They cooked a lot of turkeys on Thanksgiving. It was the one quiet banquet day although that whole weekend was relatively quiet.
Bill, Jimmy Banquet Chef and Victor did all the turkey set up. They did it days before the actual holiday so that on Thanksgiving morning all they had to do was pop the pans into the rotary oven. Actually they cooked some on the day before so they would be ready to serve turkey early in the day. That way the birds would be cool enough to carve the way they needed to carve them to get yield and aesthetics.
They also made pans and pans of stuffing with their own bread totally from scratch. These they cooked off the day before too so all that needed to be done with it was heat it up. Flavors marinated and increased when left to sit awhile.
The Friday had only two parties, no real banquets, and the parties were small, one for fifty-five and one for forty. They were both in the afternoon.
Bill cooked them with Jimmy Banquet Chef and Victor. Jimmy G came in at noon and disappeared immediately, lost in space, gone somewhere, no one knew where, or if they knew they weren’t saying. Bill wanted to ask, but he didn’t.
If Jimmy G had been around, he would only have been responsible for the vegetables, not even the potatoes. One party had baked potatoes. The vegetable stewards put those into the ovens in the stoves after they’d washed and scrubbed them.
The other party had scalloped potatoes. Victor and Bill did those. The vegetable stewards peeled and cut the potatoes. Bill and Victor prepared the liquid “sauce” to layer over them. Bill and Victor also layered the ingredients in the pans and set the pans to bake.
They had a time to rest. It was only two small parties so there was a lull, a good forty or so minutes when nothing was happening except watching everything as it cooked. Jimmy Banquet Chef took Bill and Victor into the chef’s office and they sat and drank beer. This was one of the few times they drank during the day and it was only because the day was easy and the banquet crew was going home early.
“You can go visit one of your girlfriends,” Jimmy Banquet Chef told Bill.
Bill didn’t say anything. They’d all been working very hard and they were enjoying the slow moment.
“I’m good,” he said after awhile.
“Before you know it your probation will be over,” Victor said. “Goes fast, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does,” Bill said.
“My aunt is crazy about you,” the banquet chef said.
“I like her too,” Bill said. “She thinks she’s my mother. She dotes on me and takes care of me.”
“She wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” Victor said. “So don’t you go letting her down.”
“And don’t you be quitting on us either,” the banquet chef said.
“I have no intentions of it.”
“Good.”
They could only sit a little while. Then they all went back out into the kitchen to check on how everything was progressing. They worked on turning a few things and rotating pans and making sure the potatoes were working okay. Jimmy Banquet Chef checked with the vegetable stewards to make sure the vegetables would be ready on time.
When they went back into the office, not for another beer but to finish the one they’d started, the waiters and waitresses were just coming into the kitchen. They would be having their little meeting, getting their assignments. Bill saw Beverly walk in and he saw the little French one, Nora. come in behind her. Nora had dark red lips and a droll expression on her face. Clearly, Bill thought, she did not want to be there. Beverly had an extra earring in her left ear.
“We’ll have another beer after the service,” Jimmy Banquet Chef said. Then, “Where’s my goddamn cousin?” he asked.
