Days like These (File under Mama Said There’d Be)

I had a rough day. Personally rough because I had to challenge my own person. I had to decide very quickly whether I would allow the demons deep within my soul to take control of my outward manifestations OR whether I would exercise some self restraint and learn something in the process.

We have a very hands on owner at Without Reservation. He does a lot of the expediting during lunch service and he has a bit of a problem, in that, he likes to jump chits and send out food that has been prepared for another bill. But first by way of explanation.

When a chit comes in the entire kitchen works in tandem to ensure that the bill is completed, in full, at the same time. Chef will call out a bill number and let us know the amount of time that is required for the longest element of that bill. It then becomes our challenge, task or obstacle, whatever you want to call it, to ensure that WE deliver within that time frame. Thus you can imagine what happens if an element of one bill is “jumped” and sent to another bill. The finely choreographed ballet soon looks like amateur hour at the community kitchen. AND I DON’T WANT THAT… EVER!

At lunch today I personally sent out sixty meals (approximately). SIXTY MEALS. At my busiest I was preparing eight different sandwiches and sides, two Penne and a Spaghetti. All of which was being done to coincide with the Chefs’ call. I put up the food that I could as I was finishing off the Penne and soon looked up in horror as my Spaghetti and a couple of the sandwiches had been shifted from bills that I was working to bills that had just come in. This was done ostensibly to finish off a bill quickly. Yes, it finished the bill of quickly, but, on the other hand, it screwed up three or four other bills that caused me to have to come up, on the fly, with a way to complete those bills.

The problem is quite simple. Chicken only cooks so quickly. It wouldn’t matter whether it was Chicken or Fish or Pasta. The principle is the same. When you are working in a fast paced environment such as a lunch service, you learn how to divide your time appropriately to make sure that you never are the problem with a bill. However, when a bill is jumped and the food that you have prepared for that bill is sent out it causes you an enormous amount of stress because you never want to let your Chef down.

I am Irish and Scottish. Which means by my very heritage, I have been known, to have a temper. That temper usually manifests itself in a lyrical tirade that may or may not be lost on the recipient but the intent is quite plain. At numerous points during lunch today, perhaps as many as six or seven, I would have loved to let my mind be known verbally. Instead, much to my amazement and intense pleasure, I swallowed my anger and did my best to fulfill the orders that were my responsibility. I came very close, a couple of times, to letting go, but I did not.

Thus I have in the process become a better man, a better cook and will become a better Chef down the road because of it. Believe me when I say though that my fellow cooks were aware of my anger through some of my actions. After all actions do speak louder than words. There is a certain sound that a pan makes when it hits a sink in anger. Needless to say that sound was heard quite a few times through service.

After service I went outside and could see that Chef was angry. I asked what was up. He kept it internalized and I knew it wasn’t me. As I took a deep drag of my cigarette I mentioned my displeasure with what had happened during service. He noted my displeasure and let me know that it would be resolved in the near future.

As I sit and write this now I am thrilled with two things that happened today. One because of something that Executive Chef said to me as I was leaving Reservation. “Ferme la porte.” THANK YOU CHEF! A valuable lesson and one which I am learning is absolutely right. The second is that I am in control of my destiny, my personal response and my future.

For the longest time I would blame my heritage for the way that I was. NO LONGER! I am in control of me. As such I need to wage a battle with my mistaken beliefs and hold dominion over my reaction and response to the world around me. All in all, I think that today was a valuable day of personal awareness. And the more I analyze it, the better I feel.

All I could think about when I wanted to explode were the following quotes, 3 in fact;

Seneca once said; “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”

Lord Alfred Tennyson said; “The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.”

Jack Kerouac; “My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”

Food for thought. Don’t you think?

There is an old Asian Proverb which states; He that will not reflect is a ruined man.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM