Two Day Hangover

Tuesday...

Tuesdays are worse then Mondays, it is kind of like a hangover from the weekend that is setting in a day late.

Not much going on today, spent several hours last night going over menu ideas with a friend of mine for an upcoming tailgate. This particular tailgate is weeks away, but it's going to be Kosher. Kosher as in Hebrew, not as in just using the salt. It's going to be a challenge and a blast all at the same time. I don't even have a budget for the event, meaning I can do whatever I want. Hope I don't "wine & cheese" it too much, but how can I not when I am told I can make whatever I want AND buy all the equipment I need?

I received a case of butternut squash today. I asked my vendor yesterday if they were in full swing for the season. Maybe I should have clarified what I was asking because these are miniature versions of what I was looking for, and are just not bringing a smile to my face, dammit. So I called her (and she is lucky she's a blond, or it would have been a more forceful conversation!) to let her know what I was asking yesterday and we agreed she would be way more specific next time.

What will I do with these? Puree, hash, roast, soup...ask me in a few hours, I need my first cup of coffee!

It's A Beautiful Moooorrrrnnniiiinnngggg!!!!!

What a weekend!!!

Maryland knocks down yet another top 25 team, and the Redskins? What do you say about them? After it's all said and done this season ain't nowhere near over, but someone got a serious gut check yesterday. That game was shown to about 90% of the country too, can't wait to see what everyone thinks about this team now. I will say that I have already spoken to several friends and I don't see how it's possible that Cowboy fans can call out sick to work the following day after such a loss!

Anyways on to work, I'm very excited about football and all, but this weekend pretty much started the fall season and that means a whole new plethora of foods that I can start to play around with. This is my favorite time of the year. Only bad thing (not too bad) is that I have come to notice that my plates become slightly more complex, as I layer in more flavors. I also roast and braise more often instead of grill and saute items. First up this week will be some butternut squash. I cant wait, time to get on the phone with my vendor!!

Oh yeah, since this wasn't posted last week I have to get this out there to go along with the beautiful picture that was posted yesterday. I for one haven't gotten to up on my team yet, they still have much to prove and they know it as well. Like Redskins Head of Football Operations Vinny Cerato said this morning on his radio show, today is a day to just enjoy what took place yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Nu5fBd6T4

Ahem...

The Mad Chef Has Left the Building

Friday...

Last day of the week, bitches!! It's actually going to be a Friday, for once. Why you ask? DUDE, it's Dallas week, enough said. No, not really, but hey sometimes I'm just lucky enough to get Saturdays off.

Tomorrow is actually my 10 year reunion for DeMatha. I will stop by for a few moments only to hopefully speak to some of the people I may or may not remember. OK, so it hasn't been that long but I wasn't always as slick lookin' as the pic that's on this page, or a culinary bad ass, or prom king or any of that. That was The Brain!

(Note from The Brain: Yeah, I ruled. Now I'm old, married, reproducing and drunk alone way too often... Also, nerdy pic of Mad Chef at 14 will be posted soon, I promise you.)

But I did know a lot of cool cats from DM, three of whom are helping with the TV pilot, and I hope to run into some tomorrow night.

So anyways, party of 75 I get to prep for so that should keep me busy for a little while today, and once 8pm rolls around tonite, if it's slow and all is well, I intend to kick off my weekend with a...um, nap.

Feeling Preppy

Bottom line, I stayed several hours later then I should have tonite. Why? I don't always know if it's appreciated, but I actually give a fuck for some reason. When I walked into work this afternoon, well, honestly the only thing that had been done was everything that I had done the night before...and it was 1pm. Enough said, so I had my work cut out for me.

I saw my chef for a total of maybe an hour today. He just left and it's almost 9pm, where was he? Dunno and don't care. If I had time to worry about things like that then I wouldn't have a job.

There was a party of 115 and a party of 30, not including what we did for service during the course of the night. I think we did about 130 covers. All in all everything went over great, the parties were all smooth and service was a breeze. That's leaving out the graphic language I spoke for the 4 hours leading up to service while I prepped everything else for the party, along with fabricating 85 pounds of fish from here to West Africa. That African fish is sumthin' else man...I had to take the pin bones from a "Red Mullet" fish.



The fish is as small as an infants hands, I thought I was a fucking surgeon for almost an hour!
Anyways, since I'm not going into detail about how I busted my ass to make mashed potatoes for 150 people (both parties), cut assorted vegetables for them, cut fish, make sauces, and mark all the beef, chicken, and fish...I guess that's all I got for the day!

