Another Thursday
9:15 Arrive at restaurant and sprayed for bugs. Bi-monthly treatment. Change clothes.
9:30 My tournant, Mel arrives with another cook who came in on his day off to fix a leaking pipe under the dish table. I surprised him when he said he had to go to the hardware store. I was able to bring up parts that I had stored in my basement. Somewhere along the line I had replaced the faucet before, but kept some of the good sections. This is a very important trick in this business. It is like harvesting organs. I have computer parts, table hardware, pipes, wood and believe it or not even a sink. Of course the sink was from an incorrect shipment back in the summer. You can read about that fiasco in the archives of this blog.
9:50 Mel and I are waiting on the oven repair person. We can't use the convection oven until a small repair was made on it while the oven was still cool. Funny, but the repair guys don't like sticking their head into a 500 degree oven. The repair man comes at 10:00, but we have plenty of other things to work on in the meantime.
10:00 We have a lot of special orders going out this time of year from our Pantry. While Mel starts with sauces and soups, I am making pie dough, almond dough, date pastries, ravioli.
10:30 The salad station cooler is making a funny noise, similar to the one it did when the compressor needed to be replaced. That repair man comes in and finds that a menu has fallen behind the cooler and had been sucked up into the fan and was causing the disruption. A five minute fix. The man offers to not charge me, but I refuse. We settle on a $75.00 trade and he is coming into dinner next week with his family. Works for me, works for him.
11:00 I start making tarts; Cherry Tarts, Bacon and Onion Tart, Mushroom Tarts, Apple Tarts and more Mushroom Tarts for pickup later in the day. Mel and I now have to coordinate prep for the oven because of the different cook times and temperatures and we are behind because of the oven repair. I have two other ovens but they are not convection and when it comes to baking they are not an option unless absolutely necessary.
12:00 I call the coordinator for a party of 21 people who are coming at 6:30 with a suggestion that I move their party out onto our back deck. It's is 71 degrees in Atlanta in December. Crazy, but with the heaters we have out there they can have a private room, mill around, exchange gifts and get a little rowdy. She jumps at the suggestion. My staff had already arranged tables for this group in one section of the dining room the night before. I feel terrible making them take the tables apart. One server, David had guessed that I would come in and say the tables were in the wrong place and make them redo it. He should have put money on it.
12:15 Liquor orders start coming in. The fabulous wine that we have just started featuring as a special this month and the one our next week's sold out Wine Tasting is based on, was billed as out of stock. I can't wait to see how my sales rep gets himself out of that mess.
12:30 Still working on Tarts, tarts and tarts. When cool, I box them up with ribbons and bows and get them stashed in the downstairs cooler.
3:00 Kitchen staff comes in. I have another new person on the salad station and this is his first cooking job. This is traditionally called a chef de partie, ( a chef of a station ) I still have to go over the list of what needs to be prepared and how much. He has been my dishwasher for a while and at least he knows where things are. But he's VERY green. I work with him for about an hour. He works the slower nights in the restaurant.
4:00 Power surge shuts down all the computers and sends one of the terminals into a funk. Reboots OK though. Worked phones while my manager restocked liquor. Received many requests for gift certificates which had to be written up, rung up and mailed.
4:30 Work with waiters to get the tables taken apart and reset on the deck. Hassled them about time management and details in the set up. Sometimes they start talking and socializing and don't concentrate.
5:00 Place last minute meat order for the weekend. Check stock in walk-ins. Check line and set up of cooks. Mel is staying with me to help put out with the party of 21. I love this guy.
5:30 Open for service. Go back to the office to print menus for the party. It's a wine pairing dinner with lots of options and different wines suggested for each menu choice. It's a bear.
6:30 Place produce and fish orders for next day. Go through mail. Answer emails. Take more pantry orders for next week. Coordinate production of a large batch of Beef Bourguignon going out as special orders next weekend and then a large batch to be made next Sunday for delivery at a church on Christmas Day for the homeless.
7:00 Party sits down and work begins.
9:30 Tidy up walk-ins. Check orders. Leave notes for Sous Chef, who is off on Thursdays. Drink a vodka and go home.
