Learning To Be A Chef Part 3

Chapter 226-2

Learning To Be A Chef

Part 3

 

I reminded our wives that we had to get up early around 3 so we could be at work by 4 at the latest. Eli groaned stating it was too early for anyone to get up at that hour I said. I had to agree as I told him it would go fast remembering my life on a farm I was only glad that I didn’t have to do it every day. So I could milk the cows and collect eggs from the chickens.

For now Dad has hired someone to do it because of my very full schedule he only required me to do it on the days I didn’t have to work, but it was not five in the morning plus we didn’t have a lot of chickens and we only had two cows and four horses and 2 sheep and 3 lambs; which only took me 1 hour to do it. Jared and I would trade days so we both got to do it. None of us complained about doing other than the fact it was cold and damn early, but so rewarding.

Breakfast and lunch was the easiest to do, Mom kissed us goodbye as she was starting breakfast for everyone else. Kirk, Randy, and the two Philip boys were all smiles as they met us in the living room as the girls they had been with were still in bed sleeping; even Chef Phipps was humming a nice tune as we all got into the limo and headed to work. 

Chef Mack greeted me as Chef Phillips waved telling to call him if he needed help. Knowing that was never a possibility as he headed to Mr. Tate’s estate. Chef Mack today was wearing a brand new white Chefs jacket which said he had been promoted to be Head Chef.  He asked if I was ready for another long day. I said. “Long is relative.”

He said. “Excellent, we have a menu change today. The building crew commented they wanted French toast and sausage, bacon and hash browns. We needed to use up the sliced bread in the freezer anyway before our new supply comes this afternoon. I have a whole list of things for Kirk that needed to be prep, Greg I believe you have a whole day of baking, Our Bakery Chef Mr. Donaldson would like me to give you to him on a permanent basis; you’ll find a new jacket in your locker. It looks you brown mouse Randy, you have some paperwork to fill out and sad to say…”

He said watching a car pull up with his other two friends Mark and Erik. “Never mind it looks like you’re two other brown mice have also decided they too would like a job. You're late I don’t like tardiness now get inside and change we have a busy day ahead of us.” We all said yes Chef and quickly changed into our uniform. Chef Mack quickly gave update were I stand in the kitchen. Nothing had been turned on and the place was cold almost to the point our teeth were chatting. I grabbed the clipboard with a new menu and placed my people where I needed them.

Chef Mack told me he wanted me today to start from scratch and pretend he wasn’t here. I was good with that as I quickly turned on everything we were going to need. Chef Mack said. “Oh one other thing, we needed 5 hundred egg muffins to make; ham, sausage and scrambled and eggs over medium; about 150 of each for the LDS church by 9 am.” I groaned as I looked at my empty kitchen.

Yet I knew what needed to be done, I asked Kirk and Ricky if they ever cooked eggs before, knowing that was going to take the longest and everything else was basic prep work. They both shook their heads no. I said well to is the days the day boys, but well get to that later.” I was told that Chef Mack’s wife won’t be coming in today. I would need to prepare salads for lunch and dinner.

Chef Mack smiled at me as he said. “I’ll be back, I have some errands to do that Chef Phillips and Stringum wanted me to do so our Halloween fundraiser so we can have all the décor ready, as well make sure we have enough dinnerware and table clothes and so on.”  He left me alone as I looked at the long list of things that needed to be done for breakfast…which would be in two parts, One for the building crew at 7:30 it wasn’t a lot of time maybe 3 hours half hours tops since we had arrived around 3: 20. It would be a long day indeed working 4 am to 3 pm.

It was only for 2 hundred if that, then jump right in for lunch soon after, which was French dip, a quick salad and potato chips with cans of soda to take with them if they wanted too. Yet I had the additional items to worry about and that was coffee, and hot chocolate that would be severed all day, but today it was my job to make it and keep plenty on hand so all they had to do was come in and fill up their thermoses.

The other was simple that didn’t need much attention which was the soda fountain. I never really appreciated that until now. Making sure it had cups, lids, and straws for both coffee and soda and all the condiments for the coffee as well as the hot chocolate. All the cups had Stringum’s logo on it. You can’t help but get free PR seeing the paper tents with each of our new stores that were now open.

