Jaime, En Fuego

I was remembering some good fire stories in the kitchen today.

I don't mean fires like "instances where a problem needed to be solved," I'm talking about actual fires in the kitchen. You would think that sometimes when a grease fire (for instance) pops up, most people would know what to do. Well people, think again.

One night when I was a line cook for one of my former "haunts" of DC (hint hint), I was working saute and it was nearing closing time after a very busy night. I stepped off the line to grab a product from downstairs in our walk-in. I was only gone for maybe 2 minutes when I hear my chef start screaming my name, in vain mind you. Followed by the words "what the @#$% is your deal Chase!!"

So I ran back up the steps only to find several tiny fires. By tiny, I mean about 1 foot tall flames in several areas around my station and underneath it as well. Interesting looking to say the least. So there's my chef scrambling past me up the steps to get out of the kitchen, my GM cursing from in front of the line because it was an open kitchen, and myself just staring in amusement at the whole scene. I mean, come on...this was the "SS Minnow" of kitchen fires.

The other cooks on the station were somewhat confused. One handed me some towels calmly and said "get to work Jaime." So, what else was I going to do?? I grabbed several towels and began patting them out one by one, only to find grease puddles under one of them, since someone had spilled the olive oil I keep at the station in the ruckus.

So while I am putting out the fires with several towels, my chef slips back into the kitchen with a huge fire extinguisher. My station was covered from one end of the stove to the next within seconds. Open kitchen, mind you, my first reaction was "What'd ya do that for??" My second was "Look at how many people just saw a fire in the kitchen!!" My third was...interrupted by the immediate scolding I got for letting such a thing happen at my station.

Thanks, I really meant to do that chef. The dining room was silent, with about 100 people staring intently at all of us. We left the kitchen immediately, laughed it off, got a lecture, and began cleaning...it took me an hour to clean my station that night, it usually took about 15 minutes.

Lesson learned...NOT.