Thus the Men and the Myth
I really don't know where to begin with these CheffyBabbles...might be a long story...
Like I said in a previous entry, I took over this kitchen in March and renamed it Chef Mike's Cravings Cafe, developed a new menu and a different concept, put a little "About Chef Mike" section on the menu, all in an attempt to draw more food revenue.
From March to May I was working an inhumane amount of hours as a chef at an extremely busy catering facility, hired a couple people to run the Cafe and I would go to the cafe after work and stay there until after close.
For those couple months I was kind of in and out, just a face on a menu I guess you can say, met a couple people but did not really get close to any of our regulars, hell, not until recently am I learning some of their names, they know me by name and I only know them by face.
I guess me and Harry first met each other because he was Harry and I was Mike, the new kid on the block. I always found time to hang out with Harry and talk about food, color, taste, texture and the relationship was on. Harry is a big, personable blue collar construction guy that has a passion for cooking, so we hit it off pretty well.
Harry had told me about these eggrolls that he does that he is pretty proud of and I never really gave them that much thought, of course, I listened to Harry tell his stories about his eggrolls with interest about the passion he was sharing, although I have been known to roll tens of thousands of them in this thing I call a life...
In April, Harry was going to make his eggrolls for a little birthday party the bar was putting on for one of our regulars and Harry had asked if I could just heat them up and put them out for everyone to eat on. On the day of the birthday party, my sister had taken deathly ill and I had to leave immediately. I instructed my cooks on how I wanted them cooked and presented, had them cook me up a couple of them to take on the road with me and then headed to Virginia.
I started getting the munchies along the way and remembered that I had some of Harry's EggRolls. Oh, my goodness...I stopped on the side of the road and looked at my next bite and just thought that "these Eggrolls really rock...' Holy Crap Harry, remind me to tell you this story...
(At this point Harry was a name and a face, a friendly hello and an exchange of food stories...)
So starts the story with Harry, our relationship and his "Redneck Egg Rolls" as I refer to them affectionately...
This blog entry is going to be continued, I have to go give a cooking class, perhaps will finish it tonight...
Later That Day....
Freaking Harry is a blast...I had more fun watching him have fun than I did playing with the food...and we all know how Cheffy loves to play with his freaking food....
(just ask Harry what he thought about me eating my dinner with my hands...heeeee heeeeeeeee....purity baby...just freaking purity...what'd they do with food before someone invented the spoon...man...that ribeye is freaking awesome isn't it...as Cheffy tears off another piece of one of the most succulent steaks I have ever made/eaten...)
This pic was kind of funny and kind of has a double meaning...
Harry was looking for a whisk in the kitchen to mix up a slurry out of cornstarch and water that we were using to seal the eggrolls...
"Harry, what the hell you need a whisk for????? Use your damned hands!! How are ya gonna know when all the lumps are gone?????? Perfect slurry ain't got no durned lumps..."
P.S. (commonly referred to as 'Yo' Harry?????? What da' hell are you thinkin'?'
What the hell would'ya've done without a whisk??????? Did the fork evolve from the dag goned spoon or not??? Hey!!!!!!!!!ya know what????????They both look like our freaking hand don't they???? Just another CheffyPsychoBabble...
But anyway, the second fold of this story is that I used to work under a German Chef named Chef Fritzen and one time Chef told me that "...'da bes' tools in your kitchen Mr. Bones is the one that is on your wrist...jus' make sure your f***in' hands are clean...when I see you have dirty hands is the day you find another job..."
A lesson the CheffyBoy has never forgotten...
