Howdy y’all!
Well the nervousness has finally faded now that I’ve watched and rewatched the premiere. The highlight of which so far is clearly my “easy bake oven” comment. Immediately after it aired, I started getting texts from people both loving and hating what I’d said. Still I believe it’s true, alot of people entertain the idea of opening restaurants without any real experience. I have personal experience with this as I’ve worked with plenty of people who were once successful in previous careers and might have been good home cooks, they get a little money together and put together a hodgepodge menu with no concept or thought behind anything, but then wonder why they are only turning 6 covers a night. It takes alot more than good cooking to run a restaurant. Like I said, It takes Moxie! (I don’t know what 1930’s flapper had possessed me when I said that!)
Anyways, onto the episode! First of all I have to say they really didn’t do the clean up justice. When we walked into that restaurant it looked like Chris Brown and Rihanna (allegedly!) had a date there! There were piles, PILES of sawdust and cat litter on everything! Most of the tables were stored in the basement, none of them matched, most of them were wobbly, the walls were scratched, scuffed and in general the place was more fucked up than Amy Winehouse on vacation! It took 2 days to get everything cleaned up, I remember going home at night and my shirt (the now famous grilled cheese) was totally drenched with sweat, and I was blowing black dust out of my nose for days. Sorry to be so graphic, but if you’re shocked thus far you really don’t get the concept of “unfiltered and unedited” which this blog promises to be. I also need to explain that even though the kitchen was upstairs, the dish machine, prep areas, walk-ins and dry storage was all downstairs in the basement. This wasn’t a quick little jog down 4 steps, this was a frightful 20 something steps, and I was sure it was going to wind up like Showgirls. We had almost NO time to clean up, set up and prepare for dinner service. (It was total about 14 hours I think) Also what they didn’t show was that they had provided all the plates, glassware, silverware, etc. and we had to unpackage, unsticker and wash EVERY last piece!!! We also had to deal with the condition of the front of house because that shit was NOT cute! We didn’t have time to paint, and we were on our own to figure out where stores and supply shops were (none of us knew NYC very well). Knowing we couldn’t paint, Vanessa and I decided to nail fabric to the walls. So she went to the only fabric store we knew of, Mood from Project Runway. The only problem was that we were downtown in the village, and Mood is uptown, a good hour in NYC rush hour. I told her to buy a bolt of the most tasteful but cheap fabric she could get. (We only had a budget of about $1000. which is nothing for a restaurant) She comes back with a roll of burlap…I’m SO not kidding. I wish they had shown us cutting strips of it as it started to unravel and pollute the floor we’d already worked so hard to clean. Then we realized none of the tables matched and we needed tablecloths. So Panya and I went to Crate and Barrel for linens, which killed our budget but at least it looked safe enough to eat in. When I came back, Vanessa had played with the idea of using burlap as tablecloths, but I said right then and there that we were not serving dinner at Green Acres. We tossed the burlap, then I discovered that she’d also gotten about 20 yards of brown cotton. We were literally nailing the last of the fabric when people started walking in.
Onto the service, the show did capture it pretty well, and I know I come off as a little ditzy when food was sitting in the window and I was gabbing to my table. But since Vanessa hadn’t served before I had the bulk of the tables (Anapol was bartending, and Panya was managing…sort of) and the chaos of the service juxtaposed with my nervousness and anxiety had gotten the best of me and tend to over-talk when I’m nervous. For the desserts, which we got killed on, I don’t disagree that it was kind of an afterthought, but what they didn’t show is that the reason they were hard is because we had to put them in the walk in to prevent them from melting. (It was 90 degrees in the basement and even hotter in the kitchen) The main question people keep asking me is “If you’re a chef too, why didn’t you do BOH?”
When Chad and I knew we were getting close to being cast, we had that conversation, and to be honest, working at Gifford’s Ice Cream did 2 things for me, it made me really good at making ice cream and candy, but also sacrificed some of my more basic skills. I hadn’t really worked the line before, there were some things I wasn’t comfortable cooking (fish was a big one) and in general, I didn’t have 100% confidence in BOH. Chad on the other hand, had no experience in FOH and since I’d worked every FOH position, I was happy to take the reigns. When I came back from New York, the first thing I did was get a job on the line to get the experience I needed. (Don’t think this is a clue to anything, as every contestant had to “return to your normal lives” per the contract with nbc.) So in retrospect, if I’d had the knowledge and skills I have now I might have been BOH instead, but I can’t change the past, and I don’t believe in regret. Everything happens for a reason, and if you’re happy with where you are, you can’t regret how you got there.
I was however really surprised with Khoa’s decision to leave, (everything that happens with the black team, I’m seeing for the first time) and I feel bad that he had to step up when he clearly didn’t need to go home yet. But I think it’s pretty clear already that black team has alot of issues, whereas the red team worked much more as a team. Although elimination is a ruthless bitch, and when you’re backed into a corner the claws come out! (And yes, Angie really is that difficult and loud! Just deciding on lunch is a knock down drag out fight with her!)
So there you go, I’m sorry if I missed a detail you were hoping for, but I need to stop being lazy and get ready to start my day. Despite being an international sensation, I still have to wait in line at the DMV.
Peace out kids,
Mikey