Scrambled eggs for four hundred. With sausages. And biscuits.
The meal was due to go off at nine. That’s about nine hundred eggs or 75 dozen. So when they were all in and getting started, first thing was pan up the sausages. The home fries had been cut and panned the night before, so were the onions and red and green peppers that they would be added to. The potatoes had to be sautéed and seasoned in the onions and peppers and finally baked and kept warm.
Bill was put to cracking the eggs. It was easy enough, two at a time, over and over again, case after case until he was done. He cracked them into a large bain marie, filled the bain marie then poured them into one of the big steam kettles. Eventually he would be the one to cook the eggs, a brand new experience for him, not that he’d never made scrambled eggs, just never for four hundred.
What Bill discovered from doing this banquet was that there was a common feel to cooking for so many people. A big part of it was organization, knowing what steps to take in what order. This he would learn and was already learning from Jimmy Banquet Chef. Jimmy had it all down.
The second big part was preparation. Having as much as could be done in advance was vital. So the sausages were defrosted and a steward would place them in pans. The potatoes and everything for them was cut and ready to sauté. The eggs could have been cracked ahead of time, and Jimmy Banquet Chef would have done that, but he wanted to see Bill do it. He was still testing Bill to see what he could do and what he needed to learn. They had a lot of cooks for this banquet and plenty of time.
The third big thing was leadership. Jimmy Banquet Chef acted like a traffic cop, directing everything step by step. He had it all laid out in his mind and knew exactly what he wanted done by whom in what order. No one went against him and everyone did exactly as told. The good thing with his crew, and he was breaking Bill in for this, was that they were experienced and pretty much knew what he wanted them to do before he told them to do it.
They fooled around some as they worked because they had time. But like the day before, as meal time and service time started getting closer, the pace picked up and seriousness took over. Jimmy Banquet Chef put Bill to cooking the eggs. He showed him how to work the steam kettle, a tilt kettle, and put him before it with a metal oar. Yes, that was the tool, a canoe paddle type thing made of stainless steel.
“Listen,” he said, “remember that you have to stop the heat a long time before the eggs are done, and you have to keep stirring, and you have to finish while the eggs are very soft. They’ll cook themselves that last bit of the way and you have to allow for that.”
Bill said, “Okay,” but he had no real idea of when to cut the heat. Not at all. He had a good idea of what Jimmy Banquet Chef was telling him, a good sense in his head of what he was supposed to do and how. But knowing in your head and knowing in actuality were two different things.”
“Don’t mess it up,” the banquet chef told him.
The kettle heated up and the eggs started cooking around the edges where they touched the metal kettle. Bill started stirring, paddling, but not really. Once he started, he never stopped, and he soon saw that the cooking took up a rhythm of its own.
Before he would have done it, Jimmy Banquet Chef came by and cut off the steam.
“Quick now, finish up a moment more and start pouring them out of there for dish-up. And don’t forget what I just taught you.”
