Last week I had an experience of repetition. Pealing and dicing onions, dicing tomatoes and deep frying nachos. In total, eight hours worth of these tasks. Long intensive labour. My hands were numb, my feet ached and my back felt like it would break. It put me in a bad mood, by my 6th hour I was longing to be done, I hated it, this was not an adventure I wanted any part of. I thought what the hell does this have to do with learning to cook. Through out the tasks I played games with myself seeing how fast I could get a tomato sliced and pressed through the dicer. Frying nachos for 10,000 people, how many could I do, how quickly? I counted how many onions it would take before I would shed a onion tear, I held off through 100 pounds. Not a tear shed untill I left the kitchen that day and not a result of the onion. I was cranky and unapproachable by the time I arrived home, I was resentful that I was in a kitchen full of cooks who were cooking and I was left with onions.... I ran a bath, poured some Chef Juice, griped on the phone about my onion day and crawled into bed putting me and my world out of the misery called Mandy, falling fast asleep.
I really did not give the day another thought until today... I was in a different kitchen, chopping, preparing, cooking doing all the things I love to do and then a realization came over me, I realized my hand was steadier, my fingers did not fumble towards the blade of my knife as they once did. I realized I was faster then I had been the week before, I was focused. I now know that my onion day was a very good day in my culinary learning, my day of prepping had given me was some very important lessons. It gave me repetition, it gave me practice to develop my knife skills, lessons in sequencing and organization. It gave me opportunities to work in a kitchen with other cooks and developing relationships that aid in my journey. I realize that every cook in that kitchen had been in my shoes, felt my aches and pains and I developed more of a respect for who they are and where they have been.
With this reflection I also remember a little light in the form of a autistic child who had eaten at the restaurant that day. He wanted nothing more then to see the kitchen. He was so beautiful and happy, shaking hands with all the cooks and tipping his hat. His smile was intoxicating. Had I not been prepping that day I would have missed out on that experience and I realize onions aren't that bad and when you peel the layers away you get...well... more onions...
