Moving On Up

03-16-20

Some of the greatest Chefs in the world started out as dishwashers or prep cooks. Commonly looked over misfits who end up being some of the most skilled culinary art professionals. I certainly wasn’t one of them, I hoped to be but I had a long way to go.

If you recall one of our main grill guys injured himself and our Sous chef has just called me, the potato peeler up to the line. First he showed me what temp to keep it on, I’d never felt anything this hot before. He then showed me a trick to light it in case the pilot went out, which happened quite often apparently. He went over a lot of the small things and then proceeded to show me where all the cuts of meat were kept, first on the line and then the backups in the walk-in. He explained that this would now be my prep. There was a lot more to this place then I had thought. Choice sirloin, prime sirloin, Waygu sirloin, and so on. He explained the marbling and how it effected the flavor of the meat and told me if I aced this, he’d buy me a steak that night. I may have been arrogant at first but inside I was shivering. Kind of scared I was going to get things mixed up or drop the wrong cut and mess up somebody’s order.

I remembering hearing the yell across the kitchen to a server when I first started “I don’t make mistakes in my kitchen” and chuckling as I got back to my routine. Now it’s all I could think about. The ball dropped at about 11 and it was until 11:15 that people came in. He showed me the hot spot and the resting spot on the grill and explained what they were used for. He told me to “never fire food unless you see a ticket”.

11:37 is when we all heard that oh so familiar sound of a pos system printing out a ticket while everyone waits to know what they need to do. The chef called everything out and gave us the start time. He then told me to grab an 8oz price filet and a 14oz Prime New York Strip. Remember what he said about the marbling I was able to pin point it down to two options and luckily I was right. He showed me how to salt and pepper the steaks and explained the importance of making sure it didn’t just fall off. I dropped them gently on the grill and heard that sizzle as the meat started to cook. Through this first order he pretty much held my hand and showed me exactly when you know it’s cooked to temp and how to properly leave those checkered grill marks that you see on lots of steaks.

After watching him plate the steaks and inspect the entire plate he sent them out with the server. Abruptly he turned around and said, “now you’re on your own kid, Think of it as if you had to pay for every single piece of meat you fuck up.” Well, Nobody wants to have to do that but you keep that mentality, it’ll drive you even further to become a great chef.