I swore no more restaurant/foodservice jobs

[Tsiyu]

but after four months of not much else I'm back in the kitchen.

New place, casual fine dining, working with a family friend and a woman with whom I've almost opened a restaurant (which tells you we're both that same kind of nuts.) The owner/exec chef seems really talented and mostly laid back.

So here I am again, exhausted and unable to fall asleep and expected back in a few hours.

I'll be back here unless you all kick me out, because a bunch of chefs is better than one!

[yellerpup]

1. But when you like the people you work with

and are proud of the work you do, even exhaustion is worth it. Sounds like a good gig. Good luck! And, don't be a stranger. :hi:

[Tsiyu]

4. Thanks yellerpup!

I've tried to avoid the C&B forum because i was so burned out.

And I swore I would not do this again. But my friend has begged and begged and begged for me to come work with her so I broke down and interviewed Monday and was hired by that afternoon lol.


And its got the edgy, snappy energy of any kitchen but I know the two i work with most closely the best so i can manage the tough moments. I hope....

I'll be here :hi:

[yellerpup]

7. I've read your posts explaining Native American history

and found them very well expressed. Are you Tsalagi? Or, do you just like boats?

[Tsiyu]

9. Well, there is family dispute

and in Upstate NY there was still a lot of prejudice and shame attached to being native, so the old-timers clammed up. My grandfather used to run away to St. Regis and always told me we were Hadenosaunee (Mohawk) but his siter swore we were Lenapi.

My brother is researching. My dad is Italian and my mom is Heugenot and ? (My dad used to say, when he and my mom were having another one of their "passionate" arguments, "Your Mother is her own G-damned war! The French and Indian!" I never understood this til i got older, but he used to crack himself up saying it.)

But I grew up half wild in those days when kids could spend their whole life in the woods and I always felt native anyway. My first nannies were Seneca/Tuscarora so maybe they breathed something into me. Who knows?

I place great value in the same things many American Indian people value.

My new DU name is just because I love the sound of Cherokee words. So many place names in the South are actually Cherokee words that were distorted or translated over time. I live close to where Tsiyu Gunsini is buried and he is someone I have researched for an alternative historical novel and admired long before that for standing up to the bullshit we still stand up to today.

I'm glad you've enjoyed my writing. thanks for saying so. I checked out your pie and posted in the "Like Pie" thread :) right before I got here tonight.


Calming down after running my ass off but I had a good night at work.

[yellerpup]

11. Tsiyu Gunsini (Dragging Canoe) is a great-great-great

(about 11 or 12 greats) uncle of mine and was named for his ambition to fight for his people. They said if he wasn't getting where he wanted to go fast enough, he could get out and drag the canoe. I grew up half-wild in much the same way except on the prairie instead of in the woods. I'm sure I would enjoy your novel and hope I get a chance to buy a copy soon. Let me know! :hug:

[Tsiyu]

13. They flooded over where he's buried, but the legend goes

that the whites were so superstitious and afraid of DC's power, they dug up his corpse, cut it in half and buried the halves separately.

Cool that you are related. the Chikamauga chief up here has just gotten federal rec for the tribe (many of the Removal holdouts came up to these mountains.)

Now, if I could only have the money to support my writing habit, I'd have that book published already. Someday. I hope!

I think we'd be great buds IRL :hug:

[yellerpup]

15. I used to have one of his quotes in my sig line

when B&%# was in office...something along the lines of "as for me and my young men, we will continue to fight..." We do have a lot in common and you bet we would be pals! :loveya:

[Tsiyu]

17. Hey! I used to have one of his quotes in my sigline too

the one about "a dark and bloody ground"

during the ** reign of terror as well.

Ha!

:loveya: right back!

[Warpy]

2. I'm not a chef, I'm a cook

but I know restaurant work gets into your blood and when you try to break away from it, you go into withdrawal. Most of my friends are foodies and I've watched them try. I think six months has been it before they've cracked and had to go back into the kitchen.

Funny, I've seen the same thing with nurses who've gone on to get those G.O.O.N.* degrees to get into a less physically demanding kind of work. Six months later, they're back in scrubs and disgusted with themselves.

You have to be a little wacko do do either of them rather than keeping your hands clean in an air conditioned office, but some of us just need to keep moving instead of being chained to a desk.

*Get Out Of Nursing

[Tsiyu]

5. Oh yeah, I did respiratory therapy for eight-nine years

and I STILL miss the rush of ER. ICU. Codes.

But you know, Warpy, although I also have worked in radio and law and music and publishing, the biggest egoes I have found have been in the kitchen? Isn't that a hoot?