No sweat as I quickly devised a battle plan; on the clipboard where all my instructions of all the things I needed to prepare. With a note stating don’t cook the sausage patties or the bacon in the fryer or on the grill that it would take to long instead use my brain how to accomplish this task. I asked Ricky as he was pulling the large bread cart out of the freezer so it could thaw for french- toast, how they normally do it without cooking these items on the grill or the stove. He said. “Oven works great.”

I looked at him as if he was joking he shrugged his shoulders at me, and said. “Dad does all the time, it only takes a few minutes and then they are ready to go.” He quickly told me to layer the bacon on large sheet pans using a parchment paper and to do the same with sausage patties and the muffins after I had buttered them. The only thing I would have to cook for the egg muffins are the eggs on the flat tops. I did a test run using a one tray using the sausage and bacon so I could get a general idea on how long it would take to cook using this method. It was something I had never done before, always doing it in a pan and on the stove at home.

I did the same with the English-muffins taking five of each would be a good test.  I set my watch for 10 minutes and worked on my egg batter using Chef Phillips recipes, which said 1 egg per slice of bread, using the 4 cartons of egg batter already prepared for every 75 eggs so it would be half real and half not so real.  I groaned because I had to calculate everything I would need, being so green when it came to cooking in large amounts, but then again I was the one that wanted this job and the career.

I calculated I would need 4 slices of bread for each person, which meant 600 slices of Texas toast bread, and cracked eggs 2 large boxes that contained 30 dozen, 5 cartons of egg batter and 4 gallons of milk and 6 cartons of heavy cream, and 200 potatoes peeled and shredded and 600 linked sausages and 600 cooked bacon, Everything else was just season ingredients.  And this was just breakfast for the building crew, but the problem I was facing because it was raw egg I couldn’t taste it without cooking it first.

By the time I had calculated everything my experiment was done. I was actually surprised to see it actually had worked. Ricky said. “Boss, the mice are bored now that everything is done in the dish room and the dining room,” 

I said thanks. “Tell them they can help prep today. Since you have the most experience, you can train our new mice how to do simple prep things I need; 500 English muffs on the sheet trays and buttered and 150 sausages and 600 slices of bacon for 3 slice per muffin and 150 slices of ham on a ¼ slice, all ready to go in the oven by 7.

He gave me a yes Chef and told Kirk to help Ricky with cracking all the eggs I needed and sending Eli to fetch for the items I needed like powder sugar and a whole case of maple syrup. And the pre-made egg batter and the milk and cream I would need. As I quickly did a walk through, making sure my dining room was clean started the big industrial coffee pot that held close to 5 gallons of regular coffee and 5 gallons of de-cafe and one 5 gallons of hot chocolate using the instruction on my cheat sheet that Chef Mack gave me then checked my bakery and how they were doing. The kitchen was nice and toasty now that all the ovens and grills were all on... going full blast.

The bakery smelled good with freshly made cinnamon rolls for breakfast; baking in the huge ovens and long loaves of bread for the french-bread deli rolls I would use for lunch today for both places. Greg was busy making bread in the huge mixer as Chef Donaldson the Bakery Chef was teaching him how to make bread. He asked if I had an idea regarding my menu for the fundraiser was going to be. I quickly broke it down and he wrote down the items he would be responsible for including the extra bread crumbs for the cordon Blu I would be serving at the end of the week.

I asked if it was going to be a problem he said. “No Chef, I think we can handle that. Greg you’re going to be making lots of bread today. Our Chef needs lots of bread crumbs and takes a few days for them to dry out.” Greg said yes Chef and focused on his current task; which was eating half a cinnamon roll and few leftover brownies while making a big batch of bread dough in the large mixer, which explained why he liked his new job in the kitchen.

Kirk was waiting for me after cracking all the eggs I had asked him to do and then dumped them into my own big mixer. I gave Eli the next task which was help peel all the potatoes I would need for my hash browns. Eli said it was hard to believe how many potatoes we go through. I said. “True, but that’s because they are a cheap item and the easiest to prepare.”

