Panic at the disco!

Early Tuesday morning, I took Ruta to the airport to see her off. It was tough, but good. You know, for as much as I did in the first month I was here, I think that I was really spending that month waiting for her to show up. When she finally got here, she totally, as my friend Paul puts it, "recharged my batteries." I just needed to know that she was doing well in the States, and when she said that she had seen growth and change in me since I left, it made me feel like I was doing well here. You know, its not that I needed her to say, "Yes Mark, you're doing good" but that she sees me very clearly. I thought I had been growing and changing, but to hear it from someone who knows me so well, that only confirmed it. So now, I am totally jazzed about the rest of my time here.
It was tough to put her on that plane, but I feel ready to really kick my own ass now.
And so, that is how I learned the meaning of the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for."
One of the sous chefs here, Chef Tony, he has changed my scheduling to the night shift. I was told, "You're so lucky. The night shift doesn't do ANYTHING."
That is a fallacy.
I used to work from 7am until 3:40pm. My new schedule is 3:30pm until 12:18am, and believe it or not, they are really strict about that cut time. I do not get to leave at 12:15am or 12:17am. I am finished at 12:18am an not a moment before. OK, I get it.
These past few days on the night shift have given me a whole new outlook on dining out. I don't think that I was ever the guy who asked for all kinds of crazy changes to my order, but now that I am one of four people who serve over 100 guests a night, I can see what a total pain in the ass it is to change even the smallest thing.
Let's take a step back for a moment:
I was working lunch in the Apollo. Lunch can get pretty hectic from time to time, but this is a business class hotel. Most of our clients are businessmen and women, so they come down from their meetings for a power lunch and go. Please note that a European power lunch includes a full cold course (salads, cheeses, etc), followed by the main course (usually a small steak or slice of roasted pork, unless it is Friday, in which case its lobster), and finally dessert. This is all washed down with a bottle of wine, and followed by coffee. As I understand it, a power lunch in the States is a PowerBar and a nice tall glass of Pepto followed by a shot of Jack Daniels, with a hefty side of stress and anxiety.
Regardless, the Apollo can get kind of busy during lunch, but dinner, hold the freaking phone.
If lunch is three courses and a bottle of wine, then dinner is (at least) double the people, with double the courses. You have your cold course, followed by your first hot course, followed by your main course, followed by your salad course, followed by your cheese course, followed by your dessert course. This will all be accompanied by cocktails to start, two or three bottles of wine, and coffee, after coffee after coffee (and cigarettes by the carton). Note: "coffee" here refers specifically to espresso. If you want American style coffee, then you should eat in America. We just don't have much of it around.
In truth, it is a beautiful way to eat. You never have dinner alone; in fact, the larger the group, the better. Dinner will start at about 8:30 and last until 11 or after; that's our busiest time anyway.
These past few days we have been slammed.
We have several groups at the hotel this week, so they are all eating at the same time. It gets so busy that I don't even think anymore about what I am doing.
I used to take the time to do one thing at a time, but now, I simply cannot do that. I am making the Norwegian salmon plate (smoked salmon, toast points, horse radish mousse and lime wedges in herb oil), while I am making the St. Jacques, while I am prepping plates for steaks, etc etc etc. It is a great education.
Last night, though, one of the line cooks didn't really check that we were fully mise-en-placed. Mise en place is French for "put in place;" basically, it means that we have everything ready that we need to have. I cant make the St. Jacques if I don't have prawns wrapped in bacon ready to go, that kind of thing.
This line cook told us all that we did have everything, though, so we started out a very busy night with no:
1 mesclun greens
2succrine lettuce
3 potato wedges for fries
4 baked phyllo dough for a crab plate
5 mayonnaise
6 good avocados
7 forks/spoons for tasting
8 Gruyere cheese for the soups
9 sliced baguettes for the soup
10 salmon

How do you tell someone that you are ready to go, when you don't even have a fork ready?
Of course, we got hit hard. People came at a rush, and everyone wanted something a little different than the menu said.
There is a crab dish that is basically fresh crab meat, mayo, lemon juice, avocado and cilantro mixed and spooned onto baked phyllo disks. It is topped with mesclun greens in a simple vinaigrette, and garnished with herbed oil on the plate. As you can tell from the list above, I was only able to put the herb oil on the plate, since I had nothing else to work with. This required that I run, screaming, into the back kitchen and cook three trays of phyllo while finding the crab and mayo and slicing some good avocados, because three orders for this simple dish came in at the same time.
It was mayhem.
The show kitchen looked like a bomb went off in it. Of course, it is smartly designed so that they buffet line is higher than eye level when you are sitting, so as a customer, everything looks nice a neat. Meanwhile, I am sliding over egg yolks and bits of wilted spinach to try and cook your omelet. Oh yeah, omelette's are big for dinner here. I think it sounds good: a three egg omelet with cheese and mushrooms, a small mesclun salad and a glass of white wine. That's a nice light meal here.
Oh, and speaking of light meals, the kitchen closes at midnight, so of course, a group sat down at 11:30 for dinner, the full dinner. They wanted salads and cheeses and soups, and at juuuuuuuuust before midnight, they ordered a hamburger with bacon and cheese and a fried egg (?), and seven steaks.
Seven f***ing steaks, as we are closing.
Everyone was wondering, "Who the hell are these people?"
Then one of their party came up to the kitchen to make sure that the steaks would be cooked as they liked them: "Medium well, not medium. I've been getting medium all week when I ask for medium well, and that is not what I want, y'all." She said it with a smile: "That is not what I want, Y'ALL."
Americans.
What is wrong with these people? I am starting to understand why we are thought of so badly. I mean, they don't hate us here, but they do think of us as not knowing our manners.
I mean, I have met a good number of Americans here, and by and large, they are pleasant, quiet, respectful people who are here to discover something new. It is the very few of us who are so badly behaved that give all of us such a rotten image.
This woman didn't speak to me first, so she didn't know I am an American. My point? She just started speaking English to us (three Frenchmen and me), expecting that we would know what she wanted and understand her language.
First of all, they don't do medium-well here. You have four choices: blue, rare, medium or well done. There is not medium rare or medium well here, so if you ask for medium well, you are going to get medium or well done.
But that's not even the worst of it. What possess you to come into a restaurant that is almost empty and order seven steaks, demand them prepared in way that is not normally done in the whole of the country, and then start making further demands in English?
This woman received the blank stares she got from the cooks with growing agitation. The other cooks didn't understand her, and all looked at me, since they knew she was speaking English.
I looked her in the eye, shrugged, and said, "J'ai pas compris" ("I don't understand"). Come to think of it, I should have given her the look. Regardless, she walked away in obvious frustration, and we laughed without discretion. I am feeling much more at home here.
And that is good, because since I took last weekend off, I have to work this weekend, which means I have twelve strait days of this kind of business, and tonight, there is someone out sick.
I have a bad feeling about this....