To all of my students who may or may not have checked late last night, I must apologize. The internet access in my room was not connected.
Results of SkillsUSA:
James Rumsey 17 total metals
Culinary results:
Frankie (post secondary) - Gold
Chelsie (secondary) - Bronze
I am so proud of you guys and look forward to working with you again next year!
To my students,
You've got your work cut out for you next year to live up to these two culinarians!
See you tomorrow!
-ChefB
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Forthcoming
Ok. So I didn’t get a chance to post anything yesterday. I’ll make it up to you. Don’t tell me you’ve never been incredibly busy and had to put the things off you want to do for the things you need to do.
I’ll be back soon! I promise.
Thank you to my students who asked why I didn’t post anything, which shows you are attempting to follow. I knew I could count on you!
I’ll be back soon! I promise.
Thank you to my students who asked why I didn’t post anything, which shows you are attempting to follow. I knew I could count on you!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Frustrations
As some of you may know, the restaurant business can be quite stressful. Really! I'm not kidding! And, the most common time for the highest levels of stress… Friday and Saturday night during the highest customer volume and turn-around. EVERYBODY know that you NEVER call a chef at work during a dinner rush...Not if someone has a question, not if someone is dying! You just don’t do it! EVER!
Anyway, I have a friend; let’s call him “Mr. O”. Mr. O works for a funeral home as a family councilor and pre-need planning consultant and, he normally lives the life of a social hermit. Needless to say, it’s not very often I hear from him late in the evening. I guess I didn’t explain this golden rule to Mr. O very thoroughly.
So, here’s what happened:
Back in the day, when I was working 80+ hours a week, on a Saturday evening at 7:00 pm (prime dining hours) my friend called at me at the restaurant stating he had an emergency! Frustrated, I left the line in the capable hands of my Sous Chef and hurried to answer the phone imagining the twisted carrion of a tremendous car accident, morbid news about a fellow acquaintance, or maybe even a flat tire.
Rushing to the phone thinking to myself “I only have 50 more covers and the staff will be able to handle the load without me for an hour or so, I can bang them out and rush to the aid of my friends and family…”
I pick up the phone and say “What is it! Who’s dead?!” and on the other line I hear “Hey buddy! How’s it going?!”
Thinking to myself, “ok, he’s trying to calm me down before he burdens me with the news that my favorite Chinchilla got loose and the meat grinder was turned on…” I say through clenched teeth, “What’s wrong? What is it?”
What came from the receiver was bone-chilling. “Hey man, my friend shot a bear and gave me a bunch of meat. What’s the best way to cook bear?”
Really?! On a Saturday night, at 7:00 pm?!
As if the silence from my end wasn’t enough to give him the hint, Mr. O continues “I was thinking about barbeque or stir-fry. What do you think?”
My first reaction was to hang-up on my longtime friend and ponder on the verbal thrashing I would give him later.
I even planned on calling him back in the middle of a funeral to ask him what kind of casket I should purchase for my Beagle, Skunkie. (Pre-planning is always a good idea!)
Instead, I bit my tongue, sucked up my pride and decided to be the bigger Chef by explain the benefits of barbequing vs. stir-frying. Discussing the virtues and palatability of the meat with my clueless friend was, inadvertently reminding me why I love my profession. Mr. O, after all was the culinary equivalent of Inspector Jacques Clouseau from the Pink Panther when it comes to cooking and delicate kitchen work. But, he loved my food. He was always the first to belly-up to the table to try some new concoction when I was in my early stages of my career. Never did he have a negative thing to say (unless there wasn’t enough of something he especially liked).
After my brief conversation with Mr. O, I thanked him graciously for thinking of me when he was stumped with a culinary mystery. I went back to the line, not having been gone for more than 3 – 4 minutes and scanned the scene. My Sous had it under control, the hollandaise hadn’t broken, the tickets didn’t back-up on the printer and my cooks didn’t look like they even knew I was missing. My kitchen usually ran like a well-oiled machine and I felt a little twinkle of pride creep into my mood for the rest of the evening. I went back to work garnishing, expediting and calling for food runners with a crooked little smile on my face. You bet I noticed all the looks of pleasure each customer expressed for the rest of that evening when presented with one of my creations. I even took time to discuss with them when they had questions or comments, enjoying their feedback. I normally never received negative criticism but you had better believe that on that evening, I wouldn’t have cared. I felt like a million bucks. This is what I lived for! Food, Friends and Happy Customers!
The moral of the story is that sometimes we need to step back, wipe the sweat from our brow and take stock of the little things that make us all happy. Our customers, our employees and especially, Ourselves.
Anyway, I have a friend; let’s call him “Mr. O”. Mr. O works for a funeral home as a family councilor and pre-need planning consultant and, he normally lives the life of a social hermit. Needless to say, it’s not very often I hear from him late in the evening. I guess I didn’t explain this golden rule to Mr. O very thoroughly.
