Blooper Reel

Today was a hoot. It started out pretty well. A fast pace, tasks rapidly checked off the list, smooth running prep time. We had a few sauces we wanted to complete today, one of which was the Cod cream sauce. It's a long process of soaking salt cod over a few days and then dressing it before cooking it for four hours in milk and cream. We prepared ourselves well enough yesterday, so that we could come right in before class started and start the sauce so that it could cook over lecture and be complete in time for service. Once two hours into the cooking process, Chef lectured us for using the wrong oven and so we switched it over carefully.

It came down to service time, and I was speaking with the MIT about making cheese for our family meal tomorrow. I was pretty worried about the process because in a previous class a friend of mine poured the milk into the cheese cloth and it ALL went right down the drain. So I was very cautious to boil the milk, and the MIT warned me that I needed to keep my eye on it because it would overflow once it boiled. As soon as we got the first couple of orders, Chef showed up to check our cod sauce. He went ballistic, "why didz you not cover it!" "this is not the color that the sauuaze is now!" And with that he threw it out, in that moment he also threw away our pasta and as you would guess, the milk boiled over. He strode off, and sneered as he saw the milk "and it.." "I know Chef.." I interrupted. It WOULD all go downhill in a matter of seconds, and of course the one thing I had made sure to watch, would blow up the second I was distracted. My partner and I have worked together many times before, and he and I cleaned up, put out the orders and laughed it off. What else could we do? When it rains, it pours.

From that point on, we hit some bumps in the road, and all we could do was add those bumps to the irony of the day. My big success of the day was that I made Chef smile (apparently he is human). When I finally was able to bring the milk back up to a boil after the big spill, he was meandering by and he freaked me out by stressing "don't let it happen again! don't make it boil over, oh no!" and I rushed to the stove and scrambled to turn off the knob. He walked away snickering. At least a smile crossed his face. Tomorrow is another day; more covers, and a guarantee for bloopers. But that's how we learn right? We only threw away half of the work that we did yesterday, and the cheese did not go down the drain, and we are still alive and smiling. The weeks half over, and I cannot wait for Saturday. But until then, might as well laugh it off.