Coming soon...A Day in the Kitchen

Restaurant Impossible

     For a long time, I have dreamed of opening a restaurant.  The obvious problem is how, with kids getting ready for college and bills to pay, do you attempt something that has a 50% failure rate and, frankly, a tight profit margin.  Additionally, while I love to cook and entertain my friends, would I love or be able to work in a professional kitchen day in and day out.  

     I worked in a kitchen for a summer right before I started law school.  It was a great experience, but I know that with the passage of time, I've glamorized my experiences and have, likely, forgotten those things I disliked about working as a cook in a hot cramped kitchen.  That said, I love losing myself in different aspects of cooking.  Prepping dishes.  Knife work.  The pace.  The artistic side of plating dishes.  The fact that after I put any self-doubts aside, I know I'm a really good cook.  I also find the whole kitchen thing incredible soothing.   

     As a lawyer, I spend every day running around dealing with other people's problems. Often, with peoples lives/futures more or less in the balance.  I know that sounds overstated and melodramatic, but it's also true.  What I do and how I do it may result in someone going to jail, losing their home, their family, frankly, everything.  When I cook, none of that matters.  I'm able to focus on the task at hand.  There's a relaxation in the rhythm of the kitchen... of cutting vegetables in a perfect julienne or brinouse.  Of hearing the right sound when you put a protein (cook speak for meat, fish or poultry) into a properly heated pan.  When I worked in a kitchen as a cook/chef, I took direction and was responsible for my small part of that little world.  There's a purity in that that I miss.  Plus, if I mess up a dish, I can always re-make it.  At my real job, that's not always possible.  It's more of a humpty dumpty kind of a thing.  Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can't put the pieces back together. 

     Here's the other thing.  The pressure is more of less the same.  As a criminal lawyer with my own practice, I am generally frenetic and stressed from about 8:30 am to about 1:30 pm..  Then I get back to the office and go through the routine of calling people (many, annoyingly don't want to hear what I'm trying to tell them) and working through the paperwork that is part of a legal practice.  As a chef, I imagine the opposite.  You spend the beginning of your day prepping for the rush that occurs when the customers arrive and then, around 5-6 pm, you are slammed until about 9pm or so until you lapse back into a more sedate pace as the night wraps up.

......OK.  It's been about a month since I started writing this...  A few days ago, Susan and I went out to dinner with friends to a restaurant we've been hearing and talking about for a while.  51 Lincoln  Not surprisingly, the address of the restaurant is 51 Lincoln St., Newton, MA.  The food was ridiculously good....As was the service.  The chef/owner came up with this thing that I thought could never be really good.  Grilled watermelon steak.  Sounds both good and awful at the same time.  Well, after braising  watermelon flesh for about 3 hours in shallot and sherry cream and then flash grill it, you wouldn't believe how good it could be.  Then there was the charcuterie, which is all made in house and is simply incredible.  Finish up with the best ribeye I've had in a while all done in a farm to table kind of way and you have a great restaurant.  Frankly, just the kind of restaurant I'd love to own.

     Here's the thing.  As we were leaving, we struck up a conversation with a couple at the bar.  Turns out to be the chef/owner and his wife.  They were great and very fun to talk to (I hate ending a sentence with a preposition).  I told him how much I loved his place.  The feel, the vibe and most importantly, the food.  He offered me the opportunity to come in and check out what it's like in the kitchen.  He gave me his card and told me to get in touch.  For whatever reason (me being me), I didn't really follow up.  I figured he was just being polite and I didn't really want to impose.  About 2 weeks later, Susan and I were having dinner at the bar and the Chef, Jeff Fournier, came up to us and during the conversation, asked, more or less, why I hadn't gotten in touch and followed up.  It became clear that he was serious.  So I decided I'd put whatever reservations I had and take the plunge.  We went back and forth but couldn't get a date in the books.  A few weeks went by and Chris Harding and I were there for dinner.  Jeff came out and gave me a wave.  A few minutes later he was standing next to me with his phone and we were putting a date in the calendar.  

     Here's the scary part...what if I what if I suck at working in a real kitchen.  What if I don't have what it takes.  What if I get there and the real people who work in kitchens realize what I fear when I doubt myself...I'm just a poser and I don't belong in their kitchen.  I've got a pretty health ego and I'm pretty confident of my abilities as a home cook, entertaining and turning out excellent food for the people who come to my house.  But what if I can't do it for real?

     Well, here's the thing.  I'm going to find out on April 26th.  That's when I show up at 51 Lincoln and see whether I can hang.  I'm not looking for a special experience.  I want to be treated like everyone else, just like. sh*t... That should mean whatever scut work they have for me.  I'm not looking to work an actual station.  I'm just looking not to be treated like a some rich lawyer who's playing at being a chef.  I want to see if I can really do this.  Who knows, if it works out maybe I will...

I'll keep you posted after....