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.