Label everything!
In the kitchen, put your name on everything. When things get busy and 19 other students are making the same menu at the same time with the same equipment, you must label your knives, mark what your cooking and times for things in the oven, pots and pans on the stove, prepared dishes go in the fridge or warmer, date and label extras for storage. Heck, even my Sharpie has been Sharpie’d with my name.
My Sharpie is always in my arm sleeve pocket (or more like a holster), along with my thermometer, box cutter, and small note pad. The Sharpie’s utility is to identify, prioritize, navigate, and to generally help cut through the kitchen noise and busy-ness.
Marking my knives and personal tools gave me a chance to get to know better and examine the new set issued by the school: Chef’s, boning, serrated, paring, spatulas, fish deboning tongs, honing steel, and so on. Only two weeks into my course, there are many items I have not used yet. The suggestion was to buy distinctive electrical tape to mark our knives and tools, as everyone has the same stainlees steel knife set and black carrying bag. Star Wars duct tape was unavailable at my local hardware store, so I went with blue and labeled each on the handle proudly with my last name in all caps.
In the kitchen there is also a roll of masking tape. The Chef Instructors monitor proper usage, “Use the tape judiciously.” First with the tape still on the roll, write your name or Team number, and then only tear off as much as you need. I always now have pre-labeled bits of tape adhered to my arm cuff for future application.
Are you putting a prepared salad in the reach-in fridge? Reserving clarified butter for use another day? Don’t leave your soup simmering without it labeled. And by all means, do not take anything to get washed with tape still in it.
On my small yellow Mead notepad (full disclosure, MeadWestvaco in Richmond used to be a client, and I also have a soft spot for my old Trapper Keeper), I can pull it quickly out of my sleeve holster to capture Chef’s orders and instruction, “Every Monday you in Phase 1 will learn to be the chicken stock making machine for the entire school.” Learning how to make 25–30 gallons of chicken stock? Write down:
- Add 100# of chix (bones that we broke down the day before)
- Cover with cold H2O
- Bring to boil, then skim
- Add mirepoix and B.G. (bouquet garnis). Simmer 6–8hr
- Chill quickly and store
- And then clean the whole damn boiler inside and out
- *Note: Bonus points to students who are first to arrive and check to skim
Morning class begins with mise en place at 6:15am. To get through this activity and swift morning kick in the rear, I need my coffee cup, which is also labeled.
Stepping out of the kitchen to go to the bathroom or to take the trash out? Take off your apron and hang it on a hook. (And of course my apron is labeled.)
Suffering from temporary amnesia or early onset Alzheimer’s? Or just feeling tired? Have no fear! With Sharpie in hand, I’ve left behind a trail of tape crumbs and notes á la Momento to help chronologize and mark the journey.
