Well hello old friend.

I have decided to start posting again. Its been a while so I should have a ton of stories. If you have been following along, you will know my style, you will also know I have a bit of a defiant streak in me. Its healthy to question things in a reasoned and considered way. Being defiant just to be defiant is a waist of time and serves no purpose. Questioning when things just don't seam right can lead to positive change. Having said all of that, some people need to be messed with, especially the anal retentive, narcissistic, controlling, I'm right, your wrong types. If you work for or with someone like this, stay tuned for tips and tricks.

Here is a good one that will drive them insane, and even if they don't work that day, or don't notice, you will know and it will definitely make a difference to your mental health. My boss likes everyone to back in when they park at the office, so every now and then, just to mess with him/her (need a good code name), I won't back in. When your car is the the only one facing the other way, it makes a statement.

Also, was reading through some of my earlier posts and noticed some grammatical errors, so I'm going to go back and update my posts.

should I start blogging again?

Timing is Still Everything

Some people have good timing. Some people have bad timing. Others, have no timing at all.

Unfortunately, my boss has no timing.

Let me preface this post be letting you know, this is reading week at the college. So we are down to a minimal staff and reduced hours.

This morning I get an email from my boss Jane, apparently we have a conference call about the new grill menu. At 3 pm, two hours after I close. Not impressed.

A short time later I call over to North Campus and explain that due to the fact that the shuttle is not running, I will be dropping off the deposit early because I need to drop off one of my staff members so she can get the bus home. Jane says, well, you can stay here and take the conference call from here. Our conference call is at 3, and I just told her I will be over there between 1:30 and 2. What does she think I am going to do for an hour?

I explain that it makes more sense for me to come back here and get some stuff done while I wait for the call. And this is what I do. My dry storage area is a mess and needs to be straightened out. Additionally, it's a good time to get caught up on some paperwork.

The conference call goes well, very informative, just would have been nice if it was at 2 and not 3. I give Jane a quick call afterwards to compare notes, and it's like we were not on the same call. She tells me, this shouldn't be that difficult to execute, its not that different from the current menu. Time for a recap, current menu has two burgers, one veggie burger, a crispy chicken and a grilled chicken sandwich, and currently, the chicken sammy's are build your own. The new menu has 4 burgers, none of which are similar to our current offerings. We also have two veggie burgers, a fish burger, a grilled chicken and a breaded chicken, all of which are build to spec. And most of the toppings are new. How is that similar to the last menu?

I predict fun times ahead.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Just before the Christmas break my boss quit. Ironically, he is now working at the place I was working before I took this job. The company providing food services there has changed, so no, he is not working for the company I used to work for.

Anyway, this means my old boss has come back on an interim basis ... cue the Darth Vader death march.

As some of you know, I did not like my old boss. That has not changed, I don't trust her and I don't like the way she manages. And yes, I am about to give you a couple of examples.

Timing Is Everything

Thursday mornings are, without a doubt, my busiest time of the week. I need to get inventory done, there is a weekly report that I need to send in for one of our brands (it's archaic, arduous, and a pain in the ass), there are also several orders that need to be placed and received and its also the busiest time in the cafe for some reason.

This past Thursday morning, as I am working at getting a morning catering out, I hear a voice from behind me, "Good morning John." I turn around, and my sandwich brand auditor is standing there. My fist thought is, what the crap are you doing here, you already did this months audit? Fortunately, I don't say that, instead, I say hi and she informs me that we have a meeting at 9:30 with my boss and the Chef Manager at North Campus (they have the same sandwich brand over there).

It's 9:10 in the morning.

She asks me to call my boss (let's call her Jane) to let her know she is there. I tell her this is the first I have heard of the meeting and that I need to finish getting this catering together first. Five minutes later, I call Jane and ask why I was not told about this meeting, she tells me she sent me an email this morning. And it's true, she did send me an email that morning ... at 9:11 am.

I explain to the auditor (we will refer to her as Randy) that Jane and the other Chef Manager are on the way over, but that I need to deliver this catering first. When I come back a short time later, Jane and the other Chef Manager have arrived, but Randy needs more time to get ready. It's 10 am before we get started, and I have not started inventory and I still have two more caterings to do, for 11:30 and 12:00 pm. 

This particular auditor is very nice, super supportive and very knowledgeable. And she loves to talk. So, and hour later at 11:00 she is nowhere near being done. Seeing as I have caterings at 11:30 and 12:00, I excuse myself. As I get up, I very deftly, ignore the ugly looks. Oh, and did I mention, I'm short staffed again, and the report I need to send in before 2, yeah it's for my sandwich brand.

When I come back from delivering the 12 o'clock catering, they are just wrapping up the meeting. I pop into the office to pick up a voicemail, there is a message from one of my employees adult daughters. I pass on the message that she needs to call her daughter. Next thing I know she comes back from the staff area with tears streaming from her eyes and tells me she needs to leave.

And on that note, I go and start counting inventory.

Johnny Buco

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