Beginnings
My Beginnings
“I had only been on the line for 15 minutes, I kid you not, this hell went on for the next 3-4 hours. Welcome to working in a kitchen!”
My first stint in a professional kitchen, I was 16.
I was a dishwasher, at The Windrift Restaurant in Avalon, New Jersey, actually one of three dishwashers me, Sluggo and Buck.
We cleaned everything that came our way, full pans, hotel pans, half pans, 1/3 pans, dishes, cups, 1/8 pans, plates, forks of all sizes, every spoon imaginable to man, sharp knives, glasses, coffee cups, saucers, monkey dishes, pots, rondeaus, sheet trays and buffalo choppers, you name it, if you used it to cook or eat with, we cleaned it. The stream of dirty shit was relentless.
As soon as I would be finishing up one mountain of greasy, dirty, burned up pots pans, the cooks would dump another on me, (usually with the promise of an ice cold beer at the end of my shift). That was all the motivation I needed, hell I was just 16 where else was I gonna get a beer?..... It always made my bike ride home that much more interesting.
Then one day, my boss Todd came to me and asked if I wanted to learn how to cook, I said without hesitation, absolutely!....I hated washing dishes. So, I got a promotion, well, sort of.
In this new position, I would be finally working the line. I manned a bank of six industrial sized toasters, during the breakfast shift at the Windrift restaurant in Avalon, New Jersey, with my partner in crime Sluggo. So, five days a week at 6:00 a.m. during my summer vacation, we cranked out toast, English muffins, bagels and toasted cinnamon buns for the throngs of hungry "Shoobies". It wasn't much but I at least I wasn't washing dishes anymore.
Yep, to this day I can hear Chef bark out, ...Okay, toast guys, "worka, worka," I need 3 white, 1 no butter, 3 wheat, 2 dry English muffins, 2 TCB'S (toasted cinnamon buns), 1 wheat bagel with extra cream cheese, 5 more white, burn one and another TCB!!!
WTF?? I thought this was gonna be fun?! Is he serious? Really? When am I gonna learn how to cook?? How long is this gonna go on? I'm not enjoying this at all! By now I'm really starting to sweat and just as I come up for air, the next wave of checks hits and I hear the Chef call out again....wait a minute what did he say? What was the third thing he called out? Wait, I don't remember what he said!
Shit, shit, shit...I'm gonna get fired, I know it! So, at this point I'm panicking, I'm really in the "weeds" so, I make a decision and just start toasting everything in sight, it didn't matter if it was called or not.
As I look down the line to catch my breath all I can see is everyone moving, swearing and doing the dance that line cooks do. It was something really to behold, unfortunately for me, it was only the beginning, I had only been on the line for 15 minutes, I kid you not this hell went on for the next 3-4 hours.
Welcome to woking in the kitchen.