I am on a break - split shifts already god I wasn't gonna do this ever again....

thanks for checking in :)

[madmax]

3. You'll never get kicked out.

Never cooked outside the home and not much inside either. :evilgrin:

Tell us things about your day, what you did, good and not so good anecdotes. I'm curious :hug:

[Tsiyu]

6. How sweet madmax!

yesterday I started out sub sous cheffing during a little lunch rush, then went to going over the menu for this big weekend ( big local crowds all weekend) with the Exec chef and kitchen manager, making lists, then prepping mushrooms, pico de gallo, salad fixings, peeling potatoes, a little dishwashing, caramelizing apples (for a salad,) and then I became the garde manger during the dinner rush in between prepping stuff for a catering gig today.

the regular sous chef is a young gal I've known for years - friend of my kids. I actually gave her a lot of my books when she was dreaming of going to culinary school, so to see her behind the line cranking it out is just really gratifying. She was overwhelmed seeing me at first, but then she realized i am not going to try to tell her what to do - she already knows more than I do about a lot of things - and she calmed down. She invited me over to her place last nigth and we talked until late about it. She admitted she was worried about me trying to usurp her role. I assured her my days of desiring full-time sous chef-fing are over!

Work dudes are adding a pub side, so i hope soon I can play music there, too. That's one down side, there is no music in the kitchen. And there's one young manager who is insecure and tries to micromanage, but I think he's figured out to just be straight with me and we'll be okay.

Gonna rest for a few and be back for a big dinner tonight.

See you peeps later...

[pengillian101]

8. Now, how much fun was THAT!

"the regular sous chef is a young gal I've known for years - friend of my kids. I actually gave her a lot of my books when she was dreaming of going to culinary school, so to see her behind the line cranking it out is just really gratifying. She was overwhelmed seeing me at first, but then she realized i am not going to try to tell her what to do - she already knows more than I do about a lot of things - and she calmed down. She invited me over to her place last nigth and we talked until late about it. She admitted she was worried about me trying to usurp her role. I assured her my days of desiring full-time sous chef-fing are over!"


:toast:

Glad you're having fun!

[Tsiyu]

10. Too much for an old lady!

Tonight the sous chef, the dishwasher and I decided we were going to grab the restaurant manager and flush his head in the toilet.

He was being a total jerk all night, pushing all the buttons he had fingers for. The last straw was when the exec chef told us all to take a break outside. We had been going for hours.

The little shit manager came out while the sous chef and i were (bad me) smoking our first cigarette all night enjoying the brisk evening air...and told us the dining room was filling up and we had orders and he "can't do everything."

We put out our just-lit smokes and rushed in only to find it was total BS. The kitchen was silent, dead, no orders chuggin up from the machine...WHAT?!?!The dishwasher told us the real scoop - that the little brat was just bullshitting to get even with us for all being annoyed with him. That's when the three of us concocted our scheme.

Then we decided we'd lock him in the walk-in.

But of course we were all okay before I left. Just another mad night...

Going to bed now!

[madmax]

12. Who knew?

Had no idea you had so much fun in the kitchen ;)

Seems like hard work - little pay. Starting salary for a sous chef 30k?

[Tsiyu]

14. No managers were harmed in the making of dinner

I hope you guys know!

And I forgot to give you this the other day :hug:

As for pay, blah. This is one thing that held me back from this dude because he is jaded and pays low but I understand he gives "bonuses" for decent work. Hopefully he will raise pay when his numbers grow.

I don;t even know what I'm making yet, actually, but it's better than nothing I guess lol.

Now I have to go to do legal work for a few hours, then back in the kitchen tonight, and the third jjob wants me too today. I had to tell her no but she pays better...:(

Feast or famine, i tell you.

I miss DU already but keep em in line for me, madmax!

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Food service can be one of the most exhausting

and frustrating jobs out there. Yes, been there done that.

But if you do this with people you like to work with, it should pretty much take some of the frustration away. Notice, did not say a thing about exhaustion. That goes without saying.

And I come over here from time to time, but I fear not often enough.

[Tsiyu]

18. This is one of the best groups

but i've been avoiding it like the plague

Then I started canning apples a few weeks ago and wanted to check and see what everyone was doing with the harvest so i lurked and read where lizziegrace was canning beans and yellerpup had a new pie recipe and then I got the restaurant job and well....hell

Tonight went by like a breeze, the best thing about busy! Only one meltdown, and my dear friend insisted I be the damned peacemaker.

(Why the hell do i always have to do it? :whine smilie:)

But I got the two parties calmed down and all was well.

BTW, my friend (the one I almost opened the restaurant with) is awesome. I didn't get in til the evening and she had prepped so much stuff like a genius, I swear. She is a single mom of a seventeen and eight year old and she is also going to college full time...and runs the kitchen like a damned wizard. The Exec chef seems overwhelmed with our teamwork...


And the restaurant manager whose hair we wanted to wash last night lol was so nice tonight, calling me the "Queen of His World" early in the night after I brought him a lovely moz salad - roma tomatoes covered with soft mozz balls and fresh basil drizzled in balsamic vin (just to throw a bone to the foodies as I ramble incoherently.) I think he felt bad for being such a jerk Thurs night.

OK back again in the morning. Better get off this damned DU.

G'night nadinB!