Learning To Be A Chef Part 1

Chapter 226

Learning To Be A Chef

Part 1

Stringum was tying up loose ends with Mr. Tate and the High Bishop. I cringed seeing a whole stack of videos on my desk with a note for me and my friends to view them so we could act the parts if called upon to do so. It wasn’t anything new we hadn’t done, in regard to sex or stimulation.

The only difference would be we would be doing it on tape as Mr. Tate watched us doing the scene with some play acting. The only good thing was it would be next weekend I would have to worry about this weekend I already had a full plate as it was, which most of it had to do with school and work.

Mom Dad had told me they wanted me to stay up with my classes not jump ahead, but they knew that wasn’t going to happen, Not with Mr. Tate wanting me to spend the entire weekend at his estate; if that wasn’t bad enough Chef Philip wanted me and Eli in the kitchen with him at Mr. Tate’s estate. Which would require all my homework completed by next Friday because I would be taking my first round of test the following week, I hated test just as much as the next guy.

I rather do a book report than take a test. Where I had to memorize the answers, know exactly in the book where I can find them when it was open book which was why I always highlight them and number them at the back of the chapters where they were. I also would have to make queue cards so I could memorize them quickly. Going to work was far easier, then going to high school.

I had yet to go over my bookkeeping. All I did know that it was being done; I also had to go over payroll so my worker bees could get paid on Friday so they could have money for the big dance.

I gave a tired sigh as I got off the bed letting Eli and the girls sleep being just as tired as they were having worked and gone school just like me as I made way over to my desk adding some more wood to the fire. I had worked through the night and woke when the alarm went off finding myself asleep at the desk Mom came into my room telling us we had big day to day she frowned when she saw me at my desk among my school work. She said. “You would sleep better in bed then your desk son.”

I shrugged my shoulders.  “Mom, if I did that nothing would get done lying in bed.”

Everyone groaned as they climbed out of bed and head for the showers. I remained at my desk signing checks and putting my school work into my backpack. Once I had completed that I climbed into the shower with them.

I really liked having a shower big enough for 6 people, mostly because it saved on water and we could help wash each other's backs. We have done so often that it was like a routine, having the girls finish about the same time Eli and I had finished; leaving the girls to make themselves beautiful which we both felt that they already were since they were naked.

If we had the time which we didn’t, I would have loved to climb back in bed with them and have sex for another two hours, but life sucked as I quickly got dressed and carried my shirt and my sneakers to the living room with my backpack. I told Sparky to hurry as it was freezing outside not that he listens to me and does the opposite.

Dad had put in a dogie door for him so he could go outside and come in when he was ready so we wouldn’t freeze our assets off waiting for him. He never went far not when there wasn’t anywhere for him to go with large chain link fence around our gated community.

Once he had come back inside Dad closed off the dogie door to keep other animals out like squirrels raccoons, rats, and mice. Trust me living so close too the mountains you would be surprised what has tried to come in through the dogie door including a skunk.

Mostly I think he is just testing us as he takes his sweet time because he knows it cold outside. Yet comes a running the moment the food was being placed on the table, knowing everyone spoils him rotten and has gotten fat because of that. I took a moment to call the order in so it could be here on Saturday.

So it wouldn’t have to make a double trip up the canyon since it was coming anyway on Saturday to the building crew’s kitchen. My friends here would be the ones putting it away while the rest of us would be working in the kitchen.

It would be our second long shift and the last shift for Kirk's three friends unless any of them wanted a job. Chef Mack told them to sleep on it. Everyone in the kitchen used my fake name as if it was my real name. Or they called me Flash, (for Flash Gordon) or Speedy Gonzales because how fast I could blow through prep work cutting up vegetables.

Again the day was nothing special; I was a little surprised to find out that Mr. Tate had called in sick. The girls in the cheerleading and dance committee were given the last two periods off so they could finish decorating the gym for tonight.

The one thing Eli and I didn’t have to worry about was finding a date for the dance. Being as we were married. Everyone else asked each of the girls that were our friends before seeking other girls. Kirk had his made up for him as one of his best friend’s sister who he had an eye for asked him during the first period. None of us had a hard time finding dates for the dance because we were rich or assumed that we were.

