Chapter 7, Day 17

Today... shoo... today was rough. Not only did I wake up with a headache that I thought was going to kill me, but today was our first lab where we started making actual recipes. We practiced some knife cuts for the first hour or so and then our groups (3 people each) began working on our menu. Each group was given three recipes to do and 3 hours to do it in. See, what we do, is all the stuff we cook feeds all three lab classes for the day, so when we say service is at 1... well, we better damn well be ready. There's nothing more intimidating than two other classes full of students who are ahead of you and who have been through what you're going through drooling on the glass of the doors waiting. My group was responsible for a garden salad with homemade croutons and vinaigrette, tuna salad, and corn chowder. All of these recipes seem relatively easy, except you're making enough for 30-40 servings each. There is A LOT of prep work... so, let me back up.
When we were practicing knife cuts, this kid in my group (and I say kid because I believe he's about 20) kept leaving his thumb out when he was chopping where it was only a matter of time before he chopped it off... and I told him that. I said, "man, if you keep that thumb out, you're going to lose it." He was good until we got done with knife cuts. But then, when we started in prepping our ingredients for our menu, he started doing it again. At this point, I told him in my "I'm your boss tone" (thinking that might scare him a little bit) that he was, in fact, going to cut his thumb... maybe cut it off if he didn't stop it. So, thinking that I'd scared him a little, I went back on my merry little way prepping all the veg we were going to need for these big ol' dishes... not 10 minutes later I hear "uh oh" and I knew without looking what had happened. He had sliced his thumb and he had done it well. There was blood everywhere. It looked really bad. So, Chef sent him down to 'Public Safety' to get looked at... Great, we're down a man with all this stuff to do.
So finally, he came back and decided that it wasn't bad enough to leave and go to the hospital. So I'm thinking, "Well, at least he can mix stuff and be a gopher if he can't cut stuff (because they had his thumb wrapped up like he was a cartoon character that had just hammered his thumb)." But it wasn't to be... he just kinda moped around for the first 30 minutes he was back until something snapped in me... I told him if he was going to be here, he had to do something. So, I just started barking orders at him... go get this, do this, stir that. I didn't give that kid a chance to breathe... I have to tell you, that felt pretty good... It felt natural... I'm over here working my ass off and still having the wherewithal to see the big picture and get other people moving... In case you weren't sure, that is exactly what a chef does. I've worked in a couple of kitchens in my life, and that is just what they do. It's their name on the line and they expect that you know it.
It was really satisfying... I must say, in my normal life, I give orders all the time, but I have never been as comfortable doing it as I was today.
These are the little affirmations that let me know that I am making the right decisions with my life... it doesn't happen all that often, so, I'm going to relish it while I can.

Peace