Scrounging and Leading

I have to admit, my years doing political stuff and having to figure things out on the fly has given me a very transferable skill. I can scrounge nearly anything because I know who and how to ask.

As I mentioned, we went out and bought our stuff for Friday’s “Market” workshop yesterday.  Three students and a $60 budget, including everything right down to the salt and pepper.  We had the option of buying a few things (like spices, tomato paste, etc) in small quantities from the school production kitchen – an excellent idea if only a few grams or a spoonful is needed.  But it meant careful shopping and thinking hard about the recipes ahead of time.

Wednesday morning I wandered into the production kitchen to speak to the Chef there about what I might be able to buy from the kitchen.  I have an interesting idea for one of the courses and needed a few ounces of alcohol – not the cheap, salted syrupy industrial stuff that we usually cook with, but some real stuff – gin in particular.  And it just so happened that Chef 4 (the Cuisine Director, and therefore the final word) was there.  I asked him – no problem at all, and he gave me a very good price on it.  Yay!  I also asked him if it would be okay to use some molecular gastronomy chemicals in a dish – sodium alginate and calcium lactate in particular.  You can’t buy those in the Market, but I do have them at home.  The answer again – no problem.  See what happens when you just ask?

So my group and I dashed off to the Byward Market and started shopping.  A quick trip to the butcher, another to a little shop with some herbs in a cooler at the back, then to Metro and Loblaws.  I had done a little tour on the weekend before and knew what was in each store and roughly speaking what it was going to cost.  And once we were done at the stores, we had a little money left and decided to head to the LCBO (Ontario’s government-run liquor monopoly).   And that’s where something very cool happened.

I had an idea in mind that we could pair at least one of our courses with beer.  Wine would have been too expensive, but a can or bottle of beer is usually about $2.50-$3.50.  I had an idea of what I wanted, but stopped to ask one of the staff people in the beer section.  I explained who we were, what we were doing, and what we were making.  She had a good suggestion (better than mine), and standing near her just happened to be a rep from a microbrewery.  He agreed with her suggestion, and we ran off to pay.  I didn’t notice though that the beer rep followed us out into the parking lot.  He beckoned me over, and asked if we might like a mixed 6-pack of his product.  I was honest with him and said that we might not be able to use it since we didn’t buy it (and thus wouldn’t have a receipt), but he insisted we take it.  Sweet! 

When we got back to school we brought it in, I explained to Chef 1 what happened. He was slightly astonished and said “Why doesn’t this happen to me when I go to the LCBO?”  Hmm… I’m girl, blonde, and was looking a little desperate? In any case, the answer was “yes!”  Again, the value of asking!

We packed up our box for the workshop, put our “Team Fun” sticker on it, and a big note on the beer – “NOT YOURS”.  I wouldn’t want to come back and find that someone had availed themselves of our stuff.

A little scrounging also came in a bit handy with today’s “black box” workshop.  This morning I did my last hours for the term as an assistant in the production kitchen.  I was supposed to have the hours yesterday, but it conflicted with the trip to the Market, so I asked the Chef if I could reschedule them for today.  Again – not a problem.  I’m not sure the other students who were supposed to be with me bothered to reschedule their hours – when we found out about the conflict they complained heartily, but kinda seemed to leave it with the Chefs as something for them to solve.  C’mon people… show some maturity and solve your own problems.

And you know, it was very fortuitous to be doing those hours this morning.  While my task was to pack boxes for the Superior Cuisine exam next week, I did have a little time to poke around the kitchen and ask the staff there some questions.  The three young folks who work there are all very nice and very willing to help you if you ask.  I didn’t know what stuff we’d be getting in the “black box” that afternoon, but it was nice to know where to find things.  A browse through the spices, the cubbyhole in the back with all the different oils and alcohol, the shelves with different grains and flours.  And, what ended up being very useful information – where to find the good-quality saffron.

So when we got the bins of stuff for the workshop, our group picked through it and chose a few things – a marrow bone, some halibut, and a rack of lamb.  Easy enough.  A fish cake with potato and a garnish of fennel, carrot and red onion salad with orange and mint vinaigrette, risotto Milanese, and braised rack of lamb with Mediterranean spices (oregano, mint, sumac, etc), couscous and roasted carrots.  A quick dash down to the production kitchen and I was back with the rest of the stuff we needed.

As a group we worked fairly well, but I could definitely see where the strengths and weaknesses were.  One guy basically made the fish cakes…. and that was it.  Didn’t occur to him to even check if the deep-fryer was plugged in until less than 15 minutes before we were supposed to plate the dish.  I got a little frustrated with him and suggested frying on the flattop.  Chef 3 looked a little irritated with me, but I was leading the group and we needed it done – and we got it done.  And the orange beurre blanc the other guy in the group was going to make for the sauce?  Yeah… I asked him about it several times, but it didn’t happen.  Chef 3 though our dish was pretty good, though perhaps a little too much onion in the fennel salad that I’d made – fair enough.  And our dish could have used a sauce.  Really?  Ya think? Ugh….

Somewhere in this I made our second dish – risotto Milanese.  The morning class had brought some of their leftover risotto back to the production kitchen and it was awful.  I thought, perhaps a risotto for one of our dishes?  This is something I know I can do.  It worked – though Chef 3 thought perhaps a little more cheese would have been nice.  Ok – point taken.

Unfortunately, my phone battery was on its last legs - so no battery, no flash, no decent pictures.

Last was the lamb.  While poking around in the kitchen this morning I had noticed sumac on the shelf.  Interesting spice with a slightly lemony flavor.  It’s often used in Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cooking in spice blends like zata’ar (sumac, mint, oregano, salt, sesame seeds).  I kinda thought it would work, and the guy who was going to prepare it seemed okay with the idea.  Didn’t seem to have a strong idea of his own.  Okay – then it’s my idea we’re going with.  I mixed up a spice/herb blend and asked him to taste it.  He gave me a slightly sullen look.  But to his credit, he did help keep an eye on the guy making the fish cakes, and had a lot of input into them, and they turned out well.  On the other hand, the lamb was overcooked and the couscous was almost, in the words of Chef 3, “like polenta”.  Thankfully the taste was good.

But this workshop has me thinking about leadership again.

In my previous career I’ve had a lot of job titles like “Supervisor”, “Team Leader”, “Senior Coordinator”, etc, so I do know a bit about my leadership style.  I like to work with people who have “spark” – that is, a real passion for what they are doing.  We all have our good days and bad ones – I’m a horrible grouch when it’s not a good day.  But overall passion for a topic makes it easy to get past the crap and remember why the things you do are important.  I’ve seen people I know who volunteer their time for political causes do the most horrible and tedious jobs imaginable with next to no resources – but they do it with a smile on their face because it’s important to them.

And when something is important to someone, they don’t need to be micro-managed.  I have never liked supervising people who need me crawling up their ass all the time – if you need someone on you for you to do your job, then you need to find another job because don’t have the spark.  It means that you aren’t motivated from the inside with a passion that will make you stay up late, get up early, read everything you can find on the topic, experiment and learn and, most importantly – ask the right people the right questions.

Must get to bed – the Market workshop is first thing in the morning.  But I don’t think it will be hard to get up tomorrow even though I’ve stayed up late.