wanted to be able to give something back. If someone gives me grief for something I do volunteering (because I must have some ulterior motive for doing so, of course) I have no problem with standing my ground. But it sticks in my craw and makes my heart ache when I see people who have given their hearts and souls and much of their time to volunteerism, getting grief from someone that just wants to sit on the sidelines with way too much time on their hands and vitriol in their hearts.

I would like to remind people that have nothing better to do then gripe and complain about things, events and goings on, that people who volunteer for things - are volunteers, they don’t get paid for it, they work and give much of themselves for things that more and more frequently give nothing back to them, not even a simple thank you. Why do people NOT volunteer for things any more? The free time to spend doing it? Yes! The time away from work and family? Yes! The cost of living? Yes! The fact that they are not appreciated anymore and get a lot of grief for it many times? Double Yes! Where are you that complain? And what are you doing? Nothing! Oh wait, I’m sorry, you’re complaining. You must be doing something.

In this day and age when people are stressed to the max with rising costs, social issues and things our grandparents never had to dream of dealing with, please everyone take a step back and think of the nice things that people who VOLUNTEER have done that has made some positive impact on your life, be it large or be it small. Without those people that volunteer, many of the things you take for granted every day would not have gotten done and would not continue to be done now. I think a thank you now and then would suffice as acknowledgement and appreciation, but the contribution of your hands and brains are also very welcome!

If you volunteered to help with something and all you got in return was grief for it, would it sour you towards doing it again? Or doing more? I think so! But most of the people that volunteer keep on in the face of negativity. It’s hard to remind yourself frequently of the fact that when one volunteers to help, 9999 people really do appreciate it even if they don’t tell you, but the one person that has to complain about something trivial (when of course they would rather stand on the sidelines and gripe instead of helping) can ruin someone’s day and sometimes their month or their lives.

For those of you that have nothing better to do then complain and make trouble for good hearted people, I say to you, “shut the heck up and pick up a shovel,” so you can shovel away some of the grief you have caused. I have absolutely NO respect for someone that has an issue about something, but when push comes to shove, where were they when it comes time to pitch in? If you have a problem or an issue with something, help fix it and make it better, don’t break it or aid in keeping it broken. Actions speak and make things happen and words sometimes hinder. In this case, the plow is mightier than the pen.

For those people that volunteer, I know you don’t have “ulterior motives”, I know you do it because you honestly want to help, I know that you are special people and I thank you from the bottom of my heart and wish you could all receive medals of valor for being the wonderful people that you are. Please keep volunteering! My family and I appreciates you! And to the rest of you in-betweeners, when was the last time you did something nice for someone. Opening doors for little old ladies counts and so does smiling and wishing someone a good day!

Why I don’t have comments on my blogs

I had comments on my previous blogs and while it was great to respond to comments and questions, it can also be very time consuming. I currently manage two of my own blogs and 6 customer’s blogs on which I do moderate the comments. My feelings about my own blogs, if people find them useful or interesting that’s terrific, if they really feel the need to comment directly on something, I would ask them to email me directly and I will make sure I respond and post it, positive or negative.

There is only so much time in the day, re: my previous posts about inventing cloning. In my book, my customers come first, so their comments get responses and follow up. My blog I hope is mostly informative and might be amusing to some and useless to others. My answer to the useless to others, there are many more blogs in this fish pond so go find a different blog to pester.

AH HA, my new quote of the day! A small blog in a big phish pond.

Have they invented cloning yet? Part II

I struggle to remain a sole person at my business, as I want my clients, who are all important to me, to get ME on the phone, to have ME to deal with if they need something and for ME to be the one to do the work for them. While this seem selfish, i.e, I don’t want to pay another person, it is important to me that I have a personal connection with the people I work with. I get very irritated when I call a business that I am looking for a product or service from, and I get the bottom of the pickle barrel to deal with. If you have issues, these people, it seems, most of the time you can’t get answers from them, they can’t solve your problems and if you want to talk to a manager, you usually get bumped up from rung to rung until, maybe, eventually, you get to reach someone that can help you. Maybe!!!

I prefer if someone has something they need, information I can find for them, a problem to be fixed, something I can help them with, that they get me. I will fix the problem, find the solution, find the answer. If I don’t know I will say so, but I will try to find out about it so that I DO know.

