I have been a part of a lot of things in my life that have made me proud. Since joining the kitchen in January I can tell you that I have never been more proud of us as a unit or brigade then I was during the Miracle of August 16, 2008.
As I said in the previous post we had to pull off 23,000 canapés and set up the site for a massive event of 1000 people who were all paying good money for a good cause and expecting great food.
After the pep talk from Executive Chef sometime after midnight our Saturday kicked into high gear. We had a lot of work to do and very little time to do it in. Though I had been at work since 7:30 am on Friday morning I was still in pretty good shape. All of us were in fact. Here I would like to tell the story of Pastry Chef J.
Some food concepts by their very nature are extremely difficult to accomplish and Pastry Chef J had a difficult task in front of her. She had also been at work since around 7:30 am and was working on what effectively was a cheezie. But it was a cheezie that was made through an extremely difficult and arduous process that saw her working non stop for about thirty hours before taking a break. Step by step she worked as hard as she could to figure out how to make this concept work. After all it was simply a recipe and a concept and needed to be reworked and retooled in order to make it work. Her tenacity and force of will ensured success. Every once and a while I would walk over to what effectively became her test kitchen to make sure she was okay and ask if she needed anything. She just kept pushing. Working. Toiling to make this recipe and concept work. I was proud to see what she accomplished under difficult and trying circumstances. She displayed for all of us to see a work ethic that is very seldom seen and she did it all with good nature and humour.
The rest of us found ourselves working on all kinds of elements to make sure that we got everything done. There was the 1200 bread cups that I found myself working on because S was working on something else. The only thing that was a little annoying about the bread cups was that we were only able to make 76 at a time. Each batch was taking approximately 30 minutes from assembly to taking them out of the oven. When S was done working on what he had been he took over for me so that I could move on with E to the Quinoa salad and Smoked Turkey. I guess it was somewhere around 3 am when we got that started.
With a few beers and a few laughs we literally soldiered on and kept pushing to get done what we had to. There were the 1000 mini pizza doughs. The Foie Gras which had to be rolled. The 1000 chicken lollipops. 1000 mini Kobe burgers. 1000 mini salmon burgers. Shrimp had to be peeled, deveined and readied for a la minute preparation. There were the chicken pieces that needed to be cut for bacon wrapped chicken. There was the pork stuffed lychee and shrimp that needed to get done. Truly there was no shortage of work.
Approximately every hour we would assemble to have a quick status report and a smoke. Around 3 am we decided to order some Chinese food to give us a little boost of energy and a quick break to recharge our batteries.
Executive Chef could have gone home and caught some sleep but instead like a battlefield general he stood right there in the lines with us. Working along side us. Seeing his face, for me anyway, made it a little easier to do what had to get done. I had a new level of respect expose itself for him as we worked diligently through the night.
When we saw that someone needed help we would jump in and help. It was truly a team effort. We were the equivalent of the Yankees and we were proving it throughout the night. If there was a problem or an issue we all worked through it or jumped in to help where we could. It was remarkable by anyone’s standards.
At one point E and I were working on the Salad dressing for the Quinoa. My body was functioning perfectly but my mind was a little less than stellar. While trying to do some simple math I found myself transposing digits. Thankfully Executive Chef came along at just that moment and saved my ass.
The sun began to rise and the Miracle of August 16th was about to come together. A moment we could all be proud of.
George Bernard Shaw once wrote; “A miracle is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. Frauds deceive. An event which creates faith does not deceive: therefore it is not a fraud, but a miracle.”
This day created faith. For me anyway.
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
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