Sunday’s…what would I ever do without them. Last night we were very busy in the restaurant. A party of 35 in the dining room (it seats 80 total) and our first non-holiday event on our rooftop kept the kitchen and FOH staff busy for most of the night. A 14+ hour day, and sleeping at the hotel finds me now in my office, trying to finish my document on how to keep your food cost within budgetary guidelines. For some reason that is not now obvious to me, I started things about my time working at Stars as a line cook and assistant purchasing agent…and found an article on Jeremiah Tower.
Stars and Chef Jeremiah Tower were at the height of their popularity when I worked there. This huge New American brasserie churned out food during all meal periods, lunch, dinner and the menu that catered to the opera/symphony crowd. I was pretty fresh out of culinary school and was able to work most of the lunch stations and, later on as the assistant purchasing agent…dealing with all the products that came into the restaurant on a daily basis.
The pressure was intense, the chefs liked to scream and berate you any chance they could (it was an open kitchen so everyone could see and hear the commotion), throwing plates was not out of the question and watching your chef, intoxicated on large amounts of Veuve champagne attempting to use the slicer to cut cured meats when in fact his fingers were close to being the target. It was like Hell’s Kitchen before Gordon Ramsey, before chefs were celebrities, brutal in it’s approach to staff yet friendly to guests at the same time. Great people rise from adverse situations….perhaps that is why so many great chefs came out of that restaurant.
Not all of the chefs (management) were screamers and I remember that after I left, the plate throwing, insult hurling and profanity laced chef who left such an incredible mark on me that I cannot remember his name was shown the door. Always trying to find something positive, I used this experience to not only mold my views on food and the supply chain, but to remind me that it is only food we are dealing with.
Now…I have thrown plates…and yelled…and used profanity, so I am no angel. There is a time and place for everything, and an even handed approach and staff training are key to making a chefs life bearable. When I see Top Chef or these other cooking shows and watch the quibbling/drama that goes on I remember back to the days in SF, the days when a chef was more concerned with a good review in the printed media and writing a cook book than being on TV. Food TV (network) was only on the East Coast (somewhere there is a video of me at Lark Creek) and there was no Yelp, no Restaurant.com, no food bloggers.
Life of a chef was much more simple then, when you took the time to get the best products possible…when guests would speak to a manager and not go online to vent…when you focused more on your food than where your next appearance will be. I think back to those days and get a smile on my face, remembering how simple cooking and life was back then and now how all these things have changed.
chefRob
more on Stars SF…http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/13/dining/critic-s-notebook-raising-a-glass-to-himself-jeremiah-tower-grills-his-peers.html
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