Crazy.Insane.Love?

(Preface: Crazy.Stupid.Love. is a movie with some genuine soul. For anyone who has not watched it, there is a part of you missing in you that you don't even know about...yet...until after you've watched the movie, by which point the missing part in you will no longer be missing.)

Anyway...

Just for today, I hate potatoes. I peeled, sliced, chopped, mashed and made Dauphinoise potatoes out of maybe five, six, seven kilograms (or more) of potatoes. I have never touched so many potatoes in the span of two hours at any point in my life...not even when I gobbled 13 mini bags of Walkers Cheese and Onion's this past Sunday.

Maybe I should backtrack a little. We had about 70 customers at the restaurant for lunch service today. Four out of the twelve kitcheneers (students who work in the kitchen as oppose to the ones working front-of-house) were absent. We were seriously swamped with orders. Even though most of the orders were pre-orders, giving us ample time to prep for service in advance, service was still quite intense. It was just my chef trainer and I on the veg section during service...and at one point I was plating five different vegetables on 20 dishes at the same time. 

Veg section is a piece of work I tell you. You are everywhere at all times. Mains is probably the hardest section to master but veg is nasty if you can't be at three places simultaneously, which is a skill (despite being small, swift and relatively agile) I have yet to successfully acquire. "The fish dish wants the cavolo nero (now!); the pork belly needs the mashed potatoes (now!) and the chicory (now!) and the carrot (now!); the venison can't be plated...where are the potatoes...not that kind...the other kind of potatoes (now!); where are the anchovy beignets for the gurnards?! Wait...the gurnards need potatoes too...not the first two kinds - the saffron ones...Shirley, that's a little too much cavolo; the fish will drown in it; Shirley, not enough cabbage; it's a side...; okay, let's get the broccoli on there! Where is the cabbage for the ravioli??? [There is cabbage for the ravioli?! O.o Right! More cavolo nero...] Someone clean this plate!"  You get the picture. Okay, now picture it again, but this time, the kitchen is so heated up by this point that you can do some deep vinyasa flows and hot hatha poses and get a real good detoxifying sweat out of it. What a crazy, crazy day!

Yet, it was my best kitchen day so far. I must be certifiably insane. I am quite burnt out right now but in reflection, I learnt what I never would have on a slow day. I took on some responsibilities today that last week, a month ago or at the beginning of the semester, I would not have thought I could handle. I realise that I love the pressure, the quick pace and the activeness of it all. Don't get me wrong: I still want to bake overly-elaborate, indulgent cakes for rich people but being thrown into the deep end head-first onto a section I had not really prepared for got the stubborn fight in me going. 

Now I am just waiting for the happy, energy crash. zzzZZZzzzzzzzZZzZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......but only after I finish this other blog for ICT...