For the most part they were done by 10:30. It started getting slower by 10:00. Bill was happy with how it went. They sold out all the filet of sole special fairly quickly and Bill made a mental note to tell Jimmy Banquet Chef they could have used another pan. They also sold mostly good food, prime rib, quality steaks and lobster tails.
Jimmy G stayed gone early-on long enough for Bill to do most of the early orders by himself. Jo Ann, who was the one who relayed most information about things told Bill that this was nothing unusual, that Jimmy G was notorious for such behavior. In fact, she said, it was one of the reasons the cook Bill replaced finally called it quits.
Truth was Bill was happy working alone. Unless there was such a huge rush that it was impossible to do so, Bill preferred to handle everything. Not only did he prefer it, but he was good at it. He worked steadily, methodically and purposefully.
Most of the tables were Jo Ann’s. She was early girl and this night, unlike most nights last week, she would be able to go early too. As it got busier, Rosie and Edelgarde stepped in to assist. It wasn’t long before Rosie was standing before Bill on her side of the open service window. Bill had his back to her mostly. He was turning and adjusting things on the Garland. Done with that, he opened the Dutch oven and peeked inside at the two sets of lobster tails and two orders of salmon.
Normally, Jimmy G would be working the stove. For these orders nothing from the sauté was needed but Bill did have to heat up vegetables. He did this for all the orders together, spooning vegetables into melted butter inside a sauté pan large enough to hold what he needed. It only took a moment to get it all set. Bill tossed salt and pepper into the vegetables and worked the frying pan. He left it a moment and slid down further to the fryers where he dropped a basket of French fries. That done, on his way back to the broiler he worked the frying pan one last time and moved it off the heat.
Rosie stood watching. What was going on in the kitchen was nothing new to her. She’d seen it all before. Still, she couldn’t help but asking Bill if he was okay.
“I got this,” he said. “Easy peasy.”
“Well, you make it look easy,” Rosie said.
“This is nothing,” Bill said. As he said this, he flipped some of the items on the broiler. Some he flipped and moved toward the front. That done, he opened the Dutch oven again and used his tongs to pull down the two orders of lobster tails that were together on one metal plate and the two orders of salmon that were together on another metal plate.
Now he made one last trip down to the fryer. He shook the sauté pan with the vegetables on the way. The fries were close but not quite done so he left them cooking, shook the vegetables on his way back to the Garland.
He quickly plated the first order, a three top, the two salmon and one of the steaks he’d moved to the front. He used his tongs to do this, the tips to slide the salmon to the plates then grip and tip the hot plate to cover the fish in buttery juice. The steak was an easy grab and set-down. He quickly slid to the stove. With his left hand he took up the frying pan of vegetables. With his right hand he reached and lifted up the basket of fries. He set the basket on its shelf to drip out.
A moment later the plates were complete, garnished and set up under the warmer lights.
“Pretty, right?” He said. But he didn’t wait for an answer. He was already on plating the next table.
