Several years ago, I worked for a preeminent Toronto Chef. Well, that's not entirely truthful. I worked at one of said chefs restaurants as a line cook. It was a big step up for me at the time. While I had worked in restaurants for years, this was only my second full time cooking position. Additionally, it was a significant step up in food quality. I mean, this was a well known Chef with many top rated restaurants. And while this was not one of his flagship stores, there were still very high expectations from the dinning public.
Working in that kitchen was amazing. Our head Chef was very good, and our Sous Chefs were remarkable. They saw early on, that while I did not have the skills and experience of the other line cooks, my work ethic combined with my willingness to learn was beyond reproach. By the time I left my position there, I was by far a superior line cook. In fact, when I finally moved on, I had three job offers, including an offer to help open the newest store for that company.
I learned so much there and I own a big thank you to the chefs that mentored me while I was there. This is not to say things went smoothly all the time. I had plenty of over and under cooked steaks, I struggled with breakfast service, and more than a few times heard it from the Chefs. We don't need to rehash all the gory details, but there is one story in particular that I would like to tell.
While I was learning and progressing well, there was one thing that early on, gave me a great deal of trouble and many sleepless nights. I started on the Veg station. I suppose this is a good time to explain how most kitchens are set up. The area in a kitchen where the majority of the food is prepared is called the line. Salads and deserts are often prepared at a secondary station. On one side of the line stands the Chef, on the other side are the cooks. When a server places an order, it prints up on the Chefs side of the line and he/she calls out the order to the appropriate station on the other side.
Generally as you walk down a line you will start at the Veg station, and this is pretty much as it sounds. This is the station where plates are prepared with both vegetables and starches. The Veg station is generally next to the Grill. The Grill station is where steaks, burgers, as well as other grilled items such as salmon are cooked. Generally, the Veg and Grill cook work very closely together as the Grill cook, relies on the Veg cook to set up plates for the food being prepared on the Grill. For example, if you order a steak, with seasonal vegetables and roasted potatoes, the Grill cook will prepare your steak and the Veg cook will do the vegetables and potatoes.
Generally there are two more stations, the Sauce and Fish station followed by the Pasta Station. During my time at this restaurant I started on Veg and moved my way down to Pasta, learning how to cook and prepare every item on our menu.
As I mentioned previously the Veg and Grill stations work very closely together often relying on one another to complete plates and orders. There was one glaring exception to this when I started at this particular restaurant ...
OSSO BUCO
Osso Buco consists of a cross cut veal shank, braised with vegetables, white wine and beef broth. When it is done right, it is without a doubt one of the most mouth watering, tender and delicious cuts of meet you will ever experience. Ours was served on creamy polenta, another delectable bit of European cuisine.
If you have never cooked Osso Buco, let me tell you, it is not easy. To get the perfect tenderness requires skills that I did not have at the time of my initial employment there. I struggled to get it just right. Being a shank, Osso Buco is a large round cut of meat with a large round bone in the middle of it. Osso Buco literally means, bone in hole, I kid you not. The idea is that you cook it until the meat separates from the bone and becomes incredibly tender. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to do this. One of the Sous Chefs (who is now my best friend) kept explaining that I would know it was done when it popped. For two weeks, I had no idea what he meant. I also knew that this dish was the hill I would either thrive on, or die on, and I was not ready to die.
I eventually learned that 'pop', is the expression used to describe what happens when meant finally separates from the bone during cooking.
While I worked at this particular restaurant, the menu was changed every season, so every three months we had to learn to cook and plate new dishes. While I absolutely hated this for the first 9 months I worked there, I came to appreciate how valuable this was in my journey to becoming a Chef.
As mentioned previously, for the most part, meat comes from the Grill, and veg and starch come from the Veg station. Because Osso Buco could not be cooked to order (it takes several hours) I was put in charge of preparing it. As a result, the entire Osso Buco dish was prepared and plated on the Veg station. And I was the Veg cook. Leaning to cook Osso Buco, is how I learned to never ask a chef how long it takes to cook something, especially meat, it takes as long as it takes. Every oven is different, every cut of meat and every piece of meat is different.
As it happened, I started right at the beginning of a menu cycle. And keep in mind, when I started, I had no idea the menu changed every three months. I struggled for almost a full month with the preparation of this particular dish. But once I finally got it, I mastered it.
After three months, it was time for a menu change. My Chef wanted to keep the Osso Buco on the menu, the Chef who's name was on the front of the building did not. When it came time for a menu tasting, my Chef served my Osso Buco, to The Chef. The Osso Buco, stayed on the menu.
From that point on, my Chef trusted only me to prepare the Osso Buco and three months later when we changed the menu again, I had gained the nickname ... Johnny Buco
