This was the first time that working hard, fast, and creatively would get me in trouble.
Catering companies are run very differently from the way restaurants are. There were many different entities in this business. In the first couple of weeks, I learned about the kitchen brigade, a system of staffing a kitchen so that each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks. These tasks are often related by cooking methods, equipment, or the types of foods being produced. It’s a hierarchy, with the different titles being executive chef, chefs de cuisine, sous chef, chef de partie, commis chef, and dishwasher. Everyone in the kitchen had to answer the chefs with the words, “Yes, Chef!”
The bakery was run by several French pastry chefs. They started work at midnight and kept mostly to themselves. I worked with the ladies in the cold appetizer kitchen, where we prepped all of the thousands of hand-rolled mini hors d’oeuvres. I worked alongside a woman named Hilda who had numbers on her arm. It was the first time I had ever met a Holocaust survivor.
The executive chef of La Petite, Chef Chris Knudsen, was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (known as the CIA). He warned me that if I didn’t take the job seriously, I would fail. There was very little room for slacking off. After a little while, I applied to the CIA and was accepted with a letter of recommendation from Chef Chris.
The CIA building sits boldly on the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York. I was overcome with awe the first time I saw it, and I still feel the same way today. Most of the students dressed formally in houndstooth pants, white chef coats, yellow neckerchiefs, and black shoes, with black and white the dress of choice for students who worked in the specialty restaurants open to the public.
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