Chapter 9 : Skills

THE CHRONICLER OF THE KITCHEN                                          March 2009

Mike Campbell

LINE DANCING: SKILLS

        

Professional cooking is a ZERO TOLERANCE game. You may have produced one hundred meals during the service but if you get one complaint your night is shot. Everyone will know and abuse you about the mistake. No one will mention that ninety-nine plates were done correctly!  After all isn’t that what you are supposed to do?

People have a tendency to eat at the same time. Dinner service may start at five o’clock, but most customers are going to sit between seven thirty and nine thirty. Therefore, your two hundred covers are not evenly spread over four or five hours they are mostly jammed into two hours. How a cook handles this “rush” or “hit” determines his survival on the line.

The ability to handle the line is a different set of skills than the ability to cook. Everyone working the line can cook, but not every cook can handle the line. The best line cooks embrace the pressure, they just love it. They would rather be busy than standing around. In the television world, TOP CHEF is about cooking and HELL’S KITCHEN is about working the line.

You have to be able to perform under pressure, do the job correctly, do it over and over, and do it extremely fast. The ability to multi –task is essential. If you are too wrapped up with the plate in front of you, it is extremely easy to burn or overcook the next dish that is behind you.

Meanwhile back in the jungle, the expediter is still calling new orders and firing tables.

I don’t think that most people know what a professional kitchen looks like during a busy service. People are ordering food, tables are being “fired”, cooks are conferring, expediters are hollering for food runners, servers want special items, and the VIP wants his food now. It can present a confusing picture. The line cook must focus to prevent the whole thing from falling apart.

 Most people would be shocked to see how few cooks actually prepare their meals. Two hundred covers are usually produced by five or less line cooks.

And there is the space issue; line cooks operate within a few square feet. We do a lot of spinning and turning not a lot of walking! Not only must you be aware of the placements of your own hot objects and sharp knives, but you also have to know where the bodies next to you are and where their hot and sharp tools are. It is unbelievable the number of times that two people need to be in the exact same spot at the exact same time.

 One time I bent over to extract something from the lowboy refrigerator and when I came up, my head hit the bottom of a plate. The guy next to me was reaching over to get a dish in the window but I stood up sooner than he expected.  And who designed these things anyway? They are usually stuffed with items to get us through the night. In order to reach the back you have to fling the door open and get on your knee. This is a waste of time, uncomfortable and not real safe.  And you always hear the snide remark; “would you mind, while you’re down there?” I often think this must be how sailors in a submarine work, hot sweaty bodies working in a confined area with no fresh air.

Meanwhile back in the jungle, the expediter is still calling new orders and firing tables.

When you know it’s going to be a busy night, you start out on the run. You hurry to get your “mise en place”, or prep done. You want your station stocked; you do not want to go off the line during service. This includes bathroom breaks; usually your bodily functions are calling when you are the busiest. As a fellow line cook remarked to me once, “ you know how it is, I’ve held it so long I forgot I had to go”.

The “main dining room” may be closed before dinner but in many places, the bar and or room service is still serving food. At the same time, the cooks must prepare the “staff” or “family” meal, so everyone else can eat.

WAIT, did I mention anything about the cooks eating? NO! Rarely do you see a cook sitting down with the front of the house staff to eat. We are under time constraints; we have to GET ER DONE! When five o’clock rolls around, the customers do no care whether we are fed or not It is common, on busy nights, for the cooks to eat standing up shoving something into their mouths, or not eating at all or grabbing something quick at the end of the night.  This practice does nothing for your health or digestion. You learn very quickly that cooks do not drink out of cups, WE USE PITHCERS!

In summary, before a cook starts service and at the same time, he is    (1) prepping for the night (2) cooking bar food (3) feeding the staff.

At this point you feel drained, but the main event hasn’t even started!

Meanwhile back in the jungle, the expediter is waiting to call new orders and fire tables.

I owe, I owe, its off to work I go.

Into THE CAULDRON!        

Is tuisce deoch na sceal