tighting up the screws...

so, work has been good this week.  things are getting easier for me, and i'm feeling way less out of place.  see, el chefe and sous chefe and one of the other cooks have all worked together for years and they have the flow...they all know their stations and what needs to be done and they all work really well together.  kind of how i worked with everybody at the old place.  anyway, it's just a learning curve.  it's getting better.  what i noticed this week is that i pretty much take care of the cooking and everybody else does prep and makes sauces and gets other stuff done.  i can run the line by myself so they pretty much let me.  it's not crazy busy in the mornings or at lunch (yet...here's hoping) so i can do it no problem.  opening has been getting easier for me too, i'm getting a good routine down and the first couple days i opened i didn't have the kitchen nearly ready for service by the time we were open, but now i got it ready with twenty minutes to spare.  the girls have been referring to me as the "breakfast stud" which is kinda nice.  i'm fat and out of shape so i'll gladly take somebody calling me a stud, even if its for something as innocent and easy as cooking hashbrowns.  it's funny, the other guys are all night cooks (well, so was i, but i worked a lot of mid shifts that required me to cook breakfast for a while at the start of my shifts) and they mess with their hashbrowns too much.  just let them cook!  and don't dump oil on top of them!  i put oil down and spread it out with a grill spatula and spread my browns out, season them, and just let them cook.  i flip them about a minute before plating to heat the top (now bottom).  that's it.  el chefe keeps tossing them around and moving them and they take forever to cook and never get good and crispy.  anyway.  hashbrowns.

so i've had three different ex-coworkers come in to eat and check the new place out this week, and all were very complimentary and happy for me.  it's a good spot.  i'm enjoying the hell out of myself, learning a lot, and i get to wear shorts.  because i'm the opener and day cook i really only work with about three different servers but they all like me and they're all great at their jobs.  the other owners love me cause i'm reliable and i'm always smiling and positive and they can see what a kick ass cook i am.  it's nice to be noticed.  not that i wasn't noticed at the old place, but for what it was i never really got a chance to shine.  i can say this for sure...at the old place i never made a soup that sold out in one night and had many many compliments and people talking about it later.  i made the carrot and coriander soup again friday afternoon as a weekend soup and i came in yesterday morning and i couldn't find it anywhere and when sous chefe came in i asked him if any was left and he went "no no no...people love that soup!  it was gone early"  i feel like i got an even better do on it this time around, and it was nice that everybody else (customers included) agreed.

anyway.  i got today and tomorrow off, which is my first two days off in a row in around a month.  i think the last weekend i had was when i was still working at old place.  not that i'm complaining.  i'm not scared of work and i love money, so it's all good, but still...that second day off will come in extremely handy.  actually i'll probably just play mario and nap all day.  but to get to play mario and nap two days in a row?  priceless.