I told Kirk and Ricky to help them since the other four dish room boys were still busy prepping my trays for my muffin breakfast, and we're just about finished with my french-toast allotment of sausage links, not patties and bacon. Which I would need too put them in the oven within the hour so I had them when breakfast would be served, so I wouldn’t fall short on time; which was quickly evaporating,

It took several trials runs before I got the taste I wanted giving my team a sample so I could see if it met their approval. Tasting everything is one of the most important things as a Chef and your crew are always willing to be test subjects. I moved Kirk and Ricky put them in charge of cooking my French-toast dividing the four flattops between them after giving a quick demonstration on how to cook French-toast. Chef Mack told me the best thing I could do to make my life easier was train my crew to do things in the kitchen that was time-consuming for me to do, but once they had learned how to do it, it would free me up to do other things.

I had calculated that they could get 50 slices on each of the flat tops which would mean 200 slices cooking at once with only 3 turns which could be accomplished within 45 minutes giving my hash browns the last 30 minutes to cook. I could shave half that time by using the steamer as suggested and finish them on the flat top. And cook them as breakfast was in progress. I already set the maple syrup to warm in the kettle and had Martin teach the boys how to portion out the butter into small paper cups that we would use for the church during sacrament meeting, once they had finished the last task as they were on large tall tray dolly waiting for me to cook.

It only took me five minutes to make the honey butter, as I used the small tabletop mixer to make it. So Eli could shred the potatoes using the big mixer attachment. Once again my time was slipping away as I handed Martin the butter, as I waited for Eli to finish shredding the potatoes; which gave me a chance to walk through checking my prep cooks work, and start the de’café coffee, stating it needed to be ready right at 5:30 a, so the men can have something hot until breakfast was ready.

Chef Mack soon came back as I was just pulling the first trays of bacon from the oven for the line. Letting them cool as instructed my little mice to put them in long hotel pans and cover them before putting them in the hot cart and setting the line-up. He did a quick tour of my kitchen tasting everything as he gave me a smile seeing I had things under control and told me to call him if I needed him taking a cup of my freshly made coffee to the office and freshly made cinnamon roll.

The fact that I felt like I wasn’t in control didn’t matter, but it felt good knowing if I needed him he would. Once the boys had finished traying the things up for the line, I started on the last few items giving Kirk the responsibility of putting a fresh fruit melody together.

He blinked at me when I told him I wanted him to peel two types of melons and several pineapples, as well as watermelon and strawberries and apples, enough for 175 people, which a note told me to use all the fruit in the cooler. Telling me he had never peeled a cantaloupe, honey-dew or pineapple in his life. I told him to start with the things he knows how to do and I come by and show him the rest of it and that I needed to start the hash browns and start cooking off the other items for the muffins.

The ham was easy so I gave that task to Ricky and Martin and had Eli and other three boys bring out the milk and orange juice for the line and put it on ice as we do for the salads using only half of it so I would have room for the fruit melody and put all the cold stuff in the coolers by the line. Make sure we had a good verity of canned pop in the cooler with everything else and take the rest of the soda in the storeroom and put it in the big cooler. So I would have it for lunch for both places.  

Once I had the hash browns on the flat top making a thin egg batter and butter to keep it together and the hash brown. I told Ricky to turn it and call me when it was turning brown. He gave me a yes Chef as he asked if this was what I wanted a slight brown on the ham. I nodded telling him that it was perfect; to call me when he was done with the ham so we could begin cooking the eggs. I refocused on teaching Kirk about basic prep on fruit; he was a quick learner as he grasped it quickly.

It didn’t take long with the extra help that required little effort. Giving Randy and Mark the job to peel and cut the rest of the strawberries and the bananas. And Kirk could teach the boys how to slice apples without cutting themselves.

The more practice the boys had with a knife the better it would be to help them get promoted. Everything you learned was a step up compared to someone that didn’t have any training. 150 people didn’t seem like a lot anymore as my team followed my orders to the “T.” We were just finishing the last of fruit melody as our breakfast line started to line up. Chef Mack said he would take care of it as I started putting together my egg muffin breakfast. He had my four dish room mice slip on white severing jackets.

I put Kirk and Ricky on egg detail once I had shown what and how I wanted them. The carton Egg batter was quick and easy to make, as I showed them all they had to do was cook in this long flat pans that had 6 on each side which equaled 12 at time and we had 10 cooking trays in the kitchen and only 5 per grill would fit as they fold each of the portions, and use the round egg rings for the over medium eggs to keep them uniform and round. I worked on finishing the plating up the fruit melody and the last of the hash browns.

