Egg Magic

Friday was B-Day. 

BRUNCH.

Use the "B Word" with any kitchen professional and they will more often than not groan at you.  The amount of work involved ahead of time combined with the demands of putting freshly cooked eggs out are trickier than many might think. People brunching in restaurants need to eat pretty much 10 minutes after they order, table turns are quick and the pressure on the front and back of house stay heavy and constant. It is hot, sweaty work.  In the kitchen, Alicia nicknamed the area she usually stood at brunch as "the armpit." Salamander roaring at eye level while a 500 degree oven at knee height ("hell") acted as the most effective mass toaster, all while she made as many egg scrambles as she could in heavy cast iron pans in front of her.

Last week was spring break and I may have already filled you in on this brunch project.  Start to finish, bring the teens in on Monday, decide the menu, sell tickets and serve brunch on Friday.  And it was like jumping into the deep end of the pool for this group of youth organizations that work together, but never quite this closely. Many of the people involved have loads of experience in teaching business, organizing people and most of all, understanding and dealing with the problems in their neighborhood, but none have owned their own restaurant.  They had warned me a few weeks back they were thinking of doing this, but I get a call on Tuesday.    The teens are from all four housing projects not just one and more want to join in every day. Tickets are selling. This is a big deal. Can I come in and help?  

I put in my cameo appearances, but they did all the work and the end result was a bigger success than anyone hoped.  I spent most of Friday in the kitchen and things went well. ("well" in restaurant speak means we had a good time and even though we couldn't find the cutting boards and the sink overflowed all over the floor and we spilled all the chopped tomatoes, we had no disasters.)  The kids came together and helped when they could have more easily hung back, in fact, I'll have to write more about how well they presented themselves and how proud everyone was of them. 

But for the kitchen, the crowning glory was Tina taking the horrific box of processed eggs that we both were dismayed with and layering them like lasagne with sauteed onions, peppers & cheese. "Egg Magic."  We couldn't keep it coming out fast enough, people raved about it. Many times in the kitchen you have to take what you have and turn it into something worthwhile, but when it works and makes people happy it is the magic that keeps us jumping in to the deep end.