My First day in the Kitchen….
Let’s get cooking!
My name is Chef John and I have been cooking professionally for over almost 25 years. I have worked in so many amazing restaurants and have learned a lot skills and techniques. My passion for cooking is equaled only by my passion for sharing and teaching. I am starting this blog as a forum to translate restaurant methods and concepts into usable skills in the home kitchen. I am really excited to start this journey with you all! Let me start by telling you about my first day ever in a restaurant kitchen.
My first day in the kitchen was interesting to say the least. There were so many senses being stimulated all at once that it was overwhelming. It was loud and chaotic but smelled amazing and that combination has fueled my love of restaurants and cooking for all these years. My first task was to cut and wash a large garbage pail(food grade of course!) full of salad greens. I was super excited and nervous at the same time, because I wanted to show the chef and all the experienced kitchen guys that I could hang and be part of there crew. I was chopping lettuce as fast as I could and felt such a rush of adrenaline until I cut into something much firmer than the heads of lettuce. I totally cut the top of my finger off, blood was everywhere and instinctively i took a wad of paper towels and jammed it on the top of my finger to stop the bleeding. I thought I would be upset about the finger but my focus was on the bin of lettuce that now needed to be thrown away and guys in the kitchen who were looking at me as a liability rather than an asset. I walked over to the first aid kit that was on the wall next to the dishwasher to figured out how to fix the finger and get back to work. Al the surly old dishwasher looked at me trying to fix my finger and said “Hey kid, you got a cigarette for me?” For a split second I was like “Is this guy serious right now?”, then I just felt a rush of feeling like I had finally found the place I was meant to be. It doesn’t matter if you lose part of your finger, or burn yourself: the job still needs to get done and I was part of an amazing team!
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