Clean.

Sometimes this happens to you:  Stepping onto the station, a chill goes down your spine.  The squeeze bottle sits in a puddle of oil.  There are bits of chervil and chives everywhere.  Chicken stock is puddled all over the place, and the salt...oh the salt.  There is fucking salt everywhere.  And it's clumped up from having wet fingers in it.  You reach for chard, and realize that all of the greens have become mixed throughout  the night.  It's a complete mess, and it hasn't even been that busy.

I'm a notorious clean freak when it comes to my (and others) stations.  Early on in my career, as I prepped a vinaigrette, the sous chef came pulled me away from my cutting board and said "You need to work cleaner." 

Huh?

I thought I was working clean.  I protested for a moment.  The sous ran his hand over my cutting board, and showed me his palm.  It was filthy.  He picked up my knife and wiped it off--leaving bits of herbs and shallot on his towel.  He organized my mise into a neat row, glared hard at me, and walked away.

Working clean makes you a better cook.  It increases your focus.  Your plating is cleaner.  Your mise is always in order.  And it's so easy.  Have you tried it?  A commitment to take that extra second to wipe down after you do something?  Keeping your squeeze bottles dry?  Changing out the baine water your spoons sit in?  Washing down whenever things get too dirty to wipe up with a towel?

Hopefully you have a chef that insists on this level of cleanliness. 

It's so easy--and important.  Your fellow cooks will respect you more.  Your chef will respect you more.  It will become something of an obsession (if you're like me) and the first time someone looks at your station and says "Wow." it will make you feel very good.  As it becomes a part of your daily standards, you will start to transform into a better, sharper cook.  There is no other way.


notes:

• future podcasters - Violet Blue, Wolfgang Weber, Kevin Kelley, Francis Lam, Micheal Black
  

• hanging out at sebo on a rainy day ain't half bad
• some gibraltars are just better than others
• my sneaker addiction is screaming at me
• im probably not getting that $4000 ring at stuart moore
• violet's video of kozy is here
• sometimes when i go through my old records I can't help but wonder "what was i thinking?"
• corey won't wait for totopo's
• cold weather makes my hands creaky
• oh, the irony of comcast not shooting their commercials in HD

quotes and conversations:

"Hey puto.  Know what you should do on Monday?  Buy a foam finger."
-Corey.  Wants Al to have fun at the ballgame.

Corey:  You want a fanny pack for what?
Goose:  To stuff treats in.

Me:  I wish I hadn't gotten this vagina botox.
Merrell:  (laughing)  Vagina botox?  Write that down.

"In Mexico City, i'm known as puerco chupacabra."
-Corey

"Graceful like a motherfuckin' sea cow."
-Ponder.  Never took ballet

Me:  Corey, I was just talking to Brooke about your sex chicken.
Corey:  Hey dude, leave sex chicken alone.

Me:  Why are her teeth blue dude?
Jamie:  Cuz' she's from Atlanta dude.



from top:  want, michael black, tentacles, octopus, more octopus, by eddie, star wars, iced coffee and amy, green almond, goose on allergy meds, goose's slam, paulie's slam, shiny, violet, speez, kozy