Have they invented cloning yet? Part I

If I knew then about what the online and tech industry would have to do to stay on top of everything in terms of new and emerging marketing, technology, social networking, web 2.0 and the new industry standards. I am not sure whether I would have changed careers or not. I try to spend at least a half an hour a day keeping on and reading about new things in the industry and every Friday spend several hours reading the backlog of whitepapers, news report and newsletters that tend to pile up in my “to follow up” folder. It boggles the mind. There is so much to learn about, explore and create but it gets exhausting to try to keep up with it all.

In the food business, trends come and go, food and commodity prices fluctuate daily and staff changes over like clockwork. But realistically, other then the addition of online marketing, the evolution of POS systems and most customers (because of the internet) are maybe a bit more savvy: when it comes right down to it, the restaurant business hasn’t changed that much. If you looked at the restaurant business analytically from 20 years ago and now, you could count on one hand the amount of drastic changes the industry has gone through.

The tech industry on the other hand. Now where do I start? I was (and still am) a huge lover of science fiction growing up. That people could instantly communicate with someone or a group of someones halfway across the world was sci-fi, that we could have little computers that connected wirelessly to instant information was sci-fi. That I could write a note about something and someone I have never met over in Australia could comment on it was sci-fi.

I remember reading old (to me) science fiction from the 50’s and in them, spaceships to the moon and cell phones were just a figment of the imagination of writers like Clarke and Heinlein. I go to the supermarket and 2 dozen people are yakking on their cell phones, who would have thought it?

The idea that going into this business 4 years ago was going to turn into a full time and half job may have made me think twice. Staying up on the restaurant business now (I read the same newsletters and publications I used to) is only a small portion of my “keep up” time devoted to my business every week.

Nut Huggers and Mangy Gerkins

I subscribe to the Urban Dictionary word of the day email, because like the Adrants newsletter, there is usually something in it to snicker about. Last week the word of the day was nut huggers and when I read the definition, I had to write about what it reminded me of.

I worked in Vermont for about a year and half at a wholesale fish, gourmet food and catering establishment in Burlington as their chef. One of the new wholesale people that came on board shortly after I started, I’ll call him “Tam”.

“Tam” used to wear the most skin tight jeans we ever saw on anyone who could still breathe naturally. One wonders what that does to the reproduction factor, but in this case it was probably just as well. He was a bit of a slob to boot.

“Tam” was also one of the most foul mouthed people I have ever worked with (and I have worked for some doozys!) We also had about 4 on average, sweet young things working for us from the local high school at any given time. “Matt” was also very much of a sexual harassment non-model citizen when it came to them.

They reported him many times to the owner, as did many of us in management and the owner refused to do anything or even believe it. No one that could like his own team (football) could be that much of a scumbag. It took several of us to get him repeatedly on tape (not the suggested or legal method by the way) to have the owner listen for himself to it, to final get enough sway to finally fire him.

In the interim of the many months that passed before he got fired, my fellow managers and I took to having discussions about which was smaller, a cornichon or a gerkin. We settled on the gerkin and “Tam” and his nut huggers became known thenceforth as the “Gerkin” until which time as my husband, (then boyfriend) stopped in and mentioned that he thought “Tam” looked mangy. So the Mangy Gerkin was born.

To this day, friends who I still keep in touch with that used to work there with me, the very mention of “Mangy Gerkin” will still crack us up. In hindsight knowing what I know now. There are better ways to pursue and deal with sexual harassment in the workplace but to a staff of mostly women that had to deal with a foul mouthed bottom feeder, we did what was necessary at the time.

A tad more to mixed feelings…

I was reminded of my step-daughter this morning and the “outfit” nails thing. Having at 13 started dishwashing in the back of the house and cutting my nails extremely short, to this day I cannot tolerate long nails. I have tried to grow them several times and get peeved when they clack on the keyboard or get fugly with potting soil, I have to clip them short still.

I went to the supermarket this afternoon and about doubled over laughing when the chick behind me online at the checkout just about went ballistic when she broke a nail. I don’t think she thought it amusing that I was laughing at her but I couldn’t help it. Never knowing or wanting “nails” I don’t think I missed much. I wonder if I missed out? NAH

Very Mixed Feelings………….

My step-daughter would like to go to cooking school. She’s almost out of High School and works in a small café as a waitperson and the owner says he will apprentice her in the back of the house next year. She says she wants to take a year off before going off to college to make sure that cooking is what she really wants to do.