El Borracho

Monday morning...

My chef is off and I closed on Saturday, yet I have already been asked 5 questions that I have no answers for. All dealing with follow-ups from the weekend. It would be great if I knew how to answer them but I have no choice but to defer them until my chef is here tomorrow. Not my problem.

Saturday night I caught a dishwasher intoxicated. Plain and simple, not in my kitchen. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for drinking once the job is done. I will even go so far as to say my cooks can have a beer while they are cleaning. My name isn't on the door so that doesn't happen, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. I never abused it when I had the opportunity in other kitchens, but here that doesn't seem to be the case.

Back to the dishwasher, this guy has tried to walk in here drunk before and my chef just sent him home. It has happened on more the one occasion. I probably wouldn't be so nice the first couple times but again, that's just me. I will take my chef's back on it no matter what, that's my job. Now when I see this guy drunk during the shift I have to wonder how the fuck did he pull it off. I can figure that out later but first was getting him to admit he had been drinking.

He flat out lied to my chef and I when we first asked. He then proceeded to bitch at a line cook about me. The cook tried to explain that he wasn't drunk, just tired because it was busy. I told the cook to not lie to me (I chose a few select words that he would understand) and he went back to work, done trying to defend anyone lest he get into trouble as well.

At around 10 pm the dishwasher went looking for the other manager fluent in Spanish and spoke to him as well. At this time, get this, he said he didn't think it should be a problem for him to drink "a little" when he is working. He felt it made him work harder. What do you say to that?
I was simple with it, thanks for your time, get the fuck out. I have to get into the dishpit and finish your job. You can come get your paycheck on Friday. Lets just hope the follow thru doesn't let that liability back in the door.

The revolving door of employment strikes again...

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! (Part Deux)

Did I mention that this week is one of the most hyped in professional football each year? At least in this city it is, and as the week goes on I'm sure there will be plenty of smack talking going around as the Washington Redskins head down to Texas to play the Dallass Cowboys. Did I misspell that? Didn't think so! (Note from The Brain: Does he misspell everything else? You betcha!)

Since it's only Monday and I have plenty of time to post messages about this football team. Let me first start out by expressing feelings through the words of Chris Paul...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Yy5vIIoPc&feature=related

Never the Bride, Always the Bridesmaid...

Saturday...

317 on the books to start the evening as I stroll through the doors at 2pm. Awesome.

We had a wedding reception of 130 people at 5 pm as well so it was pretty busy tonite. I love weddings, not so much the cooking part but the eye candy that it brings. I fully believe in crashing a wedding and I've done so a few times, but this is a blog about cooking, not my personal endeavors *wink wink*

Back to the reception, 5pm, 130 people, open bar (3 bottles in my office for my collection) and a buffet consisting of Black Grouper and 10oz filet. I cut the filet and the grouper yesterday. Yes, I did that along with the 70 pounds of salmon and all that other shit I had to fabricate. It was great, actually reminded me of my days of working all day in a 42 degree walk-in 5 years ago. Great stuff, again I digress.

My chef and the other 2 managers we have in the restaurant are running around like chickens with their heads cut off to keep everything in order. Short staffed would be an understatement, since we also have regular service for the evening. This party cleared, just in wine alone, 6 cases of red and 5 white. That's not including the 8 cases of Amstel Light and 6 cases of Heineken that are now empty boxes upstairs. Don't ask me about the liquor, I was told by several servers they "are drinking like fish" from the time they got here.

Its 10pm and they just left....I'm almost jealous because from the noise my kitchen heard it must have been a good time.

Ow

Friday...

First of all let me set the record straight about cutting myself. It's been several months since I cut myself in a meaningful way, and by that I mean while I actually had a knife in my hand. So being that I cut myself more frequently on something other then a knife...well, The Mad Chef of M Street doesn't really know what to say.

I actually was stabbing a check when I did it. We keep our checks on something that looks like a 6 inch pin, though it's not horribly sharp by any means as it's only meant to hold the checks. Well, I stabbed my index finger right on the nail...talented I know. It was more of a PITA because of the bruise that was left in its wake...

On to today, raw bar cook suddenly left work and said she needed the day off tomorrow, which is today. Then I hear that she called back later and said she was taking the next 2 weeks off. Um, I don't know what my chef told her but I don't care if you have been here for umpteen years, you don't tell ME you are taking a vacation for 2 weeks on no notice. No one died, so "Homey don't play that" but again, like always, it's not my call. Though it's a perfect opportunity for fresh blood in the restaurant as far as I'm concerned.

