Dinersoft Reasons to be Thankful

I know you have probably read this, as I have, on numerous occasions...considering it was written 200 years ago, it is surprisingly
accurate in many respects today:

    "It is rush hour in the kitchen. Imagine a large room, and in it twenty or so cooks all busily at work, hastily coming and going in this gulf of heat. One range, a yard square, is reserved for the cooking of the entrees, and another for soups, sauces, stews and fried dishes. Over a smaller range turn four spits... In this furnace everyone works at high pitch; not a whisper is heard. The chef alone has the right to raise his voice, and that voice commands obedience.
    "Lastly, to heighten our sufferings, all doors and windows are closed for about half-an-hour to prevent the food from getting cold.
    "This is the way in which we spend the best years of our lives. But when duty commands one must obey even when physical strength fails. "
                                                           --Antonin Careme

I honestly don't recall if I have even been in contact with you & "Dinersoft"
since I 'got back to the battlefield' in early October. I am now the Executive Chef for campus dining services at Mercer University, Macon , GA. Aside from our eight serving lines & extraordinary volume, "Mercer Catering" is one of the largest catering firms in central Georgia...it has been wildly hectic and, after the Thanksgiving break, it looks to get even crazier.

I am 'recapturing my youth", at the same time I have gone full circle. I have spent the last 15 years either teaching culinary arts or running my own fine dining restaurants. In many respects, 'tis true, cooking an ala carte menu for 200 people is a lot more stressful than serving a couple thousand off of serving lines...although we do run 12 different items daily for lunch & dinner.

Before 1985 , I had been a corporate manager & VP of operations for two
truck stop chains...so volume is no stranger. But, I have not fought the real "battle" in the trenches as you recently mentioned in your email since 1967...my first foray into mass culinary confusion while I was in grad school way back then was at the Trenton (NJ) Country Club.

Things really have not changed. The people are the same (names only slightly different); the petty fights, squabbles, threats are continuous...but, when the meal has gone out, or the catering trucks have left, there is a semblance of sanity...but only briefly...until the next meal or 'event' is needed. And yet, as brutal as it is, so many of us choose to 'live' our lives in this way...and try in some bizarre way to alter & change the work ethic and morality of some of humankind's most sociopathic people that we intentionally employ to perform the menial and not so mundane work that is required for a kitchen to put out food & serve customers.

Last week, during an exceptionally confused period wherein I had two sous chefs, a pantrylady and at least four prep cooks trying to prepare lunch as usual while also prepping 12 catered events (all 'mistakenly' scheduled by the catering coordinator for the same half hour window). I could only think of the old saw...the one that describes the cooks as merely soldiers in a battle...quartering new potatoes, cubing cheese, making sauces, baking hundreds of muffins & cookies, etc....and only the 'generals' had any idea why anything at all was being done.

Sorry...no time for 'quality circles', 'management by walking around'...or 'the One Minute Manager' today...maybe next week ..when it won't be so crazy.....or...maybe not.

Yes...you have to love it...and you have to love soiling your Bragaard Indian Cotton embroidered chef's coats and your snazzy 'tropical fruit' design chef baggies, and dulling your $100 Wustoff knife...because the window dressing is for the outside world & wannabes...who envision their lives spent as capitalist restaurateurs or stars...standing next to Sara Moulton on their own TV show...

"A Taste of Reality" should be the first 3 credit course taught at our culinary colleges & schools....