Alyssa (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} a_gypsy_soul) wrote,@ 2007-09-01 13:35:00 |
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Just another day at the Chop House...sort of...
I woke up Thursday to greyish skies and a feeling that it was going to be a slightly odd day. On Wednesday night, we were completely out of garnishes. Completely. So I knew Thursday was going be a mad rush to prep out everything (and I DO mean EVERYTHING). When I got to work, I took one look at the amount of picking I had to do (Purslaine, Sea Beet, Sea Spurrey) and I knew, I just KNEW we were going to be so deep in the weeds. And then the council health inspector showed up. Of course, everything was fine. Chef runs a tight ship. So tight he announced to her when she arrived, "Well, we had a mouse. But don't worry about that. Someone caught it this morning." You can only do that if you KNOW you have nothing to hide. And we don't. The kitchen of Paternoster Chop House is scrubbed clean every night, the food is so fresh it's incredible and the safety standards are high, high, high. But having her in the kitchen took time. At 1145am with 126 on the book, I was more than a little freaked out. We had no mash. At noon, when the first tickets came through, we had no veg and also no veg chef and I wasn't anywhere near being set up how I wanted to be when the orders started to fly. Then at 1205pm, the fire alarm went off. When the alarm goes off, the gas automatically shuts off as well. So I grabbed the gas can and as soon as the alarm stopped, I started to re-light. I had only just opened the oven and started to remove the pilot cover when the alarm sounds again. We weren't sure what to do. Was this a test? An actual fire? One of the sous-chefs came upstairs and told us we needed to evacuate. We pulled everything off of the stoves and out of the ovens and then proceeded to the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. Imagine the sight of people in striped blue aprons, whites and checks followed by waitstaff who look like (as one noted with aplomb) like penguins headed toward one of the biggest tourist attractions in the City. I'm sure some intersting photos of us will turn up in Japan, Scandinavia, Italy and India. We were soon joined by office workers as it turned out that the whole of Warwick Court was evacuated. We sat there for a hour with no idea of what was happening. Eventually, we were allowed to return to the restaurant. Nothing was hot, the grills were cold and the ovens were off and there were hungry bankers clamoring for food. What could have been a landmark day, one where we did 220-some covers turned into a day where we might have done ninety (and that's being generous). I think Pizza Express might have had a banner day on Thursday. As for us, it was a strange day at the Chop House.
I woke up Thursday to greyish skies and a feeling that it was going to be a slightly odd day. On Wednesday night, we were completely out of garnishes. Completely. So I knew Thursday was going be a mad rush to prep out everything (and I DO mean EVERYTHING). When I got to work, I took one look at the amount of picking I had to do (Purslaine, Sea Beet, Sea Spurrey) and I knew, I just KNEW we were going to be so deep in the weeds. And then the council health inspector showed up. Of course, everything was fine. Chef runs a tight ship. So tight he announced to her when she arrived, "Well, we had a mouse. But don't worry about that. Someone caught it this morning." You can only do that if you KNOW you have nothing to hide. And we don't. The kitchen of Paternoster Chop House is scrubbed clean every night, the food is so fresh it's incredible and the safety standards are high, high, high. But having her in the kitchen took time. At 1145am with 126 on the book, I was more than a little freaked out. We had no mash. At noon, when the first tickets came through, we had no veg and also no veg chef and I wasn't anywhere near being set up how I wanted to be when the orders started to fly. Then at 1205pm, the fire alarm went off. When the alarm goes off, the gas automatically shuts off as well. So I grabbed the gas can and as soon as the alarm stopped, I started to re-light. I had only just opened the oven and started to remove the pilot cover when the alarm sounds again. We weren't sure what to do. Was this a test? An actual fire? One of the sous-chefs came upstairs and told us we needed to evacuate. We pulled everything off of the stoves and out of the ovens and then proceeded to the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. Imagine the sight of people in striped blue aprons, whites and checks followed by waitstaff who look like (as one noted with aplomb) like penguins headed toward one of the biggest tourist attractions in the City. I'm sure some intersting photos of us will turn up in Japan, Scandinavia, Italy and India. We were soon joined by office workers as it turned out that the whole of Warwick Court was evacuated. We sat there for a hour with no idea of what was happening. Eventually, we were allowed to return to the restaurant. Nothing was hot, the grills were cold and the ovens were off and there were hungry bankers clamoring for food. What could have been a landmark day, one where we did 220-some covers turned into a day where we might have done ninety (and that's being generous). I think Pizza Express might have had a banner day on Thursday. As for us, it was a strange day at the Chop House.
