Dateline: Saturday, August 16th, 2008, 7:30 am. I had been at work for 24 hours straight. I had experienced my first bout of sleepiness somewhere around 5. But it was nothing that smoking; laughing and working couldn’t get me through. It wasn’t so much physical tiredness but rather mental fatigue. The only thing I knew how to do was to keep working. In a short hour or two more of our team would return and we would get to full speed.
Pastry Chef went home just long enough to take a shower and brush her teeth. By the time that she had returned we were all ready to go through the 12 hour push to greatness.We had pulled around the refrigerator truck earlier in the evening and around this time started planning out how we were going to execute. We now had less than 12 hours until the start of the event and we had lots to do. Not only did we have to make sure that the food was ready but we had to make sure that the plan we had was workable both for the food and the set up. Again this is why we’re the Yankees I kept on thinking.
9 am, our team had reassembled. Volunteers started to slowly filter in and we had of course assembled a plan that was workable. Along with a couple of others I made sure that the truck was ready so that we could optimize our performance once the event started. We used all available space to execute on this journey. The floor space of our sister restaurant was turned into a production line and three of the biggest jobs were assembled here and then put into the “refer” truck.
When Chairman Mills finally arrived I went outside to see if our rolling racks had arrived. The delivery guy informed me that we had in fact not had any in the order. We NEEDED these racks in order to organize the food effectively. I went to find Executive Chef to let him know that we didn’t get the rolling racks. He quickly sprang into action and we found ourselves with the racks in less than an hour.
For some of the things that we were making we were waiting for ingredients. Time was our only enemy at this point. Once the regular delivery time had passed I went to A and suggested that it was time to start calling to ensure that we could get everything done. He called the first supplier to find out that there was no order placed. I then thought that it might be the other supplier who he then called and sure enough it was. Crisis averted and the delivery man showed up about an hour later.
It would seem that the plan that we developed at around 5:30 am between Executive Chef, K, A, J and I was coming to fruition. As more volunteers came we found ourselves going from station to station ensuring that the work was getting done effectively and in the manner that it needed to get done. It made me feel good to know that we were able to execute even with less bodies than we should have had.
Efficient as we were, somewhere around 2pm we found ourselves in the enviable position that we were able to slow down and actually assemble a plan on how we were going to execute stations. Which volunteers were going to be where, etc. This time gave us time to recharge our batteries and get ready for the big push that was to start at around 4pm.
When you have that many bodies floating around it is easy for things to go wrong. THEY DID NOT! We all knew what had to get done and we made sure it did. BEAUTIFULLY! Looking at our faces you would never have guessed that some of us had been working solid since 7:30 am the day before. At this point it was 33 hours into the shift and it was time to make that push.
4pm. With the floor plans in hand we started to set up the stations. This included putting out chaffers. Having the utensils. Assembling the food. Knowing where everything was and where everything was going. The time to cook had come and looking around I was proud of everyone there. I was especially proud of Pastry Chef and the others, like myself that had chosen, after all we were not forced, to stay because THE JOB HAD TO GET DONE!
5pm. Final checks! Figure out runners. Syntax. Make sure everything is ready to go. It was and so were we.
5:45. Start moving food to stations. Make sure that the Celebrity “Chefs” had everything they needed in order to have a successful service. It would be my job to make sure that all the stations and Chefs were okay throughout the service. This could mean making sure that food is delivered at the stations, people have water, the ability to go to the washroom, cover a station, whatever it was, it was one of my jobs to make sure we were smooth.
6 pm. Start time. Everyone in place and time for the event to begin. My feet at this point had blisters on the heels of about one inch long by an inch and a half wide. I had to ask Executive Chef if it was okay for me to put on my running shoes as I was limping in order to avoid the pain that was rushing through my heels. Naturally he said no problem.
7:10 pm. Everything is beyond smooth. Walking from station to station it was clear that everyone was having a great time and basically enjoying themselves. Yankees I kept thinking.
8:30 pm. Getting ready for the next step. Figuring out the best way to tear down. Assigning jobs, etc. Sure enough at 9 pm we knew what we were doing and in all it took us about an hour and a half to tear down.
11pm. Time for the Yankees to celebrate their WORLD SERIES win. We kicked ass. We more than kicked ass, we showed why we are what we are. We showed what we were made of. We showed how it is supposed to be done. I looked around at the whole team and was reminded in the most beautiful way why I had chosen to do what we do.
11:30 pm. DRINKS ALL AROUND. In what felt like a truly remarkable day it felt fantastic when each of the people that we had worked with made a point of telling us how incredibly we had pulled off the event. It should have made Executive Chef proud to know that his team had overcome the obstacle. Faced the mountain and scaled it with grace, poise and skill.
12:30 am. Back to the restaurant to see one of the greatest DJ’s perform.
4:30 am still celebrating. Drinking and carrying on.
5:30 am. Watching as the F.O.H. staff carried out closing duties.
6:15 am. Go to bed after being on my feet since around this time on Friday morning.
The next post will cover what came next.
YANKEES I SAY!
Albert Einstein once said; “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” AND WE DID!
Are you dreaming big and inspired?
A la prochaine
SDM
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