I cringed noting the time had quickly evaporated seeing it was now 7:30, giving me an hour and a half to put together 600 muffins. I quickly organized myself as I made a production line of muffins. Ricky pulled the last of my hash browns off and they quickly used the grill to finish all the eggs. Kirk came over on my side after cleaning up his station he was working on. Eli took out the garbage of all the empty egg boxes and the garbage cans we had filled up so we wouldn’t be working in a mess.

The assembly was easy as we started with a full station of muffin bottoms placing meat, egg, and cheese and then the top as we put them all on a large sheet tray with clean parchment paper on the bottom and covered them with plastic wrap so they wouldn’t get dirty during travel and slide off. I marked each tray with aberrations telling me and them what kind they were and slid them in a hot cart to keep everything hot. I had just finished by 8:30 wiping the sweat of my brow with the sleeve of my jacket.

Allowing the Eli to wash everything down so we could start again, showing him how to clean up the meat slicer without cutting himself, so we could use it to cut up all those roast I had cooked Thursday, placing 6 more into the ovens, so I would have enough for both lunches. The line would close at 9 as I ran back and forth being the runner and making sure I had plenty of fresh coffee and hot chocolate.

Once it had died down I gave Kirk his long list of prep-work that we would need tonight and Sunday telling him we would all take a break once the line closed. Which we were all looking forward to after a hard three hours, well hard enough with the crew that I had that weren’t fully trained like I was; sending the dish mice back to the dish room to start working on the dishes until we were ready for a break as the dining room cleared.

Chef Mack patted me on the back for a job well done as the people from the LDS church came to pick up their breakfast muffins and milk and orange juice, which basically cleaned out our main coolers to the point there was nothing on shelves. The delivery trucks would come about 10:30 and keep coming until about 2 which gave us time to have a nice hot relaxing breakfast before we hit it again.

Chef Mack was pleased as punch with us all as he told us for being a new crew we did a mighty fine job today so far. Which I knew it made them all warm and fuzzy inside as we piled our plates of all our hard work and ate in the dining room. It felt good to take a breather as I checked my meat before going out to the dining room.

Everything tasted good including our egg muffins I had made just for us. The hard part was getting up again. I smiled when Eli said that, that was the fast 4 hours he had ever worked since we started. Chef Mack stated fast for now because we still had another 6 at least before any of us could go home. I felt bad knowing he wouldn’t be joining us not with Chef Philip’s gone. Then he smiled at me said. “Well, Chef now that you got everything under control. I can go home and come back around 2 and finish up with those slackers that will be doing the dinner rush tonight and tomorrow since they all got to sleep in.

“Then next week we see about if you can handle the kitchen all by yourself on Monday, Wednesday so I can have two days off now that I have another Chef that can take my place.” He patted me on the back as he said it. I knew it was time to go back to work when the first truck pulled in as the driver came into the dining room with a tray of food of the leftovers and filled his thermos full of coffee. The boys groaned as they followed me into the kitchen. I quickly divided my team of mice up. I cringed seeing the dish room with large mixing bowls from the bakery and all the pans we used for the line.

The dining room was a mess as well. I gave the boys a chance to get organized as I checked off the items of the truck as Eli, Kirk, Ricky, and Martin put it all way. Eli said as he looked at the first truck being all dairy… that after last Monday this was nothing. The other boys agreed. As I turned on the music so we had something to listen too. Now that stressing part was done. I missed having Greg as part of my crew, but I knew he was working just as hard. It didn’t take long for the boys to put the first truck way not needing to rotate anything just slide into place.

Kirk picked up where he left off as my pre-cooks/ kitchen stewards finished cleaning up the line and cleaning the grills, Ricky teaching Eli and Kirk how to clean one. Then asked me what’s next, I looked at my long list of things that needed to be done, and told him I needed to make lasagna for tonight nights dinner service for both places.

I would have cringed about how much work it would be, but not in my huge kitchen it would be a piece of cake. I quickly added up all my ingredients and had him cook off 100 lbs of hamburger in the big floor pot kettle. Using all the onions he could find in the coolers that had already been prepared. Telling Kirk I would need at least 15 lbs of diced onions to finish it off. They gave me a yes Chef and we began once again.