Chef's Table

Every large kitchen has a Chef's table where the Chef's can relax and let down there hair for a few moments away form the hustle and bustle in the kitchen. I posted a picture tonight after someone caught us in our little hiding spot in the back storeroom at the temporary Chef's table relaxing. It's really a plastic picnic table and a couple of folding chairs, but give us time and we'll have some formal signs before you know it.

Tonight is the eve of our Iron Chef show airing tomorrow at 9 pm Eastern and the Olympic village committee is going to put on a party for us for all the staff to watch it. All I'm allowed to say is that your going to Love the show, we had a lot of fun competing and everyone will be proud  of your Canadian Chef's team so be sure to tell everyone you know about it.

What you may not realize is that we are just as excited to see the show as you are. Unlike Michael's own television shows he produces and stars in, he has not been privy to the content of this show so we'll be just as shocked as you are.  The inside scoop on this show is that the 60 minute battle is all REAL, it's 60 minutes and when they revealed the mystery ingredient, the heart started pumping again. If you get a chance to notice the back of our Chef Jackets you may see some writing on our undershirts, Michael says the first one to guess what the writing means; he'll buy them a drink. Wish us Luck.

Olympic Chef Bill

One for the Team

Some anonymous viewer asked for some action shots on the blogsite so I took one this morning and added it to the site. What you don’t see is 30 min later as we tried to purée the tomato sauce in the large Blitzer machine, the top exploded and 3 gallons flew all around the kitchen. Luckily I was in front of it and took most of the sauce for the team. Sorry, just didn’t have the heart to take that action photo so you’ll just have to imagine it.

Needless to say, a new uniform, wiping off the shoes, changing the hat, quick face wash and we were right back at it. I wonder how many of you foodies have a favorite kitchen disaster story of your own that you’d air in public?

Cooking is like golf, you may get a bit rusty if you don’t play the game that often but once you do get back into it, everything just floods back and the next thing you know your right back in your game. I may have been a Chef Manager for the past 20 years, but cooking for a 1000 per meal this week has me hustling all day, and the good news is that we shot a few birdies in our game today and the diners are ecstatic about the food.

Olympic Chef Bill

Smurfs on the bus

Each morning we hop on the bus with a large starbucks in hand and it seems like we're the only ones out of place because we don't have the Smurf  uniform to blend in with everyone else. The uniforms look great but when you have more than a half dozen of them in the same area it's like a sea of blue.

Not sure if many of you have ever travelled to Whistler, but it feels like I'm in a different country because everyone here speaks a different language and it's mostly Aussies. We have some guys from the UK in our kitchen that are the porters and they are some of the funniest and hardest workers I've ever seen. It's all about Football (soccer to us Canadians), but essentially their job is to follow behind us and clean everything from table tops to the grills and brat pans. We don't empty the garbage, mop floors, wipe tables or even put the pots in the pot area, and these guys do it all with a big smile on their face. Imagine that, cooks that get to cook and not clean behind themselves. The wife says not to get used to that because she'll break me of that habit the first meal I cook at home.

Olympic Chef Bill

Our Security Workforce

Up to this point we've been feeding the RCMP, security teams and the remainder of the workforce. I said to Michael Smith that the food must be good because it passed the bathroom test. He says "What! Bathroom check, what the heck is that?"

Here I find myself concentrating in a bathroom stall when I hear one fellow in the urinal beside me ask the fellow next to him, "How is the food so far", and the other guys says, "it's Awesome". Now they don't know I'm there, so obviously if it passes the bathroom check, it's all gotta be good. Right?

All fun aside, I find myself using my military feeding background, more and more each day. We're feeding the masses here and I have a lot of Chef's  who are baffled at the way I'm able to produce a meat sauce for pasta for 500 people while they're used to doing it in the restaurant for 20 or 30. I can see the shock in there eyes when I throw 2 full bottles of dried basil and 2 of oregano in the sauce. Think to yourself of how much a large bottle of oregano will last you at home and you'll see what I mean. Today I had a good chef friend of mine trying to chiffonade basil (chiffonade is a big culinary term which means long thin strips) to get 4 liters and I told him to use the food processor so he'd save himself 2 hours of work. We can have great food using premium products but speed will make or break us so I can see my skill sets training a lot of these Chef's large volume cooking in a very quick time.

Olympic Chef Bill

Gratefully Fortunate

Before I get into the depths of the massive workforce and get swallowed up with the wave of enthusiasm, I want to express my sincere gratitude to my current employers (Fiona & Jay) who have graciously afforded me the 2 months leave from the Island's friendliest Pub & Liquor Store, Buffy's, to attend this once in a lifetime opportunity.  The old saying, is it really work when you get paid to do what you truly enjoy?  Here I get to do both and come back to the place I love, even though many of the staff at Buffy's believe something else will come out of the Olympics. I can assure you all that I'll be returning to the best little pub on Van Isle. A special thank you to all the staff for your support.  See you in 7 weeks!


Cheers, Mike 

Help has arrived

Tonight when we returned to our hotel after 12 hours running on our feet, we were greeted with fresh meat with all smiles on there faces (let's see if they are still smiling this time next week). We now have Paul, Will and Robert who all start tomorrow morning just in time as we reduce our feeding for the next 2 days. Now that we've gone through a week of panic feeding, we have a much better understanding of the huge volume to come in a temporary kitchen. This train is heading down the tracks and were pulling solutions to problems out of our asses so we don't end up with it in a sling. Our goal is not just to serve food to our customers, we want to create a dining experience like no other for everyone whether they are athletes or the massive volunteers and security forces. I've cooked large volume food for years, but nothing like this. The recipes are tough and very labour intensive, but if were going to create a dining experience, we need to continue to do the little extras.

Bill

You think airport security is tough

I realize this is the Olympics and security is going to be tough, but answer me this, as I walk into the athletes village, I'm challenged at 2 checkpoints for my security pass, then we go through airport security type X-Ray machines with bags scanned, metal wand detectors etc only to get to the secure side of the tent to catch a bus into the village. The bus drops us off at the next tent and we go through the same airport style security in another area before we pass into the village, doesn't that seem redundant? Oh, by the way, they picked up my nail clippers on the X-ray machine.

Olympic Chef Bill

Accutemp Griddle - Have you tried one?

I've heard so much about these Accutemp griddles using steam instead of electrical elements to heat the surface, I was amazed this morning when I actually got to use it for the first time. I'm not just saying this because Accutemp has given us a griddle to use during the Olympics, I actually cooked scrambled eggs on it for 35 people all at once and it didn't burn them before I could get the last ones off the grill. We did waffles, Teriyaki tofu, veggies for a southwestern stew and the great part about it the clean was a snap. Now how do I convince the wife to let me have one at home?

Olympic Chef Bill Pratt