Had 60 pounds of Tasmanian Salmon to fabricate for a party this evening. 3 banquets of different sizes, specials to make and menus to write. I would think I have my work cut out for me, but since I did all the fabricating within the last hour my day may have just been cut in half. My chef is coming in early, don't ask me why, he must of forgotten who he had working for him...

Sliced and Diced

The Mad Chef was so excited work yesterday and all the chores he had to do, he went and stabbed him index finger with a chef's knife. So like John McCain, he's unable to use the computer (until it heals up), but we'll find a way to make it work and we'll have this story on the blog by tomorrow.

It'll be the best thing since Jesus. Or at least as good as, um, watermelons. I don't know.

Uh, I'm gonna go ahead and stop tying now. Right.

Gym or Work?

Wednesday morning...

My schedule has been thrown under the bus like a rag doll. I don't usually open during the week and since I consider myself to still have somewhat of a dismal life, well it's gone this week. I have gotten used to not being in bed before 2am and being up for the gym by 9.

However, being here before 9am is just not that high on my agenda. Prep cook out the door, no call/no show yesterday so I have a good bit of work to be done this morning as I train 2 others that my chef hired yesterday.

That's all I've got...shit, I have to make a soup as well.

Los Borrachos

Work?

Oh yeah, back to that place again. At least my boys won! I'm short a prep cook today so I have my work cut out for me. As I said on Saturday, the recipe for the Tequila Lime Salsa:

10 ears of roasted corn, cut off the cob
5 plum tomatoes diced
1 jalapeno minced
2 red or orange peppers, small diced
1 red onion small dice
1 bunch of cilantro chopped

2 shots of tequila if you're like me
2 oz of lime juice
olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper

When I first made this dish it reeked of tequila and might have well have been named "salsa borracho" (meaning drunken salsa). The next day, however, it couldn't have tasted better. The brine for the wings went 5 hours instead of 3, though I think 4 is perfect if your going to use bbq sauce. 5 was great and I didn't add anything once they hit the grill.

Oh yeah, those people who say black folks don't get sunburn are full of shit.

One More...

Skinned

As I write this I must admit the last thing on my mind is work. Even though I will be heading there in just a few moments. I am jammin out to my favorite DJ, Chris Paul of WPGC, and the new song that he puts up every week for the Redskins.

I am closing tonite so I will be preparing all of my food for tomorrow's home opener at work. While also running the line and putting out a banquet for 110 people. Busy? Yes, but focus and efficiency will be at a max so I can pull this off.

Hot dogs, burgers, wings, dip and salsa. The burgers will be seasoned with mushroom and onion soup mix before they hit the grill. The wings are going into a brine for about 3 hours while I make a bbq sauce for them as well. I will make a 9 layer dip that I have yet to make the same way in the past 3 years since my mother gave me the recipe. As for the salsa I have no clue what I am doing yet but it will have tequila in it.

I will post up the recipe for everything Monday if my boys win. If they lose I probably won't speak about football for the week until next Saturday. That's just how some of us Skins fans are. I see the world through burgundy glasses!!!

Politically Correct

DeNiro Is Feeling Blue...

For those of you who love celebrity eco-scandals, this one's a doozy. Perhaps inspired by the recent fish fraud uncovered by those teenagers in New York, Greenpeace decided to do some investigative work of its own at Nobu, the swank sushi restaurant chain owned in part by Robert De Niro. They found that De Niro's restaurants, consisting of 21 locations across 4 continents, are serving unwitting customers endangered bluefin tuna.

Bluefin isn't illegal to serve, however it is listed as critically endangered due to overfishing by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List. Not only that, but the US has called for a total ban on Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin -- so, it's not exactly a secret that eating bluefin is a eco-sin. To make matters worse, Nobu's clientele consists of Hollywood elites like the greenwashing queen of pop, and the über-aware Leonardo DiCaprio. Both of whom might have unintentionally enjoyed some endangered tuna. Oops, way to make De Niro look bad.

Hmm....I could have told you De Niro was a douche way back when him and his entourage took a banquet area at Zola back in '01. Not only did he take a room fit for 300 with only 15 people, but we were also told...get this, not to make eye contact with him or speak to him directly. True story. And just for the record we serve the, mocking the article a little here, über-popular and tasty yellowfin tuna at Sea Catch!

