Making the Chef

The Night Shift

I am now officially the most versatile non-management cook in the kitchen, and, in a sense, one of the most loved by management. Being down a few cooks, the exec and the sous have had to take up a lot of slack and usually they have ended up working the night shifts and the brunch shifts. With the return of a cook from a long (and much deserved) break ready to take back the breakfast shifts, I've been freed up to work more nights. So now the chefs can go home to their wives at night and instead I get to fly solo in the evenings. So I get loved because they're able to get some luvin'. Fair trade-off.

It's another challenge, and a welcome one. I'm the kind of person that always needs something new at work to keep me interested. Mastery of new skills ... well, hold that, I don't know if I'm necessarily shooting for mastery, but learning something new is always something that interests me. Combine that with the fact that nights are relatively slow, large moments of inactivity punctuated by blurbs of intense speed, you get a chance to do some fun stuff. For example, the other night I spent some time making cheese, something that's a bit esoteric for a cook, but interesting nonetheless. It was only a batch of feta, but I've got plans. Hard cheeses need to age in a temperature controlled environment. Red Bull has these tiny fridges they use in bars to display their product. Well, we have two in our establishment, one in the bar, and one in the offices because the light is busted. So Red Bull and cheese go hand in hand. That'll probably start working the next night shift I take.

It's not all fun and games, though. It's work too and in some ways working at night is one of the most challenging times on the line in that kitchen. Not only are you responsible for the most diverse number of dishes at any time of the day, but if you're busy, it's only you there. Out of something and you need it now? Get your ass downstairs and back up again to get some more ... I can do the trip in about 30 seconds, which may not sound like much time, but at line speed, that's an eternity. It's fun when you've got five tickets in the window totaling about 20 different dishes and, well, shit, they're all different.

Oh, and that timer going off? Yeah, the cheese you're making on the stove is ready to be pulled off and gradually taken from 85 to 95 over the next hour in a bain marie that needs to get setup.

Now that's a challenge. That's a cook's life.

posted by LindyChef @ 10:59 PM