A Little Christmas Song for Our Sous Chefs

Friends, good, early, early morning from New York City, from your good Friend Sarah, who cannot help but be caught up in the holiday spirit, even while working in the kitchen.  This morning I am up early for a conference call with one of my European medical research teams, but I am, as usual, as always, thinking about my team in the kitchen. 

 

Sure, sure, I write about the intense moments of being called borderline retarded by my Sous Chef now and then, and I write about my love/hate relationship with the 60+ heads of cauliflower I prep each day and how much my feet hurt, but I love it.  I love it every day, and I cannot wait to get back there on Sunday. 

 

I love these Chefs, I love this energy, I love how, in the down time, they stop and take time to help with tasks for two reasons:  the first being that they care and also want to get to know me, to make sure I am doing ok, and the second, hey, let’s not kid ourselves, after working 6-8 hours in my “real job” on the days I also put in 12 hours at my restaurant gig, I am pretty tired, and I am still too slow in the kitchen and must get faster, so they help me out to teach me, always, how to be better.  And I will, thanks to their constant coaching, which I respect and appreciate, even if it comes with 86% curse words. 

 

There is a caring and a sweetness in that kitchen, even with the toughest of the tough Chefs, that is unlike anything I see anywhere except in the most intense situations.  My reference is a surgical team, as that is where I have spent my most intense time, where a lead surgeon and the team of circulating and scrub nurses and doctors assisting, including the student doctors, can result in some pretty rough days when things go wrong.  The flip side is that you work side by side with some of the most interesting and big-hearted people you could ever hope to meet---and that goes for both surgery AND the kitchen, because when it comes down to it, they have a lot of similarities.

 

So as I go about my day keeping a watching eye on my budgets and spreadsheets, my data analysis and safety reviews, my FDA inspection preparations and slidesets for teaching class, I am thinking of my Chefs, always.  Here is a little something I wrote in my head while prepping 60 heads of cauliflower for about 3 hours the other day at the French restaurant where I work in New York.  To all my Sous Chefs, thank you for being patient with me, you know I love you even as I make your life hell some days.

 

Sing it with me now….you all know the tune….

 

 

On the 12th Day of Christmas, my Sous Chef gave to me:

 

12 pounds of butter(Sarah, cut this into perfect 1cm cubes for the hot line!)

 

11 dozen oysters (don’t f’ing cut yourself!  I don’t want to do paperwork!)

 

10 minutes for dinner (is your prep done yet? No?  Then why the F*CK do you think you get dinner?!)

 

9 heads of cabbage, (shave it!  I didn’t say chiffonade, I said shave it!)

 

8 quarts balsamic (make lemon oil, too, and make it 10!)

 

7 tons of Brussels, (where’s your mandoline? We need 950 NOW!)

 

6-tee heads of cauli, (what’s this bullshit?! F that guy, do it this way!)

 

5…… quarts of viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin! (double it, we’re out again!)

4 pounds of foie (did we forget the cognac? Dammit!)

 

3 (thousand) French beans,

 

2 boxes of salt

 

And a loooooooooooong day of meeeeeeeeeeee repeeeeeeeating OUI!

 

Lots of love from our kitchen to yours,

Your Good Friend Sarah