Happy Thursday!

Back to Reality

Time to scale back a bit it seems. Maybe my chef did turn out to be a small distraction by coming in last night. It's over now anyways, he is back and I get to step back to the role I played before he left weeks ago. More time to concentrate on what The Mad Chef of M Street wants to get started.

First things first, it's time to start organizing this tailgate for the home opener of the Washington Redskins!! Burgers, brined and bbq'd chicken wings, hot dogs, brats, 9 layer dip, salsa and homemade chips for dipping. Yeah, we gonna have some fun. I have no clue yet as to where I will be setting up this week, but I hope to have that planned out by tomorrow night. I'm trying to contain my excitement from actually being out drinking on a Sunday afternoon.

Did I mention the beer pong table my friend Wes and I made up last year? More him then me because I don't deal with paint all that well, I become more of a kid on the playground then a contractor. I will try to get a pic of it in action while at the game Sunday...maybe even a few pics of my friends and I in rare form.

Oh well, off to work it is and I have the day off tomorrow. Day off eve anyone?

Not So Special

Tuesday...

After being told that my chef was coming back (after dealing with a family issue for the last week), I got excited at the idea of walking out of this place prior to 11pm for once. Not the case evidently, as I will be having a sit down with my chef tonight.

For what I have no clue, and personally I don't want to see him until he is ready to work. It's none of my business how he feels or acts right now. He is my chef and I have no reason to see him at the workplace until he is ready to be in charge again. Cold huh? Trust me, I am a compassionate person, really. It's just that I can't find the logic in what is about to happen. Do I need him here? Of course, but if he isn't ready it's only a distraction.

Case in point...my specials, since he has taken his leave, have had a different flair or cuisine each shift. I could keep going for at least 2 more weeks before repeating myself somewhere along the line. Today's special...not so much. I took the easy road of what some in this biz like to call a "walk-in special," meaning I am simply utilizing everything I already had in house to do the dinner special. The lunch special was no different. Serves me right, I guess, for letting my guard down.

We will see how long this continues, but tomorrow is right back to day one with my specials, today I have to let it slide because everything is already in place. Tomorrow I think we will try some French cooking for a fresh challenge.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Monday...

Man that day off went waaaayyy too quick. Of course, sitting around watching football and drinking Miller swill, ahem, I mean the Champagne of Beers, can do that! I couldn't get enough of watching basically every team but my own seemingly march up and down the field all day. What is it about this city when it comes to producing an offense that can actually produce? Oh yeah, continuity, duh.

On to my day, walking through the doors I get some good news that my chef will be back tomorrow and thank goodness, let's just hope he can stick around so the Mad Chef can take care of some things outside of this restaurant. We had a banquet of 60 to prepare for this evening, with steak, fish, and chicken entrees. Passed apps, salads and dessert to be plated. I spent the greater part of the speed hump getting this together with one of my cooks. All in all this day has been an easy one, and I can credit that to actually having all of my cooks here to work.

Has anyone else gotten sick of hearing that Tom Brady is out for the year? We get it. Fuck Boston anyway.

Wedding Crashers

A day off is only a few hours away.

What on Earth will I do with myself? Uhhh, catch up on all that I missed over the past 6 days. Mainly sleeping and drinking if it's up to me, which it mostly isn't. That's OK though, tonite was a breeze and it's looking like I will be walking out of here just after 10pm. I can almost taste the Heineken already.

Tonite we had a party of 70 for a wedding reception. Not something I ever want to risk screwing up, so I have personally been preparing the food all day. Who am I kidding, it's usually me doing it anyways. So as I am going over all the ins and outs of this thing I notice a few discrepancies, mainly the fact that the chef is supposed to be cutting the cake.

HA! Homey don't play that! I'm short staffed in the kitchen, my chef is MIA and that would keep me out of the kitchen for 20 minutes in the middle of service...no thank you. So I ultimately had to pass. Sorry, I just won't risk leaving my kitchen stranded for such a long time. If my chef was here there is no doubt it would have happened, but that's just not the case.

Oh yeah, one thing that did slip through the cracks was that there was to be no starch on the plate, in this case truffle mash potatoes. No notes were given to me on that one so I can honestly say, no Bob, I didn't get the memo. Fuck your TPS reports! So no harm, no foul...but whatever happened to that event coordinator they got rid of a month or so ago? Wonder if such a detail would have slipped through the cracks with her??

