Food Relevance from a Drunken Cook

"True Moments of Dire Striates"

I was quite recently working at a hotel here in Saskatoon. It was a good job but for personal reasons I had to leave, wile I was working there I was enjoying the kitchen management very much. The chef and sous chef were talented and extremely funny to work with. Their relationship kind of reminded me of an old married couple always arguing over the smallest issues but content enough to plug away in their own ways doing the best they could spiting out little sly comments at each other when ever possible. Every step of the way their trying to provoke a response from each other by their comments and ready to do battle in a moments notice. One of the funniest moments I witnessed in their presents had me chuckling for a week and even now, six months later I still think of them and laugh out loud, usually in instances that offer me no opportunity to be laughing but a sudden burst of laughter springs up uncontrollably.

         There was an early afternoon function for about 80 people I believe and one of the requests was for a classic maple syrup over snow. It was Chef’s function so he had Sous Chef helping set everything up in the function room up stairs. As everything starts coming together and the set up is ready he begins cooking his sugar on a portable burner. Sous Chef run’s down for the last finishing elements of their setup as Chefs sugar begins to simmer and come to the temperature needed. Sous Chef enters the room moments before the group and asks Chef if he needs anything else, they then chat for the last few moments of wait.
         The simmering sugar begins to develop a few small crystals around the edge of the pot and knowing what will happen if the crystal makes it into the main bulk of bubbling maple Chef frantically try’s to stop it from sliding down. Sous Chef watches him as the crystal slides past its barriers and sinks in to the sugar. Right at that moment the doors open and the group begins to shuffle in. The crystal rapidly multiplies solidifying the entire pot of syrup in fractions of a second and panic officially sets in.
         The thoughts in Chef’s head I imagine are frantic and sporadic at best but that comes to everybody in a situation such as this. As he assesses the situation he commits to a plan and turns to ask Sous Chef to run for a new pot and more maple sugar. As he turns he is surprised to see nobody there, he’s all alone up there and his line is forming. Being as professional as possible he cannot leave the line until everyone has gone through…
         I’m not sure what happened and how he got through it but he did and everything was awesome according to the guests, he pulled it off. Meanwhile in the kitchen I just arrived and Sous Chef tells me all about what had transpired before he left Chef in the function room and we share a little laugh about the poor guy. Moments later Chef appears in the kitchen and Sous chef immediately shouts “How was that for ya? Ha ha!” with a big shit eating grin on his face and that’s the moment I keep thinking of, that disgusted and pissed off look on Chefs face for being abandoned in the moment of dire striates by his right hand man. Too funny!
         Those two are great men and hope I will be fortunate enough to work in their presences sometime in the future.