So I walked into work and handed over the piece that Head Chef had asked for. It felt awesome to have an accurate record of what I am after and why. Many years from now I look forward to looking at it (as well as my love, my kids and everyone else. It will be prominently displayed at ONE of my restaurants).
The release method… I was prepping something for one of the sister restaurants, Meatballs in fact. I took out what I thought was the mixture and tried to roll it. It felt weird in my hands and had absolutely no staying power. I tasted it and was still unsure what it was. As a result I walked over to Chef J and said that I was having a problem rolling the meatballs, was there something I could do. He looked at me with astonishment on his face. If you’ve ever seen Roger Rabbit you can imagine the face by thinking of the part where the Judge’s eyes pop out and his mouth drops to the floor. Ends up I was trying to roll the mushroom mixtures used for crustini and gnocchi. He just started laughing and I walked away. So a few hours later Head Chef comes out from his office with Chef J in tow and starts asking me a few questions. I could sense that Chef J had told him and I prepared myself for an onslaught of “Napalm in the morning” variety. Head Chef let me know that if I ever confused meatballs with mushrooms again… well you get the picture. But the public humiliation of it ensured that I learned the lesson quickly. Moreover, as Head Chef walked away he asked Chef J to teach me the release method.
Quite simply the release method is to put your feet should width apart. Bend the knees. Place your hands squarely on your thighs, drop your head down and then quickly pull up. Thus, releasing your head from you ass. In this case MY head from MY ass. This incident also spawned the first nickname that has stuck at Reservation for me; Meatball! It still makes me laugh now.
I also came to the realization that most of my life I’ve looked at things a certain way. It was wrong. It was a skewed worldview that affected everything I did, everything I said and the way that other people thus perceived me. It is easy to become jaded in this world. There is so much going on. So much negativity. I fell victim (largely because I am hugely empathetic) to that skewed worldview. Rather than looking at the good, I would focus on the bad and the ugly. As you all can see though I have snapped out of that and instead focus on the positive. As I wrote this week there are numerous ways to look at a situation. If you focus on the good the bad will just go away and slip from your mind much faster than you think.
I’ve decided that I must live for today. Last year C and I made a trip to Europe. In Linz, Austria we came across a massive piece of art that caused me to start thinking. You’ll see it below;
Think about what this says. It took me finding myself to truly get it. Over the weekend we were extremely busy. Actually for the last week (as you know because I have written) we have been extremely busy. But one of the several highlights of my week was meeting Lynn Crawford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Crawford ) and Kevin Brauch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Brauch ). Chef Crawford is one of the most talented people in the culinary field. Period. It makes it all the more sweet that she is a woman (for me anyway). Kevin Brauch is just a standup guy and I can hardly wait until we get to share a drink again.
In the past week I learned how to filet a fish. There are two basic types of fish. Round fish and flat fish. From a round fish you are going to get four filets and from a flat one only two. I also learned how to make a lobster bisque and so much more.
For the competition that both Exec Chef and Head Chef were part of on Sunday I was asked to prepare a lot of the ingredients for them. One of the things that I was asked to do was to cut a perfect one-quarter inch dice of apples. I started with a ruler. After a while I stopped thinking about the ruler and just focused on the task at hand. If you do this you will find that your brain and body begin to act in a weird unison that defies explanation. I am not very good at it yet but I will be.
I am now about to go and start reading Michel Bras’ ( http://www.michel-bras.com )book “Essential Cuisine.” I will blog about it later. I will write another post shortly.
Anatole France once said; “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” I believe that I am going to be a great chef. What do you believe?
Be inspired and dream big.
A la prochaine
No comments:
Post a Comment