ZOMBIE CHAMPIONS

I know that I have written about crazy days in the kitchen on a couple different occasions in here but this past Wednesday was absolute mayhem… good-ish mayhem… but mayhem none the less. Alright… the officers have decided that Tuesday is some variation of “Crispy Chicken Sandwich” day so every Tuesday we batter and fry chicken patties and make some sort of sauce to dip it in after it comes out of the fryer. Our starting line ups of sauces consist of buffalo… BBQ…Teriyaki… chipotle lime and simply “spicy”. This may seem easy enough but due to the number of orders that we have to sell every day… somewhere between 35 – 55… the work stacks up. I say this all to say that when we are leaving work Tuesday afternoon… we are usually pretty exhausted and trying to mentally prepare ourselves for Wednesday’s Burger Palooza awaiting us the next day. So… when my boss stops me as I am heading out the door and tells me that she has some corn tortillas for me and we will be cutting them up and turning them into chips for “Chilequilas” tomorrow morning… the exhaustion of the day propels this new information to the beginning of a mild panic attack… but have to make it happen so let the mental preparation begin…

I always find it funny that the night before I have a “big” day in the kitchen… I find it hard to sleep. As if it is a real job in the real world and there is something serious riding on me performing well. I guess in a way… it is my real life right now but I still laugh to myself when I have these feelings. Anyway… try to get some sleep but when my alarm goes off at 3:30am… I certainly don’t feel rested but here I go. We get into the kitchen just after 4am and the tortillas are in there waiting for me with instructions that I need to change the grease in the fryer before frying the chip (or what will soon be chips). This is a first for me… but always down to learn something new… so I ask one of the other guys in the main kitchen to show me how to change the oil and re-fill the fryer and he is willing to help (with the promise of getting some chips once I am done – no problem) and we get the fryers ready to go. Once the clean oil is back in place and set at 375 degrees… time to cut the hundreds of tortillas in front of me into perfect little triangles. I go to work with my dough cutter and triangles are ready to drop. In the oil they go and minutes later… magic… I have homemade tortilla chips. And look out Chipotle because after I salted these boys… those hot crispy chips were absolutely delicious. “Hollywood… we brought these beans and they are frozen… I need them thawed and ready as soon as humanly possible!” Okay… think… how can I do this?? Kettle… re-hydrate them with some milk… put some water at the bottom of the kettle and basically steam them. Beans… check. “We need the onions cooked too!”… Throw the onions on the flat top… hit it with some butter… salt and pepper… good to go… check. “Eggs… we need a sh*tload of scrambled eggs!” I ask my #2 to run to the egg cooler and grab as many flats of eggs as he can and start scrambling them in the main kitchen because we only have 1 flattop in the OM and the onions are on there. Now the only thing missing is the salsa… one of the officers brought two pans but similar to the beans… they are freezing cold. So… transfer them to new pans and throw them in the oven for 8-10 minutes to get them back to room temperature…

Okay… all ingredients ready to rock and roll… service time. The officers start rolling into the OM and we begin plating everything up for them and (thankfully) watch them enjoy their special breakfast treat. Success…

“Where’s Hollywood at??”… I hear down the hallway and immediately recognize the voice of another one of my bosses. “Now what??” I think. “Hey Horwitz…. I got 6 racks of ribs. I need you to get them out of the butcher shop… whip up some seasoning. Nothing pre-made seasoning man… not too much sodium… make something good and cook them for me. Appreciate it.” And he leaves. “You have to be kidding me….” but okay… here we go.

I head into the butcher shop… grab the ribs…. get them on cutting boards and start butchering them as much as possible with my trusty dough cutter. Once they are butchered… I get the large kettle going because I want to boil them before putting them in the oven to start tenderizing the meat. I get them in the kettle and start putting together the seasoning. Garlic… onion… salt… pepper… chili powder… some herbs that I have been saving since I made a large roast a few weeks ago… a hint of brown sugar… mix it all together and seasoning is ready to go. Once the rib meat is white… which is my indicator that they are ready to come out of the water… I get them out… generously season and wrap them… individually in wax paper… put them on a sheet tray with about a 1/2 inch of water in the tray to keep them moist and throw them in the oven at 280 degrees for a little over 3 hours.

Okay… now can I start prepping for the actual work that I need to do today?? Time to season and form 108 burgers… make the “Mac Sauce”… caramelize the onions and get everything set up for “normal” Wednesday Burger craziness…

All in all… we did it. The ribs came out super tender and perfectly seasoned (if I do say so myself)… burger Wednesday went off without a hitch and the boys in OM left work Wednesday afternoon looking like zombies but feeling like champions.

Just another unexpected day behind these walls that made me smile… who would have thought this is what life would be like?! Not me but all we can do… where ever we find ourselves in life… is embrace the challenges put in front of us and tackle the day with a positive attitude and steadfast determination to learn… grow and be better tomorrow than we are today.

Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Hopefully when you read this the 49ers are Super Bowl Champs (Sorry Mom)