I'm a Chef

To many people that means I go to work and make great tasting food, that I get to taste the best ingredients from around the world and spend my time seeing what flavor combinations work with what wines... And you could not be further from the truth.. let me tell you what it really means. I spend my days looking at numbers..

Nothing but numbers. And I do math – so much math. How many teaspoons in a gallon, how many times this recipe to make 100 portions instead of 12... not 120.. that means waste, and at $14 per pound wasting 10 ounces equal... my prep guys hourly wage... or 3 hours of the hot water heater...

And that reminds me the hot water on the prep sink is leaking.. not a huge issue since we mostly prep with cold water.. Oh shite, James needs to prep the calamari.. IT HAS TO SOAK 4 hours and we are 3 hours from service..

Did I order calamari for tomorrow, yeah its on the list, I am good... wait, I didn’t talk to Karen today at the seafood market, I would remember, her voice is hot. Damn that reminds me, the hot water on the prep sink..

That is a single thought, one of thousands a chef will have in a day. And the bitch is, none of that matters... the sink, the calamari and the order will all be forgotten. You see my grill cook just lost his father – but he has rent due and has to work.. and my sous just let me know his girlfriend has left him... again.. this is the 3rd time this year, and she blames me.. even though he is scheduled off today but came in to prep the party for tomorrow. It’s a big deal for us and he wants it to be 100%..

Did I mention my lead server just got evicted, her husband is a drunk and she isn’t sure where her kids are sleeping tonight, but she needs the money from service so she will not go home.

You see I am a chef, and this is my team.. fuck you if you think they are the outcasts of society because they wait tables or wash dishes for a living.. want to know why. My sous just gave his apartment key to the lead server, and my AM grill cook just came in to cover the guy that lost his dad.. off the clock so he can still get paid. The party is prepped and my bartender got the sous reservations at the most romantic place in town so he can save his relationship... and somehow the drunk husband just turned up with a broken nose to apologize... seems my porter was busy on his break.. off the clock so that nothing could come back on the restaurant...

I am a chef, and I lead this band of thugs.. these people that you look down on.. and I ask you this.. would your office workers do any of this for you?? I am a chef, and I have the privilege of having these wonderful, big hearted and caring people trust and follow me. I lose sleep every night making sure these felons, miscreants and addicts have a job, a place to call home and a check to cash.. I am a chef.

PHOTO CHEF ADAM SCOTT

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