Progress

In my last post I talked about getting a job. I had worked one week, was staying in a private room in a shared house and was a deer in headlights.

Fast forward to now. I’m still a deer in headlights considering I live alone in Mexico but things have been pretty awesome. I have an apartment, have a few friends, I go to work, I come home, it’s a normalish life. But here is what sets it apart. I’m working toward a goal. I’ve never really set big goals before. Tony Robbins freaks me out. He looks like he kills people and eats them to keep up his un-realistic level of happiness and motivation. But I equate this goals concept on a smaller scale to when I would go on long runs/walks/bike rides back in Chicago. I’d set a destination point. A meat market, an antique shop or a new restaurant. Having that destination, that goal, motivated me to exercise and get there. This is the same concept, just must bigger. I enjoy work because I’m doing something I like but most importantly am working toward a goal, my own taco truck. I wrote in my journal a few days ago and still feel it, “I kind of know now that my taco truck is going to happen.” That was a big revelation as I was always pretty unsure. So I’m accepting applications. The fun is maximum. The pay is zero. The food is free.

Let’s talk about dinner service. I worked 5 days last week, 12-13 hours each. There is no “whoa is me” here, though. That’s the life and I like it, so far. It’s a rush. Here’s a typical day for those, like me, who have never worked in a kitchen before. Those who have should find this familiar. Actually, let me describe the space in a bit more detail first.

The primary kitchen is maybe 15 square feet. It has 3 usable walls and a stainless steel “island” in the middle. The island has three levels: a rack on the bottom, a counter surface for various use and an upper level for staging things during prep and service. Here is a perfect drawing, to scale:

Then, on wall 1 is commercial grade oven with 6 burners on top. On the left and right of the burners, same wall, are two “sections” to prep food, each with about 5 square feet of counter space. Of the two remaining walls one has the sinks for dishes and the other has a commercial fridge full of everything we need, nicely labeled. There is also a pastry section next to the fridge to make everything from pastries to ice cream to whatever else those geniuses come up with that day.

Then, there is a narrow “bowling alley” type section off the main kitchen where some of the real magic happens. It’s a wood burning grill/oven. The very bottom level we use as a hot smoker. Above that is an open set up with the exposed fire on the bottom and racks above that we can move to get closer or further away from the flames. The exposed fire here is right about dick level. That’s relevant because I was cooking about 15 pounds of “cecina,” super thinly sliced pork loin marinated in red adobo, and couldn’t walk away because it’s so thin it’ll overcook very fast. So I had to stand there and just eat this intense heat to the dick area for a good 30 minutes. Very uncomfortable.

Okay so that’s the kitchen. The main theme of that description is that it’s very small. And we can have 10 people in there at any given time, especially during a hectic prep, all needing to get their slice of dinner service done in time.

Now I can go back to my typical day. I show up around 1:30pm. There are two sheets taped to the fridge that we set up the night before, “Hacer” and “Comprar.” I’ll look at the Hacer list, or get direction from the Chef or Sous Chef on what needs doing. Since I’m still new I mainly prep basic things. Slicing onions then caramelizing before throwing in the smoker to make a soup, browning butter for emulsions, or practicing my knife skills on what I’ll call “fine dining cuts.” These cuts are a big part of what sets polished food apart. For example, let’s take dicing an onion. Traditionally, you half it, keeping part of the root on, then make vertical and horizontal cuts to the entire half to get a nice dice. This is different, depending on the dish. I’ll take individual layers of onion, cut in to a very thin julienne, and then in to the tiniest perfect squares call a brunoise. The same can be done for virtually anything. When it’s served raw, this is the cut, it’s perfection. My closing note on prep is just how essential it is to our kitchen functioning at the high level that it does. During service there isn’t a lot of knife work because it’s all done and prepped. Then we pound out the dishes to order and have the mise en place ((MEEZ ahn plahs) in place for the chef’s tasting menus. Prep is extremely busy and crowded.

After prep we sit down for family meal around 4pm. Family meal changes daily and we get creative using leftover ingredients that need eating. It’s fun. I made my first family meal, paella, the other day and it was a hit. I made a broth from mushroom stems and shrimp shells. The mushroom stems don’t go in to our dishes to it was a great way not to waste them. I dissolved some saffron I had left over from Costa Rica in the broth and tossed it in with the rice, chorizo, chicken, garlic, onion and other paella like ingredients.

After family meal (about 4:30pm) we get ready for opening at 5. Everything is put away and the kitchen is scrubbed clean like we were never there. Again, organization and cleanliness is absolutely essential due to the size of the space and number of persons sharing everything in the kitchen.

Once we open, the next 6 hours become blurry. When service is in full swing I’ll be staging plates for 6 people at table 5 starting the 12 course chef’s menu. I’ll be doing this while heating up a pan for the pumpkin puree and kale stuffed ravioli and staging a plate for the pulpo (octopus) poke ordered off the a la carte menu. I’ll also be stirring the mole to the right consistency and getting the mise en place ready for table 5’s next course and the 4th course for the 4 people that just sat down at table one. Except these 4 people are VIPs and I have to make sure that they get the fish belly and all pieces that look exactly alike. Time flies.

After service we take a deep breath. Usually we’ll chill in a private area on the roof deck overlooking the city for a few minutes. Then we go down and break down the kitchen, once again making it look like we were never there. This takes a long time. But once the last customer leaves and the restaurant officially closes we jam music and just get it done.

So that’s service. Then on my days off I explore Oaxaca and the surrounding areas. The city still has so much to be seen. Restaurants, architecture, museums, art galleries, markets, everything. Then the mountains surrounding the city have so much more to see. I also need to make it to the beach one day. So I’m not short of things to do, I love it. One last note I wrote in my journal is to listen to more music when walking around. It makes me happy and helps me to think clearly. I need to do that more.

Here are some photos since the last post.