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Ode to the DMO (our hero)
Things come to a screeching halt without you….”dish machine operator”. AKA the dishwasher. Without sparkling clean glasses, plates and utensils we can’t serve shit. Without clean sauté pans, bowls, tongs, pots and spatulas we can’t do jack. We need you to show up and put out like no other (bitch) on our crew. And you…
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The Magic
There are days in a chefs life when things just don’t go well. Things go horribly wrong actually. Staff is genuinely pissed off. Too much work. Too much stress. Even the delivery drivers scowl. The patio wave smashes the dignity of the cooks. Pushing everyone to the limit. (The seating grows but the kitchen doesn’t–still we must be perfect) Could be a power outage during…
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Just One Guy
Just one guy. That’s all it takes. Just one guy leaves and everything changes. Cooks become sous chefs. Sous chefs move up to chef jobs they would never ask for. Cooks change stations. Forced to sink or swim. New alliances are made. It’s like being pushed out of an airplane. Only you have five guys trying to…
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#1 Lily
The reason for everything I do. Lily I won’t stop cooking because it is what I love. It’s what I’ve pushed to get good at. Even though it’s insanely hard work I wouldn’t curse on my worst enemy :), I still love it. Being a chef is a challenge and a huge mental commitment…
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#2 We Have Way too Much Fun (don’t tell anyone)
All the hype these days in print and on reality tv etc. make us kitchen help seem like a hardcore military band of brothers. We love to wax on about how hard we work yada yada but truth be told…..we screw around……a lot. Don’t tell the GM! There is a lot of down time between shifts…
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#3 Mom and Dad
I will not torture you with the complexity (dysfunction) of my upbringing. That’s why I pay a shrink afterall. A shrink who has been known to fight off sleep as I whine on and on. So, let’s keep it brief. Tom and Cathy Yerxa–even with all their faults (don’t we all have em) were…
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#4 Matts’
#4 Matts’ If ever a restaurant could heal–it would be Matts’. Some hard realities hit me during my first years in this kitchen. I lost both my parents, I lost an old friend to breast cancer, I battled my alcoholism. It was a really hard time–sleep deprived, foggy with antidepressants and learning how to mother…
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#5 You Get A Whole Nother Family and more…
Kitchen crews really do become an extended family. The very nature of a shift in the kitchen promotes this. You cannot survive (happily) without the team working together. For that matter–if people are late, grumpy or otherwise messed up it can screw the whole lot. But we cover for each other–no questions asked. We care…
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#6 A Haven for Drunks, Burnouts, Narcissists and other interesting folk
It’s no secret that the professional kitchen is full of some interesting characters. A lot has already been said on this subject, thank you Tony Bourdain, but I need to say a few things. Drinking problems are very common and even expected. I myself developed a whopper of a beer, wine and finally straight vodka…
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#7 Michel Richard and Citrus
Michel Richard is the benchmark I measure every chef against. No one has come close. His original flagship–Citrus on Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood was a leader in contemporary California Cuisine in the early 90’s. A favorite with the critics and a James Beard Award winner, Michel Richard was a very successful celebrity chef. The first…