Hopefully after being here over a month, I can wrap my head around what a day in the kitchen looks like. For those of you who have been in food service, I'm sure this won't be too out of the ordinary for you. Even at the edge of the world, people need to eat and the ways to get food out to them are still pretty standard. There's a lot more to the logistics of it and I hope to get a chance to talk in depth with Executive Chef Rob Greene about that for a later article. But from fridge to plate, it's easy enough to understand.
As a caveat before we begin: during the main body season, the kitchen technically runs 24/7, with a new shift called Mid-rats (which someone once explained what meant, but my quail brain has since forgotten). This overnight shift currently isn't active, so I can't tell you too much about it, but just know that when everyone is here, there's always an opportunity for food.
Anyway, things start off with breakfast and the kitchen opens at 4 a.m. Breakfast is a pretty simple affair, usually consisting of scrambled eggs, home fries, some kind of protein like bacon or sausage, and some sort of additional breakfast entrée like a breakfast casserole or French toast. We also have one of our Action Stations open, the egg line. If the buffet options aren't cutting it, you can come in and order some fresh made eggs or an omelet. Unsurprisingly, the egg line is probably the most popular spot in the morning, but breakfast as a whole is currently pretty sparsely attended. The early morning is mostly handled by one guy, Marty, and when I was working the a.m. shift, he was typically done with the line by the time I arrived. (I feel as though Marty has been unfairly banished to the mornings because people got tired of his dad jokes. Stay strong Marty. Every workplace needs a Marty.)
The next shift to start is the a.m. shift. This typically begins at 5 a.m., though on Sunday it starts at 5:30 as that is Brunch day and breakfast is basically cancelled. A.m. is mainly focused on lunch. The goal is typically to have everything prepared (or mise'd from the term mise en place) by 7:30 as that is when the first a.m. break is. Then from roughly 8:15 on it's time to get lunch together. We're on a five-week menu rotation, so even for how long I've been here, I don't think I've seen everything that we put out. All that to say that there's really no one consistent thing about a menu I can share as an example, but methodology is typically the same. We use four big ovens, three tilt skillets, a four-well fryer, two steam "ovens," some giant steam jacket vats, and the most jank stove top on earth that we try to never use. There's a lot of ways to get food hot is what I'm saying.
At 11 a.m. is when the p.m. shift begins. Similar to the a.m. shift, the goal is to get everything mise'd out before the 1 p.m. lunch break and to come back from that ready to put together dinner. Having worked both shifts now, they're pretty similar in how things are managed and how dishes get put together. As long as it tastes good and gets out there on time, we call that a win.
There are also two additional elements in the kitchen. First is the bakery. Bakery keeps us stocked with cookies in the to-go box and all kinds of interesting desserts for meals. As someone with a fiendish sweet tooth, I have nothing but respect for the bakers, long may they reign. The other is the "garde manger" if you're being proper, or salads if you're being at all practical or useful. As expected, they take care of the cool ingredients and yes the salad, but as lettuce is a rarity down here, "salad" tends to be a broad term, often including pasta salads and the like. I fully admit I haven't spent a lot of time paying attention to this area. Once you start setting up a chocolate chip cookie salad, hit me up and I'll be there post-haste.
As mentioned before, we also have Action Stations. These are for made to order or made live items. Again, egg line is at breakfast. The famous McMurdo Garnish is our pizzas, which is currently only done three times a week, but is going to be daily, 24/7 when main body hits. Having worked the pizza stations a few times, it's a surprisingly fun time. We'll also do different one offs like burgers, burritos, and steak carving. None of those are on a set schedule, but come up as the wind takes us. There's been talk about doing Action Stations every day once main body arrives, and that's apparently a new thing, so we'll see how that goes.
There's a lot of moving parts in a kitchen and many different ways to approach the tasks and check lists, but at the end of the day, the goal is always the same: make a meal people can enjoy. I'm fine with doing a lot of the grunt work and letting the more knowledgeable leaders keep things on track. If you need someone to dice fifty pounds of onions or peel seven bags of potatoes, I'm your guy. It's a lot of expertise and experiences that make it all function and I'm frankly amazed that any amount of people actually end up fed, let alone every meal every day.
Now, back to that chocolate chip cookie salad....
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