Blue Collar Haze
-
- Oyster Stew
-
- Walnut and Beets
Its not even the holidays yet and I’ve got the beginnings of the busy season”funk”. Albeit we did not receive much of a drop in business over the summer so I think that has diminished most of my saved up good nature for the occasion. Only Mid-October and the days are already starting to blur. The little things that usually can be ignored are starting to pile up and begin to irk even the most tempered of souls. Days off become driven by backed up domestic chores putting a sour taste on what was so recently relaxing and enjoyable.
The white collar on my chef coat feels like its turning a darker shade of blue with each subsequent day. Attitudes become subtly more complacent. Evening drinks become more frequent, quantities increase, and conversation becomes somewhat dull and repetitive. Praised be that there is the NFL to zone out to. The feeding of people and the dishes repeatedly prepared all become very overcast with a mechanical numbness. Every once in a while a dish catches your eye that looks especially better than the rest.
Almost twelve years I’ve been doing this and the same “ruts” always swing back around. I believe it is impossible not to get caught in them when your labor of love is so manually driven and often times overly criticized by a patron without the understanding of the daily endurance needed to cope with striving towards flawless consistency. Three straight nights of serving two hundred or more people the best you have to offer with no mistakes and all you can remember is that fourth night when a patron so brashly explained how their poorly ordered steak was tough. Always a mood killer.
It is my opinion that some people come out to dinner NOT wanting to be satisfied by the experience at all. Some folks almost certainly are trying to score a complimentary return visit with their barrage of complaints. Pack together long stretches of these days and nights and its no wonder profane outbursts start to become like a bag of popcorn in the microwave. They are scarce and infrequent at the start of the evening, but they slowly build to a violent crescendo until abruptly all that is left is a bunch of blown off steam and silence. Nobody wants to be bothered at the end of the night.
Somwhere in the midst of it you start to feel like you’re not doing your finest and you have to constantly keep reeling yourself back in to your sound culinary ideals. My mantra: WWJD…… What would Joel [Robuchon] do? (we’re on a first name basis) I’m sure though that even L’Atelier has its tough times, its the thought of perfection that helps.
Perhaps great chefs change their menus so often not only to to compliment seasons, availability, and customer appeal, but maybe it keeps stable that thin string of sanity they hold on to so dearly at times like these.