Many of the students coughed brown nosier when I turned in a whole week or more of homework typed and ready to be turned in. Causing the teacher a heart attack as they blink a few times seeing it; telling me it wasn’t due yet and they haven’t given it out which questions they wanted to answer from the back of the chapter.

I would smile and shrug my shoulders stating it was done. That this way I wouldn’t be surprised which questions would be either on the quiz or the test. Because I had gone through the entire chapters, using my notes and everything else they taught in class.  I didn’t care if the students teased me about it, because they didn’t understand I had a busy life.

Then again I wasn’t the only one that was turning in a whole weeks worth of homework as I watched each of my friends all do the same, causing gaps as they each came up and placed it on the teacher's desks. Like me, they too had a full plate juggling work and school; which many of the students didn’t understand because we were rich.

It also felt good not having to use my wheelchair anymore as part of my disguise, it felt like I could actually be myself, mostly as Nate Carrion no longer the helpless kid, yet I still had to have my bodyguards follow me around the school knowing the threat was real.

Stringum said that Mr. Tate was going to make a big announcement on Sunday, but for now, he had leaked rumors that he had aligned himself with us. Knowing his buddies would be quite angry because they had failed and pushed us to be on Mr. Tate side after they had failed to kidnap us and hold us for ransom.

That he had fired most of his men, as they had all been interrogated by Stringum with the help of my friend Jeff finding those loyal to the old Queen and his buddies; which was the main reason he canceled this weekend so they could put his new men in place or should I say our men.

So far Stringum hadn’t been able to find a single boy inside his estate, and that in itself concerned him. Plus the fact Jeff still couldn’t read him or go inside the estate without getting ghost slapped the moment he started snooping.

It was surprising that Mr. Tate didn’t kill those men instead of just firing them without pay and escorted them off his property. I had no doubt he wanted to, but if Stringum wasn’t present he would have. I am not saying they didn’t get away with it, because they didn’t as they were escorted into a black van and taken to the compound to be interrogated and dealt with by the U.S government and how they see fit to handle them.

It was none of my concern, I had my own problems as I had given the girls our employees their checks for the work they had done. It smelled of shopping spree for the girls so they could each buy them a new dress for the dance and rent a tux for us boys that didn’t have their own; which many of us did, and were down at the cleaners getting cleaned and pressed, plus being first to buy the roses before everyone else.

Considering we were first in line to get the freshest ones before they went on sale due to the fact we were rich and big tippers. We just had to be there by 4 or had already placed the order and paid for, which was why we boys were doing it during our lunch hour as we stood in line of the school pay phone adding change when we had to keep the phone line open.

Stringum had opened a business account at all the stores in town, then he would bill us for the items we bought on good faith. Giving the quote he knew where each of us lives and slept at night. The scary thing was that was true. The school day was winding down as we had one last thing to do before we could relax for the rest of the day and that was going to work as we picked up our dry cleaning and our roses for the girls.

I was a little bit of a romantic as I gave a dozen roses to Mack’s wife with card and enough money to buy her a very nice dress and set up an appointment to get her hair and nails done. And the use of my driver Landon to take her anywhere she wanted to go; telling her to take the rest of the day off that I would cover her shift.

She gave me several kisses on my cheeks and several nice meaning full kisses to her husband Mack thanking him. Considering it was both our idea to send all our women in the kitchen to have the rest of the afternoon off to make themselves pretty for us tonight.

It was, after all, it was a light day and we would be all getting off early the moment dinner was severed which would be around 4 or 4:30. With a note to the building crew, they must be fed no later than 5:30 or they would have to find their own food somewhere else. Most of them were going home long before then so they could spend the weekend with their families and with no storms on the horizon they were all going to take advantage of that.

The dinner count was the lowest tonight. Chef Mack put me in charge and giving me a kitchen update that he had started dinner which was beef tips over potatoes and a fresh green salad, Orange rolls and a choice of five desserts that we had left over the last two days. Plus a whole lot of prep work and cleaning that needed to be done and weeks worth of paperwork and the ordering for Saturday and the big one on Monday.