So, here’s what happened:
Back in the day, when I was working 80+ hours a week, on a Saturday evening at 7:00 pm (prime dining hours) my friend called at me at the restaurant stating he had an emergency! Frustrated, I left the line in the capable hands of my Sous Chef and hurried to answer the phone imagining the twisted carrion of a tremendous car accident, morbid news about a fellow acquaintance, or maybe even a flat tire.
Rushing to the phone thinking to myself “I only have 50 more covers and the staff will be able to handle the load without me for an hour or so, I can bang them out and rush to the aid of my friends and family…”
I pick up the phone and say “What is it! Who’s dead?!” and on the other line I hear “Hey buddy! How’s it going?!”
Thinking to myself, “ok, he’s trying to calm me down before he burdens me with the news that my favorite Chinchilla got loose and the meat grinder was turned on…” I say through clenched teeth, “What’s wrong? What is it?”
What came from the receiver was bone-chilling. “Hey man, my friend shot a bear and gave me a bunch of meat. What’s the best way to cook bear?”
Really?! On a Saturday night, at 7:00 pm?!
As if the silence from my end wasn’t enough to give him the hint, Mr. O continues “I was thinking about barbeque or stir-fry. What do you think?”
My first reaction was to hang-up on my longtime friend and ponder on the verbal thrashing I would give him later.
I even planned on calling him back in the middle of a funeral to ask him what kind of casket I should purchase for my Beagle, Skunkie. (Pre-planning is always a good idea!)
Instead, I bit my tongue, sucked up my pride and decided to be the bigger Chef by explain the benefits of barbequing vs. stir-frying. Discussing the virtues and palatability of the meat with my clueless friend was, inadvertently reminding me why I love my profession. Mr. O, after all was the culinary equivalent of Inspector Jacques Clouseau from the Pink Panther when it comes to cooking and delicate kitchen work. But, he loved my food. He was always the first to belly-up to the table to try some new concoction when I was in my early stages of my career. Never did he have a negative thing to say (unless there wasn’t enough of something he especially liked).
After my brief conversation with Mr. O, I thanked him graciously for thinking of me when he was stumped with a culinary mystery. I went back to the line, not having been gone for more than 3 – 4 minutes and scanned the scene. My Sous had it under control, the hollandaise hadn’t broken, the tickets didn’t back-up on the printer and my cooks didn’t look like they even knew I was missing. My kitchen usually ran like a well-oiled machine and I felt a little twinkle of pride creep into my mood for the rest of the evening. I went back to work garnishing, expediting and calling for food runners with a crooked little smile on my face. You bet I noticed all the looks of pleasure each customer expressed for the rest of that evening when presented with one of my creations. I even took time to discuss with them when they had questions or comments, enjoying their feedback. I normally never received negative criticism but you had better believe that on that evening, I wouldn’t have cared. I felt like a million bucks. This is what I lived for! Food, Friends and Happy Customers!
The moral of the story is that sometimes we need to step back, wipe the sweat from our brow and take stock of the little things that make us all happy. Our customers, our employees and especially, Ourselves.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Hello all! This is my first attempt at any kind of online conversing and I'm gonna need your help! A little about myself:
I'm a chef who has recently chosen a different profession...teaching. My name is Chef Stephen Brown and I'm the High School ProStart instructor at James Rumsey Technical Institute in Martinsburg, WV. My passion is food and family. I'm a pretty happy man because of these passions and I hope to inspire as many of my students to live life to the fullest and enjoy the things that have made me the person I am today.
My intention with this blog is to provide my students as well as anyone else who's interested a place for beginning culinarians to collaborate. I can't wait for the opportunity to discuss and share information, ideas, and experiences with each other. I hope you decide to share your thoughts, comments and most of all questions. I will hopefully be posting on a daily basis with topics, thoughts and experiences and encourage you to do the same. I'm always willing to share recipes, ideas and tips. If you have particular topics of conversation, please feel free to post!
Hope to hear from you! Until then, Good Eatting!
I'm a chef who has recently chosen a different profession...teaching. My name is Chef Stephen Brown and I'm the High School ProStart instructor at James Rumsey Technical Institute in Martinsburg, WV. My passion is food and family. I'm a pretty happy man because of these passions and I hope to inspire as many of my students to live life to the fullest and enjoy the things that have made me the person I am today.
My intention with this blog is to provide my students as well as anyone else who's interested a place for beginning culinarians to collaborate. I can't wait for the opportunity to discuss and share information, ideas, and experiences with each other. I hope you decide to share your thoughts, comments and most of all questions. I will hopefully be posting on a daily basis with topics, thoughts and experiences and encourage you to do the same. I'm always willing to share recipes, ideas and tips. If you have particular topics of conversation, please feel free to post!
Hope to hear from you! Until then, Good Eatting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)