Caesar and Jimmy were talking when Bill returned with the espressos. Caesar was standing in the entryway, Jimmy still sitting down on his seat.
Bill said, “Excuse me” to Caesar’s back. He said it loud enough for Caesar to hear him, but Caesar didn’t move.
“Excuse me,” he said again.
When Caesar still didn’t move, Jimmy G prompted him so that he finally stepped aside.
Bill thought about accidentally-on-purpose bumping Caesar, maybe spilling some coffee on his tuxedo. It was a good idea, but of course not such a good idea. Anyway, Caesar stepped aside so Bill could pass into the kitchen. He heard Caesar say “We’ll talk later,” as he handed Jimmy his coffee.
“Ya,” Jimmy said. He smiled at Bill, sipped his coffee. “We start soon as we finish the espresso.”
It was almost 10:45 when they actually did start cleaning. Jimmy reminded Bill that he didn’t have to clean anything. All he/they had to do was wrap the leftovers, put away here in the Falstaff Room kitchen what stayed here and drop off everything that went back to the main kitchen in its proper place there.
It was simple and easy.
The most important thing Jimmy G told Bill was to hang on to any knives he really liked. He told Bill if there were particular ones he especially cared for he should lock them overnight in his locker. That way he would be assured to always have them.
Here, in the Sheraton Cleveland, a cleaning crew came in every night. Every night this crew steam-cleaned all the kitchens and all the equipment. This meant that they gathered up all utensils, brought them to a central cleaning area and steam-cleaned them under pressure.
Cool!
But when they were done, all kitchen utensils, which included knives, were stored in a central area. In the morning and every day it was first-come, first-served.
Jimmy warned Bill that since they started late in the day all the good knives and utensils that were cleaned were gone, claimed and being used. So it was important that when he came upon knives he really liked to hold onto them.
He also told Bill that knives got sharpened once a week on Thursdays. This meant any knives he was holding had to go to get sharpened. The fix was for Bill to give them to him, Jimmy G, and he, Jimmy G, would leave them for Jimmy the banquet chef. Jimmy the banquet chef would return them to Jimmy G, his cousin, Bill’s Falstaff Room partner, and Bill would have them back.
And so it went.
No two knives are the same. Plain and simple. You may have twenty of the same knives, same knife, same model, same maker. But sure enough if you used them all, tried them all, there would be one or two, maybe several, that you liked better than all the others, that felt better in your hand and worked better for you. These were the ones to hold onto so that eventually you held a set of knives, a carving knife, a chef’s knife, two different-sized paring knives and two different-sized boning knives. The sharpening steel didn’t matter much.