The list was long on my end as he changed into his street clothes telling me not to burn down the kitchen while he is gone to pick up his tux, get a hair cut and shave. Telling me which chefs would be back to help when they had done the same.

That had left after lunch services; which was why the kitchen seemed so quiet and empty. It was more making things got done then cooking. With the beef tips cooking away in the ovens and wouldn’t be done until the last 30 minutes. All I would need to do is make pan gravy and stir them until I was ready to put them into the hot water bath or hot cart. I grabbed my clipboard and made my rounds around the kitchen as the boys went to work squaring away the dining room and the dishes.

Even though I personally didn’t have a lot of cooking to do I was still busy enough, but with a crew knowing the basic routine I didn’t have a lot to do personally. Other than making sure the work was getting done. Kirk and Ricky took over the salad prep and Greg went directly into the bakery having the Bakery Chef personally ask me to assign him to him.

Greg had mentioned he really liked working in the bakery and was thinking he would someday like to be a Bakery Chef.  I had no problem with that since I had plenty of worker bees to do the work I needed to get done.

With everything being done without my help I quickly went over the build to order I would need for Saturday and Sunday which was different than the big one on Monday that would see us through the entire week except for produce and dairy which came 3 times a week.  Most of the shelves in the coolers were empty that said Chef Mack had already gone through them and made the decision which items needed to go.

Yet when I double checked I found a few items that were questionable finding no dates on them. I put them on a cart so Chef Mack could make the final decision. I wasn’t sure if he was testing me or not, either way, I wasn’t going to make that mistake. Because we had cleaned big coolers yesterday and it was a slow day moved up for some of the deep cleanings today like having all the small coolers cleaned so I could make sure everything was up to code.

I added bake potatoes to Kirk and Ricky’s pep work, and other things like onions and mushrooms for the beef tips, started a kettle for rice and one for noodles so the building crew could have a choice. I only needed enough for a 150. Not the regular 3 to 400 hundred since more than half were going home this weekend. The next time they would get a chance would be the big Halloween fundraiser party. That Stringum had invited everyone to come.

I was told the RSVP guests were per plate was five hundred to thousand dollars. Which included dinner, entertainment, and dancing. The guest would determine which plate they wanted would get two choices, Chicken Cordon Blu or Prim Rib or both. The other guests that came to the party would pay 25 dollars person and 35 dollars a family of 4 then 10 dollars children older than 12 children and young got in for free.

They had decided it was going to be a buffet, I had cringed when I was informed of that decision regarding which two proteins I would be serving, The rest of it was up to me to choose two kinds of vegetables, one frozen and one fresh, two starches. Like a potato and a type of rice I wanted to prepare, two gravies beef and chicken.

A nice salad of some kind which would be served table-side and 5 deserts, and a dinner roll of my choice, plus a sparkling drink of some kind, plus 5 appetizers. Mr. Stringum was offering a bottle of Champagne, or choice of a bottle of fine wine out five kinds he was offering, for those that wanted to splurge a little extra at the table.

When I was told that, I wanted to bang my head against the wall because that was a lot of food, but Chef Phillips and Chef Mack said it was all doable. Yea Right? I thought doable for them maybe. The worst part was they wanted to put me into the spotlight carving the prime rib to order at the buffet table.

After we had agreed that was a bad idea. But with everything happening it was better that I will be seen as someone to take seriously since we had dropped the wheelchair act. I hated to be in the spotlight. I hated the pressure knowing everything had to be perfect. I wanted to strangle my self because I was so good at my job and I proved I could run a kitchen after last night and now it was my main job. Man, I wanted to be a brown little mouse hiding in a corner.

I had everything under control which was surprising. Wishing someone would mess up so I had something to fix; instead of wandering around with barely anything to do except stir my meat adding the onions and mushrooms as well giving it the proper seasonings. All I had was a list of ingredients, not the amounts. My other job was to make sure my little mice were doing a good job as I had finished the order and the paperwork inside the office and was so bored I had swept the office and mopped it myself.

Questioning if I should let my little mice do it for me. Then if I did that I wouldn’t have anything to do. Already my dish room mice were washing the walls and baseboards as well deep cleaning the outside of all the bins under our stations and washing large bottle of spices. While I was folding towels and washing aprons and everything I found dirty that needed washed, making my around of stirring everything until finished as I quickly put everything for the line in the hot carts.

