At Work

A Big Bowl of Red – Grassfed Steak Chili

Posted on February 18, 2011. Filed under: All, In the Kitchen, New York, NY, Restaurant Life | Tags: , , , |

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to represent the restaurant at Chelsea Market’s  NY Chilifest 2011. I along with representatives from our other two restaurants in our group, spent several hours ladling out some damn good chili and schmoozing away a Sunday afternoon.  It was the first public cooking event I participated in [...]

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The Hulk has Left the Building

Posted on February 18, 2011. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

“You won’t like me when I’m angry.” I had only heard about him, this bad ass cook we had working at one of our sister restaurants.  A legend in his own time, he could run a busy saute station like no one else.  He owned that station – as he should, after working it for [...]

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Call me Cookie

Posted on July 1, 2009. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

Mike*, one of our garde manger cooks just took a few days off to help his girlfriend move from Syracuse to Brooklyn.  When Mike returned, Javier, the Spanish-speaking pastry cook greeted him with a loud and enthusiastic “Cookie! We missed you Cookie!”  The sous-chef turned to me and asked, “Why do you guys call him [...]

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Zen and the Art of Staff Meal

Posted on June 18, 2009. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

One of the most difficult tasks in a professional kitchen is the minimization of waste and the effective practice of kitchen economy.  The french term garde manger literally means “keep to eat.”  In a kitchen it is the station where a beginning cook usually starts, and is responsible for all the cold preparations, such as [...]

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T minus 16 Hours and Counting…

Posted on February 8, 2009. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

Well, I headed it off as long as I could, but I knew at some point I would have to work brunch.  I’m not much of a morning person.  OK, I am NOT a morning person.  On a normal day, I barely manage to drag myself out of bed by 10 a.m.  Then I putt [...]

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Oh, for the Love of Pig!

Posted on January 15, 2009. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life | Tags: , , , |

So we have a new sous chef at work. He saw a video on You Tube of Chris Consentino making Porchetta di Testa, and wanted to try it at the restaurant. What is porchetta di testa? Well it is basically a pig’s head that is boned out, marinated, then rolled up, tied, and wrapped, then [...]

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Does Age Matter?

Posted on January 5, 2009. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

I stumbled into a conversation at work recently between my chef and the pastry chef. They were speculating on how old Leon, one of our dishwashers is. The other dishwashers are basically kids – around 20 and 22 years old. But Leon’s clearly got some mileage on him and the years have not been kind. [...]

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Bye Bye B.B.

Posted on September 4, 2008. Filed under: All, At Work, Restaurant Life |

Well, playtime is over and I am starting my first job as a line cook tomorrow. After my recent graduation from French Culinary Institute, I was offered garde manger positions at both Restaurant B.B.* where I did my stage, or externship, and at a smaller, lesser known restaurant. After struggling with the dilemma for a [...]

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