DID YOU SAY SALAD BAR?!

New Year (well as far as my “anniversary” goes at least)…. New job! “Chef Hollywood” (as I am called) is now working as a Chef for the officers in the “OM” aka The Officer Mess Hall. I just started the new position this week and so far… it is fantastic. I had no idea this position (or even the actual officer dining room) even existed until a few months ago when I was approached about a culinary class that I could take and at the end of the class… I could apply for the position to become 1 of 3 “OM Chefs”. I jumped at the opportunity because I have always liked to cook… especially when I was a kid… I can still remember the chicken pot pie recipe that I made from the back of the Bisquick Box for my family :). The class portion of this deal did not exactly pan out as planned but mid-last week… one of the other chefs said that he would be leaving at the beginning of May and that I have been approved to start the job this week… if I wanted it.

First thing that came to my mind was the 3:45am wake up time in order to be in the kitchen at 4:30am…. can I really do that 5 days a week? I caught myself briefly falling into the familiar trap of attempting to talk myself out of a “life change”… I think many of us tend to do this in one way or another throughout life. When we become comfortable in a routine… job… relationship… anything in our lives… this makes us feel safe and the unknown of a new opportunity can be a nerve racking endeavor. So… we subtly try to talk ourselves out of the change by telling ourselves things such as… “Do I really want to wake up that early?”… “I need my free time that I have now to get (fill in the blank) done”… “I don’t think I will like working with X person”… on and on… until we have talked ourselves out of what could be a very good opportunity for growth. Thankfully… I caught myself doing this and quieted that lazy bastard in my head and accepted the position.

So, last Wednesday… I woke up at 3:45am… I had actually woken up almost every hour between 10pm and 3am… checking my watch to make sure that I didn’t over sleep. You know… that first day of school or work anxiety type of sleep. 3:45am rolls around and I get out of bed… put on my “chef whites” (the chefs get a special uniform… white pants… white chef coat.. black apron) and head out to drink my coffee and wait for the overnight officer to open the door for me at 4:30am to head to the kitchen. Once my brain came to life (aka post a sip or 2 of coffee)… I found it extremely enjoyable to be the only guy awake in the unit… quietly drinking coffee and watching the early morning news. Good start to the day.

I get to the kitchen and it is go time from the moment we walk in the door. I head up to the officer dining room (which is located through a door in the back of the normal chow hall) and talk to the head chef about what is on the menu for the day. That day happened to be a pretty easy day… burgers… fries… “Mac Sauce”… cole slaw and salad bar. Umm excuse me… what did I just hear… SALAD BAR?!?! My eyes lit up and my heart started beating as if I was just told that I would be getting released today. Okay – if I can enjoy a salad bar for lunch every day that I work… I will wake up at 2:30am and work for free!! But – back to reality. I head to the back kitchen and grab 40lbs of 80/20 ground beef in order to start forming the patties so that the head chef can season them and cook them. As I am forming the patties… the other chef is making chocolate chip cookie dough and scooping cookie balls out on sheet trays in order to get those in the oven as well. Once I am done with the burger patties… I head to the freezer and grab the French fries to bring back to the “OM” and put them in the freezer (we will be frying these to order later in the day). Once the prep is done… I am asked to stay in the OM and learn how everything gets cleaned and set up each morning. “Sounds good… show me the way”…

And then… there she is in all of her glory…. the gorgeous salad bar. We are talking carrots… croutons (homemade croutons people!!)… cucumbers… tomatoes… onion… beets… bell pepper… crumbled blue cheese… shredded cheddar cheese… cottage cheese… hard boiled eggs… crisp romaine lettuce… spinach… basically an assortment of chilled heaven ready to be devoured! I cannot adequately explain to you how happy this salad bar made me (and continues to make me)… I love salad… I have always loved salad and I haven’t been able to have salad at all for over a year… this is life changing! Sorry… got lost a bit in the salad bar… back to business…

I finished setting everything up for lunch service which starts at 9:45am and goes until 12pm. During this time… officers come in and let us know what they want to eat… burgers… double burgers… cheese… no cheese… fries… salad bar of many varieties. The time flew by… I actually found myself having fun… feeling a sense of normalcy that is extremely hard to find behind these walls. After service… we cleaned up the dining room… broke down the service station and salad bar… put all of the leftovers in containers and put into the fridge for tomorrow and we were out of there by around 1pm.

It was a very good first day and although I was exhausted… I really looked forward to waking up at 3:45am the next morning and seeing what Thursday had to offer. Since the menu changes every day… I am going to be able to learn how to prepare numerous meals throughout the weeks and months… possibly even giving my suggestions down the line for recipes or lunch ideas.

As with many of the “pivots” that my life in here has taken… I will continue to take the lessons at every turn and remember them for the next fork in the road. When opportunity knocks… make sure you at least take a look at what or who is on the other side of the door before you let that little voice in your head tell you to pass because it is just “too comfortable” in your current state. You never know… a heaven like salad bar could be on the other side 🙂

Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Eat Salad. Wear Sunscreen. Make Someone Smile.