Which Section Am I On?

When I got to work this morning, one of the cooks was already well into setting up the starter section. I was wondering if I would be working the line, or doing prep for that section. He put me to work straight away filleting salmon. Actually, first he told me that I had labelled something improperly. See, the other day I ‘filled’ bottles with garlic mayo, which we the kitchen staff enjoy calling garlic whack. I labelled the bottles garlic whack to be funny. Well, they admitted they did get a kick out of it, but apparently the health inspector questioned them on what garlic whack was. Whoops, haha, but I am glad I wasn’t working the day she came in – apparently she is a real stickler. Anyways, I apologized and they said, no we got a good laugh out of it, and one of them winked at me and said they wouldn’t mind finding the odd bottle of garlic whack in the fridge again. Then I had to prepare the mash, the egg salad mixture, and a big batch of tartar sauce. Next was prepping the prawns and chicken sandwich mixture. All the while I had to handle dessert orders, and explain things to some other kitchen staff – as we had cooks from the restaurant helping us out, who aren’t so familiar with the bar. It felt weird for me, the new intern, to be telling them what to do and how to do it, but it made me feel good. Of course I had to vacpac everything I had completed as well, and when I went to vacpac something for the chef, who had been waiting to use the machine, instead of thanking me for the favor, he told me I apparently did it wrong. You’re welcome!

Dish of the Day: Crispy beef strips on a bed of bok choy with spicy stir-fried noodles and veg

So I spent the majority of the morning and afternoon doing prep work for the starter section. The cook on starters even got mad at me for doing some prep work for pastry, because someone else was supposed to be on that, but they weren’t and weren’t very good at it. I was running out of some things for my dessert orders. The head chef was nice to me today, he even sharpened my knife for me on his stone. And it wasn’t just because he was in a good mood either, he got after the cook on mains for handing off his jobs (he had asked me to vacpac some meats for him, which I don’t mind, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t busy at the time) when it wasn’t even busy, and mad at the other cook for doing prep work late at night and leaving the place a mess. When I finished washing a bunch of salad greens, the cook on starters told me to take a quick supper break, and then I would take over the starter section. Meanwhile, he was battering a bunch of fish to fry. 

I find it difficult switching back and forth from a station. I would almost rather just be in charge of that station all of the time. Because everyone has slightly different ways of organizing things and doing things (some ways are definitely better than others), and that messes me up. I have a certain way of organizing my station, where I know exactly where everything is. So when others are on my station, they may put things in different spots. Also they may do things differently than I do. I do find it kind of funny, but also frustrating, that the cook that has been working on starters as well, arrives early and sets things up, but doesn’t take much pride in doing the prep work – taking shortcuts and whatnot. Yet, will get after me for doing things my way.

Starter Special: Cajun chicken burger with pesto mozzarella, tomato mayo, and skinny fries

So I took over the starter section, which wasn’t very busy at first, but it really picked up. It wasn’t that there was a ridiculous amount of orders coming in, but as the waiter on the pass said, he had never seen so many orders with both starters and mains on them. I find these orders the most confusing of all. It is easy for me to complete a bunch of starter orders, or complete a bunch of main orders, but mix them up and then I have to keep pumping out starters while the cook on mains will collaborate with me to get the mains out as well. But the cook on mains kept looking over at me, either making sure I was fine (which I mostly was, although at a few points the other cook came over to help me when it got really busy to speed things up), or commenting on how well I was doing. At the end of the day, he really praised me by saying, “You’re getting better every day!” He said he is always leery of interns, usually they are just put in the back doing crappy prep work, but are supposed to be given the chance to work the line. That makes him, nervous, as they usually aren’t very good. Most of them don’t have any previous experience (me included) so this is understandable. But he told me, “When you’re on the line, I can actually relax. I know it will be handled well.” He told the head chef how well I did, and he said, “That’s good to hear. So after you finish your next year of school, you’re coming back here to work full time?” He even stayed to help me clean up my station, when usually he leaves early.