Chef Mack came back around 4:15 I already had the chili ready for LDS building project and the remaining bread bowls. Plus the line was already set up and the first people were being served. Chef Mack tasted everything quickly finding that it tasted better than expected. I didn’t have any doubts because I everyone taste it just to make sure it was to their liking.

I had all my brown mice dressed in white serving jackets because I didn’t have any of my serving crew other then Bakery Chef as he told Greg that he and his prep crew could clean up the Bakery so he could go down to get his hair cut and his tux for tonight.

All the crew that was supposed to have come back went home seeing I had plenty of help. Which I was told go ahead and let them if really didn’t need them; I wanted to laugh because I was so bored and I was already running out of things for them to do so let them go placing all my brown mice on the serving line.

I told Chef Mack I had a cart in the cooler of the things he needed to look at that didn’t have a date on them and were questionable. He smiled and quickly went into the cooler he counted the items as he checked them off his cheat sheet. Telling me it was a test and I had passed with flying colors as he wheeled the entire cart into the dish room. 

He checked my work as I went back to the line being the runner replacing the items once they had run out. I noticed the people come to get the chili and left the line to deal with them and returned bored as the line had died down considerably. I removed my self entirely and sent my little brown mice back to the dish room and worked a skeleton crew on the serving line.

Until it was barely a line to the point it only needed two people, sending the rest to finish up cleaning the kitchen and fold the rest of the kitchen laundry as Chef Mack went over my food order and called it in. Once the line was down to nothing he yelled out in the dining room to anyone that wanted seconds to help themselves as he laughed at them as they dived in.

He said. “I guess boys either your hungry or you like my new chef cooking.” They gasped when they found out it was me, a 16-year-old kid who was responsible for their meal and running the entire kitchen, seeing Chef Mack still in his street clothes.

One man said. “No, it can’t be? He’s only a boy, and my wife would have a cow if she knew a boy could cook better then she can.”

Another guy and his buddies stated. “Not hard to do knowing how bad your wife cooks.”  Causing everyone to laugh included him. Within minutes the boys scraped the pans clean I had no doubt if they could get away with it they would have licked them clean as a few of them wiped their fingers around the debris or used a roll to get every last drop.

Mack said. “That something kid when someone does that, it means you did good.” He closed the line and telling our mice the station is already for them too clean. He walked around the kitchen and smiled as he opened all the coolers finding them clean and empty he asked how long before we could go home I said. “When the dishes are done; the floors already been scrubbed since all the prep and cooking have been done. Sir”

He said. “Excellent,” and told our brown mice to put a fire underneath them, getting a yes Chef.

He motioned me into the office and said. “We are going to work on the menu for next week and come up with some ideas for the big event.” I was in shock as I took a seat wanting my ideas of what sounded good. Once we had knocked the week’s menu out adding some of the items to the weekly menu I would be serving on the line here. So I could get a chance to make them first before the big night. Like the rice pilaf, and the twice baked potato and chicken Cordon Blue.  Stating for nice dinner salad his wife likes to do a something called 7 lawyer salads.

We chose 5 deserts that could be easily made… some of them the day before. Including my twice baked potatoes and chicken Cordon -Blu would do just fine setting in the cooler overnight. Plus it would give or Bakery Chef to over bake some bread for the bread crumbs we would need to bread the chicken.

We came up with 6 simple appetizers, a   cheese plate, a fruit plate, a vegetable plate, and three hot plates. Meatballs and a spiced sausage corn dog and Buffalo wings, one barbecue and one mild and something to whet their appetite a frappe, which was three kinds of ice cream whipped with sprite including a homemade root- beer, to be served throughout the entire party. 

Which they could eat during as they mingled with the guests before the main course and after until it was all gone and devoured by our guests; the menu was so big it would take three days too put it all together and two full days of prep work. Plus the normal building crews meals. But it was all doable.

It looked like a lot of work to me, but then again it would be for such a green Chef like me. Stringum wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth and with the appetizers; it would be a nice start and slow them down before they hit the expensive buffet table.