Semester 2: Week 10 Unleashing the Power of the Automatic

This week was more about sheer terror and enlightenment.

 The week started out just any week when I made the sauce for the Chicken Marcela for the Wednesday's banquet. Everything was going OK until my hat wouldn't fit on my head due to the fact that I have a gigantic head. It was also the first time I was working with wine. Luckily the sauce was better then imagined and through the day with accomplishment, even though I looked like bo peep in a chefs coat.

  The next day, I actually reevaluate my life a little bit. I thought about how after 19 years living in Chicago of why I was still here. I mean if you were in college, you actually go to another state or another city. So after all that time growing up here, why am I still in the same spot. The simple answer is people need me here. They need someone for inspiration and that person is me, because if I wasn't around, Chicago could be a dark, lonely place with no guidance to move foreword. So I would stay here for a while but I'm not sure how long. It just depends of how long I can go.

 Wednesday was practically was one of the most cataclysmic event of my whole culinary career so far. There was a big "etiquette" banquet that night and I was terrified. As I was serving up the salads, I forgot which way I was supposed to serve and people were telling me I was doing it wrong. I went to the back with a splitting headache and I break down like an emotionally damaged child who didn't know what to do. I felt so horrible but yet people said I did an amazing job of doing every thing. After talking to one of the instructors of the class, named Dave, he told me the reason I keep on panicking was because I think too much of how everything should go. That's is when it hit me, "good quality service is not about preventing disaster, its about control the situation and making it better." After that I realize that I have to just let it flow or as Anthony Bourdain once said in his Back in the Fire special "riding the wave." When I came out to the floor and just let my procedures go on automatic, I felt like a big weight has been taken off my shoulders and felt happy serving for once. After that night, I felt like I have finally understand how a truly great server becomes the best. Its not how "nothing was wrong" but it was about "how the server took care of the situation and made it better."

 I still wait for the time I graduate from college and move on with my life. For now though I will just stick to what I do best and keep on going.