Inter-Event Relaxation
Sep. 1st, 2009 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleTed, Bill, Hermann and I are currently hanging with Greg in Oakhurst, en route to Badger.
The Guards run went very smoothly. It is increasingly clear that the most difficult task in the kitchen is thinking; by getting nearly all the thinking done in advance, and having my apparently mandatory nervous breakdown before even leaving home, the work was really quite easy. Making finding useful work for volunteers the first priority worked out very well as a result, since whenever someone showed up I could tell them exactly what to do and have them do it. Some people have weird attitudes, though. I'm not sure what they're expecting, but when I put a pile of carrots in front of someone and hand them a peeler they sometimes look disappointed. I try to keep it social and fun but that's not always possible.
One volunteer was a sullen queen who clearly only took on the dishwashing station in order to get comped for the run, and worked as slowly and inefectually as possible. I hated having him there. Another was a sweetheart, but a little on the slow side - not sure if it was enough to count as "mentally disabled", but one of the things I really like about these events is that they are highly accomodating of people with disabilities of various sorts, so I was happy to help him participate even if he wasn't very capable. And the third dishwasher was fantastic, a tech-industry cub with tremendous organizational skill who attacked every problem with gusto, no matter how awful the job. I also got one especially strong and brave fellow who donned all the safety gear I provided, and spent more than an hour and a half patiently searing 70 pounds of prime rib in smoking-hot bacon fat, five batches in all. Truly a hellish job, but OMG you would not believe how good the result is. I had several people say it was the best prime rib they'd ever had, which pleases me to no end.
Bill is a great assistant, dealing with such things as packing and schlepping, dealing with leaky plumbing, and making sure the place doesn't burn down. When it comes to work, we get along much better on the road than we do at home. He saves my butt every day and it would be very hard to get this done without him.
The resort manager is really serious about her kitchen and only allows chefs with food safety certification to run the place during events. She made a big deal about cleaning and pointed out that the place was "spotless". Well, the visible counter surfaces were OK but I found plenty of places that were disgracefully filthy, including pretty much all under-counter surfaces, and the poorly bolted-together service station which had lots of crevices full of crud. Anywhere an object "lived" on a counter, it was sure to be nasty underneath. Safe to say I left the place with much less grime than when I started. Par for the course, it seems most kitchens are like this, but I couldn't believe she could combine such pride in cleanliness with such low standards in practice. Maybe she needs glasses.
Anyway, it was all very mellow and zero-drama, and the only reason I felt tired had more to do with excessive drugs, booze, sex, and late night partying than anything to do with cooking. We put out more than 500 plates of food in total, and yeah, I could do that every week! So it's been pretty much the ideal culinary junket. It's sure fun to spend the weekend partying and get paid for it. I've long felt like a bit of a fraud calling myself a "chef" but this weekend left me feeling like I really do have what it takes - particularly the ability to mobilize others, treat them well, and get good results.
We re-staged for the pre-Badger cooking in Sonora, which was a pain in the ass. Doing these runs back to back means they both get dragged down. There's enough room in the van, but the presence of stuff for one run encumbers the other and congests the whole process. Do Not Want. Nevertheless, it's still working out just fine, this is just an annoyance.
The Guards run went very smoothly. It is increasingly clear that the most difficult task in the kitchen is thinking; by getting nearly all the thinking done in advance, and having my apparently mandatory nervous breakdown before even leaving home, the work was really quite easy. Making finding useful work for volunteers the first priority worked out very well as a result, since whenever someone showed up I could tell them exactly what to do and have them do it. Some people have weird attitudes, though. I'm not sure what they're expecting, but when I put a pile of carrots in front of someone and hand them a peeler they sometimes look disappointed. I try to keep it social and fun but that's not always possible.
One volunteer was a sullen queen who clearly only took on the dishwashing station in order to get comped for the run, and worked as slowly and inefectually as possible. I hated having him there. Another was a sweetheart, but a little on the slow side - not sure if it was enough to count as "mentally disabled", but one of the things I really like about these events is that they are highly accomodating of people with disabilities of various sorts, so I was happy to help him participate even if he wasn't very capable. And the third dishwasher was fantastic, a tech-industry cub with tremendous organizational skill who attacked every problem with gusto, no matter how awful the job. I also got one especially strong and brave fellow who donned all the safety gear I provided, and spent more than an hour and a half patiently searing 70 pounds of prime rib in smoking-hot bacon fat, five batches in all. Truly a hellish job, but OMG you would not believe how good the result is. I had several people say it was the best prime rib they'd ever had, which pleases me to no end.
Bill is a great assistant, dealing with such things as packing and schlepping, dealing with leaky plumbing, and making sure the place doesn't burn down. When it comes to work, we get along much better on the road than we do at home. He saves my butt every day and it would be very hard to get this done without him.
The resort manager is really serious about her kitchen and only allows chefs with food safety certification to run the place during events. She made a big deal about cleaning and pointed out that the place was "spotless". Well, the visible counter surfaces were OK but I found plenty of places that were disgracefully filthy, including pretty much all under-counter surfaces, and the poorly bolted-together service station which had lots of crevices full of crud. Anywhere an object "lived" on a counter, it was sure to be nasty underneath. Safe to say I left the place with much less grime than when I started. Par for the course, it seems most kitchens are like this, but I couldn't believe she could combine such pride in cleanliness with such low standards in practice. Maybe she needs glasses.
Anyway, it was all very mellow and zero-drama, and the only reason I felt tired had more to do with excessive drugs, booze, sex, and late night partying than anything to do with cooking. We put out more than 500 plates of food in total, and yeah, I could do that every week! So it's been pretty much the ideal culinary junket. It's sure fun to spend the weekend partying and get paid for it. I've long felt like a bit of a fraud calling myself a "chef" but this weekend left me feeling like I really do have what it takes - particularly the ability to mobilize others, treat them well, and get good results.
We re-staged for the pre-Badger cooking in Sonora, which was a pain in the ass. Doing these runs back to back means they both get dragged down. There's enough room in the van, but the presence of stuff for one run encumbers the other and congests the whole process. Do Not Want. Nevertheless, it's still working out just fine, this is just an annoyance.
