Oh August (sigh)

So the peak of summer is here and the busiest time for me is here. Between my serving job, Football starts August 3rd. Coaching is a joy for me. It allows me to be out of my element a little and have a good time. The hardest thing for me is watching my mouth. Professional kitchens can be down right brutal. So can a football field, but these are 6th graders. At the end of August I will be running the King's Feast kitchen at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, trying to take mass quantity and turn it into an eye opening dining experience. 6 courses, 85 guests, 3 times daily. And that's the easy part. Good fun. I've come up with an idea to write a book recently. I need to iron out the flaws in the delivery and nail down a solid outline before I even think about writing one word. I believe my premise is solid, however, people need to read it to find that out. It could change the restaurants, and the world forever.
-J

Under the Lights

                                                               

First mention

SO I was surfing the net tonight and stumbled across this blog with a post about some of my food! It's kinda cool reading someone else's view of your work.

Thanks again Carmie!

-J

The First

So this is my first blog. Ever. Don't have much to say right now but I figured I usually live a pretty hectic and creative life in the kitchen and maybe I should give a glimpse into the success and failures of me and my team. Well I should say, IF I get re-hired back at Stout's Island Lodge. I was hired as the Sous Chef there last season. When I showed up for my first day of work, I was the Executive Chef. The original chef never showed. SO in two days I had to write a menu, order food, do prep, and serve a fully booked resort restaurant; with a staff with zero training. They did a good job, but I come from some pretty good restaurants and have 14 years experience under my belt. It didn't help we had 1 pair of tongs and 1 HUGE spatula to share between 3 line cooks the first weekend. We made it through but it was rough.Did I mention I was on a TV show? A month and a half later the GM had a nervous breakdown and had to leave, so I had to assume a good bit of his responsibilities since I was the only person with Hotel/Restaurant experience on the Island. Two months later I hired a real talented chef out of Birchwood, WI and brought him on as my Sous. We worked real well together and that is what I hope to put on this BLOG. Derik, Lena, Jimmy, Hope, Anita, Mike, Dalton and Myself, Justin. Our Successes, failures, jokes, spaz moments and everything else that MAKES CHEF'S CRAZY!!! Have fun. We Will.
-J