parisucks

These are probably my most common thoughts when i'm at work: The chef's always right. Especially when he's wrong. It is what it is. Knife skills like this, I shoulda been a neurosurgeon. Just get it done. Plus vite, encore plus vite. If you can't get a second degree burn and laugh about it, you're in the wrong line of work.

It's hard to screw up if you show up early, stay late and bust your ass in between.

oh and 'dry aged' for something that was really freaking borderline turned. as in, "The veal chops? ehhhhh, they're deffinately dry aged."

At one of the places where i worked, if we needed something on the fly (a kitchen phrase in its own right) we'd suggest that someone send that dish to chef mike, or the microwave. Other phrases for this where 'give it a whirl' (pretty standard) 'take her for a dance' (variation on a theme) and my favorite 'time for some nuclear magic'. When i'd just gotten out of high school and was working at a deli we had a code for any time that some uber hot goddess was standing at the counter, someone would just yell 'I need a favor over here' which eventually was just shortened to someone yelling 'favor' and every guy would turn his head. Then we realized that there was a pickup bell next to the regester that the boss had installed with the place and never used and that became the 'favor' bell. Milford and Mildred meant a couple of bluehaired, blue-plate, earlybird types. Anytime anyone bumped into anyone it was "woah, i hardly know you." "you have to buy me a meal first" that sorta thing. 'This steak (or fish or whatever) is startin' to get a tan' any time a dish sat too long in the pass When I was expo-ing at my last job I used to ask if 'we could please get some f-ing dishes out before the dining room started looking like a sally struthers commercial' if someone made a huge portion we'd of course ask if their mother was in the house tonight. I loved working with oldschool italian dudes that would say stuff like 'ah fangoul' (sorry for the spelling) when they got weeded, and 'monge away' if you wanted to grab a bite to eat and 'what are you animali?' OH, and my favorite all time, hands down kitchen phrase is the simple but elloquent 'Bang it out'. It's as versatile as the F word. 'I'm gonna go bang it out' 'Come on guys let's bang it out' 'Don't worry chef, i'm bangin' that out right now' 'I gotta finish this and then i'll go bang it out' and if someone's drag-assing (another word i like) just yelling 'BANG IT OUT!'. On this phrase i actually have a question. Has bang it out been around forever? Can anyone else confirm its existance before 2000ish? Is it common in other kitchens? Or do i just bring it with me to every job i work? plus vite, encore plus vite

What do you guys think of Cravings Cafe? New place better or worse than the old?

Allison's at Blue Bell? Is it well regaurded for being genuinely good? Or is it just in an area with little competition? I've been there five or six times, and the results have ranged from mediocre (when Allison was traveling in asia and who knows who was expo-ing/chefin' it up) to pretty awesome (foie w/ a vinilla onion compote that i promptly stole for my restaurant and a perfectly cooked skate wing w/ tian of rice and avocado, simple and great). El Serape- Overpriced, boring and overrated in my oppinion. I'd love to see this thread pick up.

My favorite was when my boss asked this fresh fish kid who just couldn't keep up with a slamming lunch service to "Go in back and grab a can of elbow grease off the top shelf". Five minutes later, after moving the ladder all over the room, searching every shelf the kid came back, scared looking and whispered to me "I can't find it!". "The elbow grease?" I said, all hint, hint. "Yeah!" "The ELBOW grease!?!" I don't think the kid ever got the joke. He was gone less than a month later. OH! just remembered! Same kid! He had long hair. We used to get these bunches of strawberry tomatoes on the vine in those plastic mesh bags, about a foot long and kinda looking like a big mesh condom when they were empty. The kid came in one day and we told him very seriously that if he was gonna keep the long hair loose he had to wear a hair net. The thing was sticking off his head like an elf cap. We were rolling, we killed the joke finally when we couldn't control the laughing and he caught on.