Last night the party people took my advice about variety and the spice of life... I slept... reeeeaaallly well :) Yes sweet, lovely sleep :) Woke up to the sound of rain... And as tempted as I was to brave the drizzle with my amazing red rain jacket, I decided to turn on my itunes and fall in and out of sleep until duty officially called. So yes... today I began as a bum... Delightfully so.
I’m starting to finally get my kitchen hands back… I came here after a month of not working at the restaurant and sissy hands. When I was in the kitchen every day I was used to grabbing hot cookies from a pan. I lost my heat protecting layer of skin. Though things still hurt to touch… I am able to do more and more without relying on my side towel. I am also feeling more and more at ease with the kitchen. It doesn’t take me as long to figure out how to find ingredients or where to bring products. I’m starting to pick up more and more words during service and not feel so lost when plating. I still feel like my movements are very choppy, but every day I feel more confident and as a result more satisfied with my work.
Communication is so important in the kitchen and I often feel overly language handicapped to be of great use. The chefs are still watching to see what they can trust me with and when they need to still keep an eye on me. When it comes to chopping, there really isn’t much more to say except to make sure the sizes and shapes are consistent. Other times I wish they would tell me more of the big picture. Today I was told to slice proscuitto and lay them on parchment lined sheet pans. I didn’t know what I was going to do so I took the time to carefully layer the slices evenly… Came back to my station and learned these pans were going into the oven to become chips… I had to re-organize the slices so that they were not touching. No big deal but just time consuming. There are many instances like that, when I feel like I spend a lot of time not knowing the next step and as a result need to fix what I have already done. It is hard working in a German kitchen… I do my best, but I wish I could do better.
Today I worked the middle course station. I didn’t have the main people standing over me and scrutinizing my every move. It always happens that when I am being watched I do my worst work! It is so frustrating! I dropped a small plate yesterday… today I cut my finger while chopping onions… stupid annoying little things that aren’t the biggest deal but always make me feel very awkward and silly. But I know that they know I am doing my best. They tell jokes to keep me smiling and give me random approving winks.
If only I spoke German and could join into more of the conversation… But then again… I kind of enjoy my ignorance and often intentionally abuse their language. One of the cooks makes fun of my English wordage. He is the one who always tell me to speak my German as if I am angry. In return use all my throaty ichs and shprechs and whatever harsh sounds I can muster during our conversations. I may be quiet but I can give it right back to them when they poke fun at me. Today one of the interns kept placing nasty water soaked towels on my shoulder. I got him back with the dish room water hose... Bad move since he found one too, but I know I got him so much better... It was at the very end of the night and quite refreshing after standing over the steaming pots…. The walk back to my room was bit colder than usual... but he has to drive home... muahaha
Brilliant! I've done the same thing when I was in Detmold, Germany. We used the hose that were attached to each steamer and steam kettle!
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