pushing through

Sometimes there are those days when you're on the line and you're just firing on all cylinders and everything is working perfectly.  Those days are rare.  Sometimes you have those days when the occasional snag pops up but you roll with the punches and at the end of the night you realize that nothing was that bad and you made it through all the incorrect tickets, items needed on the fly, and small missteps. Those days are more common.  

And then there are the days like yesterday.  You're feeling good when you show up for your shift.  You knock out the prep you have to do.  You get your station set up.  You get other people's stations set up.  The service starts off slowly and so everyone wanders out of the kitchen.  You're the only person in there when the first few tickets come in and you jump on a station that's not usually yours, get the tickets done, send everything out, and you're feeling pretty good because whether or not everyone else is in the mood to work, you are and you're ready for a good night.  Once things pick up, it's business as usual and you're rolling with the punches and making sure everything is getting out on time - whether that be with the rest of the food on the ticket or on the fly because the server forgot to put it through.

And then suddenly you hit that moment when, regardless of how good you're feeling, someone else isn't and they're determined to take it out on you.  It's amazing how one person's bad mood can bring an entire shift down.  They're having a bad day and so they snap at you.  You in turn get frustrated and maybe you even shut down a little bit.  By the time service is over and you've cleaned the kitchen and are walking out the door, it's obvious to everyone that you're not in the same mood you were in when the shift started.  So what happened?  To put it simply, you hit a block and you stopped.  

I grew up watching and obsessing over college football (War Eagle!) and one of the things that always defined the Southeastern Conference was tough defenses and offenses that relied on a running game.  Because of that combination, one thing that was always talked about was "yards after contact" or the number of yards a running back could gain after the first defender attempted to tackle him.  Often times you'd see a running back get hit by one defender and he would spin, fight and push to stay up.  But it wasn't just staying up that mattered — he kept pushing.  Still on his feet he'd surge ahead to gain more yards.  The really great running backs could do this despite having to break one, two, three tackles.  They simply pushed through.

It's no different when you hit an emotional or mental block in the kitchen.  Sure, the chef snaps at you and you want to shut down.  But you have to look ahead and think about all the yards you can gain after contact.  Sure, it might seem like shutting down punishes the person who yelled at you unnecessarily, but really, you're only punishing yourself and everyone else who wasn't involved.  So no matter how tempting it is to stop when you hit that first block, resist the urge and keep on pushing through because when you do, you're giving yourself the chance to recover the service and have a great shift.

Notes:

— Last night was the night of the braised brisket sandwich and the blueberry salad.

— Lately our hanger steaks look like they were butchered by, as Teddy put it, "a blind 5-year-old with a butcher's knife"; it makes breaking them down and portioning them a real pain in the ass.

— I think rapini is my favorite vegetable ever, which is huge since I'm obsessed with vegetables of almost every kind.  But red chili flake is a must with sauteed rapini; otherwise it just doesn't taste right.

— The closer we get to inauguration week the more I start to think that it's going to kick all of our asses.