I moved in with the family when she was 6 years old and she spent many happy years messing around in the kitchen with me. She saw me come home with horrid burns on my arms from sheetpans , stressed from working 90 hours weeks, overheard conversations between her father and myself about the druggie waiters at the restaurant I was working at, the manipulative owners I worked for, seen me exhausted the next morning waking up at noon on Sunday mornings after staggering home at 3 in the morning because staff didn’t show up.

She also saw the “gourmet” side of it, being in Newspapers, in Magazines, coming with me to help at SOS (Share Our Strenth) events or Taste of the Nation fundraisers. She got to experience first hand that being out there with a white chef’s coat and a toque was “Cool!” She would occasionally come with her Dad to restaurants I was working at and I would put her to work peeling carrots or chopping parsley during prep time. She liked the kitchens, she liked the camaraderie that she saw and liked the food. She got kicked out during service, which in hind sight would have been good for her to watch.

The café she works is at is mostly bakery, day time hours, no line, no stress. It’s not very realistic if she wants to get into the cooking end. All the horror stories in the world have not dissuaded her that the cooking world is no place for a sweet and tender innocent like herself. Perhaps I’m being over protective, but having spent 20 years working in the middle of and seen the abuse of: - sex, drugs, alcohol and way to much stress, I don’t want my cutie-pie to go there.

She called us last night and told us she would be working in the back this weekend, unhappy because she wouldn’t be able to spend time with us, but ecstatic because she was going to working in the kitchen. Although I did cringe and then had to laugh when she told us she had her “outfit” all set. Umm……outfit? My dear is in for a rude awakening when she finds her long painted nails have to go too. Oh boy!

The movie “Waiting”

We had the dubious pleasure of renting “Waiting” last night. Yes we had heard it was bad, but we were looking forward to seeing the waiters and cooks supposedly get “revenge” on the bad customers. There were some genuinely funny moments but honestly I know chef/cooks mistreat food but I have NEVER seen them rub their genitals on it. What amazed me was how few things that they got right in the movie.

Only one restaurant term was used once, “in the weeds”, the bus boys snorting whippets (the compressed gas from the whipped cream containers) made us laugh because I have seen staff do that. A restaurant I know of in Stowe, VT burned down several (well many years) because a line cook was snorting whippets and smoking a cig, he passed out and cig went wild, he was very lucky. The place burned to the ground and he was unhurt.

A cook wrapping up a sheetpan of product using one long piece of saran wrap and the psycho waitress (Alanna Ubach) who was nuts in the kitchen and all sweetness and light to customers, definitely seen that! I think it was sad that they picked a chain restaurant to pick on as usually the servers there are trained better then most stand alone places.

To many TV shows and movies portray the restaurant scene as either light and fluffy where no one actually works or Everyone is totally looney, like “Waiting.” I would highly recommend this for people who are into too much swearing and weenie jokes. Definitely not for the kids or anyone who wants to watch something intelligent.

Chef Forfeng rating - this one is so bad it rates 4 stinky dill pickles.

Life as a Chef

There are times I miss being a Chef. I miss the adrenaline rush of being on the line and being slammed. I miss munching on Caesar salad leftovers at two in the morning and having a glass of wine at the end of the night with the owner to discuss how the night went. If I could do it all over again I am not sure the path I would have taken would have been the same.

As I moved up the ranks to becoming an Executive Chef, I spent less time cooking and more time managing and doing paperwork. As a line cook, the enjoyment I got out of coming into work and just cooking was lessened as I rose through the restaurant ranks. As a line cook, you come in to work, do your prep for the night, cook and go home. No midnight worries about whether you have ordered the salmon for the next day’s function. No stresses about having to write a menu for a catered party of all vegetarians later in the week.

Did the publicity and public acknowledgement make up for not being able to directly pursue my passion, which was creating, playing with and cooking food as often as I used to? Yes and no.

Yes, because it was gratifying to send newspaper articles to my relatives and have people meet me and say, “Hey, you were in that magazine I read the other day!”

No, because my passion was the food and cooking the food. I still get overly enthusiastic when describing how wonderful the food was in Italy. How mouthwatering the spinach was, freshly picked from the garden outside the restaurant. How amazing the roasted garlic, freshly dug up and roasted in front of us on an open fire hearth. I love cooking the food and talking about the food. I would suggest people who have dreams about being a Chef, being famous and being in the public eye, contemplate How to Evaluate if You want a Career as a Chef. This may not be a career you want to pursue or it may be perfect for you.