Monday, July 21, 2008

Adventures in Catering

What a fucking weekend, 3 days off and I did nothing but run around or cook the entire time.

Lets start with Saturday morning...wake up at 6:30 am to go do a boot camp session with my trainer, and leave 2 hours later to pick up some goods from the restaurant. At 10am the chopping begins, but not without a double espresso on ice followed by a beer. Yes that's how I roll. Noon rolls around and the cavalry arrives, by way of my friends Warren (sous chef at DC Coast) and Greg (Hook restaurant in Georgetown). So yes, I have the best people I know working around me, my friends.

Fast forward to 6pm when everything is wrapping up and they are leaving. I have one more friend come by to help me clean, and 2.5 hours later (after icing everything down several times and re-packing 2 refrigerators and 6 coolers) it's time to go home. 7am Sunday morning is no time to slack off as I scramble to wake up and start all over again, because today is bound to be a busy and HOT day.

By 10am I'm pulling into Rock Creek Park and Greg and I look like seasoned pros setting up for the day to come. Warren pulls in around 11am and gets to cooking on the grill and people start arriving shortly thereafter. All in all everything went over great. Compliments all around on the food and people were asking what I was capable of doing catering-wise. This was only to get my name out there, people, and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of my friends.

It's not like it was a hard event but I am going to pull a line from the new and uber-popular Batman movie. "When you are the best at something you just don't do it for free" By that I mean The Mad Chef of M Street is ready to start charging for his expertise and that of his friends as well. I am no caterer and I doubt you will find me doing something of that magnitude ever again. I swear if I only had a video camera to show what really took place over the course of this weekend...it would be pure entertainment. For you. It sure wasn't for me.

Oh yeah, it's Monday and I am here all day without my chef...and I wont lie, I'm burnt out and I have no clue what I am going to do for special.

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