Thursday, June 19, 2008

Why 24?… All I need is another hour in the day PART 1 (file under trying to catch up)

So as you can tell I am so busy these days. I haven’t even been able to write my daily poems on butcher paper. From the moment I walk in to the moment I leave it is a non stop roller coaster ride of majestic proportions on the dream train of my life.

As I was yesterday I am currently trying to convince my fingers to type faster, to convince the universe to give me just one more hour in the day and my body to not succumb to its fervent desire to drop dead and sleep for three days straight. Adrenaline, coffee, cigarettes and PASSION are keeping me going but ALWAYS with a smile on my face because I can see clearly where I am going and how I am getting there.

This past weekend was INSANE. I have never worked so hard in my life. First off I figured out how to set up the grill properly, as I mentioned last week, it enables a more perfect workflow. Organization and speed are the name of the game when I am on the grill.

If you are not organized properly you will be in the shits from the second you open until the second you close. I know that many of you may think that I am just slinging burgers and that I even make the joke about McDonald’s but ultimately what I am doing at the grill is no different than what they do at Reservation. I am performing a food service that requires speed, accuracy and attention to detail. Currently I am planning a more perfect execution of my organization, attempting to figure out a better way to do what I am doing so that when I get into the shits I can pull myself out.

Speed is just as it suggests. I broke the record on the Grill on Saturday. We were part of the Luminato festival and the One City/ One Table celebration. As such we had approximately 60,000 people on site over the weekend. When you have that many people you have to plan ahead, be organized and execute with speed and accuracy.

I did (with only fifty minutes of total help) over six hundred orders all on my own. SIX HUNDRED. I did not go to the bathroom from 12 in the afternoon until 10:36 pm and had absolutely no break. At one point I almost fainted because the sun was kicking my ass and found myself sitting on the ground for two minutes trying to get myself back into the swing.

I get conflicting advice from people as to the way I run the grill. Chef J says that I shouldn’t speak to the customer at all and essentially he suggests that I should just be a robot and serve. However, I think (most respectfully) that he is wrong. I serve the way that I live; I am charming, passionate, caring and considerate. I interact with the customer for two reasons, one it leaves them with a great feeling inside and two because while I am interacting with them they don’t mind that they are having to wait a few extra minutes for what they’ve ordered.

As I’ve explained before I only have one fryer and that as a result it slows my progress in orders. If you have an order for eight chicken fingers you have to make 32 chicken fingers and eight orders of fries. Well in a small fryer that doesn’t keep temperature outside it is not as easy as you would think. I let the customers know that it may take ten minutes. Some leave and say they will be back; others stand there and wait. So as I’m taking orders and making orders I talk to people. Ask how their day has been, etc. It seems to keep the beast at bay if you know what I mean.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Should I be a robot or should I be me? I would LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS!

So this is as far as my little fingers will take me today. I have to run to work and had to type as fast as I could just to get this out. I will try to get the rest of Saturday out tomorrow morning.

Calvin Coolidge once said; “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

Be Inspired and DREAM BIG!

A la prochaine

SDM

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