My Skill Level (file under always improving)

First off to my love C… I am so proud of you! Keep on being the you I know you to be. You are the most amazing woman in the world and I love you dearly. Shine on Mon Petit.

That said. I am working like a machine. As I’m sure you can tell from the lack of posts for the last little while. For which I am sorry but there is little I can do. My gas tank only has so much gas and lately it has been running close to empty.

So skills. Where am I?

I think that sometimes it is easy to forget that I have only been in a professional kitchen for 9 months. In fact today is nine months and one day. In that time I have progressed quite nicely if I don’t say so myself.

Over the course of the summer I was outside on the grill. In fact I am back on the grill this weekend (much to my chagrin) but hey we all have to do our job. Working the grill the main things that I learned is how to prep my station, how to clean my station, how to set up my station, organizing a station, reading and preparing chits and perhaps most important HOW TO OPERATE UNDER PRESSURE.

That brings me to an important point. We, those of us crazy fools, that choose to work in the kitchen, operate in a very different way than the rest of the world. We work hard; extremely hard (not that no one else does) but ours is a bit different. We are at work when most of you have finished your work. The unsung people in white that lurk in kitchens while you are downing martinis and canapés. We are still at work when you are nicely buzzed. I only belong in a kitchen and am grateful that I have found where I belong.

Knife skills are constantly improving. I had to rissole eight litres of potatoes. I have always been a bit concerned doing rissole. But I did fairly well. I am confidant that by the time of my one year anniversary there that my knife skills will have improved even more.

General kitchen skills are improving every day. Based on conversations I have had with A, K and Chef B I think that sometimes they forget I have ONLY been in a kitchen for nine months. I pick things up quickly and have a great conceptual understanding of food and pick things up quickly which serves me well.

Lately I have started being less boisterous at work. It is easy to be boisterous at work in order to cut through some of the mundane. But I feel that I need to keep my head down and just do my job. It is not necessarily easy to do but I feel that it is something that I need to do in order to be consistent with my stated objective of being the best possible chef I can be.

I am excited to go to work everyday. The challenges and obstacles excite me. I am thrilled to know that what I am doing now is directly responsible for the welfare of my family (on multiple levels – nutrition, financial and emotional).

I have another post coming right up.

Thomas More once said; “Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed” And man am I getting an education.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM