It is so difficult sometimes to find time to write. Topics to write about seems to be flooded all over every published medium, and going with the undertow is just too easy.
There are many good writers out there. I'm sure. With beautiful photographs and prose that could whisk you off your feet and say that life is good. Rants, raves. multitudes of comments and likes. How will I ever get this blog up to the same visibility as it was years ago.
Yesterday one of my head chefs has dropped another hint that maybe she has forgotten about the creativity of cooking. The reasons to put a few ingredients together creating magic, And the characteristic of every professional cook: doing the same thing over and over again getting the same results.
Though there are times that we had to make do with certain dishes due to the availability of resources, we always toed the line and went back to look up the recipe and remember how it was put together in the first place. The head chef seems to have forgotten that temporarily in the spirit of convenience.
Having three head chefs whom I try to develop to one day be a great chef is a juggling act in terms of personalities and preferences. One is head strong and one of the best chefs I know who can handle a kitchen brigade. Small in stature, she commands a respectable camaraderie among her subordinates. Then there's the head chef that rose from the ranks, starting out a cold station cook, eventually being given control of one of the newest kitchens in the restaurant group. When he started out, he had an admirable rigidness that would compliment the kind of culture and work environment we have developed in few years we worked together.
But, like all humans granted with super powers, the other side of the spectrum has garnered another shade of grey. His rigidness was just a preview of an iron fist that is all talk and threats, and a minimum amount of coaching, developing. And lately he has developed a kind of forgetfulness reared its ugly head once or twice. The staff are good at what they do, but they're not getting better.
And finally the head chef that is the best buddy for all the cooks. A sense of authority has eluded this individual, and thus treats his fellow cooks as close friends, afraid to toe the line and is content with the status quo.
All three chefs have helped me get to where I am, knowing more things than many years ago. I guess it's the diversity that makes it a colorful and challenging point in my professional life. And because of this I realize I have more recipes, scientific conclusions and assumptions than when i was a cocky, struggling graduate of a Swiss hotel school. Did you know that vinegar can make flour change its gluten to make stretching dough flat by hand extremely easy?
I would appreciate if you could help me. These three chefs are good. I need them to be better. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I need someone to look from the outside in. Can you help?
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