Things get hot in the kitchen...
Working in a kitchen is like fighting in a battle field.
Imagine the Diggers, back in World War I and World War II, running in the battle zone, dodging bullets, avoiding mines in the ground. Protecting their brothers-in-arms lives by putting them self in the front. Against the heat, the dirt, sweating, yelling, shouting charge >> and quickly as possible, before the enemy will catch them.
Well of course the kitchen is not the Gallipoli battle zone, and yes, our guests are not the enemy, but the kitchen is a dangerous place that involves extreme heat, very dangerous equipment, knives, hot oil, and a lot of pressure!!!
Imagine trying to prepare, cook and serve 100 people in 1.5 hrs, at the same time you have 50 guests up in their function room waiting for their fabulous canapés, and if you’re really ‘lucky’, then you have another function dinner for 30 guests in a different function room, and all you got is your brothers-in-arms, your colleagues, your mates in the kitchen, that are helping each other and defending our kingdom, The Kitchen.
Every move that you make will be judged by the guests, is it salty enough, is cooked enough, would he like the flavours of the dish, cooking temperature for steaks, Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, well done and for some of our clients, even VERY well done >> and it keeps going…
Imagine that you’re seated in front of 100 people and every single one of them got something to say about you. And you, you have to impress every single one of them and make sure they get the best of the best of your abilities.
If your platoon is well trained, and set up for the upcoming battle, then it’s 99.9% chance that you’ll win the battle. But unfortunately it’s not always the case.
And then it happens, busy service, the restaurant is FULL!! Most of the orders already came through the docket machine. The kitchen hand is running around between the two washing sections, scrubbing pots, and loading the dishwasher. Your feet are screaming at you to sit down and unload that weight off them for 5 minutes. But the team is working as one. Depending on each other, coordinating like a school of sardines in the ocean.
The door opens and one of the waiters is coming with a plate half full and carefully approaches you…The head chef.
Excuse me chef?! You hear a soft voice in the background. You turn around towards them and ask what the problem is? “The guest asked for a medium steak and we served him a medium well. He is not happy”… the waiter answers while he take a few steps backwards, afraid that you might shout at him, or yell like some other chefs that they bumped into through their career as waiters.
BOOM!!!!!!! Your heart is crushed. You feel embarrassed. How did that happen? What are you going to do now? In one second, your whole service is over. No more joking, turning the music off, putting your tail between your legs, like a wounded dog. And if the floor was made out of sand, you’ll become an ostrich and stick your head way down in it.
You lost your fortress, your kingdom. You have lost the battle.
So after taking all that pressure, the heat in the kitchen, especially in these summer days, while everybody is in their offices cooling down with their brand new air conditioners looking at their computer screens, and making jokes on what they have watched last night on the television, mind you that as a chef you don’t get to see all of these shows, cause by the time you get home all there is on the telly is the horrible adult commercials that we all are sick of already. But don’t forget it is for unlimited time only… 
as they like to say.
So what if sometimes we yell or release some pressure on a poor waitress that by mistake came across your way. DEAL WITH IT.
We deal with it every day.
I leave you with a great recipe for Chimichurri sauce, which will go great on your steaks, no matter if it’s rare, medium or even well done.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1-2 green chilies depend how spicy you like it. Make sure you deseeded it.
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 bunch fresh parsley
1 bunch coriander
1/3 bunch basil
¼ bunch mint
3 clove garlic
2 shallots
1 tomato deseeded and small diced. (The professional term is Concase.
Salt and pepper to taste
In a food processor bled oil, herbs, garlic, onion, chili and lemon juice, until it forms a paste.
Then add the tomato and season to taste.
Chill for at list 2 hrs before using.
Itzhak