Have a great weekend!

Awesome.

So this is why I have these gray hairs coming in...

Still short a cook, a banquet tonite of about 30, specials to make, menu to type, schedule for next week to post, chef still M.I.A.

And then came the health inspection. Hold on, a health inspection? Right smack in the middle of the speed hump of my fucking day. This is why I live for this type of shit. I am simultaneously barking out orders in Spanish to mop the floors, check the walk-ins, wipe down that table, and if your not using it to put it away, FAST. Of course the inspector was right there but luckily either she didn't speak it or my Spanish is just that bad, but it gets the job done so who am I to judge?

Talk about a hiccup in an already long week. We were moderately busy and the inspector took one look around, checked all the temperatures in the walk-ins and on the line, and then checked my dish area. Well, nobody's perfect...my dish area wasn't dirty but my dishwashers didn't tell me the garbage disposal wasn't working this morning. Then I spewed out curse words in at least three languages before I calmed down.

I turned to the inspector and told her I needed to call a technician that was in the building. Explaining the situation he was there within moments and gave a good story. The story worked well to say the least, he has to order a part and it should be here tomorrow for them to fix. All in all the evaluation went great, then she asked for my food handlers license. Hmm, never really made the trip to get that one, I mean I have my certificate but my wallet got stolen a while back and I just haven't tried to get another. The certificate should be enough, but I didn't risk it. My raw bar cook has one as well.

So that's my story for the day...and it's only 3 pm. HA!

Juneau

I just had to post this...

Really? A Doctor's Note? Is This Elementary School?

Wednesday...

Well, the special went over great for lunch. One of the 4 horseman (the owners of the restaurant, BTW...FU Brain!) even tried it last night with their tuna, excuse me it was his wife, and took some home declaring it delicious. So needless to say it went over well. Yay me. I still have a job.

Now on to my rant. That cook that cut himself yesterday at his other job? He limped in here an hour ago and said he could not work until Friday. Dude, you are my most expensive cook, late at least once a week (I don't fucking care if you call, that's high maintenance) and only work here 4 days a week while my other cooks do circles around you for less money. Now you tell me you will be out for another 2 days because of something that happened at your OTHER job? He had a doctor's note but I could give a fuck less.

I already said I have 2 cooks on vacation as is and my chef is M.I.A. If you can walk your ass up here to show me a note when you told me last night you would work today, I don't find there is much need for you around here. I already have to be here ya know? I don't need the dead weight when I can fuckin' do it myself.

So am I overreacting? Probably. Can I fire the guy outright? Not without HR breathing down my neck. My chef would take my back in this case but he isn't here to do so. What should I do? Not react in the heat of the moment probably, but I'm The Mad Chef of M Street and sometimes that MAD part gets a little out of hand.

The avocado dressing recipe as promised:

3 avocados - mashed
2 cups of sour cream
1/4 cup of champagne vinegar
6 each anchovies
3 whole shallots
3 cloves of garlic
pinch of cayenne
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Place everything in a blender and process till smooth, and I added a few tablespoons of water to loosen it up! ENJOY!

Tuesday...

Where to begin? Hope your holiday weekend was as good as mine! What did The Mad Chef of M Street get himself into? Hehehe, most of that isn't suited for the public ;)

I will say that my dinner last night with the Mrs. was the best part. Nice juicy T-bone with some roasted shittake and oyster mushrooms tossed with sliced garlic and herico vert, glorious I tell you. Sorry Mr. Brain, I tend to stay on the medium rare side of things to make sure my beef doesn't take on the flavor of leather, and I like that shit bloody, fool.

Oh yeah, but alas I am at work today right? How do I talk about that part? Well, I came in early because my chef had a death in the family. I (note: unnecessary use of talking about himself in the 3rd person...again...edited out by The Brain) set up a cot upstairs for the next week or so. My general manager was let go, my chef has left for who knows how long, and a line cook cut himself at another job so he didn't come in tonite. It was slow so I won't get upset about him not even trying to work. I will however say I am worried as all hell because I already have 2 cooks on vacation, so there is no one to call for HELP!!! It's not like I am going to call my chef, right?

So with that tidbit given up I already have my lunch special ready to go. A trainer at my gym mentioned wanting to make an avocado vinaigrette. Interesting enough, so I indulged myself tonite and came up with a dressing to go along with my black bean relish and spinach salad. I will post the recipe for the dressing tomorrow!

Time to get back to work.