Day 4 of APCA – The Volcano Erupts!

Well today we prepped for Fridays service. Our menu for Friday will be –

Duck Salad with Fig, Honey, Mizuna, Kumquats and Gorgonzola

Baked Herbed Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula

Braised Pork Cheeks/Shanks with Gremolada, Risottoa alla Milanese and Sautéed Broccoli Raab

Italian Rice Balls

Apple Tarte Tatin with Caramel Sauce with Vanilla Ice Cream

So once again I was on salads. But at least this is a warm salad and we’ll have to cook the duck breasts. My partner this time was my dear one Eddie. And because we were the lucky winners of doing salads we got the wonderful task of taking down the duck stock.

Everything was going fine until, what will later be referred to as the Red and Andy incident. So Eddie and I finish our stuff and drop the stock. We also had to put up another batch of stock. So we got that going. It was time to start doing a lot of dishes. (Yes I see you nodding…you can see the writing on the wall with this one eh?) So I get one batch done and then go back to the stock to finish some work on it. I turn to look at the dish station to see if anyone is there so I can go get my next batch done. No one there but a crap load of dishes on dropped off. I grit my teeth. I take a few smaller things over because there is no room whatsoever for anything else because of the mound there. And what are they? All the dishes from Andy that he used to make his ice-cream, and sauces and whatever else he had to do. I leave them. Eddie and Edgar are now at the sink doing other dishes and end up doing Andy’s. (Who also dropped off all night on the last prep night and last service night, but I kept my mouth shut) Well no more…Andy comes walking over with yet another load of dishes and drops them off and walks away. Oh hell no!! “Andy!...come here a sec..” He comes walking over and I say “Hey how about saying Thank you to Eddie and Edgar for doing your dishes you keep leaving here?” And here is what follows (Keep in mind he was already in a pouty pissy mood because he was on the dessert station. He hates doing desserts with a passion!) –

Andy – I didn’t ask them too!!!

Me – I didn’t say you did, but you keep leaving them here and everyone has been doing them.

Andy – Well they don’t’ have to! I’m busy and don’t have time right now!

Me (and my voice is going up as he’s walking away) – Well you better make time! Everyone else here has done their dishes and they are just as busy! You haven’t done one dish since this class started and it’s time you act like a man! Your mother doesn’t work here. You have to be accountable and responsible!

Andy – I have caramel sauce on the stove that I have to deal with!

Me – Well take it off the stove and act like a man and do your share. Don’t start one thing if you can’t finish another. If you bring dishes you do dishes. If you can’t do them leave them at your station and bring them when you can. You have so much crap here no one else can do their stuff.

Andy – Leave me alone I don’t have time for this!

Ok well let’s just say what I wanted to do was pull his arse over to the sink by his ear and treat him like the petulant child he was acting. About 30 minutes later Chef asks to speak with me. I’m surprised it took her that long to do it. She asked me what happened and I told her. I also explained we’ve had problems with him a lot in BPT and that Chef True had to speak with him twice for his attitude. I apologized to Chef for the outburst in her class and promised it would never happen again. She said that from this point on she would have him put his dishes in a lexan (big plastic container) and have him take them over all at once and do his own. And that for safety reasons yelling is not permitted as someone might be cooking with something hot or cutting something and get distracted and look away towards the commotion and get hurt. I explained that I to totally understood and again promised it would never happen again.

So another 20 minutes goes by and Andy is doing his typical pouting. The rest of the class is out eating the left overs and he’s in the kitchen thowing things around and acting like he’s the only one cleaning. I’m like ‘whatever dude get over it’. I go up to Chef and tell her “Chef, while I don’t care if Andy hates me or is pouty with me, it’s not fair to the rest of the class. I will go and apologize to him.” She looks at me and says Thank you Red I appreciate that. So off I go to eat crow pie. Andy is in the walk-in and I go in and say “Hey I need to talk to you…I…” but before I can finish he looks at me and says “I don’t have time you. I really don’t want to talk to you at all.” Ok I expected this and continue on “Andy you do have time. I came to apologize to you. I should not have yelled at you and I’m sorry. It was not right to make it public. I should have spoken to you directly or to the chef. I’m sorry..” But again before I can finish he’s still pissy “Who cares, I don’t have time for this. I have more important things do you. I’m disgusted with you.” You could have knocked me over with a feather!! Disgusted? Son I’m 20 years your senior. You can be pissy me with all you like, but when someone comes to apologize to you the least you can be is respectful. Ass. Chef is aware of it and I’m over it. I’ll be cordial and business like with him tomorrow during service.

The other issue I ended up talking to Chef about (well it was going to be me a Lynndy but it ended up being me haha) was our new student has a very bad hygiene problem. He reeks basically. I know that cannot be sanitary. It’s also very hard to work next to him because you can’t breathe. Chef said she’d see what she could do but it’s a very hard subject to broach. Well find a way chef please!!

Tomorrow is service. Should be an interesting night. Until Then!